Dog Name: Winnie
Dog Age: 6
Dog Breed: Rottweiller
Behaviour issues:
Jeremy called me at about 4 weeks to Dara's due date...little did we know baby Miles planned on an early arrival! He sounded very stressed and heartbroken about being told by a local area trainer that he should get rid of his dog before the baby came home. After our conversation he decided since they were already looking for homes for Winnie that a consultation with me wouldn't hurt. I came and showed them what Bark Busters was all about.
Winnie had shown aggressive protective tendancies around small children and babies, even going so far as to jump up on a guest holding a baby in their arms. She also showed extreme stress and anxiety when a small child was present in her home, panting, pacing, jumping and whining soon followed. The parents to be had tried treat training but as I explained what they had been doing was treating her negative reaction, rewarding it with food.
Outcome Descriptions:
They brought out a baby doll that simulated crying and the mother to be started to approach the doll - even before she would pick it up Winnie would start to rush in and pace and pant. I showed them a few conditioning exercises to start to teach Winnie that they were actually the leaders of the pack and then we tried picking up the doll again. THIS time correcting Winnie at her first moment of stress and praising her for being calm and going away from the doll and mom. They had not had any kind of success even close to this with other trainers or trying on their own and booked our services the next day. The surprise was the baby came early. It is best to establish leadership in your pack 1 to 2 months before a new baby arrival (IF you haven't already done this!) so our timeline of fake practice was over.
I went to their home on the night they came home with baby to add extra support and guidance and to oversee what I had already taught them. Safety first and management being the key. The leadership in place Winnie was learning that she could not control the actions of her pack and that there were in fact leaders in her pack after all. The more the adults took control of leadership and stopped giving into other attention seeking demands that they had previously paid attention to, the quicker Winnie started to relax. She instinctively understood that lack of leadership from them meant that protecting the pack against all foreign creatures was up to her - once that leadership was taken back and consistantly improved upon by the adults Winnie's stress and anxiety around this new little creature started to dissipate.
We continue to work together with much success - a dog that was unable to be calm when a child was in the same house, can now be in the same room and be calm - updates to follow.
Client Comment / Review:
This was after our first initial visit where I showed them what was possible with proper leadership in place
"Thank you Lisa for spending the time with us yesterday. I have to say we were somewhat in awe yesterday after you left, of course you have never seen the videos, but I can tell you that Winnie was so much better around the doll and the fact that she actually just laid down on her bed and was calm at the end was an amazing sight to see. We understand we are not out of the woods yet and there is a lot of work to be done. We are prepared to put in the effort and do the homework. Let us know what the next steps are. Sincerely, Jeremy and Dara of the Annex" and... 2 weeks after training started with the new baby home...so imagine...training, adapting a new way of life with how you see your dog AND a new born to attend to...these people are hard workers who love their dog! "Winnie is doing great around Miles. Winnie for the most part is even ignoring the crying. " and at 4 weeks into it " Winnie is doing very well, we are managing a lot better. We are giving her off leash time on the main floor. She is super gentle with her sniffs when we hold Miles. "
THIS WAS POSTED RECENTLY ON GOOGLE PLACES BY DARA & JEREMY
I have had Winnie, a female spayed Rottweiler , for the last six years. About a year and a half ago we invited a friend and their six-month-old baby over to our house. Winnie turned into a completely different dog. She tried to jump up at the baby. She was drooling, whining, panting and barking. Her eyes had glazed over and she was completely unresponsive to us and we could not control her. The next day I called a dog trainer whom I had found online and told her what had happened. We then “worked” with this trainer over the next six months, however, what we were working on was basic obedience issues; leash walking, staying etc. and the reason why we had called in the first place was never really addressed. A few months later, I found myself happily pregnant. When I was 8 months pregnant, I decided to bring home a realistic baby doll on the advice received from the Internet on how to prepare pets for babies. When I brought home this doll, to our horror, Winnie's behaviour was exactly the same as before, if not worse! We were in a panic as I was due in 5 weeks! We called the trainer that we had before and we were told us that we had to find Winnie a new home, or train her using shock collars and medication and that she would spend most of her life in a crate. Painstakingly, we managed to find someone to adopt Winnie. Thankfully, however, around the same time, someone in my husband's office recommended Barkbusters. The first thing we noticed when Lisa arrived was that she spent an entire hour just talking to us about Winnie and her behaviour. Lisa then spent another two hours working with Winnie and when we finally brought the infamous doll out and we couldn't believe it; Winnie was a different dog. She was still slightly stressed but there was no jumping, barking or drooling. To say that we were in awe is an understatement! The cost of training at first seemed like a lot but considering that Lisa had already spent 4 hours with us and was offering us a LIFETIME of training, it actually worked out to be LESS than what we had spent with the other trainer who was charging $75 an hour. Two days later and a whole month early, I gave birth to our little baby boy, Miles. Before we brought Miles home we gave Lisa a call. She remained confident that we could bring Miles home and even went as far as to meet us at our house that night. When she left we felt like we had things under control and had a clear action plan as how to handle Winnie around the baby. Today, Winnie is a different dog. She is able to be around Miles and we see none of the behaviour that we saw before. I am able to feed, change and play with Miles with Winnie calmly at my feet. Winnie's training is ongoing but we are confident that we can do the training and that Winnie will remain a member of our family for the rest of her life. Thank you Lisa for saving our dog and our family
