TL;DR: Lydia and the Howling Moon Pet Care team are worth it! 10/10, we've been recommending them to every dog owner we know, and we have plans to continue using both their training and grooming services in the future.
Where to begin? Bentley (a male cockapoo puppy) was the first four-legged addition to our family, and we were definitely in over our heads. As brand new puppy parents, we didn't really know where to even start. Set aside the training for a minute: we weren't sure what size crate to get him? What supplies/toys/treats to buy? If we were feeding him enough? Too much? Was he getting enough sleep? Going outside enough? Too much? To say we had a few questions is a massive understatement.
Before we had even set up a single session, Jesi and Lydia answered a number of questions and reassured us of the process. It was easy to get in touch with their team, and setting up the initial consultation was a breeze. The only snag, which you can't really fault them for, is that they can fill up their availability quickly (because they're so dang good at what they do). Be sure to book them early so your pup doesn't miss out.
Moving onto the training and our interactions with Lydia. We didn't really have expectations going into this, but Lydia set the bar extremely high. I'm pretty sure we're ruined for any PetSmart-like group training in the future :)
Prior to every session, Lydia would send a reminder text to make sure we were still on for our session. Not only that, but she made sure to give us a heads up one time when her previous client ran over a little bit. We appreciated this clear line of communication from her.
Lydia would venture out to our house for each session so that we could train Bentley here, in the house and surrounding environment where he'd spend the majority of his time. Besides convenience, this allowed Lydia to take a look at our ~actual~ setup at home and point out the good and the bad (e.g. maybe add some baby gates here and there to keep his access confined to "his space", or be sure to puppy-proof this or that so he doesn't get hurt).
We'd often start off our sessions catching Lydia up to speed on how the at-home training went (more on this in a minute) as well as asking whatever barrage of questions came up since the last time we saw her. After that, she'd often spot-check some of the behaviors we worked on previously before jumping into some new material. Lydia would demonstrate the exercise numerous times, detailing each step of the way as well as potential "gotchas" or how to handle Bentley reacting one way or another. She'd then watch us do a few iterations of the exercise to make sure we had it down.
After each training session, Lydia would draft up a summary/homework document for us to reiterate what we should be practicing at home ahead of the next session. In the lesson writeups, Lydia would include tons of other resources (books, articles, infographics, Amazon links, etc.) that were invaluable. Her documents are ~THE~ go-to material in our house for all things Bentley-related.
The trainings are fairly progressive, meaning the material tends to build on the past lessons, so it is important to stay on top of the homework! At one point, we felt like we were falling behind in our (the humans') effort, and Lydia was more than understanding with pushing back some of our scheduled times to allow us to catch up and practice with Bentley at home before moving on to new things.
The training sessions follow a natural progression; however, Lydia was extremely flexible with aligning the training to ~our goals~ for Bentley. With work schedules changing at the start of the school year, independence training was of the utmost importance as we needed Bentley to be okay by himself for a few hours. Lydia helped us hit that aspect hard for several weeks so we could quickly achieve that goal.
While you may think that Howling Moon Pet Care provides dog training lessons, you'd be wrong: they provide YOU with the training needed to be successful WITH your dog. I don't want to set expectations incorrectly: Lydia's not going to come in and have your dog magically trained after one 1hr session. You have to be willing to put in the work for the benefit of your pup. Lydia and the Howling Moon Pet Care team provide the guidance necessary to amplify your efforts and demystify the training process.
We have been thoroughly impressed with Lydia and Howling Moon Pet Care every step of the way. It is clear that they care for Bentley as much as we do. read more
