Wind Dancer Referrals, LLC

This was such an incredible experience for us. We have 3, male, blind dogs that all have their little quirks and challenges. We were gearing up to have our first baby this coming April and needed assistance working through some toy aggression (towards each other) and other small issues like unwelcomely jumping into furniture, jumping consistently when new people come to the home, and a few other quirks. Susan was an absolute miracle worker. She spent nearly half a day with us simply watching behaviors, focusing on their individual personalities and difficulties, and helping us find ways to address each of them in ways they’d all respond to. We refused to believe that we couldn’t “train out” or work through some of the issues and Susan proved that we definitely could correct some of these behaviors. She helped us acclimate the dogs to crying babies (two of our dogs were deathly afraid and timid of the sound) and now no one is bothered by it. We can’t thank Susan enough or recommend here as highly as she deserves!

Susie did extraordinary work with my Anatolian Shepherd, Duke, who has stopped us from having visitors in our household for months now due to his fear aggression issues. Susie walked in and Duke immediately showed her why we don’t have guests over. She handled him calmly and with confidence despite all of his scare tactics. Once she got him calmed down, she started working with him and he was literally eating out of the palm of her hand within less than an hour. During the evaluation, Susie was able to tell us why our dogs were acting the way they were. She helped me understand my dogs in a way I hadn’t before. And she left me with training techniques and tools that are already making a positive impact in our lives. I look forward to continued improvements with Duke as we walk down the path that Susie has set us on. Thank you Susie!

We so loved having Susie come and work with our dogs. We had purchased a service dog from another trainer and he was missing key training certificates such as CGC and Susie came down and worked with us and him. She also has been helping us with AKC due to registration issues from the breeder. Susie is great to work with, up front, fair, and honest. If anyone is looking for a service dog or has training questions I would definitely call Susie. She works with the whole family and all the animals. We will be using Susie again to help us finish training our service dog!

Initially, my husband and I brought Susie in for an evaluation of our dog, Dakota, a 3 year old rescued Shepherd Mix with extreme separation anxiety. He couldn't be crated and would self harm. Later, reactivity became a major issue, as well as going after our cats. He needed a total overhaul. From the moment I spoke to Susie, I felt a connection. She wasn't just a dog trainer, she really seemed to understand us as well. From the moment we met Susie, we knew we'd made the right call. She's only been here once, but we know it won't be the last. She spent over two hours evaluating him and it was clear that Dakota respected her. She never yelled at him, it was just her authoritative tone and body language that made the difference. Before we even met face to face she had us walk him around the block so she could observe his behavior. My husband and I were terrified she was going to tell us that he was too aggressive and would need to be rehomed. I feared for her safety as well, not knowing how Dakota would respond to her. We had stopped taking him on walks over a month before, because of how reactive he was. Dakota is 85 pounds and pulls me around like a ragdoll when he sees another person or animal. But she assured us beforehand and told us not to worry. Honestly, I imagined the worse. When Dakota saw her he started pulling and growling and my husband had to grab the leash when I couldn't physically hold him back. She told us to allow him to come to her and I held my breath. But then something amazing happened. Nothing. That's right. What we perceived as outright aggression towards another person wasn't aggression after all. She told us she saw no reason he'd have to be rehomed. What a relief! My husband and I aren't rich by any means and yes, the initial evaluation cost wasn't cheap, but that peace of information as well as peace of mind we gained from her, was worth every penny we invested. It's made us see our dog differently. Knowledge is definitely power. She touched on his separation anxiety, and also explained how nutrition plays an active role in behavior. We were sickened to learn what was actually in his dog food. She worked on his reactivity to knocking at the door, and within the first session Dakota had already begun catching on not to bark and go at the door. I was impressed. But the most impressive thing was her work with him being around one of our cats. Before she left she had both eating side by side. Never in a million years would I have believed that possible. Don't get me wrong, there's a ton of work to be done on this, but it's a start, and we know that he's now capable of "playing nice" with our cats and it gives us hope that one day we'll be able to grant Dakota freedom around them once again. Susie poured a lot of information into the evaluation and was more than happy to go over some of the things we couldn't quite remember when we gave the 48 hour progress report. She gave us hope and a new outlook for Dakota's future. Susie has a presence about her that tells you she's been down your road before and she understands. It's easy to recondition your dog; the hard part is in reconditioning ourselves. We're grateful she's in our lives! It's going to take time to recondition our dog, but now we have hope that Dakota will have a brighter, happier, and healthier future. We have confidence in Susie's abilities and we look forward to her working with us and Dakota in the future. For anyone reading this, I would highly recommend her services.

We purchased a English Lab puppy for our son Adam who has Down Syndrome. We wanted companion/ service dog training. After the conventional classes Karen from the Bark Market suggested Susie to train our puppy Shadow. Susie is amazingly intuitive with dogs and people! She was able to assess Shadow and Adam coming up with the the best way for them to communicate with one another. Susie's instructions are clear and the response from Shadow was inspiring. Shadow passed his CGC with flying colors! We are now taking Shadow to the next level with Susie and are excited to achieve his therapy/ service vest for he and Adam to go out into the world together. Practice makes perfect folks! Susie has a video if Adam and Shadow at Lowes if you want to.see them in action. Susie is a blessing to all of us! Adam is so happy with his buddy Shadow! Part 2 is we have a new puppy a Maltipoo Alfie we are starting to train with Susie! One session last night and Alfie caught on! Susie you ROCK!!!! Thank you friend!