Testimonial – Gundog / Dog Training Golden Retrievers

I love my two golden retrievers, but lately, it had become impossible to walk them. Both would pull on leads when walking and it really was becoming a chore taking them out. We started to dread it and my wife was unable to walk them. They’d also started escaping our garden by jumping over the walls and chasing livestock, which was very concerning. (For us and the sheep involved).

We’d been to a number of trainers, some would try dominance approaches, which we really didn’t like and then others would be completely food focused. Which meant giving our dogs hundreds of treats, rendering it useless unless we had food in our hands as, without it, they just completely ignored us.

We were getting to the point of despair and thought there must be someone out there who can help us not only train our dogs but also help us understand what motivates them so we both have a great relationship.

There was, and his name is Damian. We found Damian through instagram and after reading his website and testimonials my wife and I could not get in touch faster. Damian managed to book us in at short notice for our first lesson and we were counting down the hours.

First lesson – we met Damian and had a great chat about the dogs and their behaviours. Before we’d even got down to training he had a firm but constructive conversation about not having one of our dogs on the back seat, as this was very unsafe. That was our first lesson learnt and we changed it straight away. They both now go in the back boot (4×4, we don’t lock them in an actual boot 🙂 ).

Next part of the lesson – focusing on walking without being dragged around. The first part of this lesson, Damian introduced us to a slip lead, he put it on our boy Oscar and what followed was myself and my wife stood with our mouths open wide, laughing in disbelief as we couldn’t believe that in about 5 minutes, he had oscar walking on a loose lead without pulling and without a single treat being given. AMAZING.

Then we said, “right, that’s fantastic, but wait till you meet Millie”. At this point, Damian approached our car and opened up the boot. Millie dived out the car, like she does, ready to drag us round as normal.

Before getting her on a lead, Damian was having none of it. He calmly put Millie back in the car and made her sit and wait, whilst he put Oscar back in. On a normal day, my wife and I can be seen playing the role of a goalkeeper diving around to catch them both as they jump out the car. Somehow, Damian had them both sat in the boot, waiting patiently until he decided it was time to for them to jump out. FANTASTIC.

I get Millie out and Damian gets to witness the golden fluffy beast that is Millie as she persisted in drag me around on her lead and practically choking herself. At this point, Damian stepped in.

He put the slip lead on, which Millie was not happy about and she was determined not to conform. Within about 3 minutes, she was walking to heal by his side, staring at him attentively. WE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! This is the dog that no one can walk, no trainer had ever succeeded to make her walk to heal. My wife and I were staring at each other laughing and saying “Is this guy the dog whisperer?”. (I’m so glad we didn’t take him up on his bet, which would have resulted in me losing my car after successfully training Mille).

What Damian achieved in that one lesson has been life changing for us. We’re going to continue to work with him, as one day I really want them to work in the sporting field. This was once a distant goal, but now I can’t wait to keep going back as we both know that by working with Damian, we can pretty much teach them anything.

We couldn’t recommend Damian more. Don’t bother wasting your money or time on anyone else. I wish we’d met him months ago.

Thanks Damian for your work and help so far. We can’t wait to come back.

Posted: April 20, 2017