Knallhart Kennels & Training Academy

My wife and I got Billie a two year and half year old Newfoundland she was a breeder release for her size. She is in great health, calm, amazing with our kids, our 8 year old English Bulldog and Belgian Malinois (Service Dog). She has been adjusting very well at our home. Chelsey breeds amazing Newfoundlands and I was told about her from my Service Dog trainer. If you are looking for a Newfoundland with the right health, temperament, and a lover. You can not go wrong. Highly recommend!

Update-Sam continues to make huge strides. He has been muzzled but has had no big issues with people. Yeah! Previous1Our 4 year old Sam came to us in May 2023. He ran away from his previous owners had been on the run for 2 weeks He had a severely mangled left eye and wondered into our auto body shop. He was thin and tired. I immediately took him to the vet. The previous owners allowed us to keep him because he was not a good fit for them. My husband and I scheduled the eye removal surgery with the vet for the following week. During that week Sam was so passive and quiet at the shop. Customers could walk up to him and pet him. Then he had eye surgery and things changed. Our passive dog became a vicious, biting dog. He was still loveable to us but he bit 4 people in a few days. We could not keep him with this type of behavior and no animal shelter would take him with his biting history so we took him back to the vet and scheduled him to be euthanized. After an hour of dropping him off, I called the vet and asked him to postpone the procedure but to board him at the clinic. I spent the next few days doing a lot of research and finally came across KnallHart Academy. The price is not inexpensive but in line with all the other board/training programs. He went thru their 8 week program and his behavior is amazing. Chelsey diagnosed him with trauma prior to him coming to us, trauma due to with the eye removal and wasn't socialized enough. It was hard to drop him off knowing he would be gone 8 weeks but we hoped and pray it help him. We picked him up 2 days ago. After Chelsey and her team trained Sam it has been absolutely amazing. He walks in the yard without me holding a leash. He has been at the body shop and no problems at all. He is muzzled and will be for the foreseeable future to keep him and others safe. One thing I understood after seeing a ton of videos and reading articles on the internet is muzzles are not a bad thing. Actually too many people do not muzzle their dogs. Muzzling a dog is a responsible thing to do if there is any concerns. Muzzling a dog can actually calm them. Some people might say, "Why spend money on training if he still needs a muzzle" His behavior has been short of a miracle. He is so much calmer around strangers. It will take us time to trust Sam without the muzzle around people. It was terrifying to see him lung and bite people We do have an e-collar on him but seldom have had to push the stim button. In fact today I just push the "tone" button. He comes on command. Before he would run from us for the fun of it and would only come back when he was ready. The academy makes you do homework during the 8 week program. It is a lot of homework but I am glad I did it. The homework taught me about different collars, dog behavior, commands, etc. When we picked up Sam from Chelsea we meet at Scheels in Iowa City. My husband and I hid so Sam wouldn't see us and watched Chelsea walk Sam around the store full of customers and kids. Sam absolutely rocked it. She then taught us how to do a structure walk with him in the store. I still can't believe how well he behaved in the store. I will always remember the moment he entered the store looking relaxed. We will continue to train him but it is pretty simple to work it into our daily lives. We do simple things like sit, lay down and before we feed him. I give him a structed walk during the day at the auto body shop and then on the street. He gets walks during the day and early evening without me holding a leash and having him come back on command. The academy offers boarding services so we might do this when we are on a trip so they can check his progress. They also offer a "lifetime warranty" that includes answering our questions and meeting with us if we need to go over training issues. Sam still loves to play frisbee, have his belly rubbed, and play in the house. He is loveable and now much calmer around people. We can't thank Knallhart academy, Chelsey, and her team enough. We want to be Sam's forever home.

Maya (our 3 year old Aussidor) has been home for almost 2 weeks after being at Knallhart Kennels and Training Academy for 8 weeks. She is a changed dog for sure! Our walks are enjoyable and not at all stressful. We can walk by all houses, dogs and distractions in our neighborhood without a reaction. Before she went to Chelsea's we never knew what to expect. She is much more relaxed and obedient inside the house as well. We even had a training session at Scheels with 10 dogs and many workers looking on. Maya handled it like a pro and you wouldn't have known there was 1 dog in the store, let alone 10. All the dogs were different breeds large and small and they were all calm, cool and collected. They had all benefited from training with Chelsea, just like Maya!

I had the pleasure of working with Chelsey back in July 2023. My dog, Phoebe, had struggled with reactivity (barking at other dogs, jumping on others) to the point where it became really worrisome for both me and her. After getting her signed up with Chelsey, she attended the 6 week program where they worked on those issues with Phoebe as well as the basic commands. I think the homework was the best things about the program due to helping me understand Phoebe more and understand how I can best support her to be the best she can be. Since then, Phoebe has been such a joy and has not gotten to the point where she will not bark at other dogs during our walks and listen to my commands. It is very important to continue training and working with your dog after the program. Don't think everything is fixed after they returned! I CANNOT THANK CHELSEY ENOUGH!

Outstanding! I had a 7 month Old English Sheepdog when I broke both wrists. Knallhart Academy had an opening for him to be trained. Chelsea did an awesome job of training him and still keeping his personality. He and I are becoming reacquainted. Chelsea also did an awesome job of training me to continue with his commands. I highly recommend Chelsea and Knallhart! I couldn’t be more pleased with the training and the outcome.