From day one this little guy, who recently topped out at 13 lbs., has posed one hurdle after another. Within 2 days of bringing him home at 8 weeks old, he had un-paper trained himself, developed an unstoppable desire to chew everything (including wood moulding and the corners of my couch), and had the worst separation anxiety I’ve ever witnessed (in an animal or a person.) We called him the “crazy pterodactyl” due to the incessant screeching noise he would make when placed in his crate.

At 12 weeks I enrolled him in the "Puppy Foundations" course with tremendous results. He is completely socialized around dogs (big, small, old and young), cats, and people and can go on long car rides, on subways and up and down escalators without flinching. After the foundations course it was up to me to solidify the commands and work ultimately weaning Joss onto freedom within my apartment. This did not go as smoothly as I had hoped as Joss' anxiety and blatant disregard for women giving him commands led me to The Dog House's "21 Day Intensive Training" program. After seeing the results, I cannot recommend this route highly enough for a more harmonious home-life. I'll admit it was hard to leave Joss and have no contact with him for 3 weeks, but I honestly believe it was the best thing I could have done for both of us. He came back to me much calmer, obedient and is now completely quiet while in his crate.

I’m happy to report that I can walk down the street with my 1 year old dog by my side, who stops walking when I do, who sits without being told, lays down when I’m standing around chatting with friends, goes to the bathroom on command, plays extremely well with others at the local parks, and keeps mostly to himself around the house, eating or playing with his toys while I am doing chores, cooking or even sitting and watching TV for several hours. If given the opportunity I would probably do a lot of things differently, but none of them would include opting out of any of training I did with Eric and his team, and if you ever get the chance to meet Joss, you’ll understand why!

Mara & Joss

Eric is the best! I love my dog because I can take her anywhere. She is so polite and she is welcome where ever I go. I am able to predict her behaviour because Eric has trained ME  how to handle her, and she is the most polite and gentle dog. I can take her anywhere off leach and she happily walks right beside me. At home she is happy to chill out all day and she is calm and relaxed. We are always complimented on what a great dog we have. Eric could train a dog in 30 mins. but his talent lies in how to teach a person to be a relaxed and happy dog owner.

Julia & Daisy

I adopted Duke ( a stafforshire bull terrier in March of 1996). He was the first dog that I was ever responsible for and I was lucky that he was a good and sweet dog since I was in over my head when it came to training my dog to be a good citizen.

 

A "good citizen" that's how I wanted Duke to be perceived, to be welcome everywhere we went. With the help of Eric Bernstein that's what happened, Training the dog isnt the hard part, training the owner to understand how to relate to your dog and be consistant in your communication is the hard part.

 

Eric trained Duke and myself.

 

Duke and I have been going wherever we want ever since thanks to Eric and his work with us.

 

Gary & Duke

 

 

Oh my dear Gloria... I got my Rottweiler Gloria at 7 weeks old. I knew it was imperative, having a breed like that, that I get myself in classes immediately. I wanted to have a very social dog, one that never jumped on people, was great with all dogs, and in all scenarios, as I wanted to bring her with me everywhere.

 

I started with Eric when Glo was 8 weeks. It was no walk in the park, I'll tell you that. I worked so hard to get everything right and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Well, I found out later, that my boyfriend (now ex boyfriend) was ruining my hard work behind my back... (if you take the course you will understand.) So, after re-doing all that work, and getting rid of the boyfriend, Gloria and I finally had success. Now, don't get me wrong, Gloria is no saint - she can test me at times, and when she wants to manipulate me, she definately tries. But thanks to Eric, I never fall for her tricks.

 

He teaches you more then just simple obedience. You learn body language, and what your dog is doing when they stare at you, or pace back and forth, or crowd you. It's so much more then sit, down, come, stay, heel. His course (provided you work hard) teaches you how to have a happy, and successful life with your dog. What we don't realize is that when you are not happy with your dog, they are not happy with you. Anyone can change that, but most don't and they make excuses. If you can get through the tough parts of the course, the reward makes everything worth while. I've never had a bond like the one I have with Gloria, and I truly believe, in seeing the way she looks at me, that she feels the same.

 

Shawna & Gloria

 

 

 

Cooper came into our lives at 8 weeks of age, on a Sunday afternoon in late February.  An initially shy and timid puppy came home with us to our condo and fell asleep on the floor.  "What a good dog," thought Matt and I.  Monday morning, Cooper began to get used to his new home and, "What a good dog," became, "Get the puppy off of me!"  Cooper, (a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, a herding dog originally used to herd cattle and familiarized by the Queen) went straight to work, herding both Matt and I everywhere we went. Though we admired his work ethic, the novelty wore off after a couple hours of inability to walk anywhere without puppy nipping at our heels!  Tuesday I called The Dog House, thinking a 5 min chat would book us in for some kind of puppy class.  I was passed on to Eric, and the anticipated 5 min chat turned into a half an hour briefing.  After hanging up with Eric, I called Matt and said, "This guy seems super hardcore!" but since both Matt and I were tired of playing cattle it seemed like a good fit. 

 

After having to endure the nipping and cautious walking for almost a week, Eric showed up at our condo on Saturday for the start of Puppy Foundations (By in large the most important aspect of our training thus far).  I referred to it as "puppy owner boot camp training," it was Matt and I who were being trained. At times it felt like we were accomplishing nothing, but our constant phone contact with Eric between sessions reaffirmed that we were staying on track.  Despite Cooper having health complications throughout Puppy Foundations, and the inclement weather (I don't advise getting a puppy while there's snow on the ground, it's fun for neither you nor the puppy) we finished a successful month.

After Puppy Foundations we continued socializing Cooper to everything that we were told to expose him to, a myriad of people, places and things all over.  By 4 months we had a puppy that was comfortable anywhere.  I never thought I'd say this, but you actually get tired of people stopping you saying, "Wow, that's the most well behaved puppy I've ever seen!"

Shortly after Foundations we signed up for Building the Comfort Zone.  That was where we truly began to see all the hard work we did during Foundations starting to pay off.  At 4 and a half months, we had a puppy who could successfully heel on leash.  At one point I said to Eric, "If all I wanted was a dog that walked awesome on leash, Cooper's perfect, we're pretty much done!", but Matt and I wanted more.  With continued work and much to our surprise, by 5 months we had a puppy that could successfully heel off leash!  Not just off leash on some quiet side streets either, I'm talking about off leash in front of our condo, at a major downtown intersection.  It's one thing to have people stop you or stand to the side watching while you walk an atypical breed of puppy down the street, I mean everyone loves a puppy.  But you should see people's reaction when walking the same cute puppy they saw 3 weeks ago, this time walking off leash!  It's an entirely different kind of amazing.

Cooper's now almost 6 months old, and don't get me wrong we've still got work to do.  We're just over half way through Building the Comfort Zone which has been equally hardcore.  There are other factors that come into play as well like teething and flight period, all of which Eric and his staff are incredible at working though.  We often meet other dog owners and feel left out of the conversation while they compare the different articles within their home that have become recent chew toys, various pieces of furniture that have become destroyed while their puppies are teething.  Sadly, we can't participate as Eric and his staff have given us the tools to make such developmental stages easier for us to deal with and ultimately more comfortable for Cooper.

So what else can I say, we have a dog that has become an integrated part of our lives.  Cooper can readily come with us to a patio and be perfectly content while we eat, drink AND have desert.  Eric and his staff have also taught us that while there's a lot of work to do, there also needs to be a lot of play, balance is key.  And even if part of the homework doesn't make any sense this week, we know that next week it will be perfectly aligned with the next exercise.  It's all about being consistent, asking questions and doing the homework.

 

Darin, Matt, & Cooper

Click here to see Cooper (at 5 months) off leash with Darin

 

 

I've grown up with dogs my entire life thinking they were "very obedient". Sure they wouldn't drag me down the street when I walked them and they would sometimes sit and lay down when asked, and this would ultimately precede them running away for hours on end while my dad was away at work. This life is acceptable for a country dog living in North Bay.

 

So imagine how great it feels to see people stare in amazement as I walk in to the beer store with kaydah with no leash or collar (often a pretty bandana) and ask her to down and stay while I go in and order. This is only what you see on the streets. Now walk in to my house and watch my lab collie (who is "a crazy" breed who needs attention all the time) and watch my couch potato at her best. My favorite is when she's playing with a friend at a dog park who's mom had to wake up at 7 am to walk her 2 year old labradoodle after taking him out at 11 pm the night before. As I think about my less than 2 year old who sleeps quietly beside me and doesn't say a peep no matter how long I decide to stay in bed. I knew life with a dog was wonderful. I did not realize it could be this amazing.

 

It was very hard work when I first started the Comfort Zone course. First week of heel and I have to carry my now 14 week old 20lb dog around unless I'm healing her. But after the sweat and tears (from both of us) I couldn't have asked for a better dog and best friend than Kaydah. Eric and the Dog House staff gave me the tools to teach my dog to be better than I could have ever imagined.

 

If you had told me I would have my dog off leash, come when called and be polite and courteous all in one breed I would have never believed you. But here she is! And sure she isn't perfect...she even has a little tourette's (as we like to call it) from time to time and she loves to test her boundaries. But show me anywhere in the world where there is a perfect dog. You cant! This is as perfect as they come!

 

Alli, Ryan, & Kaydah

 

 

DUTCHY

 

When my boyfriend Tony and I adopted Dutchy a German Shepherd-Husky cross at the age of 8 months we had no clue how life would be with a bigger dog (we also own 2 shihtzu-yorkie dogs). She came with a set of problems that made life pretty much unbearable. She is Super sweet but hyperactive-annoying-whiny-skiddish with a pinch of separation anxiety and she absolutely pulled Tony and I on walks so much that she nearly tore our arms off.

 

We immediately enrolled her in the Leadership program in which we saw progress right away, and in only 2 weeks shy we started the Obedience course with Eric. The training was never directed towards Dutch at all. Eric not only trained us, but he does a great job empowering us. Through all the headaches, heartaches, and ugly-cries of happiness and frustration I've had so far support was literally just a phone call away .The support he delivers is how I got through all this training and is evident in how my dog now behaves.

 

After the very first class with Eric the pulling that was once so unbearable and frustrating was virtually non existent, and now we find the walks with her more joyous and peaceful. She is much more respectful, well mannered, calm and relaxed which makes my boyfriend and I much more relaxed parents.

I can honestly say I love love loveeeee being around Dutch now. What is more surprising is as I write this testimonial we are going on to week 4 in training and hence the training may not be finished but it has made such a dramatic change in the way we live with her and most importantly the way she lives with us. What at first seems to be an expensive investment was exactly what it is... an expensive investment (haha) but the payoff is astronomical and well worth it. I am happy to say Dutch is on her way to being a trustworthy-off-leash doggy! *yay*

 

P.s. thanks Shawna for all the extra support I can always count on you guys!

 

Linda, Tony and Dutchy