I have never owned a dog before and although I did a lot of internet research and read a lot of books once I had the 8 week old puppy home, I was suddenly overwhelmed by how little I knew and quite nervous. A friend recommended Yvonne.
Yvonne did several home visits for half an hour where she went through the basics, demonstrated the correct methods and showed me how my unclear instructions would give Onyx confusing signals. In these sessions with Yvonne there it all seemed so easy! Having one to one sessions, meant we could focus on what Onyx and I needed to work on, for example stopping him running to the door when we had visitors as we live on a main road. We did longer park visits where we practised recall with a lot of distractions. Onyx was introduced to other dogs, special toys and given “homework” for the week. Yvonne ended our sessions when she felt I was ready to practice on my own, leaving me her phone number so I could contact her whenever I needed help or advice.
Onyx is 10 months old now, people always comment on what a calm, friendly and well behaved puppy he is. This is down to Yvonne, she gave me (and still gives me) so much support and confidence to work with Onyx. “Calm assertiveness” and “you get out what you put in”, are phases people use a lot in dog training, Yvonne showed me what they meant and gave me a beautiful companion. I could not have done it without her!
Louise – Shenstone
