Wet Nose Training

Mr. Andy is a lifesaver! My husband and I rescued a Rottweiler that was dumped in our neighborhood. We are experienced Rottweiler owners, but we were not equipped for this dog. Unfortunately, our dog became very aggressive and territorial once settled in our home. We tried working with 2 other people (not as experienced), and we had no success. After his 3 week training and a home visit, we have a dog that guards our home but is able to respond to commands when he is in “protect mode.” Our dog is a “model child” in public. We get compliments on how well behaved he is on walks and in restaurants. Mr. Andy offers boarding once your dog has attended his training. We now have a trusted place to board our dog. If it weren’t for Mr. Andy, my husband and I would not be able to travel. We appreciate him and are thankful we found him!

We couldn't be more grateful to Andy for his training and unwavering support of our goal, to get our foster, a gorgeous chocolate lab mix, trained and adopted. He managed to get our foster to a point where he can be walked in the neighborhood without tugging and barking at everyone. Unfortunately, we humans are not the greatest at following his training. So today, we went to see him again so we could be trained in order for our foster to behave and have a more pleasant walking experience. I highly recommend Andy for his more benevolent techniques and use of rewards.

We couldn’t be happier with Andy and the Wet Nose Dog Training program! We selected Andy because of the wonderful referrals we got from friends who have used him, and after meeting him saw how good he is with dogs and how much loves and understands them. We also appreciated his personable and communicative manner, and knew his 3 week board and train program was perfect for our dog. While many other training programs are 2 weeks, Andy does three because he wants to use the initial time to bond, connect and build trust with the dogs before jumping into full on training. We also liked that he only works with a few dogs at a time and gives them his undivided attention. Andy kept in touch with us the entire time our puppy was with him, sent us pictures of them swimming at the lake or going to stores like Home Depot or eating out at restaurants to practice manners. Three weeks later when we went for our “back home” training session we couldn’t believe the difference! Our puppy was calm, attentive, listening and most of all very happy. We could tell how much she liked and trusted Andy. Now that we’ve had her home for a while, we see the huge difference with us. Walking with her is a joy, she listens very well, her recall is great, no more jumping on visitors or mouthing them - she truly is the perfect dog while retaining her happy, goofy, loving personality. Wet Nose Dog Training has made our good dog great and we highly recommend Andy!

I wanted to let some time pass before I wrote this long review so that we could see how our puppy Lucy did at home in the "real world" and how our included follow up trainings would go. I'm here to tell you that my husband and I couldn't be happier with the wonderful experience and results we have had at Wet Nose Training. We paid for the 3-week training and I'm really glad we did. Yes, it an investment to properly and thoroughly train your dog but when you think of having a well-behaved dog for the next 16-18 years, it is a sound investment. Also, this is one of those times you get what you pay for. Let me tell you, I did not see how I was going to be without my baby for 3 weeks. I kept reminding myself that we were doing this for her good so that one day she could be an off-leash dog on hikes and playing disc golf. A well-behaved dog has so many more opportunities: she can go to restaurants that allow dogs, she’s welcome at other people’s homes, I can trust her near children, the elderly, and other dogs. It is my saddest regret that my old dog was never trained and was poorly socialized. It has limited his life so much. Lucy got to go to Rudy’s the day we picked her up! Andy is very transparent in letting you check out the environment. There is an inside work area (as well as an inside kennel room), but plenty of stimulating outdoor area for your dog to learn and practice, all surrounded by sturdy iron fencing. Once I saw the environment Lucy would be in I knew she would be safe. They only work together dogs that will be safe to work together so that your dog can develop his/her personality and confidence. I've attached pictures of our Lucy playing with a cute little friend she made there. She also went into her first heat while there and Andy and Amanda handled it perfectly professionally. We were always kept in the loop with what Lucy was working on. What made us first interview Wet Nose Training was that Andy kept getting singled out in such rave reviews at his last place of employment. I searched him out and saw that he had started his own training company. Then, when we interviewed him (we interviewed 4 other potential trainers), we found that his METHOD was the one we were looking for. As I understand it, they teach basic manners with positive reinforcement, teach leash training using a flat collar (cross between a regular collar and a prong) so that Lucy could learn what he wanted. There were also very high quality treats to reinforce good behavior. Then they add in an ecollar. That was the part I was most afraid of. On a scale of 0-99 we only needed a 12 to get her attention. She had ample opportunity to learn what was expected of her first without the ecollar before it was ever used, and it was never used without notice to her. To me, this is the most constructive way to train. It’s layers of learning, like learning your alphabet before you start reading a book ;) Andy knows dogs. And Andy LOVES dogs. He truly understands their nature and gave us so much insight into Lucy, like how to watch her thought process unfold and what her “tell” is before she makes a bad choice of action. We just had a follow up the other day to iron out some of our questions so we could more accurately reinforce what Andy had taught her, and he’ll be coming to our neighborhood soon so we can fine tune some of her behaviors in her natural habitat. The fact that she pauses before going through a door until told she can, sits when she sees another dog rather than charging them, can be put in “place” when we need her to stay still to answer the door, and leaves her cranky old brother dog alone has been such a relief. And the fact that she can do all this and still have her adorable, happy personality is the icing on the cake. I highly recommend Wet Nose Training.