Red Star Kennel

Red Star Kennels was recommended to us by our neighbors who could only say positive things. Never having thought of sending our dog to a training camp instead we expected to wait about two years to magically have a "good dog." Thanks to Irina we have an 8-month-old puppy who is well-trained now. Lucy continues to be her silly and fun self, she's just a lot more well-behaved. Thank you, Red Star Kennels, for taking care of our girl. We appreciate all the love and great care you gave her. Bob and Jane Reidell

If you are having issues with your puppy, please send them to Red Star Kennel. Like many other reviews, I was worried that our 1.5-year-old sheepadoodle, George, would either come home acting like a robot or would not have shaken all of his bad behavior. I was wrong. A little bit about our situation for background: We took George to Puppy Training and Obedience 1 classes right away. He completed them, but we could never get him to settle down or stop biting. We had a traditional trainer come to the house twice to see what he was like with us at home. We got some tips and were told to use a pinch collar to walk him. That worked for a little bit, but then he didn't respect the pinch anymore. We later brought in a dog relater (aka a dog whisperer type) on two occasions. The goal was to place George on the floor when he got out of control and hover over him to calm him down. After making a little progress, we knew this was not going to help the behavioral problems we were having. We often times thought George just needed more exercise, but his constant biting (truly - it was every second he was out of the kennel or playpen) and inability to calm down was making life very stressful. He would go through hundreds of dollars of bully sticks a month because it was the only way he could be out and not bite us or do naughty things. I reached out to the trainers we had worked with and none of them recommended their board and train programs because they wanted his owners to teach him. As much as I understood this thinking, I realized if something didn't change... George would likely have to find a new home. When I spoke with Mark, I knew we needed to send him and he made me hopeful our dog could be "fixed" for lack of a better term. The week before we sent him to Red Star, he laid down on the couch and didn't do anything. My boyfriend and I looked at each other and smiled excitedly -- It was only the second time in a year and a half that we had seen our dog relax. With that buzzkill realization, we knew we were making the right choice and we crossed our fingers for a "miracle". George went off to boot camp for a month... and he came home the dog I had hoped for when I first decided to get a puppy. I 100% recommend the work Irina and Mark do. They allow the owners AND the dogs to have the lives they never could have dreamed of. Our dog is now able to just "exist" in the world. He is well behaved and sweet. All of the fun and unique parts of his personality remain, he's just a lot more relaxed, which is exactly how it should be. George is able to be around people calmly and therefore can do a lot more with us. Good behavior goes a long way, and I cannot thank Irina and Mark enough for helping us out so we could enjoy life with George. I only wish we had brought our puppy to them sooner -- we would have saved more on training in the long run... and saved ourselves a year and a half of frustration. Red Star should be your go-to for training. Next pup we get will be heading straight to Hudson. Thank you, Red Star Kennel! Ps - we bring George here for boarding every time we are out of town and he has a great time with pups to play with and a lot of space to run around on!

About a year and a half ago we took our seven month female Malinois puppy to Mark to get her started on basic obedience. Mark suggested, given us living on 40 acres of prairie, we use an e- collar. We had never trained with one, always using a prong collar. It turned out perfect! In fact once home et rarely had to use it. She has been the most well disciplined puppy we have ever had. Quiet, calm and responsive to commands. Half of this can be attributed to excellent breeding by Ruidoso Malinois, the other half is definitely the great training received at Red Star Kennel. I highly recommend Red Star Kennel for your training needs. Thanks Mark!!