We are so blessed to have met Sandra Brown. For the past two and a half years, Katie is a beautiful German shepherd who was taunted and teased in the community. Katie fell into a deep depression with built up anxiety causing her to lose trust in people and be unsure how to respond to unknown situations.
Sandra Brown is extremely knowledgeable as a dog trainer and owner! She has taught Katie to be able to decrease her level of anxiety in different situations. Katie has been training with Sandra and I have seen Katie accomplish new milestones.
Sandra’s methodology to positive reinforcement training has taught Katie to be social and be attentive to the training she has received by Sandra. One of the key highlights in the training I’ve have seen when working with Sandra is her ability to incorporate different training techniques with the use of her own dogs which has been very effective in Katie’s training. Katie is responding positively to Rebel and has minimized her reactivity. I am pleased to see how far Katie has come with Sandra’s guidance and expertise.
As an owner, Sandra is working with myself and my daughter to ensure Katie’s training is ongoing and long lasting. Sandra brings positive and self-encouragement to assist me with the training; it has allowed me to develop the correct skills as an owner to ensure Katie is responding positively in any situation.
I am so lucky to have Sandra be Katie’s trainer. I am in debt to her through this journey with Katie and will continue to work with Sandra to ensure Katie has the best quality of life. Both Sandra and her dogs are to be commended for giving Katie back the happiness she deserves.
With Love,
The Stevens Family
Our family was happy and excited to get our first puppy, Stella. Stella is a beautiful pure breed husky and we brought her to our home when she was just over seven weeks old. Stella was a little shy for the first week, very intelligent and we worked hard to help her settle into our home. Stella was a wonderful addition to our family and we thought we had the perfect puppy.
Being a stay-at-home parent, I had lots of time to devote to her training and providing her with lots of exercise and stimulation. We became a little concerned about her behavior when she started showing signs of aggression, guarding her toys, and chew treats ( lip curling, low growls etc ). We tried hard to break her of the habit, but she just became more unstable, appearing friendly and then suddenly snapping without warning.
The seriousness of the situation did not seem to sink in until our neighbour agreed to dog-sit her for a day while our family when to a wedding. When we returned home, we were startled to hear that Stella had bitten our neighbour (Stella found a dead bunny under the deck and when the neighbour tried to get the carcass away from Stella – the dog attacked). we decided that Stella needed some professional help.
We hired, a local trainer to help with Stella. We followed the trainer’s instructions and suggestions, but Stella became even more aggressive (biting my wife and children). Stella’s behavior became dangerous to our friends and family. Stella had escalated from a moody dog to a very unpredictable and dangerous pet. Although she was still very good with me, she was increasingly aggressive with the rest of our family. We quickly realized that our current trainer was very incompetent and his techniques were only exasperating Stella’s behavior.
We were ready to get rid of Stella. The stress and worry had paralysed our family – people though we were nuts to try to rehabilitate our dog.
My sister-in-law suggested to enlist the help of Sandra Brown (as she had used Sandra with her dog). We knew this would be Stella’s last chance.
Sandra came to visit our family (a two hour drive). Sandra suggested that we avoid eye-contact with Stella ( she finds that direct eye-contact is confrontational and makes Stella very uncomfortable ). Always give her treats from behind without looking directly at Stella. Never use harsh tones. When she exhibits bad manners distract her into doing something positive etc. The results were evident immediately!
Stella did not know what to make of this new approach. Within the next two days, we all noticed that Stella was developing good manners, was calmer and more obedient. Over the next few weeks, and then into months, Stella had become a very different dog, less aggressive, much more responsive and predictable. As owners we became much more aware of Stella’s signals and attuned to her mood.
Sandra’s approach has made a world of difference to us and our dog. Stella’s still not perfect but she has made some incredible improvement. My wife and children are no longer afraid of Stella. The kids love playing with our adorable dog, they have learned valuable strategies in how to handle situations and we are all much more confident dog owners.
Sandra Brown is incredible. My whole family watches The Canine Interpreter (Sandra’s show) … in fact the only time Stella ever appears to have any awareness of the TV is when Sandra’s show is on (it’s quite comical to watch Stella’s reaction). Sandra is always available to help with our training, we give her progress reports and feedback – Sandra responds to our requests in a very timely manner and has always been available to provide advice and support.
Thank you Sandra Brown for being such a great help when we needed it most.
Sincerely,
Steve Kobal and family.
We had the opportunity to have Sandra Brown work with our two American Bulldogs, during a two week bootcamp. After much research, we were happy to find a professional who was able to provide the proper support and information to us and positive reinforcement training for our dogs. Sandra kept us informed throughout their training regarding their progress and her observations. She helped educate us on her methods and was able to provide us with training techniques to reinforce what was taught during their training, with a hands on lesson and observation. Our dogs finished the program in a calmer state of mind and less anxiety. We really appreciate the ongoing support and ability to continue these practices and techniques at home.
In order for anyone to appreciate the impact Sandra had on us you must first understand our situation. We are not new to dogs; we have been dog owners for 15 years. Having raised 3 Siberian Huskies, two from pups and one as a rescue, we were confident we could handle just about anything. After a very painful and sudden loss of our last dog we were determined to take on another rescue and provide it with the best possible home and life we could. That’s where Koda came in. We adopted this beautiful little 8 week old black ball of fur and were full of excitement and anticipation in raising our new puppy. It didn’t take long for us to realize this little fellow was like nothing we had ever dealt with. His dominant nature and aggressive behaviour prompted frantic trips to the book store and marathon episodes of several popular dog shows trying to get a handle on what was going on. Nothing worked, it seemed the more we tried the worse the behaviour was getting. By the time Koda reached 14 weeks of age we were done, and were seriously talking about getting rid of him. Koda’s behaviour had deteriorated into full blown aggressive lunging and biting and I was concerned that my wife and family were in danger. We were convinced we could not handle him but had committed to do our best by him and gave him one last opportunity.
We called Sandra Brown. I was certain we were throwing good money after bad and honestly had little hope of success. Sandra came for an in home evaluation of Koda and quickly identified Koda’s aggressive dominant nature and just as quickly advised us that he could be trained, or more correctly we could be trained to handle him. The longer she spoke the more light bulbs went on in my head. Most of what we knew would not work with a dominant nature like this and Sandra gave us new ways and ideas of how to approach it. We tried, but after a few more days we realized were we not equipped to provide the intense training Koda needed. We made the decision to send him to “Boot Camp”. Sandra took him for three weeks and returned to us a dog we could not believe. Koda’s aggressive behaviour was in check, he was affectionate and responsive. We took home the dog we had always wanted.
Koda’s training continues… he is learning as are we, he makes mistakes but so do we. Sandra has always made herself available to help and offer suggestions, fine tuning us and always offering support for any situation that arises. She has not only been Koda’s trainer and our mentor but has become our friend. Her skills as a trainer prevented what surely would have been the destruction of a most amazing and beautiful animal. I truly believe that anyone with a dog, well behaved or a challenge can learn something from Sandra. Her understanding and passion for these animals is evident the moment you talk to her. She is patient with both dog and owner, never dominates or controls the dog by force; she has helped us find the most amazing dog hidden inside.
Derrick and Barb Curtis
Wasaga Beach
I cannot recommend Sandra Brown enough! We had a very aggressive German Shepherd puppy named Jessie – and were very close to bringing her back to the breeder. We hired Sandra Brown to come and evaluate the situation. Sandra said our puppy was one of the most aggressive German Shepherd puppies she had ever seen and that we had 2 choices – get rid of her right now – or train her. I had become quite attached to Jessie so I opted to give the training a try. JI was very doubtful it would work – but much to my surprise Jessie came back a completely different dog and has never been aggressive since!
I find myself constantly telling this story at the dog park in Collingwood – because Sandra simply worked miracles!!!!
Our Jessie is now an amazingly obedient and gentle loving dog and she has not been aggressive once since Sandra trained her.
I highly recommend Sandra Brown!!!!!
