Zori The Golden Retriever

We worked with Sarai and George last year for about two months to train our golden retriever, Zori, and are so happy with our decision! We had to relocate from the Virginia area to Shanghai, China for work. Anticipating that Zori would need help adjusting to a new urban environment with strict rules for dogs, we chose to enroll Zori in the On and Off Leash obedience plan to ensure Zori actually listened and responded to our guidance.

Sarai and George were incredibly kind, thoughtful, and skilled teachers. They provided personalized lessons based on our goals for Zori and Zori's own temperament. Zori is an energetic, young dog and previously would constantly pull on walks, but after a few weekly sessions, we noticed a remarkable difference in her attentiveness to matching our pace and following our commands when walking her. Zori really enjoyed the lessons as well and was eager to mentally engage with the training program.

We noticed an improvement from Zori after two weeks and, a year later, our relationship with our dog is better than ever.  She is less anxious in busy environments because she knows what is expected of her. She gets compliments on the street from local residents in Shanghai and it brings us peace of mind to know our dog has been trained to heel closely by our side when we walk her on the sidewalk because there is busy motorbike traffic to avoid. We don't have a car in China, but Zori gets to come with us on outings because we feel comfortable taking her in taxis and on bus trips. Our confidence that she will listen to our instructions means we take her with us to the local grocery store because she listens to our stay command and will wait patiently outside of the store when we go inside. Having a well trained dog benefits both the owners and the dog because it opens up so many possibilities.

In addition to the lessons, Sarai and George provided video materials for us to reference and even gave Zori a puppy cake for her birthday. They were flexible if we needed to reschedule and thoughtful about the locations where our lessons took place. It was great getting to work with both of them and their pups as well. We are so grateful for their help and highly recommend enrolling in their program!