“Doug did a fantastic job working with my family to train our new puppy, Nano! He taught us not only specific tricks and basic obedience, but also how to change our demeanor when we interact with dogs so they are more receptive to what we are telling them. Doug even went above and beyond by coming back after our sessions to retrain Nano (and us) when he slipped back into some undesirable behaviors. With Doug’s guidance, Nano has grown into an obedient and fun member of our family. Thanks for all your help Doug”

“We asked Doug to work with our foster dog who needed basic obedience and confidence building. Over a 6 week period, we saw Domino become a more confident and happy pup in addition to learning some basic skills that are important in a house full of young children. Doug has a special connection with animals that allows him to understand what motivates them and how to best work with them. I would highly recommend Doug”

“We recently took our two 4-month-old Akita puppies through a basic obedience class with Doug Heywood. With Doug’s expert guidance, we learned as much about parenting our “children” as the “children” (puppies) did about focus and following commands.

Doug understood the Akita personality and had many helpful suggestions for correcting the puppies and helping them learn the basics of sit, down, walking on a leash, leaving it, and paying attention to the handler.
We plan to continue additional training, and would recommend Doug for any level class.”

“Our family gained extremely valuable training from Doug at The Language of Canines. As a first time dog family we learned that we were misreading some of our dog’s cues, and in fact were encouraging bad behavior by reinforcing it. With Doug’s immediate compassion and understanding, he was able to assess behavior, pinpoint areas for development, and start a training plan with us. In five short weeks we were able to retrain our family and improve our dog’s behavior and comfort level. We have only completed phase one training but plan to continue on as all 5 of us love working with Doug. We highly recommend The Language of Canines to anyone looking to improve their family’s flow, and their dog’s behavior. Doug’s gentle and loving approach to training is effective and easily executable.”

““I highly recommend Douglas A. Heywood to train any dog. Our dog had done some preliminary training but had some hard to break habits and wouldn’t listen when he was excited. Doug had great suggestions for anything I asked him and we saw immediate improvement. He knows his stuff!””

“Doug is an exceptional trainer who understands and loves dogs deeply. I have a reactive 10-year-old miniature American Eskimo. While she is a very well-behaved dog inside, her outside behavior was extremely frustrating to me. She would get very angry when she would see another dog; she is also very territorial and protective of her home and mama.

He not only taught me how to train and communicate with her, he made me understand how my own fear of her outside behavior made it worse. Doug has given me the tools I need to take her out in public and feel confident that she’ll either be good or controllable.

At times, she actually will ignore dogs that are far off, something she never did before. She is also letting people pet her more, which is encouraging. My dog is extraordinarily beautiful and gets a lot of attention because of it. I used o cringe when people came up to us in the store, because I didn’t know what to expect. Now I feel more comfortable about it and she welcomes the attention more. My little girl. who ordinarily dislikes adult men, will let Doug pet and love on her for more than a few minutes at a time.

If Doug has earned my dog’s trust, he’ll earn yours too.”

“I had at the time, a 6 month old German Shepherd who began acting out with counter-surfing, stealing, chewing and such. My wife and I decided to check into some training programs, and quite by chance I brought River to Doug. What happened during our training sessions was astounding! Within 5 seconds of meeting our dog, he knew that River was from European bloodlines and after the evaluation, he recommended her for the intermediate level training program. He was able to explain not only what River was doing, but helped us understand how our own behaviors were affecting her as well. His knowledge and insight into canine behavior is amazing. Even after training was finished, he always took the time to inquire about how River was, evening going so far as to stop by our house and help evaluate a rescue that we brought home as a “sister” for River. We are very glad we found Doug as a trainer and I will ALWAYS recommend him as a trainer, and I look forward to taking River back to him for some advanced training.”

““Winter waited for nearly 6 months in a small shelter in Central Texas before arriving in Austin as one of Doug’s students. After a month of intensive one-on-one training. Winter finally met her new mom Amy and spend the first night with her new family and “fur “ siblings. What a fairy tail ending for this precious girl! Thank you to all who never gave up on Winter and God Bless you Doug for getting her ready for her new life””

“My puppy, Boomer is rambunctious to say the least. He is a lab mix, and we rescued him at 4 weeks old. Now at 8 months he has truly become a member of our family, though at times has been a bit difficult to handle. We had a lot of difficulty training Boomer and it became more apparent as he got older and bigger (Boomer is a 70 lb. puppy). After taking Boomer to training sessions with Doug, we started to see many positive changes in his behavior for which I am so grateful. I honestly thought Boomer would never be a dog I could comfortably walk on a leash, but Doug showed me how to change that very quickly. As a first time dog owner, I wasn’t certain how to handle certain behaviors and what training methods would work best for the optimal results.

Even though it was a group session, it really felt like the class was tailored to our specific dog. Doug was able to give personal advice about Boomer’s fears, triggers, and improvements throughout the sessions. The individual advice and passion he clearly has, really helped us to work with Boomer. Boomer has grown up and his behaviors have improved tremendously since training with Doug.

I also really appreciated Doug’s followup and concern for Boomer and my family after training had ended. If I ever have another question about training, I would not hesitate to contact Doug because I know the advice would be well thought out and useful.”

“At our very first assessment for Ginger, Doug made the recommendation to change from our high-end grocery store dog food to a high-protein brand of dog food and introducing a slow-feed bowl. This was based on our dog’s predilection toward being extremely food-driven. We thought that couldn’t possibly be the solution to her aggression towards our other dog, but figured we’d buy a bag just to try (he also graciously provided several coupons). Within 3 weeks, Ginger has become a calmer, healthier, happier dog. The change was so pronounced, we even considered not continuing with training. But if this simple suggestion helped so much, we’re very excited to see what Doug can do with one-on-one sessions!”

““Doug is the best! I am not sure who learned more, me or my dogs, but his techniques really work. I give him the highest recommendation if you are considering training for your dog. You will not be disappointed!””

““Doug Heywood is amazing and works miracles. He also has a heart for shelter pets ♥ Proud to work with him on several pets and see him work him magic.””

““I couldn’t recommend Doug more. He provided consultation to our family, so we could choose the best dog for our whole family including two kids under two and our 7 year old lab, Rosie. Once we brought our new dog “Reese” home, Doug helped us with the transition. He quickly assessed our family and Reese’s needs and developed a series of training sessions that helped us to develop more confidence as handlers, helped Reese to develop more confidence, and most importantly functional training and obedience!””