Urban K-9 Dog Training

Dani is truly a MIRACLE WORKER! I was at my wits end with my 3 month old puppy, I had no idea where to start between the teething, ankle biting, crying, and leash pulling. But then, Dani came to the rescue. Within minutes of meeting and getting to know my puppy Chip, she had him figured out, and he was listening to sit and come within minutes. Dani takes the time to analyze your concerns as a pet owner, observes your dog's behavior, and gives you all the resources and training needed to train your dog to be your best friend. One thing I find fascinating is that she brought her older dog Rain with her to our training session, and taught me the importance of socializing your animal to other animals, humans, and stimulus in the environment. Her adorable dog Rain even provided some "corrections" to my dog, which allows him to learn what is acceptable and what is not. Dani is the best, she has made being a dog Mom the most amazing experience!

By chance, we spotted Dani and a colleague training two dogs in our local park early last summer and were almost mesmerized by how they controlled their two dogs in training. We had our little toy breed mutt with us, who was and is pretty easy to control....and felt almost smug that we didn't have to pay a trainer. Fast forward just a couple of months and we've just adopted our beautiful small-ish shepherd mix, Lucy, at about 9 months old. Then we quickly realized that we needed help, and Dani/Urban K-9 popped straight into our heads. With our easy little dog we'd become accustomed to off leash time in Prospect Park and general easy going hanging out. With the new one Lucy we realized that she was just so excited about the outside world, and the creatures (squirrels etc.), that there was no way we could just expect to her to go along with things. Outside she pulled on the leash and just generally paid us no attention at all. From the outset Dani was just amazing. She is always calm, clear, reassuring and encouraging. To us she's just one of those people who just comes across as completely genuine, and evidently extremely knowledgable and experienced. She gave us simple takeaways and things to practice and we really saw a difference. We started with the basics of clicker training and then carried us through the things we learned. For us it mostly focused on heeling, sit/down stay etc. We did about 5-7 sessions and then course carried on practicing. Now we about 9 months on from working with Dani and I can confidently take my dog Lucy for off leash time in Prospect Park. It's still a work in progress and I notice that anytime I'm not consistent with the approaches Dani showed us things slip a bit, but we really are in such a different place from before we started working with Urban K-9. Another achievement for our new dog Lucy that was only possible thanks to what we learned with Dani is that she was certified by a non-profit to do therapy dog work with me (visiting hospitals etc.). This involved passing a brief exam, and then taking a six week course where she had to sit in another room with other dogs and be disciplined enough to ignore them while all the teaching when on, something again I never could have imagined before taking classes with Dani. We would really highly recommend Dani and her team. She takes a personalized approach and really makes the effort to listen to what your own needs and goals are for your dog, and works with you to meet them.