New Beginnings Dog Training, LLC

Our 6-month-old puppy Milo was doing great with training at home...until it came time to go for walks. Then, though he's small, he did his level best to pull our shoulders out of their sockets on each walk. Within one training session, Kristi had him walking at heel and well on the way his way to being a wonderful walk companion! Thanks for your help, Kristi! We now look forward to years and years of wonderful walks with our well-trained boy!

In the end -- Kristi was the only solution we needed…. I don’t normally take the time to write reviews. But Kristi went so far above and beyond for us, that I wanted to share our experience. Our family was in over heads with a new puppy a few months ago. After losing our amazing Maltese of 15 years to a tumor, we were distraught. We always wanted to try and rescue our next dog, but didn’t really know what we were doing with that process. We wound up rescuing a discarded dog from Kentucky that was listed as a “pug/beagle” mix. Two months later, dna results showed our pup was mostly Cane Corso. We were stunned. We had no idea how to raise a large breed “guard dog” type. We also wanted to be able to raise kids safely, with their friends able to come over and our family feeling safe coming to our house. We knew we needed training but didn’t know where to start. We went to a “more local” dog trainer class in a group setting. We actually sought out a group setting to get our pup some socialization - which we knew was important. That trainer also came highly recommended and was “positive based” only. We had to not feed our pup dinner and bring three large containers of treats to each class to train. Although the technique was supposed to be positive, our pup and us felt like we were in grade school detention for the two classes we went to. I’m sure this type of group setting works for some - it did not for us. Then we tried Petco and wound up in a single class bc my wife took our pup during the day on a weekday. We got lucky with the Easton trainer “aunt sally” who was great and my wife and our dog learned a lot from her. At the same time we received a family recommendation for Kristi. I reached out to her and decided to give it a try. Kristi was more expensive and a 35 minute drive from our house. However, she was WELL worth the trip and the extra money. We signed up for three sessions which occurred when our dog was 4-6 months old. Our puppy would NOT go for a walk. She would sit on the sidewalk every three steps. The more you pulled the more she sat. She was very ‘mouthy’. She was digging and had a two hour window each day where an energetic demon possessed her body. But she was sweet and had so much potential. After the first class our dog was walking perfect. No joke - the very next week a woman stopped my wife walking our dog and asked if she was a trainer. Each session, Kristi took the time to listen to our list of problem areas and had amazing tips and feedback. Kristi trains and teaches you how to effectively address and communicate with your dog. Her entire process is focused on addressing the issue YOU are having with YOUR dog. We didn’t want to train our dog to do tricks or win a show. We wanted to coexist and have a dog we could enjoy. Looking back on this crazy experience that is a puppy… in the end we just needed Kristi. Our family and our dog are happy and a large portion of that credit goes to Kristi. Thank you!

Would highly recommend New Beginnings Dog Training. We went to Kristi with a 4 month old Great Dane, which needed work on many different issues. Kristi is extremely professional and took as much time training us as she did training Charley! She was very patient and explained exactly how and what she was working on during each training session. In only three sessions, we have a completely different pup that listens to commands, walks beautifully on a leash and stays in place, along with many other tricks Kristi taught her. Truly amazed!!

Many thanks to Kristi at New Beginnings Dog Training LLC for helping us with some challenges we were facing with our boy. Link, our 6-year-old Plott mix, was VERY vocal when other dogs passed by–either on a walk or outside of our home. He’s always been fine with other dogs off-leash, so we were puzzling over how to correct this particular behavior. He/we also needed help with some basic commands. (Note: Plott hounds have their own interpretation of certain commands–lol.) Kristi quickly identified Link’s on-leash behavior as leash aggression, and I was amazed at how quickly, with her guidance, we were able to stop the undesirable behavior. Honestly, after the first lesson, Link was a different dog and a pleasure to walk with in the more dog-populated areas we had previously avoided. In subsequent lessons, we worked on the other important basic commands–heel, leave-it, sit, stay, down, come (a big win for Link), wait, etc. Link and I spend a lot of time on hiking trails in the area, and it is such a pleasure to now have a shared understanding about behavior that makes these excursions more enjoyable for both of us. It takes a willingness and commitment as well as time and patience to work through these changes. But, with the right guidance from an experienced trainer like Kristi, the gains are quicker and the journey is both fun and rewarding. Thanks so much Kristi for your help and guidance!!