We can never thank the team at Atlantic enough for the absolute transformation they did on our…read moreOllie. We reached out the Atlantic at a complete loss of how to help our sweet Ollie boy succeed. They were nothing but kind, communicative and supportive during our initial conversations, and put us completely at ease about sending our boy to the two-week bootcamp, a choice that was incredibly hard for us!
Ollie is a five year old Australian Shepherd/Poodle mix who went to training pre-pandemic and has always been incredibly shy with strangers. Before 2020, this manifested as leash reactivity and we were working hard at it when social distancing went into place. Post-pandemic, we tried every method we could find to try and help him with this, but despite all efforts, his reactivity increased tenfold to include dogs and small children. Sometimes he would he completely fine, and other times, he would aggressively bark and lunge at dogs and kids. It was so stressful that we started keeping him away from other dogs, and our small nieces and nephews to be safe.
Ollie's alert barking additionally reached an all time high in the summer of 2023, and his counter-surfing was out of control. We decided it was officially time to get professional help. My husband and I want to start a family soon, and were terrified to think that Ollie's unpredictability could jeopardize his relationship with our future kids. His alert barking was creating a near-constant level of stress in our home, and we couldn't imagine how Ollie would be able to function happily or be involved as our family continues to grow.
Throughout the two weeks of bootcamp, we got daily communication about Ollie's progress from the team and pictures of him playing happily during break times. Most importantly, however, K-9 Atlantic has completely transformed our boy, and given us the utmost confidence that Ollie will be the BEST big brother someday. He is literally like a different dog in all of the best ways. He's still our sweet, snuggly, silly boy, but without all of the incessant barking and sneakiness! His reactivity is now basically nonexistent, and he happily plays with our little nieces and nephews when they come over! He is a rockstar on and off-leash. We've even slowly integrated meeting new dogs in controlled settings, and he has been so very successful. He hasn't even counter surfed (despite us purposely leaving chicken on the counter in his reach in order to practice!!!!). Ollie's newfound confidence shines in his ability to meet new people and have experiences without all of the anxiety that he displayed prior to his time at K-9 Atlantic. He is the best version of himself, and we are so beyond proud of the good boy his has become!!!
I don't know what magic the K-9 Atlantic team did with him while he was training, but we cannot believe that he is the same dog. He has been SO good, and an absolute angel while practicing.
We are beyond grateful for everyone at Atlantic for truly transforming our boy and our lives. We can never thank you enough!
