Jean and Don N.

Don Drogsvold's services as a dog trainer "extraordinaire" has turned what could have been a very unhappy dog-owning experience, in our household, into a happy one. Having owned big dogs all our lives, we decided to go "one bigger" when moving to Summit County. What we didn't realize was our large breed dog would be much too strong and willful for us with our limitations as senior citizens (one slightly handicapped). We attended puppy classes but we needed more training and tried a couple resources.

We found it necessary to leave the county (Carbondale) to find a personal trainer and after boarding a dog for two weeks realized someone from outside the county was incapable of understanding the situation here, where dogs pass regularly on the sidewalks of main streets, are greeted continually by strangers and spend a lot of time on bike/walking paths. The trainer was a "fit, 30 year old", who had no concept of how older persons would handle a 130lb. dog. After trying a couple local resources, we realized ours was a particular situation and were ready to give up. The day we composed a letter to our breed's rescue page, the Summit Daily ran an article on Don and his credentials. We did a "last ditch effort" call to Don and have had an enormous improvement. Don is willing to work with owner's special circumstances (in our case, age, and disability) and also goes to the site where problems are recurring. We would be typical of the dog owners, who want to continue socialization for their dogs and continued training, under the advantage of skilled trainers. A day care center and classroom situation under the observation of such trainers would be a resource definitely used by our family. Don's professionalism, continuing training and education for himself, his ability to "train and educate owners" with tact and skill is unsurpassed. Our community has great respect for him as his good citizenship carries over to the animal shelter with innovative programming and teaching.