Helping Hounds Training

After my experience at the last place Erin and the gang at Helping Hounds was so great!!! My puppy came home happy, but sleepy every day. The force free training methods eased my mind and worked so well!!!
My autistic son was put at ease and was able to grasp this training method. Erin worked with him and Winter during the transfer sessions. She also provided easy to follow handouts for us to reinforce what was worked on throughout the week.
I would highly recommend Helping Hounds to anyone looking for training for their dogs!!!

I’m not sure that the 5-​star «Woohoo! As good as it gets!» Unilocal rating description is quite adequate for this review. For reals.
My company produces large expos for pet lovers across the country. As a result, I’ve met literally thousands of dog trainers, from Anchorage to Miami and Boston to San Francisco — and gotten more advice than I’d like from many of them. I can confidently say that Erin Wigginton, owner and head trainer of Helping Hounds Training, is one of the very best and she quite literally changed our lives.
I originally reached out to Erin because my canine soulmate, Enzo, had become fear reactive and I knew it was only a matter of time until someone was seriously injured by him; he’d become a very dangerous dog and could no longer be trusted.
Even though I had originally been working with another trainer, who talked a lot about «rehabilitation» and «being balanced,» «dog psychology,» being the «pack leader» and making sure I was the «alpha,» the original problems I had sought help for (Enzo behaving like a normal six-​month teenage brat), ended up becoming much much worse. One of the first things that this trainer did was fit Enzo for a pinch collar and the second thing that he did was show me how to properly snap the lead to correct any undesirable behavior or even to prevent an anticipated unwanted behavior.
I really hated how Enzo Unilocaled with each correction. When I expressed concern, I was told that it was simply doggie «drama» and that the collar didn’t really hurt him; it was just like the correction that a mother dog gives her puppies and it was meant to get his attention — that if I didn’t buck up and start acting like a pack leader, like the human «alpha» I should be, Enzo would turn into a monster. According to the trainer, the problem wasn’t with Enzo at all — the problem was with me.
In the meantime, Enzo started displaying some new and scary behaviors, like lunging and growling at strangers and anything human in shape, including sculptures and statues, and no longer enjoyed his daily walks. And he absolutely terrified of his trainer — like «pee on himself when the trainer arrives» scared.
I decided that I didn’t care about any «theory» or «rehabilitation,» I cared about Enzo’s well-​being, so I fired our trainer and began searching for options that I hoped could help make Enzo whole again. The more I read, the more I learned, the more (legitimate) canine behavior experts I spoke to, I came to realize that Enzo wasn’t being «trained» by his former «trainer,» he was being bullied, terrorized and abused.
After a ton of research on Helping Hounds and their training method, I thought that they might be the answer to our prayers. Erin was a very different type of trainer and proved to be everything that I had hoped for: patient, understanding, kind and respectful of Enzo’s needs. Enzo loved her immediately — and most importantly — Erin loved him right back.
As a result of her patient work with building Enzo’s confidence and educating both of us on how to better understand one another, my boy is now a happy and healthy canine who no longer lives in constant fear of strangers. Erin believed in him and believed in us and I can’t even tell you how much that means to me — and Enzo.
I made some big mistakes — HUGE mistakes — with Enzo’s early training and may never get over the guilt; I can promise you that if you introduce Erin to your own best friend, you’ll be nothing but happy and your canine companion will thank you for it.