I would recommend Olivia to anyone in a heartbeat! When I was looking for a trainer to work with me and my Labrador puppy, a friend recommended Olivia and I am SO grateful that she did. From the very beginning, Olivia was friendly, personable, professional, and communicative. My dog loves her, and I absolutely love working with her!For the past few months, she has been working with us (me and my pup, Coda) and leading us through the journey of training Coda to be my hearing assistance service dog. Coda and I excitedly look forward to each one of our sessions. From the very first session, Coda was so receptive to Olivia’s training methods. Following our sessions, Coda and I practice what we learned and often take videos. I’ll send videos to Olivia and she is super responsive with feedback! She’ll tell me what we are doing well, what we can improve on, and ways that we can continue progressing in the training until the next session. She’ll ask for updates and share in our joy when Coda is doing well, and provides suggestions and support any time Coda is struggling. She understands that all dogs are different, so sometimes we may need to change our approach to training a specific skill. One major plus is that Olivia is a service dog handler herself! She understands the inevitable frustrations that come with training a dog, specifically a service dog. She is honest and upfront about what to expect when training a service dog, as well as the challenges of being a service dog handler. Within the few months that I have been working with Olivia, Coda has made incredible strides and continues to amaze me with how well she has taken to training. With that, Olivia never fails to compliment our progress as a service dog team-- and that praise is always reassuring! I sincerely look forward to continuing my journey of working with Olivia to train Coda, and I am so incredibly glad that I chose this fabulous trainer!
-Rebecca Malstrom
