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Taking our Golden Retreiver Killian to Shannon for training at Mans Best Friend was the best decision we could have made.
Killian was only three months old before all the regular training techniques we knew had failed. We had successfully trained a lab and two golden retrievers using Guide Dog for the Blind's method (Collar corrections and positive praise). By two and a half months old he grew aggressive with corrections and defiant and would snap and nip (leaving bruises and scratches) and tear clothing. When that failed we tried treats and that only created a dependency on treats and then he got aggressive when he didn't get a treat when he believed he should. His play time was more like parkour through the house which never stopped unless he was in his kennel. He had a hard time relaxing and just chewing on a toy. Outside he ate everything to the point he couldn't be off leash. Recall was also impossible.
At four months, we faced re-homing Killian or finding a solution because his behavior was defiant and we didn't have a way to correct any of it. (We swore Killian thought he was a fight dog.) I couldn't even pet or hug him without him biting me.
In steps Shannon. Thank the lord because she saved us all. We left Killian with Shannon for a month at boarding school when he was four and a half months old.
We were nervous to leave him given we werent sure any training would work, and Killian has extreme food allergies to top off the stress level. But they did great with him. They stuck to his strict diet and trained him without need of treats. He even came back healthier than when we handed him off because we'd only just gotten his dietary needs pinpointed and his fur was still growing back. So yeah, I was blowing up all the pictures they posted on FB while he was there to see how well he was doing health wise. Haha.
Day one home with Killian after training was amazing and we are now three weeks in and its all going great. Here are the changes: Killian no longer bites, tears our clothes, eats our furniture, jumps on the furniture, takes things that arent his, jumps on me, or eats the outdoors Killian will walk on leash without pulling, lay down for more than an hour on command and stay, chew on his toys like a normal well behaved dog, lay on his dog bed, play outside with toys (instead of eating grass, leaves, sticks ect.), come on recall, let us hug and love him and he also now knows how to JUST BE.
Shannon provided training videos for us to watch before we picked up Killian (which we will always have access to) and she did a 3 hour training session with us when we picked him up. The combination together makes her training program highly effective because it taught us a new way of working with a busy minded dog. Shannon gave us a new way of life that is calm and loving with Killian that wasn't possible through other normal training methods. We are sticking to the training she provided and its working out great. She even did a follow-up session, which was extremely helpful because we could get guidance on how we can do better with our dog handling skills.
If you even debate sending your pup to Man's Best Friend for training, I advice stop wasting time and make the call.
