K9 Training InstituteReviews 2,605

Dear Dr Alexa,

Thank you so much for your tips and free training. I live in South Africa and to get products and services from the US is very costly for us and with both us and our pets going through lock down we have both (pets and owners) forgotten some of the basics when it comes to walking and socialising our pets.

Using body language is something we do but not in a mindful way so that is a big help and how to change behaviour in a calm way is better for the pet and the (mom) owner.

Thank you so much
Susan

Great in-site into helping Bailey become a calm and respectful service dog. Good reminder on does and don'ts for us.

I found the info very informative and have used some of the items I learned. I am really surprised that these things are working in training my dog to behave better. With not knowing my husband and I had already done parts of the training. It is nice to know that the non verbal training we had already done, due to my husbands illness, is part of the training in this free class. It is so unbelievable that my dog has already started to look at me for direction and barking at people and animals has almost stopped.

I'm only giving 4 stars at the moment because we've only just begun with an 8 week old puppy. I will say I was at my wits end. I was sleep deprived, my clean house was no longer "feeling or smelling" clean, can't say I've got that caught up yet but at least I am finding more time to work on getting it back.
When I broke down and bought this program I was 3 nights sleep deprived, so exhausted, frustrated and felt completely hopeless. Our puppy just wasn't getting it…or I wasn't getting it.
I purchased some gates to gate him a play space in the kitchen, got him a harness, and partitioned off his crate to only allow him room to lay down in. Then every 20-30 minutes…yes really, I took him out often and excitedly praised him and gave him a little treat when he went outside. And within a couple of hours doing this I could see the lightbulb go on. It is also about learning their cues. Then if he starts pottying inside I immediately picked him up saying no firmly, but not yelling, and carried him outside to finish then praised him outside.
That was 3 days ago and we've nine had 3 fully dry nights in the kennel and one night with no potty breaks all night, though I wouldn't recommend that at this early stage because it could possibly lead to UTI. He has a baby bladder and the training is teaching him to hold it all night but I think for now every 3-4 hours is about as long as you want to go with that.
Our puppy isn't super vocal so he isn't letting us know vocally that he needs to go out so we are working on the bell system. We ring the bell every time it's potty time and I say "potty?". Now we have it hanging on the gate encouraging him to shake the bells when he needs to go.
The other thing I've learned is that he needs a job. I haven't figured that out completely yet but I'm looking forward to this next step. We just want him to be a well balanced dog that can be trusted with anyone, to listen to our commands and understand what they mean. I want to be able to walk with him without fear of confrontation with another dog. I need to learn these techniques and I feel this program has the tools for me to learn them.