LADY & THE BEAST

Phenomenally! Where do I begin? First off, we had an in-depth phone conversation about our needs and then scheduled a meeting at our home with every living, breathing member of the family in attendance. This meeting lasted three hours for a flat fee and we comprehensively covered all aspects of our dog's life and the needs we were asking her to help us with. Other reviews suggested we write down her instructions so we wouldn't forget any, which we thankfully did. We followed through with her instructions and THEY WORKED!!! She could also tell when we slacked off and tenderly supported us to get back on track. The following meeting she asked us to show her the tasks she asked us to complete. She offered lighthearted, positive constructive criticism on what we were doing wrong or could improve upon. She also offered generous praise on what we did well, which was heartwarming! Then she gave us new things to work on. Each time we met she added advanced steps. In between meetings I called her to rave about successes or to ask clarifying questions. She was ALWAYS there and would congratulate me on our 'wins' or help me through our struggles. Her help was life changing for our dog and we can not thank Deb enough! If you have dog issues of any kind Deb is the trainer for you. She is fabulous. Others' reviews are helpful as well :)

Phenomenally! Where do I begin? First off, we had an in-depth phone conversation about our needs at no cost and then scheduled a meeting at our home with every human and animal who lives in the house in attendance. This meeting lasted three hours for a flat fee and we comprehensively covered all aspects of our dog's life and the needs we were asking her to help us with. Other reviewers suggested writing down her instructions so we wouldn't forget any, which we did. We followed through with her instructions and THEY WORKED! She also could tell when we slacked off and tenderly supported us to get back on track. The following meeting she asked us to show her the tasks she asked us to complete. She offered lighthearted positive constructive criticism on what we were doing wrong or could improve on. Then she gave us new things to work on. Each time we met she added advanced steps. In between meetings I called her to rave about successes or to ask clarifying questions. She was ALWAYS there and would congratulate me on our 'win' or help me through our struggle. Her help was life changing for our dog and we can not thank her enough. If you have dog issues of any kind this is the trainer for you! She is fabulous!! The other dog reviews are true and will help as well!

It went great! Deb is a fearless and passionate leader of the pack.

Deb has a very positive attitude and offers suggestions in a very non-critical way.  One of my dogs had started nipping people.  Both barked excessively when I had someone come to the door and also wanted to bark at the neighbors in the back yard.  She showed me techniques that have been quite successful in solving the problems I was having.  I will continue to use her services and would recommend her to other dog owners.

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Deb has an excellent way of framing her advice in the context of how dogs learn from and communicate with humans. Understanding this framework is extremely useful in issuing commands and responses to dog actions. We expiained issues that we were having with our lab pup biting and Deb gave us a set of actions that have worked very well in stopping this behavior in a positive way. Deb was also very useful in helping us to optimize all our of routines with our pup...from crating to potty breaks to exercise to training for new commands. She has a rich set of experience and hr own personal interaction with her dogs that give her credibility. I highly recommend Deb to anyone who wants to be pro-active in training their pup and creating a long term positive interaction with their dog.

From the the minute Deb walked in our home-Ruby's behavior changed.  She had the simplest, yet most effective methods of showing our dog who is in charge.  She did not give us the feeling we were idiots-just un-informed on how a dog thinks vs. what a human thinks.  A lot of the behaviors we thought we cute (like laying her head on our feet) were dominance behaviors.  We were amazed that in 24 hours following Deb's advice, we had a different dog.

It is great that she comes to your home (and no travel charge!).  She can see the family in action!

We were 100% satisfied with our experience with Deb and would have her back any time we had a need.

She is worth every cent!

In all regards, Deb was professional, kind and respectful of me, my dog and my neighbors.  She is quite knowledgable of different breed characteristics and traits, and helped me tailor my interaction so that my dog could be as successful as possible. Deb is encouraging and helpful, and keenly accurate in her observations.  The commands and exercises she taught us worked right away, and we got better with practice, so that by the end second session, we were well on our way to a good life together. 
I highly recommend Deb, and her huge lab Bradley. for their work with anxious and/or aggressive dogs.  She knows what she's doing, and helped me be more in charge and confident with my handling of my dog in and outside of the home.

Deb has been a savior to our household! Our little papillon Indie had become a dictator over our other older dog Dakota, as well as myself and my husband. We really needed help with his overall behavior. Deb came to our home 4 times over about 6 weeks. this short amount of time Deb taught us why Indie was behaving badly and most importantly- how to curb that behavior pronto! The solutions that Deb gave us were simple to apply and did not require any special things to buy. It was just a matter of understanding the dog and applying new limitations. Best of all, we get to keep this knowledge and apply it time and time again with Indie as he matures. It was some of the best, very affordable, training we've ever done for our dogs. Deb was professional, knowledgeable, non-judgemental toward us or our naughty little dog, and overall a very kind and approachable person.

We had sessions with Deb about every other week for several months at our home. We paid for 1 hour sessions, but they usually lasted longer. She taught us how to react to and give commands to our puppy and to follow through and be consistent. She was very patient with us and very patient and loving with our puppy. She watched us as we interacted with our dog and could see immediately what needed to be done. She would show us what to do, then verbally walk us through what we should do.

We will have her back when we feel that we need some more help.

We highly recommend her for training a dog and (mostly) the owners!

Deb was great to work with! She was always on time and ready for action. She was patient with me and really cared about the training and well being of my pet. She knows how to handle dogs and people too!

If I have any problems in the future, I will definitely call Deb!

unknown

Calling a trainer was kind of a last ditch effort as our dog's behavior was such that we didn't know if we would be able to keep him. The first time Deb came, the dog jumped and was quite wild for a good period of time. Deb had obviously had a lot of experience with that type of behavior and showed us ways to deal with it. She spent a lot of time observing him in our home situation. She suggested that we crate him when we were away from home as we also had a problem with his chewing. That turned out to be very helpful. He did great in the crate. The second time Deb came, she spent time outdoors with the dog and us and gave a lot of good advice about how to get him to walk nicely and behave in the back yard. When I said I wasn't sure how our dog got along with other dogs, she brought her dog in from the truck and let the two interact, which went well.

We wanted her to come one more time and this time the dog's behavior was markedly improved. He sat when she came through the door. Deb went over our past concerns and gave advice about things we still needed to work on.

We were extremely pleased with Deb Johnson. She was pleasant to work with and very knowledgeable about dogs and their behavior. Her price of $75. per session was very reasonable. She let us choose how many times we wanted her to work with the dog and the three times she came was well worth the money.

Deb is a genius with dogs -- especially dogs with behavior problems. I learned so much from her about our dog's behavior during our initial consultation. She arrived on time and was very thorough in getting to know us and the dog, who has some very entrenched behavior problems. He is afraid of children and skateboards. He has a severe startle reflex. He shakes in fear when he's out in public, like at a park where there is a lot of chaos. WHen he's frightened, he becomes unreachable.
Our initial training sessions have been extremely productive. Deb is focused on helping the dog feel safe and sure of his place in the world, and on teaching us to create a safe place for him by taking control of the situation. Working with Deb has been one of the most exciting and interesting things I've ever done, and I'm looking forward to continuing our training.
After a couple of sessions and some changes in our approach, our dog has become more at ease around children, which is a big deal.

Lady and The Beast was suggested to us by our veterinarian after our dog nipped at our child. When we called she listened to a detailed account of the behavior problem we were experiencing and gave a very reasonable estimate. She was on time, and well prepared to work with our whole family. She listened intently and watched us interact with our dog. She was then able to describe the problem in detail, including offering other details of what she thought might be happening and was right. She then gave many suggestions, showed us how to implement them and offered follow up phone consults for free if we had questions or problems.

It went well. In visiting my home and dog, Deb listened well and watched how we interacted with the dog. She made suggestions about how to give commands and how to give praise after the commands. This was very helpful. She listed basic commands to practice and demonstrated how to do them. She then asked me to write a list of questions for the second visit. I did this and she answered each question, told me where to buy training aides and helped me with heeling my dog and giving other commands. She suggested crate training and when I had problems and called her, she made good recommendations for controlling the situation. She was very responsive to coming when I needed her before a visit from my grandson. I will enroll in her classes in the fall.

She assessed my dog's behavior and determined a tailored training program to successfully meet his needs to curb and stop aggression toward and socialization with other animals. Over a span of 7 weeks and 5 focused one-on-one 1-hour sessions, she taught me how to reinforce positive behavior patterns in my dog that would change how he reacts in everyday situations. This tailored training has proven to be highly successful. I would recommend her to anyone whose dog has difficult behavioral problems.