Lehigh Valley Dog Training

Almost 2 months ago I adopted a 12 lb. rescue dog who's 2 years old. His previous owners let him live on and off the streets and it appears that someone was abused towards him. From the moment I brought him home I knew I was going to have to put time, effort and training into this dog. He showed people, food and other dog aggression from the start. The 1st day I brought him home he nipped at a family members finger. After that we had a couple of incidents but nothing major. Than two weekends ago he bit the same family member in the face which required stitches. My dog was reported and was placed on a 10 day in house quarantine. I immediately started looking for a dog behaviorist and/or trainer. I found Gwenevere Marx of Lehigh Valley Dog Training. Her website is incredibly vague and doesn't really explain the methods she uses for good reason. I sent her a message and she called me back the following day. She asked me questions and then told me for her services it would be $900.00. That would include the in home 3 hr consultation, 1 on 1 training for the entire family (4 people), unlimited calls/texts/emails, in home visits, and training sessions every Sunday in a local park which turned out to be 30 minutes away from where I live. She seemed knowledgeable and I was desperate to find someone to help. I scheduled the appt and she came a few days later with her assistant. She arrived 5 minutes late which wasn't a huge problem but when paying such a large sum of money you would hope the professional would arrive early if not on time. She comes in talks to me about animal behavior for about 30 minutes and then the training begins. She hands me a prong collar, explains how it works and how to put it on the dog. She instructs me to place it on him, place him in his crate, attach a lead to his prong collar, lock the crate and hand the attached lead to her. She then says that once he makes any sound such as a bark she will "pop" the collar and say quiet. Of course my dog starts barking and whimpering and as promised she POPPED the collar. When she did that she did it with such force that my dog was yanked to the top of the crate. She does this another 2 times and he stops barking. She exclaims see your dog is the perfect candidate for this method. I should have stopped her right then but I was DESPERATE and thought she was a professional who knew what she was talking about. Throughout the appt she took 3 10 minute breaks and left me with with her assistant who did and said absolutely nothing the entire time. After the appt was over and I wrote her the check they left. I sat on my couch wondering if I could actually inflict these "methods" on my dog. Could I also teach my boyfriend and his two kid these methods? The answer was NO. I contacted Gwenevere the following day letting her know that I had changed my mind and wouldn't be requiring her services anymore. I went into detail about why and asked her what the cost of the consultation appt was since I wouldn't be requiring her other services. She explained that the $900.00 was for the consultation alone and the other services where complimentary to all her clients. I couldn't believe that she was telling me that her charging hourly rate is $300.00. That's when I knew I had been duped. She didn't care about my dog or me. She wanted the quickest results that she could show me in the quickest amount of time, get the money and GO. Not only was I still left with a dog who had some serious issues but now I was out $900.00 that I could have used on someone who could have actually helped my dog and family. After doing my research I learned that her methods are seriously outdated and MOST professionals no longer use these methods because it's been shown in research that meeting aggression with aggression is only placing a band aid on the problem. You want your dog to trust you not FEAR YOU! DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND FIND A REAL PROFESSIONAL!!!!

Guenivere and her team are the best. I have used her with two dogs now and her practical no nonsense approach gave me tools immediately that made a difference in our lives. I truly respect and admire the way she evaluate the dogs and chooses the most important things to work on first. She asks the right questions and wants to know what is most important in your life that you need to work on and remind you that if you do not do the work with the dog nothing she does will matter. She is right you need to follow through and put the effort in. I have noticed in just three days my dogs behavior has totally improved. I live in a condominium and townhouse community and there are a variety of dogs and people here and it has made living here easier. I would recommend her for anybody who has a dog because there are always things you can improve on and I have to say my dog is happier and I am happier and I am going to continue and go further and I have learned that agility training helps the dogs confidence. Long term I would like my dog to be trained as a therapy dog to go to old folks homes