Christian Charukiewicz
Jun. 30, 2026
Dog Training Elite in Naperville is made up of an outstanding team of dog trainers that deeply care about excellent outcomes for both dogs and their owners. The program we chose for our border collie, Ivy, was structured as a mix of in-home and then onsite group classes. The intent is to get the basic commands down in a distraction-free setting, which largely consists of you, the owner, being taught to effectively communicate with and provide leadership for your dog. Once the basics are down, you proceed to proofing these skills in group class with other dogs and distractions around. During our in-home classes, we had the pleasure of working with Erik, who not only walked us through the progression of basic commands (such as come, sit, down, place, off) but was also able to give detailed explanations to our many questions related to dog behavior. He also provided guidance for other specific circumstances we asked about (how to introduce a dog to cats, how to deal with anxiety during thunderstorms, etc). Once we progressed to the onsite classes, we were introduced to and worked with the rest of the DTE team who continued to offer highly individualized attention even in the group class setting (for example, helping us help Ivy work through some nervousness when she initially encountered the blacktop used during most of the training). The time we've invested in training Ivy under DTE’s guidance is truly paying off, and her progress speaks for itself. She has transformed from a wild puppy into a still wild but much more obedient and confident adolescent. Ultimately, this training is giving us exactly what we wanted, which is the ability to grant her more freedom, trusting that she will listen when it counts.
