Training Your Best Friend LLC

As a long-term dog owner of giant breed Great Danes, I have worked with several different trainers over the years. I had and have a lot to learn. Christie is an invaluable resource for both me as an owner and my 2 Great Danes. My 6mo puppy completed Basic Obedience and my 2yo completed Public Manners. We perfected basic commands, loose leash walking, polite public behavior, impulse control, recall, and thresholds, as well as handlers recognizing cues and understanding behaviors to improve my relationship with my dogs. My pups enjoy training both physically and mentally. I am so appreciative of Christie’s passion for dogs and dedication to positive methods. I look forward to our next class.

Based on the other reviews I've read, I was very excited to enroll my dog in one of the classes, however i had a very mediocre experience. Before I chose a class, I emailed Christie and let her know my dog's age, skills she was proficient in, and areas where I'd like to see improvement to get her professional input on which class to choose. She told me Basic Obedience I, so I went with her judgement even though my dog already knew all the skills mentioned in the course listing. Classes always were a bit chaotic and unplanned. It seemed like she was making things up as she went along at times. She was sometimes late or would ramble about other dogs she had trained in the past, all while everyone is trying to get their dogs to sit still. My dog developed a habit of barking at these times (because she was bored and wanted to do something). Christie told me to use the "Watch Me" command that we learned and give my dog a treat when she made eye contact every time she would bark inappropriately. All this taught my dog was every time she barked, she got a treat. This took several weeks to unlearn. All the skills we learned, my dog already knew, so class was fairly easy for us. However, the issues she had (wanting to play with all the other dogs - pulling to get to them, barking at them) were never resolved. They were very nice people and definitely love animals. I'm happy that others have had a good experience, but if your dog already knows basic commands (sit, stay, down, come, etc.) you may want to skip Basic Obedience I or just look for a different trainer.

Christie is amazing. From my first phone call with her to our last public manners class, we learned so much about training our lab. We had talked to several local trainers who recommended awful methods of prong and shock collars for our sweet, highly trainable lab and we couldn't fathom why they encouraged that type of training. Christie immediately told us about her positive training and it was so well done. For Public Manners we went to different locations, walked around, learned commands and how to be out in public. The dogs in the class made so much progress from day one to graduation. Christie is positive, caring, and really good at what she does. We can't wait to take our next class with her. For people looking for a trainer: Shock collars, prong collars and chokers are mean, painful and do not work. Please look for other options! Christie is a great choice.

I have been working with Christie for a year now and am so thankful I found her. I have a 5 year old dog who is very leash reactive and we have been through so much training with other companies and never quite found training techniques that worked for us. When I came across her website (Training Your Best Friend LLC) , I immediately called her to ask my 101 questions. Lol She was so personable and thoroughly explained her training methods (positive reinforcement, no electric shock collars etc) and I knew this is where we needed to be. She even went above and beyond and allowed me to register for her class after registration has closed due to my urgent need for help with my dog. I have done 3 classes with Christie and they are very safe, full of learning opportunities and even fun! We loved the obstacle courses she set up for us and my dog even seemed to enjoy it! It’s been a tough road but I am seeing so much improvement in my girl thanks to Christie’s extensive knowledge and her training techniques. PRACTICING AT HOME IS KEY! I highly recommend her for ALL of your training needs.

Our border collie/golden mix Winnie took Basic Obedience Level 1. The classes and training transformed our ability to manage Winnie’s high energy and distractions on walks. She now has the “watch me” cue down pat and is able to wait for her food instead of jumping up on us like she did before. We’ve also called in Christie to help us with our other dog, a tripawd, on building his confidence in various situations. We’ll be taking the fearful Fido class in January. We appreciate Christie’s positive reinforcement methods and love her philosophy that all our animals are “God’s creatures”.