My dog, Dylan and I have been clients of Kristina Dieta Setiabudi since January 2014. During this time, I have found Kristina to be an extremely knowledgable and dedicated trainer who has done some very impressive work with Dylan.
Before we started working with Kristina, Dylan was a really scared and reactive dog who barked at both people and other dogs, and other dogs would not come when called. After five lessons with her, Dylan is now better able to resist hist impulse and has started to voluntarily sit and watch dogs and people go by when he goes for his walks (instead of barking and lunging at them). He can now remain calm and listen to my commands when he starts to feel excited or scared, and allows himself to be distracted from normally fearful situations (like strangers walking into the house). He has gone also from running away as far away as possible from my one year old daughter to giving her a little kiss in the morning when he sees her, he even lets her sneak a little pet or tug in from time to time. But what blows me away the most is that my stubborn little Dylan, who almost always refuses to do anything he does not want to do, finally comes (when) called!
As a trained clinical psychologist, it is clear to me what makes Kristina such a wonderful trainer; she uses evidence- based behavior methods that emphasize step-by-step behavior modification, positive reinforcement, rapport-building, and respect. She is able to read Dylan’s behavior and motivate him to behave in more adaptive ways, while also respecting Dylan’s need to take breaks in between training sessions or stopping before he has had enough for the day. She develops structured lesson plans and comes to each lesson prepared to carry them out then follows up every lesson with an evaluation of Dylan’s progress and homework assignments for maintaining the progress. Most importantly, Dylan really loves having her as a trainer and, despite generally being shy and slow to warm to others, is always eager to hang out with his special friend. I am almost sad that Dylan is doing so well because it means we will not get to see Kristina as part of our regular routine soon!