I cannot say enough good things about Gleanna and the team at Rhodes Collar. The first time I…read moretalked to them, they were returning my call. We had made the mistake of adopting two male puppies at the same time. One of them was a few months older and, our vet discovered, severely abused, and even though the rescue said he was good with kids and other dogs, he was making the younger dog so frightened because of his aggression and growled and lunged at my 12 yo son, his tooth coming right next to his eye. The latter incident happened seconds before Rhodes Collar called me back. I was crying and hysterical. Out of the kindness of her heart, the trainer Claire came out with her own dog and evaluated our poor aggressive fellow. She also invited us, again free of charge, to walk with our dog, hers and a friend and the friend's dog in a public place. Although it was an extremely difficult decision, and our son saying basically that he didn't care about his own safety, Claire helped us find a new and wonderful home for this pup. All of this was done on her own time and with the greatest kindness by Claire. She especially helped ease the guilt we felt about rehoming our dog, and expressed a lot of surprise that the rescue organization would let us adopt two puppies at the same time. It is doable, but EXTREMELY difficult. Definitely beyond our skill set. Claire never made us feel bad about that. She definitely let us make our own decision, but was there to help us either way.
We did a set of Sunday morning obedience classes with Claire and our remaining pup, Waldorf. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately neither obedience class time really works for our schedule. However, we have been sending Waldorf, as often as possible, to Rhodes Collar's wonderful Doggie Day School!! It's very full, so he only gets to go when someone else cancels, about once a week. The School is from 8am until 1pm. You can drop your dog off or pay a small fee to have them pick up and/or drop off your dog, which is a real help if you, for example, have workmen in your home all day and can't leave, as happened to me this week. Rhodes Collar brought him right to the door!
We honestly don't work with Waldorf as much as we should. He gets lots of walks, play time and loving, but we could train him more. However, I know he is learning at Doggie Day School. He is the first dog we've had that walks on the right side of a pole when walking down the street so the leash does not get wrapped around the wrong side. I have never been able to train a dog to do that, and Waldorf does it as a matter of course. We definitely did not train him to do that. Rhodes Collar did. Recently, I told him to "stay," left the room for a bit, and he was right where I left him when I returned. I put him in "stay" another time recently, and he held there while I walked away, again until I released him. We worked with him some on "stay", but I know most of that is attributable to Rhodes Collar.
They train the dogs not to be distracted or, shall we say, egged on by other dogs. Today I took him to Home Depot. It was a typical busy Saturday. I was pushing a cart which he was not accustomed to, but he adapted quickly. A large boxer (Waldorf is a small, supposedly lab mix) was pulling at the owner's leash and barking aggressively. Waldorf did not react. Then at the checkout, this smaller dog, maybe Jack Russell, jumped out from the top part of his owner's buggy and was barking, again, aggressively. Waldorf of course looked at him, but did not bark. A lady behind me loudly said "That's why we don't bring dogs to public places." The small dog owner put his dog back in the cart and rolled past us. I was scanning my items and noticed Waldorf, still not barking, but trying to follow after the dog in the cart. I pulled him back in front of me. He wasn't looking at me, so I said "eyes." Rhodes Collar taught him that command, and we've practiced it a bit. He made eye contact, and I put him in a "down stay" to restore his calm. I released him quickly bc it was difficult for him to maintain that given the circumstances, and I needed to focus on checking out, not keeping him in down stay. However, he was back to his calm self. Ant older lady at the checkout in front of me looked straight at me and said "That's a well trained dog." I wish I had the presence of mind to say, "Rhodes Collar in Mystic," instead of just "thank you." I even heard the lady who said not to bring dogs in public places say to the person she was with how well trained he was. I can't wait to take him out again!!!
Here are some pics.
