June 15, 2008
Dear Barbara,
We are writing to express our sincere appreciation to you for your expertise with
the training of our dog Molly. Molly came to live with us in November 2007. We were
her fourth owners. She settled in quickly, but we wanted to work on some aspects
of her behavior, such as leash walking and not jumping up on visitors
. After
doing some reading and trying things on our own we didn’t feel like we were
getting very far. We needed professional help.
We attended your Family Manners
class in January. Your professionalism and
knowledge put us at ease at
once. We were amazed within the
first class. It was like we had a new dog! And in a confined space with 5 other
dogs! It felt like we had a place to start from, such as learning to sit
,
down stay
and watch me
. Your philosophy of positive reinforcement
fit with our personal values. The class helped us to modify our behavior so we could
modify hers. The size of the space and number of class participants lent itself
well to personal feedback from you. Your enthusiasm and positive energy made us
really look forward to your Sunday classes.
Once spring came we wanted to spend more time with Molly outside and in public places.
We signed up for your Around Town
class and just had so much fun! Thc class
continued to build on the basics we had already learned and upped the ante
by putting them to use in busy locations with many distractions. The locations were
typically places we would frequent such as Wascana Park, busy downtown streets,
outdoor cafes and even the airport. The class tested our training skills and increased
our expectations of Molly’s behavior. At times this was a real challenge,
but increased the bond between us and Molly.
At times Molly reverts back to some of her old behaviors but we now have an understanding of them and the confidence in our training skills to manage them.
We cannot thank you enough Barbara for sharing your knowledge, skills and love of dogs with us. See you again in the fall!
Sincerely, Nicole, Jason and Molly Pylatiuk