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March 2024 by Meghan Hale
In 2021 we became unexpected foster fails to a little doggo named Anela who was scared of everything. I knew nothing about training but knew we needed help asap and did not want to further traumatize her with shock collar training.
Marie was kind, helpful, and incredibly knowledgeable. She did not force herself on Anela but rather built up a trusting relationship. She taught me how to listen to Anela while also leading her. She went from being scared of the world to a happy, confident pup in just a few short months. Unfortunately we had to leave the island so did not get as far in obedience training with Marie as I wanted but she helped me build a solid base to work with.
We’re still a work in progress but the trainers we’ve worked with since our time with Marie are impressed with the understanding we have of basic principles and are surprised when I describe Anela as she was when we first got her because they see her being confident and happy, even in new places.
Thanks for building Anela’s confidence along with ours, Marie!
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March 2024 by Sarah Robertson
Marie has a gift for understanding dog behavior and working with you to shape it. I highly recommend taking her classes, especially working the levels. I just finished my third training and feel much more confident with my puppy!
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November 2023 by Alison Houze
Marie is amazing! We have loved working with her! She is an excellent teacher and trainer!
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May 2023 by Debbie Lewis
Marie is wonderful. She is professional, knowledgeable and a great person to work with. I highly recommend her.
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May 2023 by Crystina Suh
Marie really knows her stuff! An amazing force free trainer to work with if you want to learn how to train your dog by building a relationship based on trust and effective communication. Highly recommend!
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March 2023 by Ashley Hiʻilani Sanchez
Marie at ProDog Hawaii is a fantastic trainer! Currently, we are working together to train my own dog in basic obedience and service tasks, and working with her has been an absolute pleasure. She keeps up with the latest in canine learning theory and strictly promotes positive reinforcement (pain- and force-free) for her training methods. She believes in our dogs as loving companions and works with their unique natural abilities to develop a training program tailored to them with as little stress as possible for our dogs. When working with humans, Marie patiently explains and models how she expects us to shape our dogs to their utmost abilities while forming loving relationships with them as the foundation of their willingness to work.Whatever the goal you have for your dog may be, ProDog Hawaii will help you get there!Tip: I highly recommend learning as much as possible about behavior modification and learning theory (resources available on ProDog Hawaii's website!) before you begin one-on-one training to get as much as you can out of your sessions.
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March 2023 by L B
I would give ProDog Hawaii 10 stars if I could! Marie has changed our lives for the better…we went from constant stress and tension to being able to relax and enjoy time with our dog.I was in search of a force free dog trainer after our 8 year old rescue dog had regressed after an event and had become fearful of pretty much everything and she became reactive towards my husband. I remembered a friend had worked with Marie years prior and she was highly recommended so I emailed through the website and received a very speedy, thorough and nice reply from Marie and quickly decided I wanted to work with her.We’ve also been working remotely with a Veterinary Behaviorist in San Francisco along with our local vet. Although we had not gotten her stabilized on medications, we started training right away.There were months of trying different medications and different doses, and our dog having bad side effects. We had Zoom sessions with Marie throughout this time and she was so helpful and supportive with giving us ideas and suggestions of what to try to get her from being in a frozen state of fear and building her trust and confidence. I just wanted my scared girl to stop hiding and be able to relax on the couch like she used to do.Marie has been so accommodating with our schedule (there were weeks I would postpone and reschedule due to our rescue girl not feeling well).Marie encouraged us to video our training and she would analyze the videos and she has taught me so much about our dogs body language.We have been working with Marie for about 4 months and have seen great improvement. She is off all behaviorial medications and rarely hides. She is much more tolerant of noises and is now eager and more engaged when we train. She is happier and more playful. We never would have gotten this far without Marie’s guidance. She truly cares about her clients. She is so knowledgeable and is amazing at what she does. Thank you Marie for helping us build a better relationship with our sweet girl and helping her to gain more confidence!
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March 2023 by Katherine K
We are so incredibly thankful for Marie. We have been working with her over the past year with our rambunctious, incredibly loving and insanely strong chocolate lab! Marie teaches you how your dog is continuously communicating with you - so you can communicate with them and to identify how your behavior affects theirs. I cannot imagine what our relationship with our dear puppy would be without her! I can take him easily on walks, to the dog park knowing he will always come back to me, and, most importantly, I know we have created a happy life for him. I highly, highly recommend her - and she is a joy to be around :)
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March 2023 by Lori B.
I would give ProDog Hawaii 10 stars if I could! Marie has changed our lives for the better...we went from constant stress and tension to being able to relax and enjoy time with our dog. I was in search of a force free dog trainer after our 8 year old rescue dog had regressed after an event and had become fearful of pretty much everything and she became reactive towards my husband. I remembered a friend had worked with Marie years prior and she was highly recommended so I emailed through the website and received a very speedy, thorough and nice reply from Marie and quickly decided I wanted to work with her. We've also been working remotely with a Veterinary Behaviorist in San Francisco along with our local vet. Although we had not gotten her stabilized on medications, we started training right away. There were months of trying different medications and different doses, and our dog having bad side effects. We had Zoom sessions with Marie throughout this time and she was so helpful and supportive with giving us ideas and suggestions of what to try to get her from being in a frozen state of fear and building her trust and confidence. I just wanted my scared girl to stop hiding and be able to relax on the couch like she used to do. Marie has been so accommodating with our schedule (there were weeks I would postpone and reschedule due to our rescue girl not feeling well). Marie encouraged us to video our training and she would analyze the videos and she has taught me so much about our dogs body language. We have been working with Marie for about 4 months and have seen great improvement. She is off all behaviorial medications and rarely hides. She is much more tolerant of noises and is now eager and more engaged when we train. She is happier and more playful than she's ever been. We never would have gotten this far without Marie's guidance. She truly cares about her clients. She is so knowledgeable and is amazing at what she does. Thank you Marie for helping us build a better relationship with our sweet girl and helping her to gain more confidence!
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February 2023 by alison rector
Marie is amazing! We have loved working with her! She is an excellent teacher and trainer!
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February 2023 by Lisa Peer
The only truly qualified positive force free dog trainer on the island. If you truly want to understand your dog and build a bond with your dog Pro Dog Hawaii should be your only call.
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February 2023 by Nicole m
Sensational results!! I am finally able to enjoy walks, dog park visits and home without my pups becoming aggressive and unmanageable. I spent two years training my pups on my own with mediocre results. I finally found Marie out of desperation and as a final resort. Using the new tools and insight provided by Marie, the transformation in my pups was remarkable and often immediate. I am so happy I made the choice to take the opportunity to train with her. She is absolutely amazing and my dogs adore her!! Thank you so much Marie!!
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February 2023 by Jennifer Walker
Marie is an excellent trainer. I have used her for both of my dogs. She has a deep understanding of dog development and behaviors. She has helped me understand how we (humans) can inadvertently create negative/uncomfortable situations for our dogs that result in “bad” behaviors and that with a few simple changes we can set our dogs up for success. I highly recommend her to anyone who is committed to building a strong, successful and loving relationship with their dog.
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November 2022 by Cheryl Bellisario
Me, my mom, and our pup Spot recently completed our package of 10 private training sessions with Marie, and we were so impressed by her and really learned the building blocks that we needed to start to better understand our little Spot and to develop strategies to ultimately build our relationship. We would 100% recommend for others to seek out Marie for pup training, especially for pups with more challenging behaviors to be able to work through the challenges TOGETHER (human and pup). Our pup Spot, who is nearly a year and a half old, would also agree with this recommendation!We had gone through a few basic obedience training sessions with another provider months before finding Marie. While these types of basic trainings are helpful and serve many dogs very well, our Spot is extremely high energy, has a lot of anxiety and fears, and exhibits aggressive behaviors toward other animals (e.g., other dogs, cats, chickens, etc.) as well as sometimes toward humans, so the basic obedience lessons didn’t really serve our needs. All of this said, we adore him and he is part of the family, but we were getting to the point where it felt like the end of the line because of how difficult his behaviors were becoming for us to navigate and we were also extremely fearful of the possibility of him biting (or worse) another dog, human, or other creature.Finding Marie was such a huge relief to us after feeling like we were at a dead end. Within the very first few lessons, we already were seeing how well Marie’s training strategies function. As a clear example that really had me in awe, we told Marie that all of a sudden Spot was growling and threatening to bite if he knew that he was about to be put in the bathtub for a bath. We knew that he isn’t a fan of water, so we automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was the water. But Marie helped us walk through all of the potential reasons for these behaviors – the water, the cup used to pour water on him, the towel used in the bottom of the tub, and then something similar to a tub that we had outside. He was fine with everything except for….the tub! He then went from not being able to get into the tub and crying and searching for any possible alternative, to then within days, being excited to get into the tub and literally jumping into it as quickly as he could. Learning to really figure out triggers and fears, and then breaking things down into small steps to move forward together really works.Marie taught us many lessons that we needed to learn in order to better communicate with Spot and in turn see better outcomes in challenging situations. Prior to our sessions with Marie, because of Spot’s reactive behaviors, I would just avoid certain situations, or walk him and me away as quickly as possible. One huge takeaway for us was to not miss opportunities to train and learn. Everything can be a learning opportunity, and everything can be broken down into smaller steps to build up to the desired behavior – whether jumping up onto a bench, walking through a narrow space, seeing another dog, human, or very realistic human statue, etc. My prior avoidance behavior, such as was the case with a statue, actually was teaching him something without me even realizing – that there was reason to be fearful. For the statue situation, Marie provided us with steps to take in this type of scenario to desensitize Spot to the statue that he was expressing fear and anxiety over, actually to the point where he was able to return a different day and sat on the pedestal of the statue! Huge progress!I don’t normally write reviews, but the guidance that Marie has provided us with has really made a huge difference for our entire household, so I would really like to raise up Marie at ProDog Hawaii because the tools that she provided us with could really benefit others. I have nothing but good things to say!THANK YOU!
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October 2022 by Cheryl B.
Me, my mom, and our pup Spot recently completed our package of 10 private training sessions with Marie, and we were so impressed by her and really learned the building blocks that we needed to start to better understand our little Spot and to develop strategies to ultimately build our relationship. We would 100% recommend for others to seek out Marie for pup training, especially for pups with more challenging behaviors to be able to work through the challenges TOGETHER (human and pup). Our pup Spot, who is nearly a year and a half old, would also agree with this recommendation! We had gone through a few basic obedience training sessions with another provider months before finding Marie. While these types of basic trainings are helpful and serve many dogs very well, our Spot is extremely high energy, has a lot of anxiety and fears, and exhibits aggressive behaviors toward other animals (e.g., other dogs, cats, chickens, etc.) as well as sometimes toward humans, so the basic obedience lessons didn't really serve our needs. All of this said, we adore him and he is part of the family, but we were getting to the point where it felt like the end of the line because of how difficult his behaviors were becoming for us to navigate and we were also extremely fearful of the possibility of him biting (or worse) another dog, human, or other creature. The search for a trainer that could help us move forward was extremely difficult. So many of the trainers out there that specifically help with "aggressive behaviors" we learned use electric collars, and a number of these programs were not up-front about this usage and later told me it was a requirement. While e-collars may be a quick solution for behaviors, we were not ok with going this route and did not want to have Spot associate us with any form of pain. We also saw bootcamp type of programs where the pup stays away at a program for a couple weeks. As we are very aware of Spot's anxieties and fears, as well as his separation and abandonment issues, we did not feel this was for us. Finding Marie was such a huge relief to us after feeling like we were at a dead end. Within the very first few lessons, we already were seeing how well Marie's training strategies function. As a clear example that really had me in awe, we told Marie that all of a sudden Spot was growling and threatening to bite if he knew that he was about to be put in the bathtub for a bath. We knew that he isn't a fan of water, so we automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was the water. But Marie helped us walk through all of the potential reasons for these behaviors - the water, the cup used to pour water on him, the towel used in the bottom of the tub, and then something similar to a tub that we had outside. He was fine with everything except for....the tub! He then went from not being able to get into the tub and crying and searching for any possible alternative, to then within days, being excited to get into the tub and literally jumping into it as quickly as he could. Learning to really figure out triggers and fears, and then breaking things down into small steps to move forward together really works. Marie taught us many lessons that we needed to learn in order to better communicate with Spot and in turn see better outcomes in challenging situations. Prior to our sessions with Marie, because of Spot's reactive behaviors, I would just avoid certain situations, or walk him and me away as quickly as possible. One huge takeaway for us was to not miss opportunities to train and learn. Everything can be a learning opportunity, and everything can be broken down into smaller steps to build up to the desired behavior - whether jumping up onto a bench, walking through a narrow space, seeing another dog, human, or very realistic human statue, etc. My prior avoidance behavior, such as was the case with a statue, actually was teaching him something without me even realizing - that there was reason to be fearful. For the statue situation, Marie provided us with steps to take in this typ
