Dear Carol,
As my dog Molly's 7th birthday approaches, I want to let you
know how you have helped us have a very special relationship.
You will recall that I adopted
her 4 years ago from an animal shelter. She was extremely shy and untrusting
of humans. Do you remember how she growled at everyone in our first Level
One class? She was the only dog in class that didn't get
to work with you as a
demonstration dog because she was too afraid. She shook like an aspen leaf
every time the heater came on in your building. That first class really made
all the difference for us. I learned how to work with her in a calm, positive
fashion so that she quickly learned to trust me. From there everything has
become possible. (Not necessarily easy, but definitely possible!)
After several classes, some private lessons, and lots of practice, we have
achieved all my goals. Molly is a canine good citizen, a prize-winning agility
dog, a
prize-winning obedience dog, a registered therapy dog, and most important:
a wonderful family pet. It is not an understatement to say I owe it all to
you.
Through your patient coaching and teaching and never-wavering encouragement
we have done it all.
Whenever I meet someone with a dog in need of training I wholeheartedly recommend
you and Canine Potentials. You have the knowledge and experience to know what
works keeping the best interest of the dog foremost at all times. You are to
be commended for keeping current on new developments in the dog training field.
Many of us have trained the old fashioned way of punishing our dogs when they
do something wrong. I never would have obtained positive results with Molly
using those old, outdated methods. Thanks to your all- positive techniques
I have a
happy dog who loves to work with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Sincerely,
Joy Thompson
Oak Harbor
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Hi Carol,
I've been meaning to contact you for some
time now (since I called you in a panic about my dogs fighting).
Thank you again for the phone advice - it worked!! I did what
you said - started using a crate (which, to my surprise, Brenna
took to really easily), banned Brenna from the couch, and cut
out the free-flowing treats for both of them. It did the trick
- we had one more incident the very next day, but since then haven't
another incident and they seem to be getting along fine. In fact,
last week we took them on a long car trip and they slept contentedly
next to each other (touching) and without a single grumble or
growl from either of them.
Hope all is well with you, and thanks again
for the good advice :)
LeeAnna Wunder
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Carol was amazing with our puppy! I was
able to train our chocolate Labrador to behave and quickly get
through many of the early bad habits of a young puppy. I have
used her training/boarding services while I was on vacation and
with that kind of intense training I came back to a much nicer
and much changed puppy. I would recommend Carol to anyone with
a dog.
Lynn James - Langley, WA
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This note is from Renee Marquette, the
Camano Island friend of Dick and Johanna who called a week or
so ago in new puppy panic. I'm writing to say thanks for your
calming and perceptive advice when we were unsure about how to
deal with the 7-or-8-month-old pup we'd brought home from the
shelter just 3 days earlier. Each day Lulu is here, and it will
be 2 weeks tomorrow, she is less aggressive and more playful,
and she and our older male collie wrestle and then nap side by
side. Cootie, the third and oldest dog, a female collie who's
nearly 13, sidesteps the wrestling but joins in the napping, and
it's not unusual to have all 3 of them asleep in a pile on the
bed these hot afternoons. We followed your advice and kept Lulu
on a leash at feeding times and after a few days took to just
sitting beside her with the unattached leash in hand, and that
has worked extremely well. She's still on leash outside but she's
very good and we're certainly getting our exercise. So, many thanks
for talking us through the Yipes-what-have-we-done phase because
it turns out we like our Lulu very much.
Thanks again,
Renee Marquette - Camano Island
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We took Carol's puppy class, Level I last
winter with our 4 month old lab puppy and we are still reaping
the benefits of the class. Maggie has learned so much, and so
have we! We took a pre-agility class with Carol and Joy and found
we had a good foundation from Carol's ....We would like to see
Agility offered on the South end, would be easier to do! We also
liked how "family friendly" Carol is by letting kids/spouses
in on the classes.
The only other suggestion would be to work "play time"
into the classes, so the dogs can meet and greet-kind of like
an ice breaker for us all; Maggie really likes to play and I think
you learn a lot about your dog by watching it with others, and
you can practice the training in a more real situation, where
your dog is tempted. (kind of like on the Sirius puppy training
video Carol recommends-it was good).
Keep up the good work Carol!
Trish Nilsen
You can be proud of your dog too!
Kobe (my 1 1/2 yr. old Aussie) and I took several classes last
winter from Carol, from Level 1 to Pre-Agility with she and Joy.
When we return to Whidbey this winter we definitely plan on continuing
with "our education". This summer we are on our own
in Nevada, building on what we were taught. I say "You can
be proud of your dog too!" because having taken Kobe to different
surroundings, new dog-places, etc., I see how well behaved his
is (most of the time) compared to dogs who didn't get the training
he did. I know that he wouldn't be this way if I hadn't been taught
the proper way to train him from Carol.
The training was fun for me as well as Kobe, and we look forward
to more classes!
One more thing......Dogs are lucky to live on Whidbey. It is so
dog-friendly! Here in Nevada dogs are not allowed in the hardware
store or the bank. No one has treats behind their counters! Kobe
can't figure it out. He can't wait to return to Whidbey!
Barb Bush
Greenbank, WA and Wells, NV
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