Fortunate K9 Dog and Owner Training

Thank you to Julia and her small but mighty team at Fortunate K9 for helping make our rescue dog’s transition from the stressful journey of her early experiences to life as a well-adjusted house pet a positive one. With well-spaced private sessions and group lessons, including exposure to any number of “props”—anywhere from the inanimate mascot dog to the resident dog-savvy cat to other dogs of varying levels of neutrality, Lila has had wonderful opportunities to work on her confidence and reactivity. Julia tells it like it is, shows us how it’s done, and offers lots of constructive feedback of our handling skills, always explaining the reasoning behind the process. She adjusts method to suit personality, so be assured this is not a one-size-fits-all curriculum. We are still a work in progress after only a few months at it, but look forward to a continued relationship with Julia as well as the larger FK9 community!

If anyone is looking for great dog and owner training, Fortunate K9 Dog & Owner Training is the best. Julia V. McDonough is very knowledgeable. She helped us with our older dog to prep her for the AKC Good Citizen certification. And now she is working with our puppy with obedience. I wouldn't trust our dogs with anyone else. :) not only is she a Doberman expert, she is an expert with all breeds too. The group classes are a great way to get your dogs used to being around other dogs in a safe and controlled environment.

tl;dr - Skip the rest and train with the experts at Fortunate K9. After working with four, count 'em, FOUR, dog trainers over three years and not having the results we expected with our adopted Malinois rescue dog, we met with trainer Julia for an evaluation and signed up for some one-on-one training classes. Wow! What a difference between the other trainers and FK9! We quickly learned that owner training was just as important as dog training. After several lessons (over several weeks, with constant/daily reinforcement of the ideas/strategies we learned), we were able to take our "German Shepherd on steroids" out for walks with less reactivity to perceived threats (e.g. squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and, of course, other dogs). Malinois Annie began obeying commands more consistently, her recall noticeably improved and she was finally turning into a Good Canine Citizen. Sadly, we lost Annie to cancer a little while later. But, we've taken all our other dogs to train with FK9, with outstanding results!

My husband and I have a bullmastiff (150lbs). He used to be impossible to walk on a leash and had a hard time controlling his excitement with people and would drag us away to say hi to others. Julia worked WONDERS with our dog and he walks absolutely amazing on a leash now and has fantastic recall too. He loved going to trainings and seeing Julia every week and he is so well behaved now that we have the right tools. Highly recommend Fortunate K9!