Four Legged Scholars LLC

My dog was abused in his previous home and has always been afraid of strangers. I wanted to train him and help him to be more confident, but I didn't know how to do that if he was afraid of his trainer. Doing online training with Joanna was perfect for both of us! Joanna helped me learn how to read my dog and understand his triggers. We then worked together on BAT training, which taught him self-soothing behaviors and showed him how to confidently and safely handle difficult situations. I never thought I would have fun doing homework with my dog, but he and I benefited from it tremendously. Working with Joanna via Zoom was perfect for my dog and me.

My 2 year old doodle was struggling with people walking by the house, barking incessantly, tugging on walks, improving recall when off leash and , for me, how to be a better more engaging human for my buddy. The personalized, online sessions exceeded all my expectations. The review of video homework sessions was awesome. We saw improvement in each of the priority areas and I developed real, tangible, lasting skills/tools to be a better pet person. Thanks Johanna!

I adopted an extremely fearful dog April 2022, so much that she didn't leave her kennel for 48hrs. I had looked up ways to make her more comfortable and lower her anxiety, but everything was either for aggressive or dogs that already trusted their people (and took treats easily/willingly) I called 3 or 4 other trainers before going with Four Legged Scholars. Each one said that I needed her more comfortable with me first. Johanna told me that we could work with Juniper to start trusting me more and that it could be part of our training. With everything personalized to work for both Juniper and Me. I signed up for online one-on-one sessions. I had 3 goals which might sound like little ones, but they were huge for us! 1. To build Junipers confidence/trust. 2. To walk the stairs to the apartment by herself, without carrying 3. To be able to walk in the neighborhood. Johanna taught me how to read Junipers body language and to see the little differences to keep her from shutting down and when somethingwas going better. The videos made it so Johanna could see what was/wasn't working (and point it out) so we could modify the training to be the best for Juniper. And we just did our 1st set of stairs without any carrying! When something that Johanna recommended didn't work for me (even if it did for Jun) I was able to go to Johanna about it and talk through it and modify what was being done. Juniper still has a ways to go, but Johanna made sure that I had strategies to help Juni and I still have email support. The difference in Juniper is amazing, she is much happier and confident. Rescuing her has been one of the hardest things I've done and I'm so glad that Johanna was there to help me through it!

12 years ago I got a puppy and quickly realized I was in over my head. I wanted to have a good, well trained dog, but I was overwhelmed by methods and my puppies behavior. I joined the four legged scholars puppy training with my little 4 month old puppy Bowie, and saw immediate understanding with the clicker work. It gave us this incredibly ability to communicate and she excelled. We went on to take several courses that established general obedience, helped me turn a STRONG leash puller into a loose leash master (I took that course twice because it was a huge issue for us and I NEEDED help and reassurance from Johanna that I could do it) as well as skill class, that helped solidify a beautiful relationship between us. Learning clicker shaping allowed me to confidently teach complex and unique commands on my own as well, like waving hello and closing kitchen cabinets. My Bowie has climbed to the top of mountains for me staying right by my side never pulling on her leash. I've targeted her off trails to protect her from startling a mama moose and her baby. She's loved on my kids without jumping on them and knocking them over. She's allowed the neighbor girl who has always had a fear of dogs to walk her without pulling at whatever pace she was comfortable with. She shows off with all her fun little tricks Johanna gave me the tools to train my dog into an amazing companion. I feel so lucky to have found your training program and to have the relationship I do with my Bowie girl. These courses have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of families and their pups, thank you for that gift.