Gilford's Golden Guardians

Kaarla Weston from Gilford Golden Guardians is an incredible service dog trainer. She not only has a vast knowledge of training dogs but also trains people. My whole family is autistic and we struggled. She was patient and supportive and found ways to make it work for us. We trained longer not because our dog needed to be but we did. We were able to utilize a in home support waiver through Medicaid to pay for training. We started training when Starfire was 8 weeks old. We finished training when she was 18 months old. Our service dog has been incredible in busy hospitals, horse riding therapy at the barn, counseling at community mental health, pediatric Dr appointments, going to the mall, there have been many situations where my son would have refused to go somewhere because he’s struggling and Starfire has made it possible for my son to participate. The first time my son agreed to go into the Apple Store was because Starfire was there for him. There are many times my son gets exhausted and needs help handling Starfire, I handle her but she heels with my son. She’s very attentive. One time my son eloped and she found him in our yard with the police. She checks in with Ben. Gives him deep pressure. Let him cry in her fur. She’s amazing. She is so chill we were able to bring her to Boston Children’s Hospital and she ignored the other service dogs. Was happy to be there and wasn’t bothered by all the people around her.

We cannot say enough good things about Kaarla and Gilford’s Golden Guardians. Working with her throughout Monty’s service dog training journey has been an incredible experience for our entire family. From the very start, Kaarla has been patient, knowledgeable, supportive, and genuinely invested in Monty’s success as well as our families. Monty has made amazing progress under her guidance. Kaarla always took the time to explain the “why” behind the training, helped us build confidence handling real-world situations, and truly understood the unique needs of our family and our son. Her calm approach, professionalism, and obvious love for the dogs she works with made every session productive and encouraging. One thing that really stood out to us was how much Kaarla cared about creating a dog that was not only well-trained, but also happy, confident, and reliable in public settings. Watching Monty grow through this process has been incredible, and we are so grateful for all the time and dedication she poured into him. If you are looking for someone who truly cares and goes above and beyond, we would absolutely recommend Gilford’s Golden Guardians. We are beyond thankful for everything Kaarla has done for our family and for Monty.

I don’t think I can express how highly I would recommend Gilford’s Golden Guardians for your service dog training! The owner and trainer Kaarla is so passionate and knowledgeable. She is able to adapt training to fit individual needs and troubleshoot the unexpected challenges that arise for clients. Her level of experience with a variety of clients shows in her ability to adapt to fit a need, get past a barrier, or come up with multiple new techniques to accomplish a task/skill! She listens to the needs that you are seeking to meet with a service dog but also listens to everything you say and identifies additional needs that she thinks could be a benefit that you have not thought of! I personally entered the training program for a service dog for my child after experiencing a traumatic event. From my first outreach to Kaarla, she recognized the importance of training a god for my child, she stayed in contact and guided me through each step to get started. She continued to go above and beyond through our training journey, even checking on how I was doing with the aftermath of the event I experienced. Kaarla became an additional family member during our time in training. I recommended her to anyone who even thinks about a service dog journey and some who haven’t thought about it, but I think they should!