Best Paw Forward K9 Training

Very grateful to have been referred to Pat for some help with our 1 year old boy, Gus. Gus did great with training and recall as a young pup, but around 8 months, decided it's a lot more fun to make his own decisions. We are still working with Pat and she has been great about providing at home instructions and is very available to coach and help us to gain the confidence and skills to apply in our home what Gus learned during his board and train time. Highly recommend!

We have known and worked with Pat for years. She cared for and help train our first golden retriever. Ripken loved going to see Pat and her pups. She cared for him as if he was her own. She was one of the first people I called when he suddenly passed. She helped me get through that with her kind words and compassion and perspective. Since then we got a golden retriever puppy, Bowie. I knew right away Bowie would go to a board and train with Pat. We just wanted him to be a polite and well mannered puppy that could listen to commands and cues. After spending time with Pat he came home calmer, more confident, more attentive, is walking beautifully, is able to go out in public and socialize. Pat has helped us to be more confident dog owners. She really loves and cares for these dogs. She is always open and receptive when I call her for questions or for advice. I know Bowie is a better dog for spending time with Pat and he will return to her and her pups for visits. Thank you Pat!!!

We sent out basset hound to Pat with no expectation that anyone could train her (it is one stubborn basset after all). Four weeks later, after a lot of friendly messages and updates (we especially appreciated pictures and videos), we were very excited to learn that our "untrainable" dog was responding to commands and behaving well. After the four week period, when Pat met with us, our dog dropped all the bad habits: she no longer engaged in her barking marathons, she stopped jumping on people, she stopped plopping in the middle of the street when you take her for a walk, and she began responding to the commands. Further, she dropped bad resource guarding habit and no longer growls at us. From day one, reading Pat's updates, I was amazed how well she could feel the dog. We've had our basset for almost a year before this training and Pat basically nailed her personality and behavior in a few days. A big part of the dog's training was also a "training" for us as we quickly learned that the respect the dog gained for the trainer was not transferrable and we need to earn it. (it's very different from getting your computer back from the IT team with updates - that was something I imagined before our dog came back home). Pat helped us understand what our dog needs and what we should do to help her strive. Even after our basset went home with us, Pat continued to reach out, ask how we and the dog were handing the transition, and kept giving us tips on what to improve. It was a great experience overall. We strongly recommend Pat's services and expertise to anyone who might need any help with their dog.

We hired Pat at Best Paw Forward to train Bear, our adorable, but quite feisty, lab puppy. From the very first meeting, we knew we were in exceptionally qualified hands. Pat quickly got started training Bear by using a prong collar for walks and an e-collar for training reinforcement. Bear thrived under Pat’s instruction and learned far more than we expected in six weeks. Since graduating from his training program with Pat, we have continued to work with Bear at home and have seen more improvement each week. We hope to send Bear back to Pat for a “refresher” course when he is a year old. During Bear’s training, Pat kept us abreast of all of Bear’s accomplishments by posting pictures and videos showing his progress. She also frequently called to let us know of his success and achievements. Pat took excellent care of Bear and seemed to truly care about his progress and happiness. She still checks up on him like he’s part of her family 😊! Pat gets a perfect 10 for not only being an incredible trainer, but also being an invaluable source of education and support for dogs and their owners.