This place is incredible and Irina and Mark are amazing!
We have an 18-month Ovcharka. He stands about 32" at his shoulder and weighs about 140 pounds ... and is still a growing puppy.
Our dog, despite the breed tendencies, has never been aggressive, but at his size, his over-exuberance to meet people and dogs was frequently misinterpreted as such. And while he is super smart and learned his home training very quickly, he has also always been an independent thinker and STUBBORN (also in line with the breed traits)!! We did what we could with the home training and knew we needed help, both for us and to give our dog the quality of life he deserved. (Why we didn't take him for training at six months is a long story about misinformation we received from another trainer.)
Irina was frank about what our delay might have cost Sem (short for Semper Fidelis) in the willingness and ability to learn and promised "to do our best." They certainly did that! Sem shows such different behaviors now when he meets people and dogs, listens to our commands, comes when he's called (even during hot pursuit of a bunny) and is an absolute delight to be around.
As an aside, we were on a motorcycle ride with friends last week, and one of their sons mentioned that he, too, had had his dog trained at Red Star, which had come as a recommendation for one of his friends. Turns out we picked a well-respected resource.
Thank you, Irina and Mark, for your knowledge, skills, and patience to help us get the dog we wanted. We will continue to highly recommend you to everyone! read more