We were looking for three main things for help when we sent our dog to Du Nord: Crate behavior, walks on leash, and staying put when asked.

“Kennel Up” : Asher is the kind of dog that loves to be near people, especially his humans. This said, he never loved being in a kennel. We used to have to pick him up and place him right in front of the kennel to get him inside. Now, he senses when we are leaving the house and walks in on his own. Sometimes he even goes in there “for fun” to play with his toys while we’re watching a movie. It’s a magical thing.

“Structured Walk” : One of our goals was to be able to enjoy walking Asher. He used to lead the walk and get distracted by smells, flying leaves, other dogs, humans, etc. Now, he walks right next to us, focused on the walk, at OUR pace. 

“Place” : Place is a word the represents a spot (dog bed, towel, etc) that is a different than the floor area. We have a small house with no entryway so one of our concerns was having a snowy or wet dog walking all over the house during the winter/spring. When Asher is asked to come inside, we say “place” and he makes his way to the towel near the door and lies down. When we eat or have people over, we don’t want a dog that begs for food so we put him in “place”. He just lays there until asked to “break” aka join the fun. We decided to put his “place” skills to the test in a very challenging environment back in February: Super Bowl Sunday at the local Fire Dept. Though he

was probably dying on the inside, Asher stayed in “place” while firefighters walked around the kitchen area with meatballs and cheese dips of all sorts. We were just as impressed as everyone else!

Asher was always a sweet, pretty chill and smart pup so people questioned why we were sending him away for training. When he came back from DuNord training those same people were like “Wow!” It is truly the best thing we ever did for Asher and our little family. We also believe that Asher loved his training because when we brought his back for an over night stay a couple weeks later he didn’t even look back – he was so excited to be reunited with his friend Ocho and his baby Izzy.  

• Danielle and Shane (Grand Forks)