We started training with Bertie Dogs with our first dog, a golden retriever puppy and have been going to a class every week since! Despite reading numerous books and trying to research online when we have a problem or a behaviour we can't resolve, it is very hard to apply because you can't tell what mistakes you are making yourself. Working with Nij has helped because, understanding the way dogs think, he can spot the slightest, movement, gesture or facial reponse the dog is making and use that to predict their behaviour in response to whatever we are doing - this means he can tell us why the dog is reacting the way they do, and how we can change our own behaviour to achieve the desired result, something which we would never be able to work out with just books!
We have completed the puppy course, and are now attending the intermediate course for the third time, and we are still learning new things and gaining a better understandng of why our dog behaves the way she does. We have repeated some exercises through the repeated courses, but learned new ones too, and to be honest, practicing at home we wtill manage to make big mistakes which can then be picked up when we repeat an exercise later on in class. Hopefully at some point we will be competent and confident enough to train and control our puppy on our own, but until then, we will keep up with the Bertie Dogs training! read more
