Cricket - Training Client

I am a very experienced dog owner. I have had dogs my entire life and now I am a senior dealing with a very challenging Biewer Terrier, Cricket. All the techniques that I was familiar with did not seem to be working with Cricket. He was a challenge right from the start. We got Cricket at age 12 weeks. He would never settle down and just rest. He would want to go potty so many times throughout the night. Cricket was probably around 9 lbs, yet he was bullying and terrorizing our 125 lb Newfie-Komodor mix, Sully. He was showing aggressive tendencies and started killing a lot of birds on a daily basis. For these reasons, we contacted Donna Barrett. We heard that she was excellent and therefore, she was our last resort before rehoming. Donna was extremely helpful. She gave us so much time, patience, and information. She would even lend us training aids if we needed something right away. Her training was calm, gentle, patient, and so educational. I have a lifetime of experience training our pets, but I still learned so much from watching Donna. We did eventually have to rehome Cricket because he was not a fit for our family and was becoming aggressive. With three young grandsons, I was not willing to work through the aggression. 

However, we were able to adopt a sweet Havanese puppy last September 2022 at the age of 10 weeks. Lacey is an absolutely sweet little girl puppy. I attribute the success that we have had with Lacey to what I learned from Donna. I had a strong foundation, because of Donna, to get started exactly right with Lacey. We have only ever used positive reinforcement with Lacey. That was a non-negotiable that we learned from Donna. She taught me to be patient with a puppy because they are just “baby". I never thought of them that way before. Donna taught me patience, and the learning does take time. We used ALOT of positive reinforcement for every desirable behaviour that Lacey exhibited. Lacey is 10 months old tomorrow and is an absolute joy to have around. She is just the best puppy ever. I believe that everything that I learned from Donna helped me to guide and develop Lacey into the calm, pleasant, sweet-natured puppy that she is. I would definitely recommend Donna for any and all pet training, not just the challenging ones. She can start you off on a strong positive foundation for you and your furkid. Oh, and by the way, Donna goes over and above when it comes to value-added.... She gives so much more of herself and her knowledge than you can imagine. Donna's the bomb when it comes to your furkids!!! 

Lynn F.