 My name is Michael. I have two German shepherds of which this is one. His name is O'Connor. O'Connor von Haustrendi. And I have two Dutch shepherds, which I have been training extensively with Richard over the past year and a quarter at this point. I don't live in the United States. I am American. But for the past two years I've lived in France, where I've lived before. I thought that when I moved to Europe for the second time, and I did so with O'Connor, that when I engaged in dog training I would do so in the area that had the best dog trainers in the world. And so when I got there and I started to look around, I looked in Germany, I looked in France, I looked elsewhere, I was shocked and surprised to find out that the more investigation I did, the more I kept coming back to this guy in Miami who in fact over and over again seemed to truly be the best dog trainer in the world. And as I began my journey of dog training with Richard, I found out very quickly that that supposition that I had turned out to be exactly true. And there I was sitting in Europe talking to someone in Miami, Florida of all places about dog training because he was the best in the world and he was exactly in a place that I didn't expect him to be whatsoever. So fortunately I was able to work with Richard with O'Connor and later on with the Dutch Shepherds and now with my newest German Shepherd on a wide variety of things from elite level obedience. Puts. Seats. Puts. Seats. Shields. Shields. Shields. Shields. Shields. Shields. Good. Shields. Yes. Then backwards. Straight back because if you do too much of that, good, then give them. To elite, elite protection skills and capabilities. Tap the stick. Tap the stick. And more to come in the way of service dog training and search and rescue. Perfect. Yeah, yeah, feeds right away. I mean, it was will. Determination. Wow. Okay, action. 41 seconds. So it's been a very convoluted journey. It's been a very exciting journey. It's been a very emotionally volatile journey. Training dogs is not for the fan of heart, not at this level. And it's not been something I would trade for anything else. I've done a lot of other things in my life that are very adventurous and very demanding. And this has been one of the most adventurous, one of the most demanding, probably the most emotionally volatile in terms of the highs that you feel when things go right and the lows and frustrations that you feel when things don't go right. And Richard throughout the entirety of this process with me has been right there for me as my guide and as my leader. And it's been a fantastic gratitude that I have felt internally to have him there and assisting me throughout this process every single step of the way. I had tremendous biases that I think most people with dogs that love dogs that have investigated training to some degree or another come into the conversation with things around e-colors, things around prong collars, misunderstandings that I think every human being has about these tools or in many cases correct understandings about these tools but misunderstandings about how they can be implemented and in fact are implemented by someone like Richard. I don't know if there's anyone else in the world that uses these tools in the way that he uses them. But the way that I've been taught to use them has been exactly the opposite of what I thought that they were intended for. Exactly the opposite of the results that we achieve with them and exactly the opposite of what I think everyone thinks about when they think about these tools. At least I know it's the opposite of what I thought. So there's been incredible hurdles for me to jump and I'm just so incredibly glad that I have the natural curiosity to check those biases, verify whether that they were actually correct or not and continue with the conversation with the open mind that I was blessed enough to have and achieve the results that that open-mindedness ended up allowing me to achieve. So there's really two aspects to every program that you go through almost regardless of what it is. There is the breadth of the program and there is the depth of the program. The program here I'm going to talk about first. This is Rebel by the way. Rebel Dublazana Quadrajan. She just turned one year old last month. She is now 13 months old. The first thing I want to talk about with the program here with Richard is the breadth. And by that I'm talking about all the various disciplines that you focus on while you're here. So for example, there were other programs that I looked at before I spoke with Richard and I got a very good understanding of what you covered while you were in those programs. I'm not going to talk about anyone else's program. But for example, one thing that you don't cover in any of them is aggression. And aggression wasn't even something that was a major focus or major component of what we covered here. And yet what we saw here with it being a tangential component is something that you would not see like I said anywhere else. So we had one of Richard's clients who had an American bulldog come here that Richard addressed. And by addressed I mean fixed with respect to the aggression that this bulldog was having. It was dog to dog aggression. So bad that the bulldog had attacked someone else's dog and either severely hurt the dog or killed it. I think killed it. I can't remember this is two months ago that we were looking at this case. And in three sessions with Richard, the bulldog was fixed. And I don't mean that the aggression was curtailed or covered up or could be dealt with via avoidance, which is how every other trainer deals with it that I've seen. But fixed as in this bulldog isn't going to be aggressive with any other dogs ever again. That level of fix. It was shocking to see this. I've seen a bunch of his videos Richard's videos on YouTube where he's where he's fixed, you know, allegedly fixed dogs. But to see this in person, the methodology that he's described me over the phone on our Skype sessions actually play out was amazing. And not only that I saw it with my own dogs who had aggression with each other. I think I had one, two, three dogs go after other dogs, three of my own four dogs go after other dogs while we were here. And they have now all been fixed and it was all fixed very easily. So for me, this is amazing. It's shocking. It's something that the world doesn't understand about dogs in general and about Richard's capabilities in particular. So that was I mean that in and of itself was worth the course to see dogs with aggression get fixed. That was worth all of the time and all the expense and that was just a tangent. Hey pretty girl. So that was one piece of the breath. Another piece of the breath that is amazing that I had the fortune of studying under Richard is the decoy work associated with protection. So I thought that decoy work is really simple. You put on a bite suit or bite sleeve you go out there you take the bite. That's it. That's your job. Your job is to get bit by a dog and to do so in a way that's safe. It couldn't be further from the truth. Decoy work is incredibly complicated to do well. It's incredibly complicated to do right. You learn or I learned anyway so much about dogs and dog training and how dogs behave and how to bring a dog out by doing the decoy work that Richard Richard teaches. It was shocking. I don't think that there's anyone else in the world that teaches what he teaches because I don't think there's anyone else in the world that knows what he knows and how to do decoy work. It is. It should be its own course that should be taught by Richard to the world's best handlers period in my opinion and I've been encouraging him to consider that it is next to say it's the next level is it doesn't do it justice it's revolutionary. It was amazing and we only scratch the surface is what is perhaps the most amazing thing. So that was fascinating. The e-collar work you know when you're stepping into the ring with Richard Hines it's going to be a major component of it but the complexity of e-collar work the fact that no one else teaches. E-collar work the way he teaches that no one else thinks about dogs the way he thinks about dogs so therefore they can't utilize the tools and the way that he utilizes them. Case in point rebel here this orange e-collar that she's been wearing she's been wearing since he was three months old. I always thought if you put an e-collar on a dog you're going to destroy the dog you're going to do all sorts of damage to the dog. The reason I thought this is because undoubtedly this happens but this does not happen with Richard. It does not happen if you know how to use e-collars and you know how to use them appropriately. As you can see she's thirteen months old which means she's had ten months of e-collaring and she's anything but destroyed anything but exhibiting a lack of spirit and anything but lack of affection. And she's had the e-collar basically her whole life since she was three months old. So again speaking to the breadth of experiences that you get here obedience not like anyone else's obedience. One of the most amazing things I learned here is just how important it is for the trainer to have a certain energy and approach to dog training. I can't I can't state it enough whether you're doing luring with treats e-collar work obedience protection whatever you're doing. It doesn't matter who you are as a trainer the energy you embody the approach that you take little tiny things that you do this this is this is all absolutely critical to being a great dog trainer and I don't think anyone else teaches that because I don't think anyone else knows it. One of the other things and then this now we're going into the depth of the program understanding e-collars understanding prong collars these are a reflection of the understanding of pressure in dogs and the fact that you think that if you apply pressure to your beloved dog you're going to hurt the dog or stymie the dog in some way undoubtedly true if you do it incorrectly the way that I was taught to do it the way that Richard does it you're not going to believe this because I choked on this for months this concept is that pressure is good it is good for dogs it makes them better it makes them settled it reduces anxiety it reduces problems that dogs have if all you do is treat your dogs if all you do is be kind to your dogs if all you do is baby your dogs and use positive only methods instead of the appropriate and I emphasize appropriate use of pressure you're going to have dogs that are not as happy as they would be otherwise meaning if you use pressure appropriately riptide is a case in point you can see how affectionate she is and she has had a great deal of pressure but because we used it at the right times in the right ways it made her better it made her happier and made her more spirited more enthusiastic and more affectionate we've seen this with riptide we've seen it with rebel we've seen it with all of my dogs and I've seen it with little golden retriever puppies that we've trained I've seen it with the American bulldog that we train for aggression pressure in any of its forms and it needs to be balanced with positive it needs to be balanced with positive energy but the appropriate use of pressure how to think about that how to implement it how to adapt to it in certain situations for this dog versus that dog the depth of that has been unbelievably fascinating and completely counter intuitive and counter to what everyone in the world including myself formally thinks about utilizing pressure in dog training as you can see no affection problems here so that again speaking to the depth has been fascinating and I don't think anyone else teaches that I don't think anyone else knows it certainly not anyone else that I've talked to so as I walk away from this today is the second to last of the days of the three month program one thing that I know is that I know and have learned more that I'm even aware of right now and all of that is going to be cementing in my mind over the course of the next weeks and months and I was over saturated for the first couple of months while I was here and it has all been coming together in the last several weeks and it is amazing the versatility that I have now with respect to being able to address service dogs protection dogs dogs for obedience dogs have problems social problems dogs that have idiosyncratic problems that need to be addressed they're afraid to walk up the stairs or doorbell rings they run to the door they jump all over people inappropriately you name it I now have a way of looking at dogs understanding dog psychology understanding dog behavior that I'm just grateful to have where I can now look at dogs in those situations and understand what's happening and understand potential solutions the complexity that we dealt with here certainly are some of the most complicated things that have ever been done by human beings with dogs training two dogs to work in coordination with each other in protection scenarios the things that we did with her and her sister I don't think they've ever been done before I don't think anyone else has tried to do it I don't think anyone else can conceive of how to do it and I don't think anyone else has actually been able to do it so that has been incredible but aside from that just simple things that are simpler things that apply in service dog situations search and rescue finding all of the variety of things that one can do with a dog we've been exposed to there's no other program on earth that gives you that and for Richard to come out and share his knowledge and share share his expertise again I'm just incredibly grateful for the things so that's been my experience I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world I'm glad that I stumbled upon him I'm glad that I found him and I'm incredibly glad that he made the time to work with me and assist me in achieving the things that I wanted to do and very excited about the future what it holds and where I'm able to take what I've learned thus far forward