Dear Lisa and the entire Canine Academy Staff,
Looking at the calendar today I realized it has been exactly one year since my 3 dogs were introduced to Canine Academy. All of our lives (ours and the dogs) have greatly improved! We have had many dogs in our home over the last 30 years and always had "good dogs"...now we have "great dogs"!
In September of 2021, we had 3 dogs (two of them were about 15 months old and the other was 9 months old). With 3 puppies in the house we needed some additional help with training. That's when we found Lisa and Canine Academy. We signed up all three dogs at the same time and started the Beginner class. We were so pleased with the progress and loved that the trainers were doing all the heavy lifting and introducing the various commands and we were there to reinforce and practice at home. We quickly moved on to the Intermediate class. Walks were now enjoyable (no more pulling), they learned to "sit" and "wait" while I opened the door, they were learning to "come" when called and would "place" on their mat while we ate dinner (no more having to put them in their crate or worry about one of them being out of sight).
After the Intermediate class we knew we wanted to keep going and signed all three dogs up for Off Leash training. We had never had an off leash dog and were incredibly excited. I shared with the trainers my very low expectations of what I was hoping for and they laughed and said "oh you'll get that and so much more"! They were absolutely right! Its been about 9 months since they graduated from the off leash program and we have continued their training by joining the weekly Great Dogs in Action Outings. The outings have allowed us to continue our learning, meet some great people and take our dogs to places we never thought possible. They even had the opportunity to test and become certified therapy dogs! We can now take them with us wherever appropriate...dog friendly restaurant patios, our nephew's baseball's games, they even travel with us and have enjoyed beaches and hikes I never dreamt could happen for them.
We have had many people say to us "I can't believe you have three dogs!"...then they meet them and the comments become "your three dogs are so well behaved"..."your three are better than most people's one dog"..."wow just wow".
We are so confident in this program that we just recently adopted a 4th dog! He's 13 weeks old and a ball of energy and starts the Beginner class in a couple of weeks. Without Canine Academy, expanding our pack would have never happened. However, we are absolutely certain he will be a "Great Dog" just like his older brothers!
The last year has been amazing and we have given our dogs (and ourselves) the ability to enjoy every minute we have our pups that we love so much!
Thank you to everyone at Canine Academy!
Nick and Karen Puzdrakiewicz