After getting off to a good start in the first few months of having Lola we seemed to lose our way between the age of 4 months and 8 months. Initially we had crated her very regularly as she was a little puppy and got tired easily. As she grew and became more energetic we gave her more outside time as we thought she would enjoy this and only crated her overnight. At times we let Lola walk around the house off the lead. Throughout this time Lola became progressively harder to manage, often being very unsettled, urinating on our deck and we started to question whether we had made the right decision in getting a dog. We are first time dog owners and simply thought this is the way some dogs are.

Fortunately we were still attending classes with Sonia and she picked up that things weren’t right with Lola’s behaviour. After some in depth discussion with Sonia it became very apparent that our lack of daytime structure was the cause of Lola’s poor behaviour. Sonia gave us a lot of really great advice to address this but it required commitment from not only myself but also my wife and kids. As we were all at the point of desperation we all agreed to Sonia’s recommendations around structure. This included crating during the day as well as other obedience techniques. Within 2-3 days of complete commitment we started to see a dramatic improvement in Lola’s behaviour. She was far less erratic and anxious and for the first time was really calm in the evenings. Lola also appeared to be a much happier dog. We have kept up the structure over the past 3 months and Lola has continued to improve. She is an absolute delight to have as part of our family and we can’t imagine not having her. She never wees on the deck now, always lets us know when she needs to go to the toilet if inside, no longer digs holes in the garden and sleeps soundly from 10:00pm at night to 8:00am in the morning.

I would highly recommend Sonia to anyone who is having issues with their dog. Sonia is always so generous and honest with her advice and I really appreciate the difference this has made to Lola (and our lives!).