Paw and Hand K9

We are over-the-moon thrilled with Merissa and the staff at Paw & Hand K9. We quickly realized that we would need help with training our GSP when things weren’t working at home. After a recommendation from a friend who had his dogs train with Merissa and reading several reviews my husband and I took the leap to put our puppy Gaia in the Freedom Program. The hardest part of the decision for us was the Board and Train. Leaving our puppy for 6 weeks (you do get to visit every two weeks.) I run and both my husband and I hike. We want to be able to enjoy these things with her in addition to her just having good manners. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Gaia is now a calm and polite walker, she can run with me, she no longer gets anxious in her crate, she doesn’t dart out doors, jump on furniture, we can have her off leash and she has a solid recall. The list goes on. The follow up training with Merissa has been extremely helpful to us as well to solidify Gaia’s training. What, how and when to use each command. We can’t say enough positive things about Merissa, her team and the transformation of our puppy. Highly recommend!

We were at the end of our rope with our boy Vince. He was so good and such a sweet goofy boy inside our home and with friends and family, but he was a nightmare to take anywhere. Anytime we went outside he would lunge and growl and get himself so worked up he’d get foamy at the mouth, my neighbors that didn’t know him well were scared of him and I don’t blame him. Living in a condo and having to see all of our neighbors frequently and there always being a lot of people around this wasn’t sustainable. We needed to find someone to help us or have the difficult talk about rehoming. We were skeptical about training because with our past trainer who was very Cesar Milan Alpha dog style, Vince’s behavior got worse, but we had no other choice and felt comfortable after our first meeting with Merissa so we decided to do the Board and Train with Paw and Hand. Merissa put him in their 8-week behavior modification and matched him with his trainer Charlee. As Charlee was getting to know him we learned that a lot of his behaviors were due to a lack of confidence, we felt terrible. Charlee was the perfect match for him though and worked on building that up. Vince has been home a couple of days now, and he is by no means a perfect fixed dog. When we first got home he was ready to start lashing out at everything again, Charlee set us up with the tools to help curb this though and the reactions have been minimal compared to how they used to be and we have been able to regain his focus much quicker. We’ve got a long road but I’m confident each day will get better. We’ll never take any dog we own to another trainer as long as Paw and Hand is open. Charlee is a fantastic trainer for both the pups and the people.

We took our 6 month old puppy Colt to Paw and Hand. I felt anxious about leaving him among strangers but I was soon assured and pleased that he was having a great time and learning many new skills. We couldn’t be more pleased with his discipline abilities after an 8 week program. I can now freely roam our mountain property without fearing that Colt will run off and not obey. Merissa also tirelessly trains dog owners how to properly handle dogs. This program has my highest recommendation.

It's hard to find the words to express how grateful I am to Merissa and her team. As much as I love my dog I worried I wouldn't be able to keep him as I couldn't figure out how to manage some of his behaviors despite several classes elsewhere and LOTS of time spent working with and trying to socialize him. (Previously I had only used 100% positive reinforcement style training with my dogs, but I had never had a George! Clearly this wasn't enough for him to understand what I wanted of him, we needed a better way to communicate.) I was nervous about sending him away (and spending the $$$) but I felt like I had to try it before I completely gave up. George has returned to me a different dog! I can take him anywhere. He is responsive and calm. Still bonded to me and still his young, playful self, but now able to be comfortable in most any situation. I'm certain it will take a lot of time and attention to help him maintain the skills he's learned, but it's so worth it to be able to have a dog like this. I have absolute trust and faith in Merissa's care and skills, can't recommend Paw and Hand K9 highly enough!