Testimonials

Hi Donna,

I'm really looking forward to my next online classes with you.
I am thrilled with the online lessons you give. My 3 girls have come on wonderfully well in the last few weeks thanks to your help. Your one to one online lessons have been so so good for me as I'm am newish to clicker training but not to dogs as a whole. As I cannot get to any classes in my local area online classes are really wonderful for me. Your a great tutor and deal my questions so clearly you explain well.
Thank you for your help with my 3 girls.

Ann Stevens UK

Pip, Missy & Gem

I really enjoyed the Rally O "class".  It was great to be able to work in my own den with no outside distractions of other dogs and handlers.  The one-on-one training was very beneficial and I was surprised at how well using Ovvoo worked.  I was able to see your demonstrations almost as if I were right there in the room with you.  I loved the fact that there was no pressure to get through an exercise and we could work at our own pace.   I'm sure we will be signing up for another course in the future.  Thanks for all of your help!!  
Joan and Ranger
South Carolina, USA

 Donna is very knowledgeable and skillful about clicker training with dogs and treibball. Her teaching skills are excellent and breaks the teaching into small manageable steps. She has special tricks and techniques that help your dog progress quickly. Donna works at a pace that suits you and your dog and teaches you to have patience. Her teaching skills are shared with you as you learn to train your dog. Her well-trained dogs are used as demonstrations how you need to present to your dog.

Using Skype is a great way to learn Treibball. You are in the comfort of your own home,  no distractions of other animals, taught one on one, instant feedback, demonstrations of how to and very reasonably priced work. I would highly recommend her as a teacher, very experienced clicker trainer and treibball expert.
Cheryl Hampson
Saskatoon, Sask. Canada

Donna is an excellent trainer that knows how to teach her clients and their dogs to be successful.  She knows how to put together all the skills necessary to achieve a complex, chained behavior so that it seems easy.  I highly recommend her webcam training for everyone . . . beginners through advanced.
 

I took the Treiball Course with my one-year old Standard Poodle, Cindy Lou, because I wanted to do something new and fun.   Donna taught us several simple skills that built on each other so that when we put it all together we were successful.   And, best of all, I found it totally motivating and fun . . . and so did Cindy Lou!

I loved having Donna observe Cindy Lou and me train together by webcam in my home.  She was able to make suggestions and give me quick and easy tips that got immediate results.   It was perfect for Cindy Lou because she had no distractions during our sessions.  The process if very effective and efficient.

As a professional trainer, I especially find it extremely helpful to have a trainer with Donna’s ability.  I feel very fortunate to have found her and I’m looking forward to our next group of lessons together!"

Tara McLaughlin, CPDT-KA, CDBC
GoodDog! Training
http://www.gooddog-training.com/
Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Hi Donna,
Here are some thoughts about our training experience for diabetic alert and general training. We do want to thank you again for all the help -- it's been invaluable to us. Getting more of a handle on clicker training, observing Sally's "communications" to us, learning to break everything down into small steps slowly learned -- all of that has been incredibly helpful. But undoubtedly the biggest help of all has been the encouragement and confidence you're able to impart just because you're YOU. Trying to sort out all the information available in books and on-line has been so daunting and discouraging, but you make it all seem so doable, and even enjoyable -- for us and Sally both. So thank you again for extending this incredible opportunity to us. 

We've recently had the experience of training our dog, Sally, with a trainer who lives 1,200 miles away. Every Friday afternoon, Donna Hill of Vancouver Island Assistance Dogs has been coming into our living room here in Phoenix, Arizona, to help us train our pup as a service dog for our daughter. And we've had no issues of travel time, traffic problems, or forgotten equipment or supplies. All this via Skype!

Here are some of the advantages we've experienced with this type of long-distance training:

1. There's no charge for Skype, and the picture and sound are amazingly clear. I'm computer-shy, and the thought of trying to set up Skype on my computer was daunting. So I asked a computer-savvy neighbor for help, and it took him all of 15 minutes to get the system up and running for us.

2. The training is in our own home, a place that's comfortable for all of us, but especially for Sally. So the time we spend with Donna is focused on the behaviors we want to train, not on trying to get Sally's attention from the distractions of a new place with new smells and unfamiliar people and objects.

3. Donna is able to see our at-home training set up and help us adjust it for optimal learning. There's no need to transfer the training situation from one location to another, which can be a real problem for any dog. An example (and there are many!) would be the positions of my daughter and I as we were working with the dog – I was trying to get Sally to focus on our daughter, but I was sitting in a place more accessible to Sally, so she was focusing on me instead. Donna could spot that immediately and change the whole dynamic, but if she'd only seen us in a training facility she would never have been able to help us with that.

4. Skype provides a clear view of our handling of the dog and of Sally's reactions, and allows Donna to bring our attention to so many points we're missing as we deal with our pup.

5. We don't have to worry about a class setting, where we risk encountering owners with little control of their dogs – never a good situation for a young Service Dog in Training. Though a well-supervised class can be wonderful for socialization, early task training is clearer and simpler in the controlled setting of our home, with one-on-one instruction.

6. As with any family that includes people with disabilities, mobility can be a problem. Home training with Skype means we can schedule at times that are convenient and flexible, without the hassles of getting everyone in and out of the car and other buildings.

7. Because Donna, too, is in her own home with her own dogs, she's able to use her dogs to demonstrate training techniques – and, just like Sally, they're performing their skills in the comfort of their own familiar surroundings. It's the perfect setting for seeing the potential of our dog to work comfortably and with joy in our home, and eventually in public as well.

8. All the hands-on training is done by us, not by the trainer. At first that might sound like a disadvantage, but think of it this way: If Donna were here in person she would be interacting with Sally. The great results she would be able to get with her far superior expertise would be impressive, but they might not be something we could achieve after she went home. With Skype training, Donna's job is instead to teach in such a way that everything that needs doing is clear to us, and then to watch and make sure we're doing it right. All by ourselves! When I say good-bye to Donna and turn off my computer, we've learned what we need to know by doing every bit of it with our own hands. It's up to us to manage the clicker and the treats, to time the click to the exact action we want, to break down the behaviors we want into steps Sally can manage, to position ourselves and any props in a way that optimizes Sally's success. And Sally is not confused by a switch from one person to another, because all along we've been the only one's in the room with her.

Maybe all dog owners develop a special place in their hearts for the trainers who help them learn to manage their animals. But with Donna and Skype there's more to it than that. Not only is Donna extra-special in the way she encourages and empowers us, but after all, she's spent all of our training time right here in our own living room!

Bonnie, Ndara, Sally and all in AZ