PROGRESSIVE & HUMANE

Rachel is absolutely amazing! I’ve only done two Zoom sessions with her but the change I’ve seen in my dog Hector already is honestly remarkable. Before we started he was lunging at every dog we saw, today we saw 10 dogs and he didn’t have a single reaction, yesterday we saw 11. If you have a reactive dog and need the help of a trainer I can’t recommend Rachel highly enough, even if it’s just over Zoom.

— Áine & Hector the Greyhound x AmStaff

His reactivity on walks. I fully believed you would give us the tools to work on his reactivity going forward, but I didn’t think we would see instant results within the program. I was at the stage I couldn’t walk Kas on my own and was fairly worried on most walks we went on. Although we still have lots of work to do, we know if we use the techniques you’ve given us we can go whole walks and see dogs (at a distance!) and not have any reactions or push Kas over his threshold. This was the real reason we reached out to start with, so to have made such huge progress means the absolute world to us and we’ve come away with a happier dog!

— Emily, Joe, & Kas the Sheparnese

Kas is very nervous of new people so I think training in person would have just started us off 4 steps further back and made everything that little bit harder. It also meant we could entirely mould the training process around Kas’ routine and how he was feeling each day – rather than having to take him to a pre-booked class on a day he clearly needs to chill! Also being able to send videos over WhatsApp was invaluable to help make tiny changes to how we are teaching and rewarding Kas, but they have huge implications for how he learns!

— Emily, Joe, & Kas the Sheparnese

Understanding what Kas is communicating to us better. We can definitely both understand him, and most importantly what he doesn’t want to do now. And from that, knowing when to take a step backwards and making training simpler for him – this was definitely not something I would have even considered doing before but it now makes perfect sense and Kas definitely responds to it too! I hadn’t fully considered how important it is to train at your dogs pace, so this has probably been the biggest thing we have learnt, and has had the biggest impact for Kas. 

— Emily, Joe, & Kas the Sheparnese

Playing look at that with a squirrel within a 5 block radius…BUT WE HAVE!! They have to be very specific scenarios, but the fact that we can play games, look at that, snuffle in the grass while there are squirrels around that Florence can see is phenomenal. Working with TAB after excitement, refining mechanics for LAT, playing 1,2,3, has all contributed!

— Alexandra & Florence

Being forced to take videos for feedback – not only was it a great way to receive instruction and advice, it forced me to review my own mechanics and I was able to match notes and suggestions against my actions. As well, it was good to be able to see changes over time as a comparison of how we are progressing.

— Alexandra & Florence

We are feeling much more confident that Apollo can be trained over time when before we felt like her stubborn attitude made her a completely hopeless (but loveable) task. In particular, her immediate and high anxiety in the car as well as her horrendous screaming in many situations. We still have lots more work to do but right now her behaviour in the car is significantly improved and we are able to distract her from her ‘tantrums’ most of the time. Now Apollo has a new pattern of established behaviour that helps guide her and us in how to deal with her during car journeys and high-stress situations. 

— Maisie, JP, & Apollo The Pug

The virtual training actually provided a calmer environment for us to practice the techniques shown to us without the distractions of another person being there. Apollo is extremely sociable with people and has been known to behave perfectly in dog classes but revert back to her usual behaviour outside of the classroom, with the virtual training these things were not an issue and actually allowed for a much more focused session. The google doc has also been incredibly helpful in helping us reflect on our training sessions and get feedback.

— Maisie, JP, & Apollo The Pug

The number one thing we’ve learned is how to gradually adapt our training to fit our dogs current level of comfort and understanding with the exercise. In the past we would jump forward too far in Apollo’s training, expecting results much quicker and not seeing the many other little hurdles she needed to overcome before attempting things that seemed relatively simple but could actually be challenging for her. This ultimately helped speed up her training and understanding.

— Maisie, JP, & Apollo The Pug