Category Archives: Customer Comments

Client Testimonials Sit Means Sit Cleveland-Akron

Posted on January 7, 2009 by paulpollock

January 6, 2009

Dear Paul:

I rarely will write to comment on a product or service, but I wanted to express my thanks for your help with training Cady the past 3 weeks. I’m sorry to make this a long story, but I wanted to explain how I came to my careful decision about SitMeansSit.

Cady is 1-1/2 years old and, as you know a Chow adopted from the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter in Independence. The first day as I was bringing her home I stopped to walk her. She wiggled her head and shoulders and slipped the harness. She took off running north and I didn’t see her for 3 weeks. There is much more to this story, but the primary point is that Cady would not "come". She didn’t know me, but she REALLY wasn’t going to come. After much, much police, animal warden and local business help, she finally ended up going into a Havahart humane trap. Since I got her back, I haven’t let her outdoors without a very secure leash.

I looked and researched dog training, read the Idiots Guide to Dog Training (appropriate, I must say), dog obedience classes and collars, leashes, crates, food and so on. Cady is my very first dog. She is shy and worried and I am very inexperienced in the world of dogs.

I saw you and Roxy in the Fairlawn Fourth of July Parade, and Roxy was sitting on top of the car!! It was very impressive. I started reading about SMS, other E-collars and training. Because of the shelter and who knows what kind of previous life for Cady, I wanted to train her, mostly to "come", but all the other basic things that well trained dogs can do. I met with you, and was impressed at the amount of time you spent explaining the program and I met Roxy and Jammer(WOW). Even then, I wanted to learn more before commiting to any kind of program. I had already put down a deposit on Canine University for Dog Obedience I, and was pretty sure that I was going to stick with my decision. The very, very last thing I wanted was any kind of trauma to Cady. She already ducks her head when petted, and is fearful. I didn’t want to do anything that might make her life worse or traumatic.

I asked you for references, and you supplied me with 5 names. I called 4 of them and what struck me most was when I said "hello" and explained who I was, they sounded suspicious. But when I said that Paul Pollock from SitMeansSit had given me their name as a reference, I could hear them brighten up immediately! It was really quite something! I realize that you could have given me a list of "ringers", but these were genuinely happy people. An older woman, a couple, an older man, a woman – and the story was the same with everyone! After one lesson, they couldn’t believe the difference, how good their dogs were, how impressed they were with your peaceful personality and your patience. The hardest thing about the phone calls were getting the people to end the conversations!

I did the math – the cost of the SMS program, vs the cost of each 6 week class for Household Obedience I, followed by Household Obedience II, followed by Leash Walking, Good Citizen Training, etc., the 50 mile round trip to the school (gas was over $4 a gallon at this time) and the driving time alone for each 6 week class made it also financially a better idea to stay put in Fairlawn.

I thought, "yeah, yeah… 3 weeks… I’ll believe it when I see it…" So I signed up and asked for a refund from the other class.

The first class, I explained that my two biggest concerns were "come" for obvious reasons, and to get Cady to stop pulling me down the stairs (40 of them!) because it was dangerous for both of us. He met me at my home, showed me how to fit the collar, and Cady responded so well! The first week, she understood "come" and "wait" as we went down the stairs. I’m lucky because she doesn’t bark a lot, or eat poop or other really undesirable acts, but she really, really was in need of the basics. You followed along a normal course of training, and the second week I was just amazed that Cady was so willing to follow. You were so willing to sit and answer questions that I had through the week, which I appreciated very much. The training of each week is to much even for my long story, but I am a believer. Three weeks later, you actually dropped her leash on purpose OUTSIDE and she stayed put. I on the other hand, almost had a heart attack!

I guess that the difference in the training besides the collar is the one-one-one, personalized training at my house and office, teaching the basics and learning the program. I equated it to when I learned to type. I learned the basic keystrokes in about a month, and the rest of keyboarding was repetition and practice.

The biggest problem Cady had with the program … was ME. MY inconsistency and MY stumbling for the right word at the right time. MY learning how to have Cady on a leash, have my keys out, give a command, use the remote, carry my tote bag and get down the stairs is taking some coordination on my part too. I think once I have the confidence to say what I mean, Cady will be a huge success!

In closing, I think that I made an informed and thorough decision in choosing the program, checking references and doing the math – all culminating in a successful, positive outcome with YOU, Paul, and the SitMeansSit training program. Thank you so much! I am now looking forward to the Saturday group class experiences to help socializing Cady further and meet other dog owners.

Sincerely,

Jeni Cox

Mike J @ 1:27 pm:

My girlfriend and I recently put our 4 month old Weimaraner “Sky” through the Sit Means Sit training. We started her when she was 3 months old and everyone tells me now that she is the best trained puppy they have ever seen, even the mail lady thought so. We were very skeptical about the method of training but decided that our stubborn pup needed it. The training does not hurt the dog at all. When they tell you that the collar is used for communication purposes they are right. The trainer didnt really train the dog as much as show us how to properly use the collar. After a month of working with Sky she is able to sit, stay, come, wait, place, (lay) down, (spin in a) circle, go through my legs and we are still working on heel. She still tries to guess what we want her to do sometimes because she wants to please us. Her recall outside is really good and its nice not having to leash her all the time. She still thinks that every moving thing is her friend and needs extra reminders sometimes. What I liked about this program is that is takes away the dog’s need to have a treat with every command. We do give her treats sometimes but not every time. With the collar off, she listens more than she has before when we were doing the treat training. You can see my videos on youtube.com and in the search box type “therealm80.” You will see the results after each lesson. The videos are called “SMS training lesson 1,2 and 3.” The trainer went above and beyond by letting us have 1 free group lesson and 1 extra free private lesson which we have not taken him up on… Yet!
I have also documented the entire experience in detail on a 5 page forum located here.
http://www.weimaraneraddict.com/discussion/sitmeanssit-my-future-experience-vt12694.html
Thanks to Paul for his good work and patience with my hundreds of questions.
Mike, Jess & Sky Blue.

"Harley is a 100lb, 3 year old black lab with an endless supply of energy. No matter how many times I played fetch or how many miles I would walk him a day, Harley would always be ready for trouble. He would tear open the trash and play so rough it would actually hurt sometimes. Being such a big dog, he had a lot of dominance issues and would never listen to any command we gave him. My wife and I actually comtemlpated giving him up simply because he was too much for us to deal with. Just three classes with Paul and everything had changed! We worked with Harely and now he is the perfect dog! We take him to all of our family functions and he is so well behaved. Sit Means Sit is simply amazing! It is by far the best decsion we could have made!"

Kurt and Megen Olesen

Dear Paul–I am so pleased we decided to go with Sit Means Sit to train our new standard Poodle. I have trained other dogs but used mainly my voice for communication, since I am having trouble with my voice this has proved a wonderful way to train. Molly has progressed faster than any other dog I’ve had and is eager to have her collar put on in the morning. She has only been in training for about six weeks but I took her to a soccer game last weekend and she was beautifully behaved and loved all the hugs and kisses from the adults and children. Any future dogs I have will definately be trained with Sit Means Sit.

Marty and Molly (dog)

Paul,

We just finished our first lesson. WOW! We have our dog back. Murphy wasn’t that bad but he was going down a bad path until we finished the first lesson this afternoon. I know my wife will be able to command him now and return to us a dog well trained and a great companion.

Thanks,

Tim

PS: I am still shaking my head on how well this all went….Great Job!

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that i had my first session with Paul in the Akron area. before meeting with him i was convinced that your school and you method was definitely the way that i want to go. now that i have had a chance to experience it first hand, there is no doubt in my mind that i made the right decision. not only did i witness very quick and solid results but i was very impressed with paul style, technique and knowledge. I hope that i will come out of your school with the same motivation and knowledge that he has. he was able to answer all of my questions and was able to relay everything in an very easy way to understand. I am very anxious and excited to complete my sessions with Paul and also to attend the seminar in April. all of this of course is just the beginning of what i know will be a promising career with sit means sit. thanks again.

Orlando and Hope

Paul

Just wanted to send you a quick note of thanks. As you know, I was somewhat skeptical about the Sit Means Sit training method, but after doing my homework and viewing the web site I decided that this might be just the type of training Voxx and I needed. I was correct. My main objective with the remote collar was to make sure I used it correctly from the start. Having trained dogs in the past I know it doesn’t take much to take the drive out of a dog if the training is done incorrectly.

Having had two of our three individual lessons, I am very pleased with the results we have had so far. As you know I am showing Voxx in AKC obedience trials. In his first trial Voxx was High Scoring Dog in Trial with a score of 189 out of 200. To say the least we were very pleased. Our second trial we did well also and now only need one more qualifying trial to get Voxx’s CD title, (Companion Dog).

I was very impressed with your training methods. In my opinion, having worked with several different trainers, you have the right personality for training dogs, the first of which is patience. You did a great job of demonstrating your techniques with Jammer and your soft tone of voice was appreciated as it seems that many trainers think that dogs only understand when you yell.

I look forward to our third individual lesson and to the group lessons as we move forward. Thanks again for your help and good luck to you in the future.

Don LaFond & Voxx

Hi Paul,
Just thought I’d drop you a line and tell you how pleased I am with the training so far. I have had two other Rotts that have gone through the traditional obedience training and did very well. Toby however did not take to those methods of correction and was starting to rebel and become aggressive that’s when I called you. That was the best decision I could have made for him. Since we started our training with you I have seen a big change in his attitude and not once has he showed any signs of aggression. I know he is going to have to unlearned and then relearn using your techniques but he’s coming along, I only wish I would’ve started him off with you from the start. Watching you work with him and seeing how he responds to your calm demeanor makes me want to work with him all that more because I can see the potential he has. I am really looking forward to the group classes and taking Toby to new stages of his development. Thank you for all your help,
Dick Sabol

Paul your training was very insightful for my puppy and me. We had a lot of fun during the training classes and learned how to handle Cuddles. She is better then she was before and getting used to going potty outside finally. I know she is a puppy and they make mistakes but they are getting fewer and fewer. Thanks again for your patience with me and Cuddles.

Irene Pettit

Posted in Customer Comments | 4 Comments

Gift Certificates available at Sit Means Sit Cleveland-Akron

Posted on December 8, 2008 by paulpollock

Give the gift of a well trained dog. We want your prized pooch or your four legged nightmare! Call and get your gift certificate today. 330-310-DOGS(3647).