"Nola"

Nola is a Siberian Husky Cross from North Vancouver

Featured in 07,  2003

Nola's Story:

Nola came to live with us as a timid 10-week-old puppy. Nola was very shy and did not like strangers, preferring to hide instead. Shy little Nola was also very stubborn and fond of “yodeling” at us while she blissfully disobeyed our fumbling attempts to curtail her naughty behavior. Puppy “biting”, garbage dining, digging, and “jumping up” soon became much more aggressive as did her willful intent not to come when called or walk without biting and and attacking her leash. Walks were about as fun as a poke in the eye and “come” worked occasionally if she was hungry and we had an endless pocket full of treats.

It soon became obvious that Nola had become far too big for us to physically “scruff” her, the technique we were using to control her aggressive biting behavior. Not only did it simply not work we just didn’t agree with it. We did not believe in disciplining her in a forceful, physical manner. Yelling at her and calling her until our voices were raspy was not our idea of responsible owner’s looking out for our best friend’s welfare. This was not what we wanted for Nola. Nola deserved better than that, and it was our responsibility to find it for her.

Thank goodness we contacted Jeff. We called several Professional dog trainers concerning Nola, but it was Jeff’s “non-abusive training” and “off-leash” training methods mentioned in his brochure that caught our attention (“immediate results” did as well but being realists we thought ‘yeah, right’)

Jeff was the only one to politely offer to come to our house at no charge, and meet Nola and let us meet his dogs. We immediately could see Jeff loved not only his Dogs but also Dogs in general and became a professional dog trainer because he liked being with them.

The way he gently interacted with Nola and confidently explained his methods we knew Jeff was our Guy. He cares about dog’s welfare and wants them to enjoy happy, confident lives. Jeff’s whole outlook on training was exactly what we were looking for even without the promised immediate results.

When Jeff offered immediate results we didn’t think he meant almost instant results. Nola didn’t improve, she transformed. We really were not expecting Jeff’s methods to work so fast.

Biting, garbage grazing, jumping up, digging -GONE – after Jeff’s first session with Nola. We were astounded. After just three hours of Jeff’s training methods in class with other dogs, Nola’s leash was hung up in the closet and has gathered dust ever since.

Chasing after other dogs at the park, yelling till we were hoarse, not coming when called, are all non-issues. We never raise our voice, infact 75% of the time we use hand signals and Nola is only 7 months old. Nola is no longer timid and approaches people with confidence. Jeff has enabled us to fulfill Nola’s real promise of becoming the happy, obedient dog we knew she could be.

Frankly training a dog any other way seems pointless and exhausting. Jeff has got the inside track on canine obedience with his superior training methods enabling your dog to know exactly what you want it to do.

With out Jeff’s calm, relaxed guidance, we would not have been able to enjoy Nola in any environment as we our able to do now. Nola is also happier as she is welcome to come along wherever we go. We cannot thank Jeff enough.