"I loved the way Judy taught so many things that help my dog with loose leash walking. Starting with treats at my feet, then by my left knee. Using let's go and with me, touch and watch for turns and sitting by my side when I stop. All of these skills kept my dog (and me!) interested in what we are doing and gave me the skills to move my dog into loose leash walking with higher distractions. All of the ideas/ways Judy made it fun and interesting to help my puppy build basic obedience skills. Judy was also very very helpful when I was starting to have problems getting my puppy into the car. She responded to my email immediately with many good ideas that were so helpful!"
Kathleen F - Concord July 2022
Deb M - Concord August 2020
We learned a very manageable amount of behaviors in short time. We definitely saw progress and gained confidence as trainers! This method seems preferable to learning a great deal of things in six weeks; the opportunity to practice and vary the skills, and make them more challenging for us and the dog, seemed like the perfect approach.
While we'd have loved an in person class, I was totally impressed by how much you were able to observe and critique on Zoom, and I still got a bit of a community feel seeing classmates with their dogs, and learning about their (similar) challenges. It can be isolating training a dog during this pandemic, and the class helped to break that up.
"Go to mat" was a big success. He will now sometimes voluntarily seek out his mat at dinner and / or in the evening - he even took a bone there himself last night and we all watched TV in the same room at the same time while he just chilled! Big breakthrough! I also think our leash skills have gotten pretty good. We can now walk up and down our cul de sac and at times look like "normal" people out on a walk!! (It's not perfect - I can see the pulling tendency is still there - but we have times where it almost seems like he's in a good "heel" position and we're not even using that word!)
Diana and Trevor February 2021
Learning to understand and work with Mattie’s willingness and propensity to be trained, and to arm ourselves with useful equipment that we didn’t know about- stuffed Kongs, bully sticks, marrow bones, woven pieces from Debbie Darling, long leashes, tethers, etc!
Amazing amount of insight, help, and inspiration from the materials, the rich class content, and the mini successes we have had along the way. The videos were excellent and were watched multiple times by us and other family members.
I am amazed at how well Mattie responds to Sit and Down, even in the most distracting situations outdoors and with other dogs around. We are also amazed at how she races toward “the Mat”, now that we have moved it to the vicinity of where we eat. And tethering is magic!
Such a great course. Sets a wonderful foundation for a lifetime of working and training together. And so helpful to know that it is always a work in progress.
Nancy and Mattie July 2021
"Many thanks to Judy from Proper Paws, whose Puppy Kindergarten classes (on Zoom because of COVID-19) made having a 12 week old puppy manageable for us. Seriously, we were cat people, and I was at my wit's end with this sweet little pup -- now we are enjoying him and have a sense of making progress on his training. Between the Zoom classes, the online resources and several one-on-one Zoom calls, we have everything we need. Can't recommend Judy highly enough!"
Diana C - Lexington July 2020
An hour of dog training is a long time! You so skillfully utilized the time to allow individual questions and comments (from which we all benefit!) and just the right amount of training time—a perfect blend. I am astonished about the degree to which I personally need constant reminders of how to do this or that and how to think. This helped me to translate this understanding to Tito’s need for reminders and reinforcements.
.....other trainers can tend towards condescension and be quite judgmental. Not so in this case. Your style is personable and flexible reflecting, I think, your confidence in your knowledge.