Roxy is an English Bulldog that I trained, and when we met, she was a testament to her breed: sweet and energetic, a little stubborn, but loved being with people. Roxy's issue was that she would grind all obedience to a halt and display a ferocious ("aggressive") nature when encountering unfamiliar dogs. It was like a light switch in her brain. Sweet and calm to, "I'm going to rip your dog's face off!"  Before it was outlawed, the English Bulldog was used historically to bait (fight) 2,000 pound bulls in England. Though most are calm in today's world, Roxy liked to show off her primal past.  With a lot of extra time, attention, and patience, I taught Roxy to trust her owners, and after that she became a calm, well-behaved dream dog.

Bella is a 6-month old Keeshond, and full of energy. She needed all the foundation obedience our Basic Manners - Puppy class offered, but there was more. Bella's family wanted to get a handle on her barking. Bella barked at people knocking on the door or the mailman on the porch. She barked if someone made a sound in the next room or at the neighbors gardening in their yard. She even barked at airplanes over head (this was a new one to me). I knew Bella was smart, and once we taught her alternatives to barking, she calmed down, and learned a different way to deal with our chaotic world. Now the family lives in peace and blissful silence.

When teeny, tiny baby Shih Tsu, Roxy, came into my life, I had never seen such a diva attitude in a 4-pound body. I mean, just look at her! But, boy-oh-boy was she a jumper!  Because Roxy was just a puppy, we started with a lot of the basics. She needed extra attention on the potty training, but she improved week by week. Once we had her basic commands mastered, I wanted to focus on the jumping. "Four on the Floor" was the order of the day, and she caught on with just a few extra sessions! Hip Hip Hooray, little Princess, you just keep being you, but no more paw prints on mommy and daddy, you hear?

Ella was a 2-ish year old black lab. It was said that she was very mistreated, and used simply to produce cute baby labs, then was tossed out on the street.  When she was picked up by animal control, she was a virtual skeleton, she distrusted men, and hated anything having to do with a leash, harness, or collar, and was not likely to come when called - EVER. After 2-months of loving her back to health & learning to trust her new family, she came into my training family. Smart as a whip, she learned all of her basic skills, now loved her harness and leash, but still had one issue. Ella loved to slip through doors and run, and her new family was beside themselves because they feared she'd get hit by a car as they lived near a very busy intersection. When I first observed Ella's lack of recall, I observed her run about 100 feet, turn around to make sure her new family was watching, then would run some more. AHA! This was a game of catch me if you can, and her well-meaning owners were playing right into her paws by chasing after her.  We only needed 3 sessions to teach Miss Ella that the world is better when she sticks with her new family, and we got a reliable "Coming When Called" out of her lickedy-split once that point came across. 

Finn is a happy-go-lucky fellow, but boy, is he a big boy! I believe his family said he weighed in close to 80 pounds. They adopted him and his previous owners obviously did not believe in teaching him any polite manners. After completing both the Basic Manners and Beyond the Basics courses, his family wanted an intense class that was all about learning to walk nicely. By the end of these 3 short sessions, Finn was walking BEAUTIFULLY with the family's 8-year old daughter as his handler. He must have outweighed her by a landslide, but what a perfect example in how a little training can go a long way.