I recently worked with Elissa when my two older dogs started fighting with each other. She was very helpful even in our initial phone interview. We filled out a detailed form of issues, daily schedules, and other concerns. By the time she came out to our house several days later, I felt she had a good handle on the situation, and I was feeling better already due to some of her advice.
During our almost 2 hour session, she spent time listening to me and my husband, acknowledging our concerns, and offering little tidbits of advice. We went out and worked with the dogs at several different times to watch specifics of how our household works. During these hands-on periods, she offered very insightful comments about dog behavior that she saw (the spinning of excitement when our dogs see us might instead be franticness). She gave specific advice on how to work with our dogs, which is different from me to my husband. Her advice was nonjudgmental, nonthreatening, and very reassuring. Even my husband, who was not that interested in the session to begin with, was paying attention and trying the techniques she taught us. I was able to ask countless questions about our specific aggression issues, as well as other general behavior concerns we had. Elissa is about my size, and she had good advice on how to deal with a fight, which gave me some confidence. We did not need to set up any follow up sessions, but Elissa asked us to call IMMEDIATELY if we had any further issues. I appreciated that she did not seem to be selling a "package", but that she was really interested in having a good outcome for our dogs and ourselves.
A few days later, Elissa sent a very detailed summary of what we had discussed, including action items, suggestions, specific commands and exercises we were to work on. This will be really helpful as time goes by and we forget what we worked on.
I found Elissa via a web search, as I've never used a trainer before. I interviewed about 10 other trainers on the phone. Many of them sell a package, where you commit to paying up to $700-800 without even meeting them once. Some trainers were not good listeners (don't interrupt me, because I will have answered all your questions by the time I'm done talking), and there were a few who seemed to have what I was looking for. I am so happy to have worked with Elissa, and can recommend her without reservation if you want someone who will listen to you, not judge you, but give you practical advice that works for your family culture. Her cost is completely within the range of other trainers, and I thought it was money very well spent. read more
