Better Dog Behavior Now

Better Dog Behavior has been a Godsend for me and Alice, the probably 10 year old pit mix I adopted from an area animal shelter. She would lunge at cars, people and other animals on a walk. With Doug's help we were able to redirect her attention when one was coming toward us. Now she looks to me as soon as she sees something unusual. She would also growl and act aggressive in the middle of the night. Again, with Doug's help we were able to get to the bottom of the problem. I love her so very much and I trust everything he tells me....not to mention Alice loves him and very excited every time she knows she's going to see him. Thank you Doug and Better Dog Behavior Now!!! Photos are when I first got her and today with a few more pounds!

Doug has been a huge help getting Fennec (our nervous, adopted dog) acclimated to a new house. We learned that his reactive behavior is helped by giving him opportunities to work and use his brain. Consistency and clear expectations for visitors has made all the difference. We just had a houseful of visitors for Christmas and our dog did great. Fennec was calmer, and we had the skills to redirect him when he got nervous. We can't thank Doug enough!

Who could have dreamed that after a single Zoom call with Doug and a few days of marker training, we’d witness a complete transformation? When we arrived for a holiday visit with our mother, Daisy was fresh off a traumatic experience with a groomer. So traumatic that it had resulted in a collapsed trachea. We found her hiding in the back of a closet growling and baring her teeth to any who approached. She was scared of everyone including her 93-year-old Dog Mother. We turned to Doug for help and during a 1-hour Zoom call, he coached us through the basics of marker training. Daisy was out of the closet within a few hours and after a couple of days of marker training was voluntarily venturing out to socialize - smiling, tail wagging, and enjoying walks and other activities. Daisy has always been a shy, cautious Shiba Inu so this transformation to a happy, outgoing dog was nothing short of a miracle. We are so grateful to Doug - his knowledge, resources, and coaching but importantly his deep caring for his work, the dogs, and the people he helps. Doug is a saviour! Mary Lou, Bert, and Sarah Liverance

Doug is a godsend to our family! We adopted our second dog knowing he had a sad, abusive beginning. He lived the first year of his life on a chain bigger than him before being saved and housed at the shelter. After having him a few weeks, he became fearful of everyone and everything (especially the sight of other dogs) outside of our family. He also became very protective over me. Before any serious issues could occur, we contacted another trainer. That trainer's approach and teachings only exacerbated the issues we were desperately trying to correct. That trainer was also unresponsive and unprofessional. Thankfully, a friend recommended Doug to us! Doug immediately responded to our inquiry and was able to schedule a training appointment with us rather quickly. We have been working with Doug over a year now, and with his help, our dog has come so far! At the first appointment, our dog was completely unsocialized. He now wags his tail so hard at the sight of Doug, his butt wiggles. He has also come to learn that certain family members are safe, so safe that they can come into our house. We are still working with Doug, because he has a long way to go. We will continue working with Doug until our dog is able to generalize that other people and dogs (even from far away) are not going to hurt him or us. Doug is always available to speak with us and answer any questions we may have. Scheduling an appointment has never been an issue, either. He has also assisted friends I've recommended to him, including rescue groups and local animal shelters. Our dogs are more than dogs, they are family members. We trust Doug with our family.

I reached out to Doug as a last chance to be able to keep our dog Lily (6 yo pit-boxer mix) in our house. We had recently combined houses and despite having sent her to a board and train program and several follow up visits in our home with the trainer, she could not even be in the same room as our 5 and 7 year old children without being on a leash. She could not control her excitement around them and would try to jump all over them and play with them. We had tried other training methods focused on corrections, but they did not help and actually made Lily more excitable. We met with Doug and listened to his approach. After speaking with him while Lily ran around in the yard, his first comment was, “You are not getting rid of this dog. You just need a different approach. I guarantee we will work this out and you will have a great dog for the kids if you are willing to do the work.” As he explained his training method, it seemed too simple to work after everything else we had tried. Doug and Lily showed us within 10 minutes that his approach was exactly what she needed. Doug did a great job demonstrating what we needed to work with Lily on, what we needed to do better to encourage the behaviors we wanted and not unintentionally reinforce unwanted behaviors. Doug did a great job of incorporating the kids into Lily’s training to show to us that it was working-they loved being Lily’s trainers and it made them much more comfortable around “Lily the crazy dog”. Lily is still her excited, full of energy self, but now will curl up with the kids on the couch and can roam free while they play. The transformation of her behavior around them is 180 degrees from before and she probably wouldn’t be still living with us if not for Doug!