North - Training and Walking Client
I've been wanting to write a testimonial for Donna, with Polite Pups for some time now. She came to us by way of recommendation and I have nothing but respect for how she operates her business.
A little back story, our dog North, is a Great Pyrenees. He was a campground dog, and for his entire three years prior to our bringing him into our home, he lived in a remote rural setting, and was mistreated by seasonal and random campers. The campers took his barking as being aggressive. We ourselves, especially my husband, began developing a bond with North, each time we would pack up to leave our seasonal site, was hard, he would chase after us, which became increasingly worse. Finally, we were asked if we would consider taking him to live with us. We wanted to, however we also have 6 pound 12 year old Chihuahua at home, who we needed to consider as well. Given the state North was in we decided to try and make adopting North work.
Once we brought North home, we knew the real work would begin. North is a guardian breed, weighing about 100 pounds, that was aggressive towards men, had never lived in an urban setting, free roamed and was rarely inside a home.
When we brought North home, we immediately contacted another trainer we had been referred to. This trainer was a male and was not interested in training our dog at all. He would cancel our appointments the day of, told us our rescue, North, was likely to kill our smaller dog due to having a high prey drive, and immediately had us begin walking North on a prong collar. Things went from bad to worse with North, the prong collar was a horrible training tactic, we felt all it did was inflict pain and create distrust.
In came Donna! I explained everything that had happened to Donna, and despite having an incredibly busy schedule she fit us in the same week. We met her outside with North and within 15 min she was able to walk him, give him treats and get him to do very minor tasks. Donna agreed to work with us, and our long journey began. We met once a week, she would spend as much time as was required, and within a few weeks we were seeing major strides.
We are now almost a year in, our big boy North is a joy to have around, most of the time anyway lol. He has never once been aggressive towards our senior Chihuahua, he at times gets excited and wants to play with her, however he understands his “Gentle” command.
North has adapted to most things about city life. We have never used the prong collar again, North walks easily on a harness, knows several commands and hand signals. He is 75% better with meeting new people. We've been able to once again have people in our home, which was impossible prior to Donna. He has learned he can interact and play with other dogs, if introduced properly and done in a structured setting. Most importantly North learned he can trust his people in his life.
Due to Donna’s training and gentle hands on approach, our boy North is a happy, healthy, well-adjusted dog. He still enjoys his twice weekly walks with Donna, and knows when she is scheduled to come walk North. As long as Donna is able we will continue to welcome her knowledge, expertise and kindness for as long as North is part of our family. SHE CHANGED HIS LIFE!!!!
Jennifer, Grant & North Woolar