Blair Diamond saved my life with my rescue dog, Wilma. He has changed my relationship with dogs, and there is not a day that I regret investing into my animal. After all, Wilma will not be my only dog, and his lessons will transgress from animal to animal.
I adopted Wilma (8 month old pitbull mix) from a local shelter in Sacramento. When she was at the shelter, she showed no signs of animal aggression (she shared a pen with another older dog). When I brought her home, I quickly realized that she was a level 10 aggressive towards all animals and that I might have a potential lawsuit on my hands if I wasn't careful. Wilma was so intense, she nearly broke through a glass window in my home to get to another dog. I lived in midtown Sacramento at the time and I could barely walk her without being fearful that she may bite me or another dog if quarters got too close. She's a very strong dog, so yanking me down a few blocks was an easy task for her. In addition to her aggression towards dogs, Wilma would often jump up and bite me if she couldn't get to the other dog. Essentially, walking her was a f-ing nightmare and I hated my life with her. Inside the house she had very 'puppy' like behavior. She was always biting me too hard and bruising me, jumping on guests and couches... like I said, total nightmare.
I reached out to Blair and opted for the weekend session (3 days of training). He has an awesome home in Shasta. The experience is very much like Air BnB. Blair runs you through a 3 week program over the course of three days. Each day is designated to a different skill the dog will learn, with the intention of you leaving and running the three week program at your own home. The first week is a lot of crate training, the second week your dog gets a little more freedom and learns where their 'place' is, and the third week is training your dog off leash. The benefit of visiting Shasta to learn how to create the program yourself, is that your animal looks to you for guidance, rather than the trainer. Blair has an awesome disposition and a passion for his career, which makes his teachings easy to follow and enact on my own.
After the three week program that Blair taught me in three days, Wilma's behavior improved 1,000,000%. Here's what you should expect from your dog after training
1. Your dog will walk by your side.
2. You have the ability to teach your dog well behaved mannerisms, like waiting on their bed while company comes to the door.
3. You will have a better relationship and more control over your animal.
Wilma is hands down the best trained dog of any of my friends. She will walk by my side in a 'heel' command, as long as I instruct her to. She doesn't bite me anymore. She still shows aggression w/ animals, but it is 1,000,000% manageable. My expectations with her are reasonable, I don't ever expect her to enter a dog park, but I still want to enjoy my walks with her and 'normal' human dog activities.
Don't have unreasonable expectations from Blair. If your dog has killed another dog, don't expect that your dog will come out of training looking for other dog friends. Set yourself up for success and think about what behavioral issues are absolutely non-negotiable, and what behaviors do we as humans WISH we could change?
I know the price may be a bit of a choker for you.. but ask yourself two things.
1 - If my dog had a broken arm, would I pay a couple grand to fix it? If you answered yes, then there's no reason you wouldn't want to fix your dogs brain if it's broken.. It's just a covered ailment versus an overt one.
2 - If your dog has 10 years left, 3,650 days and you spent $2,650 for training.. then that's less than a dollar a day you just bought yourself the most well trained pooch, ever.
Lastly, I'd like to finish up this review by thanking Blair for being there for me after training. He's a man that's true of his word. He told me, "you're dog is in AA, and I'm her sponsor". He's always answered my calls and I went to Shasta in October.
Thank you Blair.