Having grown up with a spoiled Shih Tzu, I knew that while they are extremely cute, funny dogs, they can easily get to be the boss of the house.

When we got our 8 week old puppy, my girlfriend and I were adamant that our Shih Tzu would not sleep on the bed or in the bedroom.

After three sleepless nights of scratching, screetching, yelping and barking my girlfriend called Ian on the recommendation of friends who have a beautifully behaved Boston Terrier.

I was slightly scepticle at first, as I thought we could learn all we needed from the internet, but much like medical advice, the internet provides nothing but further confusion.

From the moment Ian arrived any scepticism was waylayed. He had our puppy sitting quietly in his little pen, litterally within minutes. He was able to explain very clearly how to correct any dominance issues and to set our puppy up to be a very well behaved dog in the future, all the while being very entertaining.

This was great for someone like myself with a short attention span. It's been less than a week since Ian's visit and our puppy is already respecting us and learning more and more every day.

He is already getting compliments from strangers about how calm and well behaved he is, which would not have been the case without Ian's help. He is already sitting on command, fetching, waiting to be placed on the couch and is very close to toilet trained (much faster than expected).

He has also stopped chewing on things unless he is permitted to, which is great with the kind of dog that small children like to pick up and cuddle.

Tom & Ha, Collingwood