Animal Behavior Training Concepts

Awesome! My pup and I learned so much for the puppy class. What a great deal!

Laura is an awesome trainer not just for dogs, but she’s helping my cockatiel Larry Bird and me have less anxiety about medicine time. The training sessions have already improved my interactions with Larry Bird, there’s a lot more positivity going on now! Larry also immediately warmed up to Laura, which shows me that she has a good vibe that animals can pick up on! I highly recommend Laura not only for your canine companions, but also for your pets of other species!

I have been training with Laura since August 2014– I am still training with her. We are taking one/​one sessions with her.
I contacted her due to serious aggressive behaviors with our awesome dog Floyd.
Floyd is a 20 months Mastiff/​Pit mix, we adopted a year ago. When we got Floyd, he was the most laid back dog ever. Unfortunately we are living in a 20 stories building in the southloop and a lot of people have dogs in our building. Floyd was super dog and people friendly until he got attacked by our same floor neighbors dogs (3 dogs rushed at him– they were off leash). He got so scared that he started to react to those dogs and end up reacting to all dogs of the building in couple of months.
It was impossible and very stressful to take him in and out without bumping into a dog and having Floyd being super aggressive (our dog weight 105 lbs and can over powered me very easily). It was as well a very dangerous situation that we needed to have control on.
I saw 2 trainers previous to my training with Laura. The first one was at a training center just after Floyd started his first reaction. She gave me tips but because of the level of stress Floyd was on in our building, it didn’t work.
The second one was recommended by the association I got Floyd from. The trainer was impossible to reach and when she finally came to our place, the only thing she did was making us feel incompetent owners. Floyd was already on a routine but for her, he was aggressive because the routine was not strict enough and our only solution was a muzzle because Floyd was already traumatized. We felt helpless.
With Laura, I had a great contact right away, she pointed out what we had to improve but as well what we were doing good. She gave us all the advises and the support we needed.
Her method works but it takes time. You need to dedicate yourself to it to see amazing results. Getting a clicker is just the beginning, the rest comes with work. We are training Floyd every day. Teaching him tricks and putting him on a strick routine (to eat, to go out ect…). If you want to see results you need to work for them.
We had to medicated Floyd to help with the training (he is on anti anxiety medicine). The association of both, made us do crazy improvements. We have still a long way to go but we would not be where we are at now, without the help of Laura.
Today Floyd is happy again, he is not anxious to go in or out of our building, he doesn’t try to attack the dogs of the building if we have a reasonable distance with them. He is still dog friendly outside of the building and he overcame some of his fears (waste truck) and the most important, when he gets scared and start to react, we know how to calm him down and having him to get back his attention to us.
Basically Laura is a life saver for us.

Laura and her team are the best! I started training with them when my puppy was only 3 months old and it has made all the difference. Whether we’re out for a walk, in the house, or even at the vet, my now 10 month old pup is a happy and well mannered boy. In addition to the sits, downs, and stays, Laura teaches you and your dog many practical skills to ensure that they are well behaved and confident in all types of situations.
From the small group classes to the emails with supplemental articles and videos, Laura definitely goes above and beyond anything that I expected.
I hadn’t planned on taking more than the first puppy class, but Laura and her team make training so much fun that we’ve already finished our second class and are looking forward to the third!

Laura is absolutely wonderful. My dog was severely abused and is very aggressive towards strangers. Laura is the only trainer I found who knows how to help with this without making the situation worse. I don’t think I could have handled him without her.
She helped my come up with an individual strategy and we’ve been adapting that strategy overtime. Arlo went from not allowing anyone within eyesight to usually walking calmly past (with some space.)
She not only knew what to do, but she was really great with helping me learn to train him myself — which is important, since I’m the one who is always with him. She commonly went way past the end of the session to make sure I understood the training plan. She taught me how to not give contradictory or confusing signals.
Laura is the best option for anyone who wants a well adjusted, well behaved and educated dog, but she is an absolute necessity for anyone who has special training needs. I know first hand that improperly addressed aggression usually gets worse over time. Even worse is using methods which increase the dog’s anxiety over time, or confuse the dog.
Best of luck training your dog, and you won’t be disappointed here.

«Laura Monaco Torelli and her training staff (Valerie & Maggie) are simply the best trainers EVER! I took my 4 year-​old CKCS (Ellie) to a basic manners class at the Rainforest Learning Center in the South Loop. The class was small (Laura limits most of her classes to only 4 dogs) which allowed each team an abundance of one-​on-​one attention. The class really gave my shy Cav more confidence! By the end of each class she was so zonked! She really learned a lot and I am more than impressed with her training. ABTC does offer private instruction as well. The class is 100% positive reinforcement and introduces your dog to clicker training.
I just purchased Ellie’s brother and plan on taking him to Laura’s class, too!»

Laura is definately one of the best trainers Chicago has to offer! After adopting a pitbull, Maddox, we wanted to make sure he had the proper «manners» that he should have. Laura uses positive reinforcement training, so she creates an environment in which the dogs WANT to learn. Maddox would be so excited when it was time to go to «school.» I learned so much about my dog, and myself as a dog owner through her teaching technicques. We are now getting ready to have a baby, there was no doubt in our mind that we wanted Laura for in-​home training to work with maddox and make sure he is ready to be a big brother.

Laura Monaco Torelli and her training staff (Valerie & Maggie) are simply the best trainers EVER! I took my 4 year-​old CKCS (Ellie) to a basic manners class at the Rainforest Learning Center in the South Loop. The class was small (Laura limits most of her classes to only 4 dogs) which allowed each team an abundance of one-​on-​one attention. The class really gave my shy Cav more confidence! By the end of each class she was so zonked! She really learned a lot and I am more than impressed with her training. ABTC does offer private instruction as well. The class is 100% positive reinforcement and introduces your dog to clicker training.
I just purchased Ellie’s brother and plan on taking him to Laura’s class, too!