Our family loves Atlantic K9, which we have used for both boarding and training. We brought Kathleen to our house to help us train our rescue dog, Charlie, in anticipation of having our son. We knew that a new baby would mean more visitors to our home, which made Charlie somewhat uncomfortable.

He would express his discomfort by barking, which scared both us and our guests. Kathleen immediately understood what we needed, and worked with us closely to get Charlie more comfortable with strangers in our house. She also helped us be smart about introducing Charlie to our newest family member. Through e-collar training and positive reinforcement, we saw an immediate change in Charlie’s behavior. Charlie finally listened to us when we asked him to “come.” He dropped things when we asked. He stopped barking once we assured him that everything was OK and that guests were welcome in our home. He learned that some things in our house are “off limits” – i.e. the baby’s room, the baby’s toys, etc. In short, he finally recognized that we were in charge.

Whenever we find that Charlie is regressing, we simply employ the tools given to us by Kathleen and Charlie remembers what she taught him about good behavior. We now have a routine when it comes to introducing Charlie to new people, and he is confident and comfortable in these situations. We also are thrilled that Charlie is so in love with our son and treated him like a pack member from day one – thanks to Kathleen’s sound advice on introducing the two.

We are thrilled with the care that Charlie gets when he boards with Kathleen’s team, as well. Charlie is well fed, trained at every walk, and is given supervised play time with his doggy friends. He comes home happy, tired, and well behaved! We love that Kathleen posts pictures of the dogs in an album that we can view while we are away – it makes missing him a little bit easier on us.

Overall, I can’t recommend Kathleen enough. She took our nervous, territorial rescue animal and turned him into a warm, welcoming family dog.