This is a belated review for Celeste, Tino & Jake who did an amazing job with our Australian Shepherd puppy Copper, who had some intense reactivity issues due to lack of socialization during the shelter in place and some poor interactions with other dogs due to our lack of experience as first-time dog owners.
Before the board-and-train Copper would not be able to walk past another dog without pulling, lunging and barking – now we can walk post almost all other dogs without any issues, despite other dogs always seeming to be interested in him and pulling and invading his space. On the occasions that he does get worked up by another dog who is reacting to him, we have the knowledge and tools to quickly defuse the situation before he goes into the “red zone”.
Copper is able to be off-leash with a reliable recall and get to enjoy being a dog without us being nervous or feeling like he has to be on the leash all the time to avoid getting into any trouble.
We still have some stuff to work on (he is a stubborn Aussie after all!) but we know the only issues he has now are a result of the pandemic and lack of exposure to certain things, particularly have guests / “strangers” over which is still a struggle for him right now. We have clear instructions of how to handle this situation and have done so successfully, we just need things to get back to normal and invite a lot more people over that are willing to help make having people over a positive experience!
More recently we had Copper stay with Celeste and Tino just for boarding, and they were able to see the progress he had made which was great to know that we’ve been doing a good job after the amazing platform they provided – being consistent isn’t easy when your dog likes to test you and keep you on your toes!
Overall Celeste, Tino and Jake did an amazing job and we have learned so much about the importance of structure and really understanding what is needed to be a leader for stubborn working dogs and we can’t thank them enough for making things so much better for our sweet but occasionally rogue Aussie.
Yes, the price is expensive, but you can’t put a price on having a better relationship with your dog!