Pet Coach to the Rescue

We recently added a new French Bulldog puppy to our family. Having previous dogs including our current 7 year old Boston/Frenchie we thought we were prepared to easily introduce a second dog to our household. However this has proven to be much more challenging than we anticipated. Both Jessica and Shawna have a great understanding of puppy behavior and dog interactions. Their knowledgeable instruction has been extremely helpful for us, teaching us how to handle a stubborn puppy and how to manage the daily interactions between our two dogs. Even if you think you know dogs I would still highly recommend their puppy classes to better understand your puppy’s behavior and how to appropriately respond to them to achieve the best behaviors.

We enrolled our GSD/Doberman in this class hoping to build structure, confidence, and better behavior after adopting him from a rescue. Unfortunately, we left feeling disappointed. The training relied almost exclusively on clickers and food rewards, and while that approach may work well for some dogs, it was not effective for ours. Our dog needed clear boundaries, consistency, and structure, and we didn’t feel those needs were recognized or addressed. Instead of improving, many of his behavioral issues remained, and we felt like we weren’t being given practical tools to manage a high-drive working breed. Jessica was kind, but we didn’t feel she had the experience or knowledge necessary to work with a breed like a Doberman or to adapt the training to dogs with more challenging backgrounds. The training felt very one-size-fits-all, rather than individualized to the dog’s temperament and needs. If you have an easygoing dog that responds well to food motivation alone, this program may be a good fit. But if you have a working breed, a rescue with behavioral challenges, or a dog that needs more structure and leadership, we would recommend looking at Nitro K9.. Steve the owner has so much experience with all breeds of dogs and really curates his training based on proven facts but also reads how your dog reacts. It has been a total 360 for us and our dog now can be off leash in a heal when we walk. No treats. No clickers.

I contacted them when my puppy was around 11 weeks old and already showing resource guarding and biting behaviors. They worked with us for three months during what should have been one of the most important and productive training periods of his life, yet the training never progressed beyond basic exercises he had already mastered. They had me tossing treats at him for eye contact and playing tug for three months. He already knew how to make eye contact and all the basics. I repeatedly told them the approach wasn’t working and that we needed to address the actual behavioral issues, but nothing changed. Instead of adapting the training plan, we continued the same fruitless exercises while the problems worsened. My dog is now a nearly 70-pound, seven-month-old puppy who still struggles with biting, jumping, and reactivity, and I now have to hire another trainer. Most of what they taught us can be learned on YouTube for free. I don’t expect guarantees, but I do expect a trainer to recognize when a method isn’t working and adjust accordingly. Things have improved considerably since I stopped following their direction, but it’s slow going since we’re correcting behavior instead of preventing.

Loved loved loved working with these fabulous ladies! We just graduated from puppy class and our nut case of a puppy has grown leaps and bounds with the help of Shawna, Jessica, and Serenity! We did the 13 week classes plus 6 home visits. They worked diligently on a treatment plan for our pup and the fact that she’s mostly enjoyable now instead of us wanting to pull our hair out constantly is the beautiful ending that I truly didn’t think would happen 😅 Highly recommend!!