We adopted our 5 month old GSD mix from a local rescue, and at the time she was fearful of everyone and everything. While we were comfortable training her the basics, such as sit, down, come, etc. on our own, we were looking for a dog trainer that understands her breed mix and to give us guidance on training her properly, because after all, it is the owners' responsibility to make sure their dog is well-behaved in public. We know there are many puppy obedience classes, but we knew with her shy personality that a group setting would not be comfortable for her.
We happened to find Joshua on a Facebook page where other dog owners had recommended him. So, we called him up and discussed what we wanted to do with our dog. We wanted her to be great on recall, loose leash walking, and taking her downtown with us. He explained his training methods and made sure we understood what was needed for training. There was absolutely no pressure from Joshua on immediately starting.
We had 5 sessions with Joshua but felt like we only needed 4. This is how good of a dog trainer he is. He got us to feel comfortable with letting our dog off leash in a wide open space during the second session. His methods on training recall are incredible and extremely effective. Never in my mind would I thought I would be able to let a puppy off leash that quick. We went downtown and had coffee while training our dog to sit next to us and be patient. Loose leash walking is still a work in progress but that was to be expected.
Not only has Joshua taught us the knowledge in training our dog, but it has also helped our dog build her confidence and become her goofy, happy go lucky self. In just 3 months, we have complete trust in her being off leash and she loves meeting new people and making doggie friends. I could not be prouder of how far our dog has come in such a short amount of time, and we have Joshua to thank for that. read more