Reviews & Testimonials For Graham Milgrew
Back to Trainer24th June 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Barking, Jumping up, Other
Jo was very patient and took time to understand Stan's behaviour before diagnosing him. She has promised us some follow up context on dog anxiety and left some detailed notes as well so was very helpful
Trainer note from Graham
Stan is young Cockerpoo who constantly barks for attention. This happens when friends and family visit, when phone calls are made and can even happen when one of his owners come back in the room. The barking is loud and he keeps going for extensive periods of time even when they are giving him attention. Dogs can use attention seeking as a way to cope with stress and Stan is an anxious dog. This is not an easy fix. His owners have clearly been trying very hard to stop it but Stan has learnt what works and knows if he keeps going he will get the attention he craves. At the time of my visit I realised that they were expecting a baby so in addition to dealing with the attention seeking I have forwarded information on preparing Stan for this event which will be essential as he is anxious. In particular his owners can get him used to a crying baby (with a recording) and the fact that they will be occupied with a baby in the near future. Stan is wonderful in all other ways and has been very well trained by his owners so I have every confidence that they will succeed.
Stan is young Cockerpoo who constantly barks for attention. This happens when friends and family visit, when phone calls are made and can even happen when one of his owners come back in the room. The barking is loud and he keeps going for extensive periods of time even when they are giving him attention. Dogs can use attention seeking as a way to cope with stress and Stan is an anxious dog. This is not an easy fix. His owners have clearly been trying very hard to stop it but Stan has learnt what works and knows if he keeps going he will get the attention he craves. At the time of my visit I realised that they were expecting a baby so in addition to dealing with the attention seeking I have forwarded information on preparing Stan for this event which will be essential as he is anxious. In particular his owners can get him used to a crying baby (with a recording) and the fact that they will be occupied with a baby in the near future. Stan is wonderful in all other ways and has been very well trained by his owners so I have every confidence that they will succeed.
7th June 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Chewing, Jumping up, Pulling, Other
Graham was excellent , he took his time to explain everything and answered all of our questions . We felt very at ease , and Archie responded to him very well.
18th May 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Barking, Chewing, Hyperactivity, Puppy management
Jo was very friendly and easy to talk to. She gave very good advice and was very reassuring that Hollie's behaviour would improve with some adjustment to her training. Jo also asked if we had considered feeding Hollie a raw diet as this would benefit her, natural food with no additives. I ordered some raw puppy food for her and started her on this (she absolutely loves it) interspersed with her normal food until she gets used to raw.
We are so grateful to Jo for her help and knowing that we can contact her at any time is also very reassuring. Hollie's behaviour has started to improve and I feel very hopeful that this will continue.
Trainer note from Graham
Hollie is a very highly active Cockerpoo with no "off switch", constantly nipping and barking at her owners for attention. Hollie was also very destructive licking and chewing on carpet and furniture daily and refusing to stop despite having finished teething. All dogs benefit from a good quality diet as do humans, but when they are "bouncing off the walls" as Hollie was doing they may be reacting to additives, preservatives or even the manufacturing process in conventional dog foods, in which case natural food is worth considering. Her owners were very open to both training and ways to manage Hollies behaviour and have already had a lot of success in dealing with her unruly behaviour. Hollie has a delightful nature. She is very friendly with people and dogs and is already showing that she will become a dog her owners can be proud of.
Hollie is a very highly active Cockerpoo with no "off switch", constantly nipping and barking at her owners for attention. Hollie was also very destructive licking and chewing on carpet and furniture daily and refusing to stop despite having finished teething. All dogs benefit from a good quality diet as do humans, but when they are "bouncing off the walls" as Hollie was doing they may be reacting to additives, preservatives or even the manufacturing process in conventional dog foods, in which case natural food is worth considering. Her owners were very open to both training and ways to manage Hollies behaviour and have already had a lot of success in dealing with her unruly behaviour. Hollie has a delightful nature. She is very friendly with people and dogs and is already showing that she will become a dog her owners can be proud of.
15th May 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Hyperactivity, Jumping up, Pulling, Recall, Other
Jo listened to our concerns and gave practical advice and strategies on how to manager Betsy's behaviour which has shown vast improvement . Good training pack provided. Jo was friendly , approachable and we have been able to work well with her.
Trainer note from Graham
Betsy is a friendly young French Bulldog who also lives with a very elderly terrier. She is typical of many adolescent dogs in that she didn't listen, jumped on people, refused to come in from the garden, pulled on the lead etc but this was coupled with some more extreme attention seeking behaviour including trying to pull the curtains down if she didn't get her own way which was very wearing for her owners. She was also impolite with the other dog so he had to keep telling her off. Her owners had made a lot of effort to deal with her bad behaviour, but struggled to enforce the boundaries she needed as they felt guilty. Betsy responded very well to training and was a much calmer and happier dog on my follow up visit.
Betsy is a friendly young French Bulldog who also lives with a very elderly terrier. She is typical of many adolescent dogs in that she didn't listen, jumped on people, refused to come in from the garden, pulled on the lead etc but this was coupled with some more extreme attention seeking behaviour including trying to pull the curtains down if she didn't get her own way which was very wearing for her owners. She was also impolite with the other dog so he had to keep telling her off. Her owners had made a lot of effort to deal with her bad behaviour, but struggled to enforce the boundaries she needed as they felt guilty. Betsy responded very well to training and was a much calmer and happier dog on my follow up visit.
4th May 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Barking
Very informative and look forward to the next lesson
24th April 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Aggression, Barking, Jumping up, Pulling, Separation anxiety
Worth every penny. You don't just get trained and that's it, you get looked after. The program is friendly and safe and kind on you and your dog.
Absolutely amazing, Graham helped my family and me with my dog Marley.
She had separation anxiety, kept barking everything that moved outside the window and to my front door, she would pull on the lead and behaved badly towards guests that would come to my home. She would demand attention all the time...... But apart from all of that she is a beauty, she's 7 years old and has had a bad past.
She was used for breeding and had a litter before the age of 1. She was never walked and kept in a cage under the stairs, so she was in a bad way but has come along way.
Graham had a lot of amazing advice, tricks, and help.
What would of taken 2 months was corrected in 3 hours. Today it's day 3 after the bark buster training and what a difference.
I am truly happy but got to keep up the hard work.
Graham was so caring and understanding like he was friends with Marley for years, Graham was my third dog trainer I got and will be the last.
The tricks on relaxing the dog to get better results I practice on my 3 month old baby and she went to sleep on the first run..... Which is amazing because it takes 5 goes over 4 hours to get her to sleep.
The whole package is brilliant and more than I had thought. So professional and has 100% results.
Don't think about doing this....... My advice is, what are you waiting for?, call them and have a better life with your dog but remember you have to put in the work and don't let your dog down by getting lazy.
10 out of 10 and even though I had hours of training Graham will still visit me another 2 times to check up and see how I am coming along.
15th April 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Aggression, Barking, Hyperactivity, Jumping up, Pulling
I was so anxious about the first lesson as I expected my dog to work hard to get rid of Graham but by the end of the lesson both the dog and myself were relaxed, this was thanks to Graham being so understanding and putting us both at ease. I no longer felt like a terrible dog owner and am really looking forward to the next lesson.
Trainer note from Graham
This owner has a 6 year old Rottweiler who uses his weight and size to intimidate visitors. This breed does guard by nature and needs clear boundaries and training as to what is expected. He owner has done a good job with a difficult dog and his dog responded well to the training.
This owner has a 6 year old Rottweiler who uses his weight and size to intimidate visitors. This breed does guard by nature and needs clear boundaries and training as to what is expected. He owner has done a good job with a difficult dog and his dog responded well to the training.
2nd April 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Barking, Puppy management, Recall, Separation anxiety
The initial training was very comprehensive and adequate to what our dog needed. I learnt a lot in the session with Jo and felt confident that the exercises she recommended were something I could perform and teach my husband to do with our dog. A week later, when we had our follow up session with Jo and my husband, we also had a very good training session that further helped our dog to gain the confidence he needed to travel and evolve with us.
Jo's recommendations and interest in helping our dog have been fantastic.
Trainer note from Graham
These owners have a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. Their business is on two continents and it is important that their puppy can travel safely on an aeroplane. Unfortunately it has proved that their puppy is fearful. This is not unusual in young dogs and a lot can be done to increase a dogs confidence but to do this, these owners have had to undertake an intensive program to build his confidence sufficiently to travel without being damaged by the experience. He has made very significant progress already and his owners have gone out of their way including changing travel plans to give their dog the best chance possible.
These owners have a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. Their business is on two continents and it is important that their puppy can travel safely on an aeroplane. Unfortunately it has proved that their puppy is fearful. This is not unusual in young dogs and a lot can be done to increase a dogs confidence but to do this, these owners have had to undertake an intensive program to build his confidence sufficiently to travel without being damaged by the experience. He has made very significant progress already and his owners have gone out of their way including changing travel plans to give their dog the best chance possible.
26th March 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Jo was absolutely lovely. She calmed our "new puppy parent" anxiety and answered the thousands of questions we had for her. She also had a plethora of useful tips outside our questions, things to look out for, toys specific to our puppy breed, and how to travel with him etc. She has a very loving approach but it gets results. We were dealing with issues such as toilet training, responding to being called, playing with other dogs, basic discipline and chewing. We felt the information given by Jo came from personal experience both in her own home and professionally, it was nothing that one could simply read up online, so we really felt lucky with our trainer. Her training is also very useful as she has several dogs herself all different sizes, so Benzo could train with different breeds and sizes.
Trainer note from Graham
Benzo is a Jack Russell puppy and lives with his owners in a particularly busy part of London so needs to be a real "urban dog" capable of coping with busy streets where everyone wants to meet him and also the wide expanses of a park full of tourists on hired bikes, horse riders, lakes and also lots of water birds. He is a friendly confident dog that loves people and dogs and is very responsive to his owners, but as with many pups doesn't always recognise danger and needs appropriate guidance in his interactions. Recall is important to every puppy and dog, but is essential with such a high level of distractions on a daily basis and his owners have prioritised this knowing that Jack Russell's are generally faarless independent dogs that were not bred to be under close command of their owner. He has met our German Shepherd and I am looking forward to introducing him to more of our dogs in the future so we can do more "live" practice.
Benzo is a Jack Russell puppy and lives with his owners in a particularly busy part of London so needs to be a real "urban dog" capable of coping with busy streets where everyone wants to meet him and also the wide expanses of a park full of tourists on hired bikes, horse riders, lakes and also lots of water birds. He is a friendly confident dog that loves people and dogs and is very responsive to his owners, but as with many pups doesn't always recognise danger and needs appropriate guidance in his interactions. Recall is important to every puppy and dog, but is essential with such a high level of distractions on a daily basis and his owners have prioritised this knowing that Jack Russell's are generally faarless independent dogs that were not bred to be under close command of their owner. He has met our German Shepherd and I am looking forward to introducing him to more of our dogs in the future so we can do more "live" practice.
26th March 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Hyperactivity, Jumping up, Puppy management, Other
Very friendly and explained everything in an easy understandable way. Have now changed her diet and her coat is gleaming and Cassie has put on weight. We are still having a few problems but have taken on board what we were told and things are slowly improving
Trainer note from Graham
Cassie is a very small Cocker Spaniel and is physically developmentally a little bit behind. This is not unusual and puppies generally catch up over time, but it does mean that extra time and attention is needed to help these pups. It can be frustrating for owners as their attention span is short for learning but they can also be attention seeking. Cassie frequently demands attention, hates being on her own, jumps up constantly, mouths and bites, lead pulls, struggles to learn/retain basic commands and her toileting is very hit and miss. This can describe pretty much any puppy, but it is that little bit harder for the owners when their puppy is slow to develop as the issues take so much longer to resolve. Fortunately Cassie has owners who are prepared to work with her and provide the boundaries and training she needs while taking into account that she needs that extra bit of time.
Cassie is a very small Cocker Spaniel and is physically developmentally a little bit behind. This is not unusual and puppies generally catch up over time, but it does mean that extra time and attention is needed to help these pups. It can be frustrating for owners as their attention span is short for learning but they can also be attention seeking. Cassie frequently demands attention, hates being on her own, jumps up constantly, mouths and bites, lead pulls, struggles to learn/retain basic commands and her toileting is very hit and miss. This can describe pretty much any puppy, but it is that little bit harder for the owners when their puppy is slow to develop as the issues take so much longer to resolve. Fortunately Cassie has owners who are prepared to work with her and provide the boundaries and training she needs while taking into account that she needs that extra bit of time.
25th March 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Aggression, Barking, Hyperactivity, Jumping up, Pulling, Separation anxiety
As always, Graham is quick to pick up on what exactly is the root of the problem we are dealing with, our Joe is being overly protective and not listening to us on walks, making it extremely difficult to walk with him. He offered several ways to dealing with the issue, and demonstrated to us. We then went out to practice this live and the results are amazing, there was such a difference after one session. Over the years we've tried many different trainers, and from the start, Jo & Graham have helped us resolve anxiety and separation issues with our other dog Nicki too, and also helped us through some difficult times before and after she passed away. They have done so with incredible dedication, support and understanding, even after the lessons and on the phone when needed, they are always happy to help. We would highly recommend them to anyone with any kind of issues with their dogs.
Trainer note from Graham
We met this family when Joe was an adolescent Golden Retriever and they had an older sight hound Nicki as well. They had been through a very rough time as they had been evicted for the barking their dogs did when they were out, but were determined to put their dogs first and get to the bottom of what was going wrong. They were very open minded even though they had had other dog training advice which directly contradicted Jo's initial advice. (The barking was separation anxiety not territorial barking as advised)and were able to resolve the issues both dogs were experiencing. They also dealt with other issues they were experiencing with Nicki and she became a much happier and more settled dog. She had a truly lovely nature and unfortunately died of cancer while she was still relatively young. Joe has grown up into a fabulous dog but pregnancy has brought out the protective side of his nature. This is much more common than people think and can be dealt with when owners know how to behave when their dog is guarding. Needless to say we know these owners will put Grahams advice into effect and will keep in touch if they need further help.
We met this family when Joe was an adolescent Golden Retriever and they had an older sight hound Nicki as well. They had been through a very rough time as they had been evicted for the barking their dogs did when they were out, but were determined to put their dogs first and get to the bottom of what was going wrong. They were very open minded even though they had had other dog training advice which directly contradicted Jo's initial advice. (The barking was separation anxiety not territorial barking as advised)and were able to resolve the issues both dogs were experiencing. They also dealt with other issues they were experiencing with Nicki and she became a much happier and more settled dog. She had a truly lovely nature and unfortunately died of cancer while she was still relatively young. Joe has grown up into a fabulous dog but pregnancy has brought out the protective side of his nature. This is much more common than people think and can be dealt with when owners know how to behave when their dog is guarding. Needless to say we know these owners will put Grahams advice into effect and will keep in touch if they need further help.
18th March 2018 - Graham Milgrew
Graham dealt with Aggression, Barking, Other
We have had 1 3hr session so far with a follow up beginning of april. Jo is very positive that Indie's problems can be corrected and left us with training to inforce and behavior to correct. looking forward to her next visit.
Trainer note from Graham
Indie is a lovely looking small Bearded Collie Cross. She had a very uncertain start in life and had at least two homes before she was rehomed from a dog pound by her current owners. She has always been very fearful of men and unfortunately has nipped several male family visitors. For safety her owners have been locking Indie in the bedroom but she then becomes very distressed and destructive when visitors come. They have got to the point where they are reluctant to have visitors as she constantly barks at the same time. Her owners are very experienced dog owners and want to work on handling her fears. They are very open to how to handle Indie effectively and are willing to muzzle train her so that they can allow her to be with a man without the risk of injury while working on keeping her calm and under their control. She has responded very well and the next session we will be practicing with a volunteer man.
Indie is a lovely looking small Bearded Collie Cross. She had a very uncertain start in life and had at least two homes before she was rehomed from a dog pound by her current owners. She has always been very fearful of men and unfortunately has nipped several male family visitors. For safety her owners have been locking Indie in the bedroom but she then becomes very distressed and destructive when visitors come. They have got to the point where they are reluctant to have visitors as she constantly barks at the same time. Her owners are very experienced dog owners and want to work on handling her fears. They are very open to how to handle Indie effectively and are willing to muzzle train her so that they can allow her to be with a man without the risk of injury while working on keeping her calm and under their control. She has responded very well and the next session we will be practicing with a volunteer man.