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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The Mossel Bay area has its own "dog whisperer" and he gets rave reviews on social media over how he has helped people have better relationships with their dogs and helped dogs reach their full potential.
Steven Montgomery has been "working with dogs" for more than 20 years.
He lives in Hartenbos, but comes from KwaZulu-Natal originally. He has been here for the past one and a half years.
Photo gallery: Steven Montgomery, dog whisperer
Diané Pienaar brought her dog, which had been rescued by the SPCA, to Steven and she can't stop singing Steven's praises. She told the Mossel Bay Advertiser about him.
Steven said: "No one knows what happened to the dog, but she had lots of anxiety. Diané went to other dog trainers, but had no success. Then she found me and from day one we started to get results.
"Annie is a collie mix and I am still working with her."
This week Steven saw the dog for the third time. "In the beginning she had self-esteem issues and wanted to attack me. She does not like men, but from day one we saw a change."
When he saw Annie this week, Steven was able to take her off her leash. "She took food out of my hand. Diané struggled for over a year to get Annie to climb stairs and we got her to climb stairs. Now she climbs stairs all the time. They're like an adventure park for her."
Extreme cases
Steven says: "Most of the time I have specialised in pitbulls and Rottweilers. I do extreme cases. Other trainers do not have patience or do not know how to handle these situations.
"I also do obedience training and puppy training."
What is interesting about Steven is that his goal is to assess the dog's talents and help it to develop them. He says: "It depends on the dog. I have a dog in my class who loves sniff work, so I do scent work with her. Another dog loves agility. I take the dog's talent and we make the talent grow. I always do an assessment session with the dog. It's not about the dog itself, but also to educate the client on how dogs think.
"With all the assessment sessions, clients see an immediate difference in their dogs. I try to see where the animals' fears come from."
Steven says that when he arrived in Mossel Bay, before he started a dog school, the first thing he did was invite the SPCA to see what he did. "I wanted them to see that there is no animal cruelty in my assessment sessions."
To find out more, see Steven's Facebook page, Whispering with Dogs.
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