Dingo Girl Dog Training and Behavior Counseling

When 3 other dog trainers informed us that our situation was hopeless and we should either give our dogs away or put them down, Denise and Susan stepped in, gave us a clear working plan, strong encouragement and support and in the end, success!
What started as a traumatic incident that caused our two 50# adult mixed breed dogs to turn from best friends into killers (of each other and not anyone else), led to 3 years of separation and isolation from each other and constant vigilance on our part to not let them accidentally approach each other.
One miracle and 3 years later, today they play happily together as if nothing was ever wrong. It took a long time, with small steps, a lot of patience and hard work, but Denise and Susan were extremely supportive and never doubted that we could be successful even when we despaired.
Their training plans, clear explanations, and coaching techniques really helped a lot.

Warning: looooong entry ahead.
I was referred to Susan by Empire of the Dog; I had contacted them about my adopted terrier mutt’s fear aggression towards strangers and since I guess they don’t or rarely handle aggression cases, they passed me along to Susan. At first I was wary just because I didn’t know anything about her. Finding out her dog was adopted from the same rescue as mine made me feel a lot better, though!
My dog is a whackjob. I love her to bits, and 90% of the time she is a sweet and well-​behaved little twerp, and she’s shockingly intelligent, but she is terrified of strangers and will snap at anyone she doesn’t know trying to touch her. Her anxiety levels were SO high that it was not only embarrassing for me to deal with (people on the street would actually stop and tell me what a bad dog owner I was for ‘letting’ her behave like this), but also clearly damaging to her because she was so stressed-​out.
From the very first email, Susan seemed very relaxed and comfortable with what I was telling her about my dog. This in turn put me immediately at ease because she had clearly dealt with similar behaviors before. She gave me so much great advice during the consultation, and managed to observe and pinpoint exactly what was causing my dog’s bad behavior – particular things people do when they interact with dogs which are not friendly in dog-​language, and those behaviors were the moment when, instead of ignoring it like most dogs do, mine starts to act out. She was able to say ‘okay, your dog becomes frightened when people hold their hands out a certain way,’ and then we could use practical training to make her more comfortable with those gestures. She uses positive reinforcement, which makes every aspect of the training process much more fun and light-​hearted, and you always feel good when you’re working on things even when they’re not going the way you want – if my dog didn’t seem to grasp a precise behavior, we’d celebrate what parts of it she DID get. And she was definitely tailoring the training as she went along based on what worked or didn’t work for my dog, and on my background with animals. She was incredibly kind and nonjudgmental, and in my opinion is one of those rare trainers who is great with dogs AND people.
As a bonus, she also wrote up extensive notes and «homework» for us detailing everything we had covered in the session, and has offered to do follow-​ups with us via phone, email, or in-​person. If I remember correctly, phone and email assistance is included in her fee (which, in my opinion, was extremely reasonable).
Let me put it this way: last time somebody came to stay with me, it took a full 24 hours before my dog would even go near. A few days ago, I had a friend over who, without thinking, reached down and petted my dog after 10 minutes and nothing happened. My dog was clearly not thrilled (her body language was the equivalent of a human eye-​roll, I think) but she just sat there and was polite and relaxed and impeccably behaved. I almost cried. I definitely did a little victory dance.
I won’t claim my dog is perfect, mostly because I haven’t socialized her enough myself, but her behavior is a hundred percent better. She just seems MUCH more relaxed and confident, and thus less inclined to be fearful of things she doesn’t understand. I can’t thank Susan enough for all the help she has given us, and I would highly recommend her to just about anyone.