Prepare yourself: I'm not sure how many words Yelp will let me write about how amazing Claudia is. But let's find out together...
We got our first dog as a couple together, a pitbull rescue with a LOT of energy who had never learned how to interact with other dogs. He was adorable but unruly. He was still a puppy and we knew we had to get him into training right away. We'd both had dogs growing up - but we both had very different techniques with dogs. All of our friends told us different techniques so we went to the professionals. Even the trainers disagreed with each other! I refused to do any negative reinforcement or medication, but 3 months in, I'm at my wits end, because our new dog is the spawn of Satan...
All of that ended with Claudia. Our dog met her, and after one session with her - we knew we'd found the answer! She really understands dogs - and helped us understand even if we THOUGHT something meant one thing, in our dogs mind, it MEANT something completely different. I swear she's a dog whisperer. (I think secretly, she was just training us - our dog knew how to do everything the whole time...)
Our first class was for crazy, chaotic dogs that can't be near each other. She only took 6 dogs at once, and there was a waiting list to get in the class - but man that class helped so much. We started carrying treats everywhere we go, our little guy jumped in the car every Wednesday night pumped to go, and he was exhausted after the fact. That first class really helped us understand that you had to exhaust his mind - as well as exhaust his body for him to really be calm.
Our second class was a step up - into "intermediate" family dog training. Again - he knew Claudia, he knew what he could and could not get away with, and slowly but surely that list of what he couldn't get away traveled with him - and he KNEW he couldn't jump on me for food. He KNEW mouthing was not appropriate. No matter what. We had a friend visit us who told us she was slightly afraid of dogs. After meeting our pup, she asked if this was "a normal dog" because she'd never seen one so kind, well behaved and happy.
Then we hit a problem. We lived in an apartment building - a dog friendly apartment building. And a bunch of puppies all moved in on the same floor. So, what to do? Bring Claudia to the apartment! She came to us several times - and helped us put markers in place so our pup knew where he could be excited (front yard and outside) and where he had to behave (in the elevator). Our dog changed so much - people started asking us for Claudia's number. By the end of that year - Claudia was also now the new trainer for the puppies down the hall! Could not have planned it better...
By now we had learned that our pup needed constant challenges, so we thought we'd do "one for fun" and signed him up for an AKC Trick Class with Claudia. He was over the moon! He loved playing with us (because he thinks every time he's with Claudia is play time - and food time) but because he knew Claudia so well, he was an over achiever. We now take him with us on vacation - and even our Airbnb hosts comment on our reviews that he was the best behaved dog they've ever had in their home.
Sadly, we moved away from CT last year and our pup misses Claudia all the time. We still enforce all of her training techniques (including making sure he "goes to mat" while we're eating or at a brewery, we still reach out to her for questions (which she always answers - like how to introduce him to his very own backyard) and we still refer everyone we know in CT to use Claudia. She knew our spawn of Satan was really just an angel in disguise, she just had to train his people on how to communicate with him.
We might have rescued him from the shelter - but Claudia rescued us from bad behaviors. 15/10 recommend. read more