Dog Basics PDX

Tim is great! Our family dog, Suli, is a 10 month old German Shepherd who has some reactivity issues. I'm a college student who studied abroad for a couple of months, but before I left, I was one of Suli's favorites. Upon returning home from my trip, I was excited to meet my puppy and was expecting one of those happy reunions. However, being away from home for three months and with Suli being an adolescent and reactive, our reunion didn't go exactly as I had hoped. It was like he didn't know me. He barked and lunged towards me and it made me quite sad. It definitely wasn't barking or lunging out of excitement. Let's just say I was stuck in my room not knowing what to do, but praying we'd figure something out. Our family honestly felt stuck and scared. I didn't want to let him go but it had been so stressful having a reactive dog already, and now, he was reactive towards me. Someone recommended Tim to us, claiming that he helped her with her reactive dog. That same moment, I called Tim and he responded immediately. I told him my situation and he scheduled an at-home appointment two day later. Which is super quick compared to most trainers out there! When Tim arrived at our home, we met before he saw Suli and he helped me better understand my dog's big emotions and walked me through how we were going to address the situation. He was so patient with all our questions and seemed so knowledgeable. We practiced some exercises with me and Suli (while another family member held him) and he recommended that we continue to practice them during the week, not rushing Suli too quickly so we can set him up for success. A week later and Suli and I are besties again and it feels like things aren't so bad anymore. Just one session! Tim was truly a God-send and I highly recommend him to anyone out there who feels stuck or is having issues with their doggos. Thank you Tim!

TLDR: Did my dog walk better on a leash after the session? Yes. Do I believe I could've gotten the same results by skipping the training session and just purchasing a gentle leader? Also yes Booked one training session to address my dogs leash pulling/chasing squirrels issue. I was hoping this would be the first of many, as my dog has resource guarding and reactivity issues that I'd like to resolve. The trainer recommended a gentle leader, which I had used with my previous dog and had great success. We walked her around the block to find some squirrels. She was already walking much better than before, but I honestly credit that to the gentle leader. There wasn't much training that actually took place in the hour that we had with the trainer. In fact, he did not interact directly with my dog at all. I'm not sure if this is a standard strategy, but he never greeted her, even after she had initially calmed down after his arrival. He did not pet her or touch her once. He never referred to her by name, only calling her 'them', leading me to believe he might not have known her name. I know it's not their job to 'play' with dogs, but would have been nice to see him give my dog any sort of attention or acknowledgement. The trainer spent a lot time talking about dog behavior through analogies of child behavior and parenting; not a lot of time spent talking about actual dog behavior/psychology. Worth mentioning that I don't have kids. He didn't mentioned if he has kids. So I'm not sure if it was the most helpful analogy. There wasn't much room for questions, and when I did try to squeeze them in, I was talked over. This place has great rating so I had high hopes, but would be lying if I said I didn't feel a little disappointed and unheard. All that to say, they have plenty of happy and satisfied customers, so they clearly they know what they're doing. Just comes down to personal preference I suppose.

Timothy is phenomenal! We had a thorough phone conversation before our first training session to discuss all of my concerns. He has fantastic communication. We talked outside without my dogs before we introduced to him and immediately he gave clear directions on how to proceed. My anxiety was through the roof before he walked in, and within minutes of his help, I was calm, collected and felt confident in what I was learning. My dogs did so well and so did I. We can't thank Timothy enough for his extraordinary service. I feel like my dogs and I have a new beginning to ease anxiety and successfully manage creating healthy and safe boundaries and habits for all of us. Five stars, 10/10 highly recommend!