Pawsitive Pals Plus

I have been working with Teri for several years – first with my Belgian Malinois, Siva, doing nose work training and now with my young Belgian Tervuren, Santo.

 

Santo is a challenging dog. He’s a rambunctious two years old, he’s whip-smart and learns very quickly, and he’s also reactive to dogs – and to people until he gets to know them. Teri has been an enormous blessing in our lives, creating training opportunities that set Santo up for success. Her small-group nose work classes are an ideal setting for Santo, allowing him to focus, learn and practice nose work with minimal dog and people distractions. We’ve also done private rally obedience sessions with Teri. Santo has accepted Teri as part of his extended ‘ohana, which is a big thing for a reactive dog!

 

Teri has a wonderful innate sense of dog behavior and is an excellent trainer with that all-important ability to relay training guidance in a way that makes sense. She’s always upbeat and supportive during training sessions. I’m so impressed by the prep work that she puts into every class! She doesn’t just show up to teach; she shows up with a lesson plan, a truck full of training aids, and often with super-helpful printed information that help reinforce the training focus  of that day.

 

I have some pretty high aspirations for Santo. I would love to see him do scent work in a trial environment and excel at it, to do invasive species search on our island and serve our community, and even to eventually train as a service dog for my husband. I don’t know if any of these things will be possible for Santo given his reactivity challenges, but with Teri at our side, I feel confident that we’ll make big strides towards all of those goals.

 

Gretchen Ana Currie Ramirez