Testimonials
Enjoyable dog: Monique testimonial
Let's fix it! program: Louie, Marble and Karie-Ann Kennington
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Thank you so much with your help in addressing Louie and Mabel's behaviour. I learnt so much about dogs and their body language and the signs to watch out for. Every dog owner needs to do at least a basic course in this as it makes communication so much easier. Louie and Mabel are a work in progress but I'm sure if I persevere with your suggestions harmony will be restored to our home once again.
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Behaved dog program: Teddy, Hattie and Jane Gregg
We have just completed a six session training course with Deborah of Mind Pro Animal Behaviour and oh my goodness, she has changed our lives! We originally heard about Deborah from other friends who have used her expert, professional services in the past. We have 2 small terriers, one of whom is particularly terrier-ish - ie not great at recall especially if the thing he was sniffing was more interesting, had some reactive tendencies towards other bigger dogs. He had been through 2 other training programmes as a puppy, so I had some basic knowledge, but his behaviour was kind of becoming worse not better, so I knew it was time to seek some expert input.
When we met Deborah she took the time to understand our issues and even filmed a whole walk with us to see his behaviour in action. This allowed her to pinpoint both the problems, and to see the kind of personality our little doggy has - exuberant, but a little headstrong, shall we say.
Deborah then designed us a whole programme especially tailored to deliver the outcomes we were looking for. We were given a heap of different strategies and tools to work on with our dogs, and each time we could adjust and fine tune them with Deborah if we felt we needed to do more or less of something. After the first session it was like we were suddenly able to understand a whole lot more about our 4 year old dog. What had seemed like one thing to us (headstrong, not listening) was actually something else completely (nervous, a little worried) so that gave us so much insight into what was going on for him and why he was behaving in certain ways only with certain dogs. Deborah started to teach us a bit about the language of dogs - what they do to communicate with one another, and where we needed to steer his attention when the signals were not good. Ah! A break through!
After a few more sessions we were feeling so much more confident. Instead of worrying what might happen on a walk that was a little different from his usual one, we could enjoy the experience of taking our dogs new places and knowing we had the tools and strategies to manage pretty much all situations. Confidence and enjoyment for all of us.
Today was the last day of our course of lessons and I could not be happier with how Deborah has helped us and our doggies to bond closer together, work together to have games and adventures on our walks. I would recommend Deborah as a highly professional, highly competent, and highly successful supporter and trainer of humans and animals! 100% awesome. Thanks so much Deborah.
When we met Deborah she took the time to understand our issues and even filmed a whole walk with us to see his behaviour in action. This allowed her to pinpoint both the problems, and to see the kind of personality our little doggy has - exuberant, but a little headstrong, shall we say.
Deborah then designed us a whole programme especially tailored to deliver the outcomes we were looking for. We were given a heap of different strategies and tools to work on with our dogs, and each time we could adjust and fine tune them with Deborah if we felt we needed to do more or less of something. After the first session it was like we were suddenly able to understand a whole lot more about our 4 year old dog. What had seemed like one thing to us (headstrong, not listening) was actually something else completely (nervous, a little worried) so that gave us so much insight into what was going on for him and why he was behaving in certain ways only with certain dogs. Deborah started to teach us a bit about the language of dogs - what they do to communicate with one another, and where we needed to steer his attention when the signals were not good. Ah! A break through!
After a few more sessions we were feeling so much more confident. Instead of worrying what might happen on a walk that was a little different from his usual one, we could enjoy the experience of taking our dogs new places and knowing we had the tools and strategies to manage pretty much all situations. Confidence and enjoyment for all of us.
Today was the last day of our course of lessons and I could not be happier with how Deborah has helped us and our doggies to bond closer together, work together to have games and adventures on our walks. I would recommend Deborah as a highly professional, highly competent, and highly successful supporter and trainer of humans and animals! 100% awesome. Thanks so much Deborah.
Custom training program - Combo Behaved dog program and A little push: Barnie and Sue McGregor
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I would like to highly recommend Deb as a trainer. I met Deb at Dogwatch when I was volunteering there and was impressed with her knowledge, calm manner and understanding when dealing with the dogs. When I adopted my dog Barnie as an adult from the SPCA I wanted to do some training with him to help establish a good positive relationship with him from the start. Deb was very helpful in explaining things from a dogs perspective and taught us some ways of interacting that were fun for Barnie and always positive and rewarding. We specifically worked on recall off lead especially when distracted by other dogs or food. Also sit /stay so that ideally he would wait outside a shop/cafe off lead. We agreed on a Programme that involved 6 sessions with me and Barnie and 4 with just Deb and Barnie over a period of a couple of months - Deb was very flexible about our training times, sometimes after work, some before work and some at weekends. We varied the length of time between sessions to suit my schedule and this gave a bit of time to practice and consolidate on what we’d learned, we also worked on things that developed over that time that I hadn’t thought of before or came to light as I got to know Barnie. By the end of training, I had some techniques that I could apply to other situations, Barnie understood what was required of him and this has helped him settle into his new home and feel comfortable and has built up our rapport. He’s also pretty good at recall and sit/stay and a very happy contented dog. I also enjoyed the training and chatting to Deb and tapping into her knowledge. Thanks Deb. |
Lola and Claire Savage
"I asked Deborah to help me with my puppy who was very loved but very naughty!
Deborah was great, full of practical advice and ideas on how we could work with Lola to help her fit in with our family’s needs and keep us all happy! Deborah obviously loves dogs and has a very natural way with them, so she showed us how to take control in an easy way, without being too rigid in our methods. She also offered plenty of follow up tips and advice and I’m grateful that I know I can turn to her if I need to as Lola grows.”
Deborah was great, full of practical advice and ideas on how we could work with Lola to help her fit in with our family’s needs and keep us all happy! Deborah obviously loves dogs and has a very natural way with them, so she showed us how to take control in an easy way, without being too rigid in our methods. She also offered plenty of follow up tips and advice and I’m grateful that I know I can turn to her if I need to as Lola grows.”
Misty and Stephen East
"Deborah has helped me enormously with my Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Misty. When we first met about a year and a half ago, Misty was 2. She was very playful, friendly and sociable with both dogs and humans. But worryingly she had just started to show an over aggressive side with some other dogs. Over the following few months Deborah worked on improving many aspects of Misty's general behaviour to give me greater control over her. These included recall, not jumping up or pulling, drop and leave, waiting, keeping her attention and keeping her close on walks. She also gave me a valuable insight into the signs dogs give, through their body language and behaviour, as to how they are feeling and in particular the signals to look out for when they approach and meet other dogs. In a relatively short space of time, with Deborah's help and advice, Misty made excellent progress. I now feel I have much more control over her and feel much more confident when taking her out. I am able to let her off the lead and enjoy lots of freedom whilst staying alert to possible problems and situations to avoid. I am happy to say that Misty has not had any aggressive incidents since. Deborah seems to have a natural understanding of dogs behaviour and problems and has a very caring nature. She is an excellent dog trainer and I highly recommend her."
