My experience with Dawgs at Work has been nothing short of spectacular! I met with them over a year ago to express my interest in becoming a handler for a therapy dog that would work in hospital or medical settings. After a long meeting, Mandie and Sue suggested that instead of me purchasing one of their finished dogs, that I start a journey with my own puppy and train him from the ground up within their program! I had no idea that was an option and jumped right on board! Their guidance for picking a puppy from a reputable breeder in conjunction with breeder locater services from Doggit, was amazing. After multiple meetings with Doggit and Dawgs at Work, we ultimately picked a Portuguese Water Dog from a Breeder in Ocala Florida who had recently had a litter. The Breeder (Aquas de Seda) was fully vetted to ensure that we were getting a puppy from a breeder with established and ethical practices. I am also a foster Mom in dog rescue and this was an imperative step in the journey. We flew to get him in September of 2025 and brought our boy home to begin the journey. To begin the program, our puppy was required to attend puppy bootcamp, which naturally made me nervous (just being away from the pup we had just brought home). However, Mandie did an amazing job of assuring me that our puppy would be great in her tender loving care. Mandie does all the training in her home and also does dedicated field trips to local business to help them with socialization... and updated us every day with photos, videos and a description of their training. Our puppy came home a completely changed dog (in all the ways we were hoping), with amazing manners, basic obedience down cold, all while still being his same happy little puppy self! His personality hadn't changed at all, he just had more self-control which actually seems to have made him more relaxed and happier! I love showing people all the things he can do at such a young age such as sit, place, stay, wait, down, shake, spin etc. He is wicked smart and Mandie is an incredible trainer! We start our handler/Star puppy classes in a week and I am so excited to continue our journey to Chito becoming a therapy dog and helping humans in their most difficult times. Finding Mandie and Sue at Dawgs at Work was a truly a blessing that is allowing me to fulfill my dream of working with dogs and humans and making the world a little brighter! We are so thankful to Dawgs at Work for bringing Chito into our lives. We are madly in love with our sweet boy and know this journey was truly heaven sent! Katrina and Troy Hanson
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