Following are excerpts from letters from some of our customers. Please note we are a secure facility and do not give out client information. References for law enforcement must be requested in writing on departmental letterhead.
Mike and Petra have a big and hard job in life and there is no certificate for what they really accomplish, but in this life what lessons they leave behind will be remembered as they have been taught by the people and experiences before them.
I'd also like to mention that in all my own observation and research, they breed the best dogs I've ever seen. There looks, health and fitness truly speak for themselves, OUTSTANDING! regardless of what I've read in books and magazines about what the dogs should look like according to "The Standards" standards that have been proven time and time again a failure.
Mike and Petra truly know what they are doing and they are excellent at what they do. I am not a cop or in the military or in any search and rescue team, I am just a regular girl with a regular boring day job. But I wanted a real dog and real training for my dog and have found myself with more than I ever imagined and I have nothing but respect and admiration for Mike, Petra, their team and what they do. And if you ask me, if I were ever faced with danger (and I have been) I would only wish that one of Baden's K9s were the ones assigned to find me or apprehend the bad guy. Because the job will get done.
And that's why I love my dog Justice.
Thank you
Rebecca
I would like to end this letter by saying Petra and Mike have been honest, true and real. They have provided my wife and I with a smart, loyal and HEALTHY dog, with excellent instruction in a facility that sets the stage for real life scenarios .
THANKS Petra and Mike and to your staff. Please keep doing what your doing and don't let these ill-informed, miss guided, lost souls detour you from the mission of saving the few real dogs we have left.
Dimitrios Jim
Hi Petra,
He is a beautiful dog!! And a gentleman. We are all very impressed with him and his manners.
He was introduced to all of us one at a time and then as a group. He seems to have no problem with being here. We only had to wait about an hour at the cargo area and everyone there was very easy to work with. They also thought he was a beautiful dog.
He tolerated the ride home well. He whined once and we talked to him and he laid back down. I guess you must live on roads that are somewhat curvy and rural because our roads didn't seem to bother him.
No airsickness to deal with. A good traveler.
Thanks again.
Have a Great New Year and Millennium!!!!
Tammy
Petra,
I wanted you to know, this is the best Christmas I have had in 14 years.
Ruffin and I absolutely adore Trajan. No one could ask for more in a GSD
pup than what we have in Trajan. He has so much heart, stability,
intelligence, and there are many other positive adjectives I could add. He
is the absolute best, and I thank you so much.
Joan
Petra the pups are doing just fine they are really growing fast,they are
going to be super dogs hopefully i will be able to purchase more pups from
you in the near future.
Charlie
Petra,
Just a quick note to let you know Sheena is GREAT!! She has blended
perfectly with our family. She is super with our son, obeys well, and is
super sweet. This has turned out better than I could have hoped, and I am
very glad about our purchase.
Thanks again...we LOVE her!!!!! Oh, who named her Sheena, and why?
Sandy
Hello! how are things going there. I want to thank you and Mike for your
hospitality and all the knowledge. I truly believe that training up there was
the best "vacation" I ever had. (Don't tell Mike I called it a vacation -
smile)
Rameses has adjusted well at home again. We are keeping the dogs apart as much
as possible with supervised interaction. I wish that I could train everyday.
It is so much better than going to the office. Tell Mike that if he wants to
start something up in New Jersey I will be fully aboard.
Hi Petra
We recd. the videos all right,they sure helped out.I have an obstacle course set up in our back yard and just about every day we go through it.Shadow is now six month old weighs 60 pounds and is full of energy.He loves the water,is not afraid of gun fire,thunder or any thing else so far.He has a very good overall disposition full of play and no mean streak at all.When I get some new pictures I will E Mail them to you.
Sincerely
Udo
Hi Mike & Petra
Just a note to let you know we got home with no problems of any kind. I think Nora fared better than me. *S*
Nora took right to my girlfriend and it doesn't appear that there will be any problem.
I am really pleased with Nora, you guys really do a good job all the way around!
Best Regards,
Herb
Things are going well with training. The local police dept has seen Coda in action as they have no local sar resources. We've trained with them twice and I must say she would have made you cry with pride!!!!! She was singing. We did a t track with a scent article and they tried to draw her off onto the wrong person. It was cool, she blew by the decoy and tracked the victim in the dark with no problems. They were also impressed with her multiple surface training. ...I have to admit, my heart was bursting at the edges....we try to work at something daily...we even go to the local play grounds and use the equipment as a obstacle course and of course she is like the pied pipper with kids...lots of good PR...speaking of which thats how the local police found out about us, now they want her to participate in future community events because shes so good with the kids.
I can't wait to get Mouse down here. It'll be nice to be able to work them together at some events, especially the ones with kids.
By the way Coda just discovered the baby pool and is totally hillarious. In -out-in-out...she acts like a possessed dog...she bites the water...and I swear she actually waits till Spanky is nearby and splashes like demon...soaking poor Spanky. Spanky always looks so funny...she's one of those dogs thats all fur and when shes wet she looks like a drown rat.
I'm glad to hear that the girls are doing well...and of course Miss Mouse too...shes gotta keep up with her big sister you know.
As far as training with those police types thats fine with me..... ...besides it'll give me more incentive to work harder . Let me know the dates when they be there, that way there will be you and I and them...we'll show 'em how it's done. I'd love to do that kind of work with Mike, he seems to enjoy that. Maybe we can do some repelling too. I'd enjoy the advanced training, protection work & tracking hostile subjects....sounds like some really good stuff. Let me know as soon as possible and I'll get plane tickets....I'm sure we could squeeze a day or two of girl stuff in there somewhere. I miss the girls and you'all....your Moms cooking.... Gary, his tractor mud racing...just a different pace up there.
I'll keep taking photos so I can send you some of kid events etc. I have to admit I haven't taken too many lately cause I'm so involved in her tracking etc.
See you soon!!!! Take care and hug the girls for me!!
Robin, Coda & Spanky
Dear Mike and Petra,
Thankyou for sending such an excellent pup, he is ... exceptional! We've decided to name him Zack. The video was also excellent.
Thanks, bruce and marika.
We are enjoying the puppy we got on Friday, May 14. We left you a message on
the phone but just to make sure you know that we named him Lucky.
Please send us the remaining papers, since as I understand you needed his
name.
Thanks again, he is cute and smart and we are very happy to have him.
Mikhail
Great to see Todd on your website, he looks pretty good (I must say!).
Todd is doing great. Getting big (and tall), about 50 pounds now and too strong for his own good, runs like the wind, jumps like a gazelle. Headstrong and tenacious in everything he does, fun-loving to a fault, LOVES his Mom. Will not let her out of his sight when I'm not home. He's also a great actor (as you warned). Extremely tolerant of disrespectful kids. I now only worry about his punchy front paws - he uses them like our cat, except better. Loves running up slick (really slick) children's slides (go figure, he just doesn't quit)
All in all, we couldn't be happier.
Hope all is well.
Graham
Petra,
I received my video on Thursday and was able to watch it on Saturday. I was so thrilled! I loved the video and learned a lot from it. I even tried some of the training exercises with my dog right away. He did very well with it. I'm hoping to be able to get more of the videos and continue his education.
Both my husband and I would like to come up for a weekend of training. Is it possible for both of us to come or would we only be able to send one of us?
Thanks so much.
Beth
Dear Petra,
I tried calling a few times yesterday to let you know we received the puppy alright, but I think your phone was shorting out again.
She is our little dream come true!!! She is so wonderful with our son!!! If she has a choice she would much rather play with him then us. That really surprised us. I thought it would take her awhile to warm up to him, as he is very loud but she does not mind at all and she slept through the night without making a noise. Wow!!!!
Thank you again for everything
Chris & Heidi
We continued to be impressed with Sasha's breeding from Dogmen. She
is naturally protective, even as a young puppy. She relates differently
to Richard and me. I am her "Mamma". Richard is her "playmate'. She is
protective of both of us, but more so with me. The one thing that has
kept us laughing the most is her love of water. She loves the creek
behind the house, she likes the rain and the water hose. She will even
try to get into the shower with the water running.
We do not know if this is something we did, making her feel good about
water, or if it is in her breeding. She also loves to ride in the car.
we often take her on errands and one of us will stay with her in the car
while the other one will run in to the store or post office, etc.
She is very smart.
We have her house trained. We have a large brass bell on the door knob,
the door going outside. When she needs to go outside for a bathroom
break, she rings the bell and we can hear her in other parts of the
house.
SHE IS ALWAYS ON ALERT. She instinctively patrols then comes and sits
by one of us.
She is also aware anytime something changes in the environment. She
will approach it with caution.
Her puppiness is in full bloom. She is full of energy and playfulness.
She was born in September and she is almost 60 pounds now.
She is sleek and her black coat shinny.
We have a place, her "good place" in the kitchen under a desk area. Her
crate use to be there, but she outgrew the crate. We have a blanket for
her to lay on in this area. At night, when we are all sitting down in
the den, she will bring her blanket in the room and put it beside one of
our chairs and she will lay on it. I notice she does this when she
starts to get sleepy.
You were correct, breeding is so important and you-all have done a
beautiful job with the dog.
Richard and I are very impressed and are discussing getting second dog
in the Fall. We were thinking of a male puppy.
As you stated, one is protection, two is an army.
Hope all is well with you operation. Keep up the good work.
Richard and Nancy
Hi Mike & Petra,
I wanted to write to you guys to let you know how we are faring with Lobo. When
we picked him up at the Airport we were truly taken by his good looks and
temperament. He is truly a beautiful dog! In fact, one of the Air-Cargo workers
was very impressed by him and wished he could take him home. My wife and
daughter love him very much and Lobo has bonded very quickly with my daughter
(which incidentally follows her every where). When we walk him in our
neighbourhood he receives much praise in regards to his looks and temperament.
One particular person who breeds German Shepherd dogs and saw Lobo at our Vet
commented at his excellent breeding -- she was truly impressed!
I now understand first hand your emphasis on stress training a dog. While
strolling in our neighbourhood we walked by a house, whose owners have 2 dogs of
mixed breed (Lab, Pit Bull, Rottweilers, and God knows what else) behind one of
those invisible fences. These stupid animals came straight for us with vicious
barks which really startled my wife. To my amazement Lobo just coolly looked at
them and watched them carefully without barking back at them. It was only when
he perceived that they were getting very threatening that he barked back and was
ready to attack them. I was really proud of him and how he handled himself.
Other dogs have viciously barked at him but he takes them in stride and keeps on
going.
By the way Mike, thanks for your suggestion to use the training collar to
control his puppyish behaviour, its really working! He obeys commands the very
first time now. The only issue we have to work at is our cat who does not want
to co-operate and Lobo who wants to play with him. In conclusion, I would like
to congratulate you on your excellent work in creating such great dogs. Take
care!
One of these days I've got to get to one of the bootcamps, I'm sure Shadow
and I would get a lot out of it. Larko will now do a short track to find
me, but he's not interested in finding an object yet. He does like to
hide shoes however :)
I can't tell you how many people compliment these dogs! We take them
everywhere possible and they're always perfectly mannered. We took them
to the lake on Sunday for a hike, they both got a good workout jumping
trees and climbing up boulders along the trail. Shadow took her first
swim of the season, bit too cold for the rest of us though!
Hope all is well there,
Tracy
Hello Mike and Petra
Bella is one hellava dog! We can only explain her that way.
We have had her for ten days now and she is still impressing us with her
training and dedication. She is bonding as you said and is also
becoming a great friend and companion. This sounds like something we
should have exspected but she has gone beyond that. Thanks for
representing her and your service so well. We enjoyed meeting you and
getting such a great K-9. We are discovering new abilities from Bella
everyday.
Regards,
Doug
and Kathy
We've enjoyed working our dogs with the techniques you've shown us so much it's kind of like throwing gasoline on an open flame. We just get more and more excited. People who've see my male, Legend, work before and after the tape tell me they see a big difference and I don't even tell people we've done anything different and instead, let them tell us. You can argue over a lot of things but you can't dispute successful techniques. I'm also glad Mike's back home and back to writing. We enjoy reading them, debating over them, etc... We enjoy them so much that I check the computer once a day to see if anything new has appeared. I'll keep an eye out for the tape.
Have a nice day,
Hello Mike & Petra,
Just wanted to let you know that Sailor is doing GREAT!! I don't think
there is anything she can not do. She has bonded very well with our family,
especially me. Our lifestyle suits her just fine, she is always alert and
ready to protect us at all times. Her obedience has been kept up along with
the agility, I myself could use a little work on it and will be in touch to
see when we can come up. Just to give you an idea of how alert and responsive
she is (you probably already know) I'll tell you a little story; This was at
night, I had stopped at a 7-11 to get something and left 2 cents on the
counter to put in the "give a penny-take a peny" bowl, so I left the store &
got into the truck, which of course Sailor was in,(never leave home without
her), I started the truck, rolled the window 1/2 down & before I knew it
Sailor was in my lap getting ready to jump on the man that was standing at
the window with the 2 cents. I never saw him coming towards the truck nor did
I realize he was right there at the window. This same 7-11 has been robbed at
gun point a time or 2. We want to thank you for such a wonderful dog. Between
Sailor and the security system, we finally sleep at night, until she let's us
know something is outside, usually one of the barn cats.
Thanks Again, we'll be in touch,
Carrie, Owen P
Good Day Petra,
Raider puppy is doing fine. Much more than I
expected.
Raider, is showing all the right signs of a great dog,
very impressed. Thank you so much for picking the
right puppy for me.
Sending pictures.
Merry Christmas, Sandy
Dear mike & petra & family
A quick note to wish you all a very happy holiday season...
R______ is doing great, when i get a recent picture i will email you a copy.
Hard to believe that riley is 7 now.
Here is a short story about a trip we took out west this summer......
As per usual both R________and
l ________ (my husband's toy-minature poodle). We were heading back to ontario
after september 11th & visiting a parent with terminal cancer. We spent a
night in brandon mb, & went to have dinner with a friend. We had walked the
dogs & left them happily in the room with the remote control for the tv, 2
queen beds & food & water. As we arrived back early evening i noticed that
the french outside door was ajar to our room, my heart as well as my
husbands stu were in are throats. I raced in the room & there were both
dogs sheepishly on the beds...... hmmmmmmm the red light on the phone was
flashing...... my husband, stu went to the front desk & found out what the
kids had been up to. No, not trying to rent movies, but a walk......
r______ had been able to open the french door & let both she & lucky out.
They did a tour around were we had walked them before are dinner.... a
hotel guest & the manager tried to get close to them but r_____ would not let
anyone need her, or l_____. Eventually they both wandered back into the room
& flaked out to wait for our return. The manager tried to get close enough
to the open door to close it, but every time r_________ would scare him
off.......... he said to my husband, that he didn't think that there was
a big security risk, no one was getting into our room, period.
Mike and Petra,
She arrived right on time, and she is absolutely
beautiful!! I can't say thank you enough. I can't wait
to meet you guys in the Spring and thank you in
person. I know that things got really complicated and
thank you for working through all the mess. I'm going
to call you guys on Monday to order another vest for
Val. She's sitting with me right now-she is so
beautiful. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you again. Scott
Dear Petra/ Mike,
I intended to write you sooner and in fact I did write a long letter a while
ago. Unfortunately, my computer hard disk died taking everything (including
the letter, Tracker pictures, etc.) with it.
Tracker is doing very well. She has bonded with us extremely well. She is
playful and needs to be very active. Because we couldn't begin to give her
all the exercise she needed, I taught her to fetch sticks. I throw them as
far as I can. She runs so fast that she almost gets to it before it lands.
It definitely keeps her in good shape and she loves it, perhaps too much.
She wants to play almost all the time and she begs to play a lot. I'm
trying to teach her that when I tell her no playing that's the law.
Unfortunately, that seems to be a tough thing to teach. She also likes to
chew on (chemical free) rawhide bones and lets us chase her around the house
in a game of tag. Recently she is extremely playful.
Tracker has become much more trust worthy. She always stops at the border
of our yard and doesn't run into the woods like she used to. The other day
she ran after some deer, but gave up the chase when I called her which is
encouraging.
Despite her playfulness with us, Tracker is all business when someone comes
to the house. She barks when someone is at the door or at a strange car.
When someone drives up our long driveway, she runs to the window to look at
the car. She'll start barking if its not my car or my wife's. She can
actually tell the difference which amazes me. She is always watching to see
where we are and who is near us. When we have family over, she is actually
tired out by the end of the visit. When we bring her to my parents house,
she follows us around and growls if a man (like my father) tries to hug my
wife. She seems to be unconcerned if someone hugs or is near me though she
watches.
All in all Tracker is a terrific dog and we have become very attached to
her. We would like to attend the weekend boot camp in September, but my
wife is prenant with twins, so I'm uncertain about it. Just in case, I
would appreciate it if you could send me the dates again and the hotel info.
They were also lost in the crash. I'll send you a few pictures of Tracker
as soon as I rescan them.
Best Regards,
Andy
Mike,Petra
The new puppy is adapting so quickly,and is so sharp, quick to
understand,happy healthy and quick on her little puppy legs too.
she has been a bit stubborn on the lead and prefers none of it,her come is
good and will follow me . except near the stairs .Only yesterday would she
get close enough to put her front paws on, or crawl under the first step of
the 12 foot open staircase.
Today ( day 4 ) With me behind her and lots of prais blaze climbed, first
one step at a time then two. pausing for reasurance and guidance.
She was so happy at the good climb, and me too. She is going to be Great.
you guys are great, and this puppy you sent me is amazing.
thanks for the training site too!
Michael
| Mike & Petra McConnery | * | The Dogmen Inc. | * | NY, USA & ON, CANADA | * | (905) 957-4823 |
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February 2001 The Dogmen Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED