The Daily Dog

My dog Jackson is 13 3/4 years old. He has several health conditions and has had 4 surgeries in the past year. I contacted Donna to come train him to stand with his back legs on a wave vibration board as this has been shown to be a potential benefit for his neuropathy & hind-end weakness, (caused by laryngeal paralysis). His front legs needed to be on a surface equal in height to the wave board. Right away Donna began looking at the set-up I’d planned and made suggestions on how to change it for his confidence and comfort. She worked with him and I to coax him to at least put a paw or two on the surfaces. Which he did. She gave me amazing tips on language to use, ways to get him accustomed to the process and homework for us! Our next session was 2 weeks later. Jackson was so happy to see her! Immediately greeting her like he’d always known her. This was a definite surprise to me! He is very friendly, but usually shy and reserved with strangers We showed her the setup changes I’d made and she approved. She talked again about using language and we landed on “wiggle exercise” as his verbal cue for the process. Pretty quickly he stepped on the board, repeating the successes of the prior session (even though we had failed to do our homework!) Next she coaxed him onto the entire surface - which he used to climb onto the couch (we all laughed!!) We worked more on setup, with great suggestions from Donna on space markers for his feet, how to get him to position himself in the correct spot for vibration to back back feet & legs. We practiced that a few times and she decided it was time to turn on the vibration and see how he would respond. She repeated the same process of coaxing him and he stepped right up onto the noisily vibrating board, with no fear whatsoever We were ALL blown-away!! We practiced two times with 1 minute intervals on the board and lots of suggestions from Donna on continuing on our own. I am using her method and Jackson has successfully completed his wiggle exercise twice since Donna’s visit. We need to work slowly to not over-stress his muscles and joints. I was amazed with Donnas knowledge and ability to make my dog instantly comfortable with her presence and instructions. I highly recommend her training services. Especially because of the complexity of successfully training Jackson to do this really unusual and potentially scary vibration activity!! Thank you Donna !! ❤️🐶

We have been working with Donna Dunlop and The Daily Dog for two months now. We reached out to Donna when we adopted our year-old rescue, Winnie who exhibited a great deal of leash reactivity, While Winnie loves meeting and playing with other dogs off leash, she would lunge and snarl at passing dogs while on leash. Leash walking was important for Winnie to learn as we do not have a fenced in yard nor do we have access to a fenced in yard. We also live in a very active dog walking neighborhood so Winnie needed to learn to get along with her doggie neighbors. We signed up for Donna's Board and Train program where Winnie went to live with Donna for 10 days to learn the skills for leash walking and other important behaviors and we couldn't be happier with the results. Donna taught Winnie how to be more relaxed on leash walks but then taught us to work on those skills back at our house. The follow up lessons are just as important as the off site training and we realize we are on a training journey with Winnie each day as she becomes more and more comfortable with the skills Donna taught her. The best part is that you never feel alone-Donna is just an email away and we continue to schedule follow up sessions to make sure that Winnie continues to incorporate her new skills in her everyday behavior and experiences. We are Daily Dog fans for life!