I am so thankful for Caryl and her teaching methods! I rescued Brody, a timid 1 year old Boxer dog last year, and he lacked any semblance of confidence and did not know any commands. I found several "traditional" obedience group classes, picked one and signed up. At our first class, Brody had the traditional choke chain around his neck and we were heeling around in a circle with 30 other dogs. I was constantly being told to "correct" him by yanking on the leash, and after the third or fourth yank Brody just laid down on the grass showing me his belly with a terrified look on his face. We never returned to that class after that, although Brody was still timid and didn't know one single command. I tried one other obedience class that used the traditional AKC methods, and Brody responded in the same fashion as the first class.

I was at a loss, because I desperately wanted Brody to learn some basic behaviors and build confidence, but I couldn't find a method that would work. I found Caryl's class via a Google search. I did not know anything about positive reinforcement training, but I was willing to try. I called Caryl and signed up for her next class. After the first class I was amazed - small class size, and her method was simple and made sense! Brody had an intense focus on me, was learning quickly, and really enjoyed class. He picked up new commands quickly while we were in class, and only required about 5minutes a day of practice to keep his newly learned commands sharp. I never had any intention of doing any obedience related activities (agility, rally obedience, etc), but Caryl's class changed that for me. The week of my fourth class, I signed Brody up for the AKC Canine Good Citizen test. I am happy to report that Brody passed the 10 AKC tests that comprise the CGC with flying colors. He is now extremely well behaved, confident, and has self esteem. We still work together very frequently to learn new behaviors as well as reinforce old ones. I am even considering competing with him in AKC Rally Obedience trials. It strengthens our relationship and seems to be a favorite pastime of his. I can't thank Caryl enough - simply put, her methods work. I can't recommend her highly enough.

Joy Manning

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