K9 Connection — Local services in Buffalo

K9 Connection helped our nearly 5 year old Golden Retriever and us overcome his anxious, fear reactive, grieving behaviors and our own fears of aggressive dogs. Loren Danaher was the perfect trainer for Griffin’s concerns. She was very calm and steady with him and he responded very positively to her direction. By the end of the first week, she solved the issue of him not wanting to get out of the car, to come reliably when called and to stay in Place (we learned this but never truly understood the immense benefits of utilizing this command). We sent her videos of problems we had during our weekend times together and she would respond back how we should approach the problem — corrections we needed to make so he would respond the way we wanted. She also could see what issues she needed to work on for the next week of training. She literally sat in the bathroom with the fan on and walked him by a building with a noisy outside A/C for a week to help desensitize him to the noise our A/C units made. What a relief as the week he came home after training, the temperatures were in the 90s and we could use our A/C without him freaking out!

During our end of week training session, Loren showed us what Griffin learned and then taught us how to procure the same response she could get from him. She gently pointed our learning opportunities and how we may be sending him mixed/confusing messages.

Loren continued to be responsive to e-mails and questions during weekends and the months following his completion of the program. We followed their post-training instructions exactly and I highly recommend everyone who invested their resources in training to do so. Griffin was, as many reviews say, a “different” or “well-behaved dog” after he got home. However, we were prone to making the same mistakes that reinforced his problem areas in the first place. The two month protocol was important to keep his training and ours reinforced. When we strayed from the instructions, we knew it immediately, because he responded to reverting to our old ways of being with him with his old undesirable behaviors. Not his fault—he is looking for his cues on how to behave from us. When he starts to relapse to undesirable behaviors, we know that the first thing we have to do is check our own behavior.

Extra Kudos to Meghan who responded quickly to all communications with her and provided much needed reassurance that K9 Connections would be able to help us when no one else seemed to think it possible. Six months later: *He has a reliable recall—we can even have him off lead and on his remote collar only in safe locations. *We can use A/C without him freaking out. *We can use the stove/oven and he will come in the kitchen or not retreat to the farthest corner of the house. *He still notices new things and with simple encouragement he will “check it out” vs run from it or refuse to pass it. *He doesn’t lunge at other dogs. If they are approaching him when they are out of control, he will react but we recognize this is normal behavior for a dog under these circumstances.

Loren taught us that we are protecting our dog when we cross a street or avoid the poor behavior...

When we first adopted our German shepherd mix Charley, he was a happy go lucky dog who loved everyone, dogs included. A couple of months later came the sudden nasty surprise: dog reactivity. Suddenly, within a matter of a couple of weeks, all strange dogs became a mortal enemy. We couldn't pass a dog across the street without severe lunging, barking, and high arousal for the rest of the walk. Instead of a fun bonding experience, walks became a necessary burden. All of our dreams of sharing our life with our dog - neighborhood walks, going to the farmers' market, off-leash time, etc., seemed dead in the water. We read books and tried a positive-only approach (mostly counter-conditioning with treats), but at best this managed the issue.

By the time we found K9 Connection, we were ready and receptive to a different approach. I watched many of their videos and realized that 1) They actually specialize in helping dogs with our kind of behavior issues and 2) that the tools and techniques that I had previously dismissed as heavy-handed or even cruel (prong collar, e-collar), can actually be subtle and humane when used correctly.

We signed up for 6 private lessons and were lucky to be assigned to trainer Dave, who was excellent. Dave introduced us to the prong collar, answered all of our questions, and sent us home hopeful for the first time in months. By the second or third lesson, Charley was passing training dogs on the street without blowing up, something I thought might take months to achieve. Most important, we were making this progress without a lot of force or leash corrections. In fact, when Dave and owner Tyler (who was present for some of the sessions) saw that Charley tends to re-direct onto the handler after a prong collar correction in an aroused state, they quickly suggested we ease off the prong and try training with an e-collar instead. This was excellent advice and we started seeing a lot of progress with a combination of leash work, low level e-collar (level ~5 out of 100) and food rewards.

After the 6 private lessons, we were allowed to take Charley to group class, which was another thing I didn't think we'd be able to do. These classes with Alex, another trainer I can't recommend enough, have been invaluable in continuing Charley's progress in being calm and obedient around other dogs.

In short, if you're having behavior issues with your dog, or just want a more balanced life with your dog, I recommend K9 Connection without reservation. Yes, it's not the cheapest place around, but I don't regret spending the money for a second. And the value is there to see. At one point, in a 1-hour class, we were setting up real-world scenarios out in the neighborhood with Charley and 3-4 different training dogs handled by multiple trainers. Very professionally done and effective.

I think every dog deserves good training, and the staff here love dogs and know what they're doing. I'm more bonded with Charley than ever before, he's calmer and happier than ever before, and last weekend, instead of staying home, he came with us to the farmers market for the...

This is our favorite place in the world! Not only does our dog Solar love daycare , she just completed her in board 4 week obedience training and we have to say we were shocked & amazed. We never thought Solar could be so well behaved with such polite manners and listening skills. K9 connection did an amazing job with her we can't thank them enough. When we came to see Solar for the first time in 30 days , Barb ( one of the trainers ) brought her in and it was incredible. Seriously we didn't recognize our dog. It was perfection. Barb also took the time to train us in great detail about everything Solar has learned so we can continue to use those tools in our home . So far things have been great , but I'm glad we were well trained ourselves. Barb and everyone else made sure we understood that you must continue to be consistent with Solar and continue as they have with her at training. We are glad they made us aware of this because after all Solar's hard work and the trainers you don't want to throw that away . We practice all her commands throughout the day , she is doing amazing , very small slip ups which is normal for being back home in the old environment where she did what she wanted. Simple corrections and she listens right away. Solar actually volunteers and sits or lays on her place mat throughout the day . What's even more impressive is that when I allow her to break for a little bit she comes close to me and lays down beside me all on her own. But overall the walks are my favorite. Every walk use to be so stressful , she always pulled , never listened , chased birds and squirrels . Now nothing ! It's the best walks I've ever had my entire life with a dog ! So I really can't thank them enough . This is worth every last dollar , you will not regret doing any type of training here. They know what they are doing , they truly care about the dogs & customers and overall I'd rate this experience a 10 if there were more stars to give . We are so excited to learn and grow with solar and we know she is going to grow into such a beautiful , wonderful obedient girl. For 81/2 months she's doing awesome !!! I do want to add that when I had some questions about Solar they got back to me right away , and the owner Tyler was the one to call and help me through any questions or concerns I had. I highly recommend K9 connections . They...