 Client
Results
How a first time puppy owner made it through those first few
months of puppy teeth
Marianne is a human resource
specialist who deals with people every day. She has no problem communicating
with or understanding people, but was her puppy ever giving her a hard time!
She wasn't sure what was normal behavior, or what behavior she should
be concerned with. She was ready to learn more, but didn't want to
damage her developing relationship with her puppy with harsh training methods.
Through a series of weekly
sessions, e-mail check-in's, and real-life practice sessions, we helped
her:
- Understand normal puppy behavior, helping to distinguish normal behavior
from troublesome behavior.
- Restructure her expectations of what her puppy is capable of learning
to facilitate teaching that is appropriate for her puppy
- Develop
a positive relationship that will last a lifetime. Building this relationship
from the beginning ensures a meaningful, long lasting relationship that
both human and canine will enjoy.
- Learn
how a dog learns, so that in the future, when she needs to teach her
puppy a new skill, she'll have the tools ready.
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The results:
Marianne and her pup are well on their way to nurturing a relationship that
will last for many years to come. She has the foundation skills needed to
develop her puppy into a well-behaved member of the family who is welcome
at others homes, who is invited to family picnics, and who is a delight
to have around.
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How
an experienced dog owner instilled peace and calm in her large-breed
litter mate puppies
Having a dog was nothing
new to Amber E. But having two large-breed littermates was a bit
more than she was ready for. In a very short time, these 50 pound puppies
would grow into 180 pound adults - they'd be heavier than any member
of the human family! She needed help and needed it fast!
We helped the family
develop a training plan that:
- Consciously managed expectations of the family about what
to expect from two litter mate puppies.
- Focused on developing the pups individually, to allow their
personalities to develop independently of each other.
- Included a detailed plan for how to teach the pups basic manners
and house rules, adapt their schedules to work around the pups,
and absorb the impact that some basic training could have on
the family's everyday life.
- Established early on that each family member held the position
of leader to the puppies so that even as the pups grew into enormous
dogs, they still looked to the humans for direction and guidance.
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The results: Weighing
in at a combined weight of about 400 pounds, both dogs are well-integrated
into family life and happily yield to the humans in the household,
even the smallest ones who weigh about 80 pounds. They have exceptional
manners and are the official greeters of the household, meeting everyone
at their car to personally escort them to the front door!
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a
teenager finds a positive and constructive
outlet for his energies --
and gets a well trained best friend
This teen was having the typical adolescence,
marred with uncertainties, false starts
and self-confidence issues. It seemed
that nothing was going right until his
parents bought a dog. The teen gravitated
toward the pup immediately, showing a
real knack for training. Encouraged by
his focus and unabashed love for the
dog, the parents wanted to nurture this
relationship. They didn't know
where to turn to learn more, but knew
that this was important not only to them,
but to their son, and the dog as well.
We
helped them encourage and feed this relationship
by:
- Teaching the teen about the value of
positive relationships, using the dog
as a model.
- Developing training schedule and milestones
to achieve in a deliberate process.
- Establishing the teen as the lead-trainer,
giving him responsibility for teaching
the dog, as well as teaching the other
family members how to train.
- Creating a relationship between dog and
human based on trust, communication, and
positive reinforcement.
- Developing a safe, comfortable outlet
in which the teen could experiment with
different approaches, where failure wasn't
viewed as failure at all, but rather as
a learning experience.
- Cultivated a love of dogs into a true
passion that he was excited to share with
others, thereby opening up channels of
communication.
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The results: Within two meetings,
the teen's love for his dog had shone through,
with the team well ahead of the curriculum. The
teen wanted to learn more, wanted to teach his
dog more. We, in turn, added to the curriculum,
just to keep up with them both! The true joy,
the mother said, was that the teen was finally
excited about something, was devoted to and immersed
in something positive for both the dog and the
teen. The teen's relationship with the dog was
evident from the moment they walked into the
room -- the dog waited on any signal from the
teen to perform a behavior and lived for attention
and praise from the teen. |
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