...IMMEDIATELY at our initial appointment, I knew Lea was incredible...
My husband and I got our first dog, Dierks, at 8 weeks old and he's been spoiled ever since! He's a wonderful dog, incredibly sweet but very pushy, needy and huge at 100+ pounds. We knew we wanted another dog, so we looked into rescuing our next one when Dierks was about 2 years old. We found Easton on an adoption website looking skinny, with notches out of his ear, and the biggest smile on his face! Come to find out, he had been a stray on the street that a shelter picked up. There, another dog attacked him where a piece of his ear was bit off and his leg was pulled through a fence. Luckily a rescue saved him, and that's how we were able to find him! He is absolutely the sweetest dog, has loved every person he meets and is very relaxed overall. Dierks and Easton were instantly inseparable- playing non-stop, cuddling together, eating next to each other and sharing toys. A little over a year into having the two dogs together, we started to notice Easton was becoming a bit territorial in our backyard. I asked our vet about it and he told me not to worry as long as it wasn?t really serious.
Before Christmas, we had our first incident of Easton going after Dierks aggressively inside our house. We were devastated and completely caught off guard; they had always gotten along. Luckily neither dog was injured, just both upset and on edge. We slowly reintroduced them back together that night, and all seemed fine. A few days went by and we relaxed a bit, thinking it was just a fluke. Then it happened again and we knew we had a serious issue. I was an absolute wreck, my husband was frustrated, and both dogs were miserable. We kept separating the dogs and looked around at our options, knowing that Easton was a great dog- good with people, kids & most other dogs- but obviously we needed a solution for his behavior with Dierks. We luckily found Smart Dog with Lea and IMMEDIATELY at our initial appointment I knew she was incredible - she was so focused on getting to know Easton, wanting to know his back-story and all of our concerns. She thoroughly explained the training and explained why she thought Easton was acting that way towards Dierks. We signed Easton up shortly after for her in kennel 6-week program. I was hesitant at first, not knowing if it was the right choice and concerned with the long time I would be without my pup. While he was there we got lots of updates not only with pictures on Facebook, but also more detailed updates via email. I was so excited with his progress and everything I heard about his training, it really flew by!
After six weeks were up, we were beyond impressed with how smart and well-trained Easton was! It took a couple weeks at home for us to get adjusted- Easton with us being in charge of the training, the two dogs together, and just overall getting back into our routine. But since then, it has been wonderful!!!!! We are so happy to have our life back; I am less stressed and worried overall. Easton and Dierks are currently playing together with toys as I type this! They are back to their old selves and happier together as brothers! Lea has been awesome with follow up- answering my constant questions and following up with appointments. I have no doubt we made the right choice for our family, I don?t know what we would?ve done without her program!! We even got our other dog Dierks into private appointments with Lea while Easton was gone, and we have seen huge improvements in him as well. I would recommend Smart Dog training to absolutely anyone!