I had been carefully planning for the arrival of my second companion in life for many months before going to pick out my new labrador puppy. I travel constantly for work, and planned to have him trained as a service animal so that I could take him on flights with me. I wanted to be sure I started my new friend out on the right foot. In preparation, I had googled “dog trainers” in NYC and Kate’s site was one of the first to come up. But it wasn’t until, coincidentally, a few weeks later I was at the airport and a young labrador puppy walked past me with his owners through security.
I marveled at how calm and trained this little puppy was in the craziness of the airport. He kept his eye on his owners and acted perfectly. I was blown away. “THAT’S WHAT I WANT!” I thought. I walked up to them and said, “Excuse me, but could I ask how you were able to get a puppy of this age so well behaved?” They both exclaimed at the same time “Kate Perry!” I’d remembered the name from my Google search. The rest is history. I emailed Kate’s assistant and was immediately contacted to get my new boy enrolled in puppy and group classes as soon as I picked him up. I started him with Kate right at 9 weeks. We went to every puppy class and a full session of group training classes. The knowledge and training were invaluable.
At 10 weeks my puppy was flying with me and acting just like the example I’d seen a few months before. Since then we’ve worked with Kate with private classes and advanced training. My little guy plays dead, gives “high-5’s”, rolls over, and we’ve only just started. More importantly than that, he’s welcome everywhere we go, because he’s so perfectly behaved. He’s been to 5-star hotels around the world where dogs aren’t normally allowed, and greeted by desk and bell staff that say “Logan is welcome here anytime.”
The most important thing I’ve learned from Kate is that 90% of the training is for you, not the dog, and those first few months can be crucial. We still have routine sessions with Kate learning new things every time, and Logan goes nuts when we sense Kate is due for a visit because he knows we’re going to be learning AND having fun. I couldn’t ask for a better companion and I owe a lot of it to Kate. I can’t recommend her highly enough.