Animal Behavior Focus

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Flo & Rillo

Rillo

“If you have a dog with behavior issues, you need to book an appointment with Amanda. We adopted a dog during a "clear the shelter" event. In general, he seemed like a good dog but if we did something he didn't like, he escalated quickly to growling and snapping. This also happened at the vet's office, so I had to muzzle him for appointments - and he was not muzzle trained so it was risky trying to get a muzzle on him. At one point he did try to attack my husband and a few months later he did attack a smaller dog when he got off his leash in the front yard. 

We were seriously considering putting the dog down, because I did not want another dog or person to get hurt but we decided to have him evaluated first. We had Amanda meet him (and my other dog) at our home. She quickly was able to tell that it was fear that made the dog aggressive and also that he fed off our other dog's body language.

Rillo, fear-free muzzle and targeting training at the vet

We've been working with Amanda for almost a year now and she has taught me and the dog so much! My dog now happily wears a muzzle, I can walk him, and I know how to react if he gets excited by another dog and we are working on having him "relax" on command so that the vet can examine him.

What I love about Amanda is that she comes to my house so that she can see the exact issues we have. She not only trains the dog, but me, the owner, how to handle the dog in each situation. In contrast, once the dog is home from a board-and-train facility, it may or may not respond to the owner like it did in the controlled environment.

Amanda has lots of training equipment that she loans to her clients so that we can make sure it is a good fit before purchasing our own. Amanda has also accompanied us to the vet twice to help train in that situation, which is exactly what we needed since it is very stressful for me and the dog (and the vet)! And probably the best thing about her is that she realizes I have a job and kids and cannot always work on training every day. Amanda truly saved my new dog's life.”

  • Testimonial from client, Flo