We first contacted Kathleen and Atlantic K9 because our 18-month old White German Shepherd, Duck, was starting to get out of control and we had a very young baby. Duck was a great dog and we had trained him as well as we could on our own, but he had trouble calming down when he got excited, wouldn’t sit and lay down without treats (and even then usually not), and would pull really strongly on the leash.
We heard from our vet about AK9 and we could not have had a better experience. I had multiple phone calls to tell them about Duck and the issues we were dealing with, and they walked me through why these issues were happening and what they would do to help. We signed Duck up for the 2-week bootcamp, and he had a blast! He came back the same silly, happy dog but much more disciplined. He listens now when we tell him no, when we tell him to sit and lie down, and is generally just much more in control and a much more relaxed family dog.
We also had issues with him barking at the visitors at the door, so Kathleen came over after the bootcamp and walked us through a training session for how to deal with these situations and teach Duck that he can’t bark aggressively at every person who comes to the door, even though he thinks he’s protecting us.
Overall, we will absolutely use AK9 in the future to board Duck if we go on vacation – we trust Kathleen and her team and know they treat each dog like their own. I cannot recommend AK9 enough – and there’s nothing better than seeing all the pictures at the end of the day of the dogs playing in the yard!