We adopted Charlie from Paris Poodles in Chilliwack at the age of 7 weeks. We knew that we would like to get Charlie trained as early as possible because we had heard so many horror stories from friends who had dogs that ran away, chewed up their furniture, “walked their owners” rather than the owners walking them and had other behavior problems. We contacted Jeff from Sit Happens and we began training Charlie at 10 weeks.

When Jeff came to our home, although we didn’t need to be convinced by a demonstration, (it was obvious from talking to Jeff on the phone that he was extremely knowledgeable about dog training), his demonstration was extremely impressive. What really impressed us was not only the dogs’ incredible obedience, but also the fact that their obedience didn’t mute any of their spirit.

The results when we started training Charlie under Jeff and Marilyn’s guidance were immediate. Although Charlie was a very affectionate and generally well behaved puppy, we did have a problem with her occasionally being too aggressive when she was playing. Confusing us for other siblings in her litter, her “mouthing” could feel a lot more like biting to human skin. With training, this habit stopped in a matter of days.

Another advantage of starting early was housetraining. Using Jeff and Marilyn’s methods, there was immediate improvement. Within a short time, “accidents” were few and far between as Charlie would go to the front door to let us know when she needed to be let out.

Charlie has just turned a year old and we have been very pleasantly surprised at what has been possible because of Jeff and Marilyn’s training techniques. Charlie is the first dog that we’ve had in our household so we’re by no means experienced dog owners. Despite this inexperience, we’ve been able to enjoy a dog that can “place”, (ie. staying in one spot) while we are eating, answering the door, emptying the dishwasher etc, be off leash, come on command, stop barking on command, heel while going for a walk and go to her crate on command when it’s time for her to sleep or when we leave the house.

One of the first things we discussed with Jeff was the misconception that trained dogs have less personality and spirit than untrained dogs. We’ve learned first hand that nothing could be further than the truth. We’ve seen that the more that Charlie is challenged and the more she comes to understand, the happier she is. We’ve had many comments from friends and relatives that they have never seen a dog so good natured, gentle and well behaved.

We cannot recommend Sit Happens strongly enough. Jeff and Marilyn are not only experts in dog training, they also clearly care about the dogs and dog owners that they work with.