Digman Canine Academy

Our dog has anxiety issues and was reactive to new people, especially when they were moving quickly (so, pretty much any kid). Working with Kelsey has been incredible for him! He's so much calmer when a new person comes to the door and we don't have to worry about him freaking out if someone runs by when we're out on a walk (plus he's learned lots of useful commands and is even able to do basic recall). Our dog is so much happier and we're so relieved to not have worry about him being out in public. We can't recommend Digman Canine Academy enough!

We enlisted the help of Claire and Kelsey with our 1yr old pup who was becoming more and more destructive when left alone. After going through 2 doors, door frames and a few kennels, we decided to give these guys a try. We really wanted to address his separation anxiety (-like?) issues because he would just scream in his kennel when left alone, but would be happy to go in if we hung out in the room with him. Anyways, these guys had us get an e-collar which was used for training. It was quite expensive, but has been a huge help. We started with basics and progressed in the weekly sessions. Basically these guys showed us what WE were doing wrong with training and habits and helping us to set a structure for our pup in the home as well as how to properly use the e-collar. We did not address the separation issues as much as we would have liked, but we did walk away with a "toolbox" of things to use in training that we still continue to use. Finally, we had pet-insurance for our pup and we asked our vet for a referral for behavior training related to his anxiety and asked Claire for the other letter stating he finished the training along with the invoice. The insurance wasn't the easiest to work with and Claire was GREAT following up and making sure the claim was submitted okay. We really did appreciate all this extra help. My only recommendation would be to orient the weekly sessions to cater to each individual dog (ie, in our case, how to leave the house with an anxious dog). Additionally, I'm really surprised at some of the negative feedback when people see us using an e-collar. I hadn't expected this, especially after the way Claire recommended it for training. I love that we can let him off-leash and (although he best when he's wearing the collar) he comes when called. I think this is a necessary trade off to help keep him safe (ie, running into the road, off-trail or giving chase, etc). But I don't think I was prepared for some of the negative backlash.

We had a fantastic experience with Digman, working primarily with Kelsey! They are such kind people and so loving with Tonka. Some of the best money I've ever spent!!! Tonka is nine, so I never thought he could learn all of these new things at this point in his life. I thought he would just always be anxious and I would just always have to keep him on a short leash and harness whenever we left the house. Before we did the training, I was using the easywalk harness, which worked well most of the time, but he would still pull when he got anxious and I'd given up ever letting him run off leash because I could not always control him if he got anxious about another animal. I was sad that he didn't get to run free any more. But now Tonka is so much more confident in his skills and making rapid progress on feeling less anxious when he sees other dogs. I am confident we can work up to more off-leash time soon. Tonka has also learned "place" to stay on his bed when people come to the door at home and is also getting very good at stay, down, and recalls. He now walks very calmly on a loose leash with just a regular collar and the ecollar. I hardly ever have to use the ecollar except when we're specifically working on a skill and we can keep it on a very low setting. He is not afraid of it nor does he seem to find it uncomfortable at all. I wasn't sure about that before we started, but the one Digman recommended is high quality and works on very low settings. I look forward to continuing to work with him on what we learned from Kelsey and we will participate in their group classes when they're offered.

I highly recommend Digman Canine Academy. They are affordable, even for a college student, and very good at what they do. I go to school out of state, but chose to do training while I was home. They were very flexible with my tight schedule and worked wonders with my disabled dog. Maggie is a very temperamental and reactive dog that guarded her resources. With Kelsey’s and Claire’s help I can now sit in my dog’s bed eating and she barely even glances at the food! Their helpfulness during training and once training is complete is so wonderful! In our seven training sessions, they trained me on how to work with Maggie despite her being deaf, only having three legs, and being aggressive with food and dogs. Overall, both Maggie and I had a wonderful experience with DCA and have learned so much!