Gotta brag about the progress our Irish Wolfhound pup has made with our cats. We have 3 cats and one other dog. The trouble maker, Pesado was a rescue pup we got ~7mo old in October 2011. While him and our 1st dog got along great, Pesado had a strong prey drive and would constantly hunt for and chase our cats. Though no physical damage was ever done to our cats we could definitely not trust our pup to be unattended.

We tried Many different training suggestions to break the behavior but nothing was remotely successful until we were introduced to Felix Pachon, owner of Proving Ground Kennels. He is truly a dog whisperer and knows his stuff! He has spent Countless hours training, not only our pup, but my husband and I as well! He takes the time to help us, as owners, understand why dogs act and behave the way they do and how we, the owners, can act as the pack leaders to raise our dog to become the pup we want him to be and how we can encourage the dog to aspire to please us!

I am still amazed daily on the progress Pesado has made and continues to make. I am now able to go to bed with our sweet, snugly pup, Pesado on the bed with me where he will cuddle and sleep for a few hours while my husband finishes work and then at that time we still crate him (hopefully in the not too distant future we will be able to trust him out all night). Pesado is now calm around the cats, instead of always being on the hunt, and the cats will actually sleep on the floor in the same room as him. Lately, I have been able to pet Pesado with one hand and one of our more brave cats with the other hand while they both remain calm and content with the attention.

Pesado was a pretty ‘urrr, durrr, I sneeze and hit my head on the ground’ kinda pup but he is becoming such a wonderful part of our furry family and my only regret is not utilizing Felix sooner!!

– Jennifer Larson

 

 

Let me start by saying I’m not huge on writing reviews unless I feel very strongly one way or another about something and really want people to know about my experience. With that said, In my opinion Felix at Proving Ground Kennels has set the bar for K9 trainers in the Phoenix Metro area. If knowledge, professionalism and results are important to you then Felix is the trainer for you… Period!  The work he has done with my own dogs has been incredible.  When Felix started working with our Mastiff mix, Harley, I was blown away with Felix’s understanding of dog behavior and abilities to not only train Harley but train me to be a better handler. The end result speaks for itself, our slightly crazy,over-sized puppy Harley is now a respectful, well behaved member if the family.

If that wasn’t reason enough to spread the word about Proving Ground Kennels we recently added a second dog to the family.  Roxy, a spunky little white lab with a nose for trouble. With a pregnant wife I was worried that out crazy little puppy would quickly become an out of control adult that could accidentally hurt either my wife or baby. One call to Felix and we went to work.  We are currently only two weeks into basic obedience and Roxy has already made incredible progress towards becoming the dog we hoped for.

It’s hard to measure how much if an impact the simple investment of quality, professional dog training has on your everyday life until you see a truly out of control dog. You just take it for granted when you have a well behaved, social pet that you do not have to worry about.  Worth every penny!

Thanks again Proving Ground Kennels!

 

– Alex Centner