“Before I repeat many of the positive statements made by current and past customers of NMBDT I would like to establish my ‘street cred’. I started going to dog class’ in 1970 and in doing so encountered many self described dog trainers. Most of which were ‘old school’, jerk and release, compulsion based training, taught with a certain arrogance. And even though I titled dogs in agility, almost in …tracking and almost in obedience, It never felt right to me or the dogs I was trying to help. So I started to read about dogs and training and soon discovered, Ian Dunbar, Suzanne Clothier, Pam Reid, Sheila Booth and others who believed that there was a better way to train dogs and people. So when I moved back to NH, I started looking for someone who believed in a type of dog training that was based on a positive relationship with our dogs, taught in low stress environment. To do this I started to ‘observe’ training sessions at the various dog training centers ( 5 to be exact) around Concord. Needless to say, I found that all but one of them still relied on ‘old school’, jerk and release methods and/or were arrogant in that ‘ I know more than you so be quiet’ way. The one exception was Helen Nicholls of NMBDT.
Helen is a rare treasure of a dog trainer. More than just knowledgeable about the subject, she understands how dog and people need to interact to produce a respectful and ‘loving’ relationship. She has enthusiasm for the process and works hard to pass that knowledge along to her customers. If you have a new puppy or a ‘problem child’, you owe it to yourself, your family and your dog, to work with Helen.
My friends: Alex, Sam, Whisper, Zoom, Bella are all deceased and did not have the pleasure of knowing Helen. Qball and Ted who are alive and kicking and have had the pleasure of working with Helen and having me trained to be a better handler.”