My son has wanted a German Shepherd dog since he was 6 years old. Finally on his 12th birthday he got his wish. A male German Shepherd named Sarge. I knew Sarge was going to grow into quite a large dog. His dad Konan was at least 100 lbs. easy. My first thought after bringing Sarge home was to immediately get him into training before he got too big for me or my boys to be able to control. I put him into training when he was 3 months old with a local dog trainer that used dog treats as a way of training. I quickly figured out that my very smart German Shepherd picked up on the “I’ll do anything when you have a treat in your hand and nothing when you don’t”. This obviously wasn’t working at all and the thought of having to carry around dog treats in order to get my dog to obey started sounding like a very bad idea. Sarge was getting bigger every day and I knew it was time to try something different.
As I searched the internet for dog trainers I came across Victors K9-101 website. After reading the testimonials and watching the video I immediately called and set up a time to meet with victor and see what he could do with my large, smart, protective, and totally untrained dog. The first day was a huge eye opener. Although I wasn’t surprised about the things I was doing wrong with Sarge as far as training goes, I was shocked to see how quickly I could do things right with him. In one hour of meeting with victor I not only felt I had a better understanding of Sarge but I was able to get Sarge to do more that day than I had ever gotten him to do with all the treats and weeks of training I had done prior. I continued to work with Victor for over a year. Not only did victor help me create a healthy, happy, and obedient dog but he went above and beyond to help me with any problem I had large or small. Victor would bring his dogs to my house to work with Sarge when I noticed Sarge had an aggression problem with other dogs that would get too close to me or my two boys. Victor actually took Sarge to his house for an entire weekend to work on the aggression problem. He even had his friends bring their dogs over so Sarge would be exposed to as many different dogs and personalities as possible. When Victor brought Sarge back the following Monday I was shocked and overjoyed to watch Sarge on video running and playing with these other dogs. I soon learned that Sarge was not aggressive towards other dogs just protective of me. Victor helped me to learn that how I approached other dogs with Sarge directly influenced how Sarge would react. If I was nervous Sarge would sense that and immediately become protective. Bottom line is Victor helped me learn that it wasn’t about making Sarge obedient. All Sarge wants to do is make me happy. It was about me learning how to be confident, loving, understanding, and at times even strict with Sarge. That approach has helped create the kind of dog that I wanted to have and the kind of owner I want to be.
Without Victor and his guidance I would not be the type of dog owner I am today and Sarge would not be the happy and well-adjusted family member/dog that he is. I count my blessings every day that K9-101 was the website that I decided to call on that day. Victor has not only become a trusted trainer he has become a trusted and lifelong friend.