Testimonials
Some of the many letters and pictures we have received
Click any photo for a larger picture
Stephen and Rene Hall wrote:
*Stephen wrote:*
Hello Gaynor, its about 5 months since we saw you with our Karakachan dogs and we feel its time for an update and to inform anyone who needs help with their dog/s of our experience whilst with you..
Here goes.
For anyone who is undecided about A1K9 training, please take 5 minutes to read our experience with them and other trainers and we think it will be 5 minutes well spent.
My wife and I bought two very rare breed Karakachan dogs( Bulgarian Shepherd dogs) from two separate farms in Bulgaria and hope to breed them in the near future.
Because it took a while to find two genuine pedigree dogs, together with the six month quarantine period, it was several months before they arrived in the UK, and sadly they had no training at all, never been on a lead, didn`t know how to play and had spent most of the time chained in a farmyard. Not a good start for both the dogs and ourselves.
The Karakachan dog is large, 40/50 kgs, very powerful and will attack mountain bears and wolves whilst protecting the flock and its owners, so as you can imagine, the picture of me, well built and over 6ft tall, being dragged along the street behind one of them, must have been very amusing. Not only that, but Ozi is an alpha male, so absolutely any four legged creature that came within sight of him, especially another dog, meant he wanted to take off after it with a vengeance. I have literally been dragged into the middle of the street several times and been knocked to the floor on numerous occasions. So much so that my wife and daughter were not able to walk him and I did so with great trepidation and had the marks to prove it.
The dogs both Ozi and Jazzi when at home with us were so calm that we had managed to do a lot of training and they were very settled and obedient, in fact Jazzi was gaining in the confidence that she very much lacked on her arrival, but Ozi continued to seemingly hate other dogs and walking him was a continued nightmare.
We needed help! There are so many dog trainers out there and so we booked the closest one, who the day before he was due to start, suddenly phoned us to cancel the appointment. We have since learned that he was frightened of our dogs because of their size and that one of them was very aggressive. Some trainer!
Next we had a lady who happily took our £50 and then told us to stand outside the local park railings so Ozi could watch other dogs playing and that would get him socialised. Great, until another dog poked his nose through the railing and Ozi jumped at him and scratched the side of its face.
The third time we went to a training centre for dogs, who said they could sort him out. As soon as we arrived the “trainer” came right over to Ozi with his hand stretched out and surprise surprise, Ozi was not best pleased, so the trainer said that he would try him with a dog to see his response. He then walks up with a German Shepherd dog in tow and all hell broke loose for a second time. By now Ozi is really angry and took a lot of calming down, and I mean a lot. The “trainer” returned and uttered the immortal lines,” He is aggressive isn`t he” at which Ozi cocked his leg and peed on the “trainer`s” shoes.
By now we are at our wits end. The two dogs were gorgeous, but Ozi was out of control despite our best efforts. We have read all the manuals, watched hours of Cesar Milan, tried treats, which he never wants, tried to divert his attention etc. etc. but the fact was, if he saw another dog even remotely near, the only trick that we had was to hang on for dear life and hope the other owner would go away quickly.
Almost in despair, I found the A1K9 website and it seemed to be our last hope, at least they dealt with strong powerful dogs. I phoned and spoke to Gaynor, who said pop down and I will sort him out in an hour!. Call me a cynic but there was no way she could do that, but intrigued and in despair, we made the 400 mile round trip and are we glad we did!
Straight away you could tell she knew exactly what she was doing, not only with Ozi but most importantly with the owners, ie. us. Our dog is strong, but not half as strong as Gaynor and boy did he soon find this out.
It was a pleasure to watch a true professional trainer at work. Although Ozi thought he was the tough dominant one, he very soon learned that this was not the case, and did he respect that. Within the hour, as promised, he was sat next to Gaynor whilst other very large dogs sniffed him. No response, no growls, no leaping after them. It was truly amazing.
To sum up, we, that is my wife, myself and our daughter, were the ones who learned the lessons. We gained so much in confidence, and how to become the real pack leader. We had thought we knew this already, but of course we hadn`t . Is Ozi perfect now? Of course not he is still the alpha dog, but he knows who the pack leaders are, and if we meet other dogs, we quickly deal with it and he accepts our commands.
Owning a dog is a life long commitment, and we are soon going to visit Gaynor again for more lessons not for Ozi, but for ourselves, as I am sure we are still getting things wrong.
Thanks Gaynor for your skills and advice, and thanks from Ozi for saving his life.
*Rene wrote:
During the few hours training session, I was hugely impressed by Gaynor's knowledge of dogs behaviour, her highly professional handling, her structured teaching abilities, her direct and helpful approach, her powers as a pack leader and her loving nature as an individual.Our
whole family gained confidence and learned so much from her that I strongly recommend the training sessions for dogs and their owners and I truly believe A1K9 is the best dog training academy in the country.