I just want to say thank you for allowing me to visit this past Saturday. I have traveled all over the world but the one place I enjoy visiting the most is your facility. It's amazing to watch you and your staff work and the enthusiasm you bring to the people who have brought their dogs to be trained. I don't believe I have ever watched such a group of people dedicated to the purpose of making the world a better place with people and their dogs. Thanks again for the hospitality this past Saturday. May God Bless you all with health and great success.

Your friend and past customer,
Donavan Rice.

Our two puppies have BILATERAL ELBOW DYSPLASIA and one also has BILATERAL HIP DYSPLASIAWE CANNOT RECOMMEND THINSCHMIDT GERMAN SHEPHERDS due to our experience with our puppies' health problems. Last year we obtained two puppies from different litters GONZO & SAYLA (May 2012) and GONZO & ANNA (Sept 2012). BOTH were diagnosed with ELBOW DYSPLASIA and ONE also with HIP DYSPLASIA. Once you have a dog in the family you aren't going to return it to the breeder. Our puppies' conditions were identified and diagnosed by extremely well-qualified Board Certified Veterinary Surgeon and independent Board Certified Radiologist before one year of age. So far we have paid out many thousands in veterinary bills related to the elbow dysplasia diagnoses and necessary surgery, and then the youngest puppy was ALSO DIAGNOSED WITH HIP DYSPLASIA. I wish I had realized that German SV rating of FAST NORMAL is BORDERLINE in the american standards rating of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals OFA. I would NEVER select parents that have that rating ever again. The ratings can be found on the website: http://www.offa.org/hd_g…. I've learned to check the ratings of the breeding males and females you are considering from any breeder. Our puppies face a lifetime of arthritis. It is a very sad experience. We love our puppies but wish they were healthy.

We have a one year old GSD. From day one we were taking obedience classes. As she got older, she became tougher to work with and our trainers had us using escalating control methods - e-collar, pinch collar etc. AND THE BARKING...My neighbor has a GSD that we love who is a graduate of this program, so we took his advice and left her there for 6 weeks. It gave them time to reset the hard drive on the dog and gave us (me) time to calm down. We just picked her up yesterday and she is the dog we wanted - calm, obedient and confident. I'm putting the e-collar on Craigslist today. We are thrilled and are looking forward to getting obedience and agility titles in the future.

I highly recommend Assertive K-9 for training classes. I was a first time dog owner with very little knowledge of how to train a puppy. I purchased a German Sheppard puppy and started taking her to this facility when she was 11 weeks old. I was very impressed with the owners and the staff on how much they care about properly training dogs and working with their owners even when they did not purchase their dog through them. They are very patient and willing to work with me on using the correct movements. My dog is currently 21 months old and I have enjoyed the classes and the monthly workshops that I have re-enrolled her for another year. I have also boarded my dog with them twice over the past year and I have complete confidence that my dog is well taken care of while I am away.