Dog Name: Max & Ruby
Dog Age: 4 Yrs. and 1 Yr.
Dog Breed: Lab/Poodle Cross, Chihuahua
Behaviour issues:
Separation anxiety, Barking, poor recall, pulling on leash
Lucille and Paul told me in their inquiry that their greatest frustration and concern is Max the lab doodle. Max had extreme separation anxiety. His whining and barking is not only a constant but has become very annoying to our neighbours and led to them making a formal complaint with our strata. Max hasa kennel, and he will go to it when told to, however, they cannot close the doors to the kennel or he begins to drool, barks, whines and tries to escape. He ends up hurting his mouth and feet from trying to get out. His behaviour is rubbing off on Ruby the Chihuahua. Lucille and Paul told me they were at their wits end with Max and are on the verge of getting rid of him, something they really not want to do. Max is a very loving, fun companion as long as everything is going his way.
Outcome Descriptions:
In the days that followed, Lucille and I sent several emails back and forth. She was very excited to see change so quickly. I have to say Lucille is a dream client. She does her homework diligently and understood right that Ruby needed a much lower intensity of correction than Max. To date Max and Ruby have been sleeping quietly through the night in their kennels and they have heard only positive comments from neighbours. Lucille has high expectations for her dogs now and immediately set to work doing distance control outdoors with both dogs. Max is already showing much better response times when called, and most importantly, Lucille can now stop him when he gets distracted and wants to bolt after a dog or other distraction. Max was still pulling on leash for the first week but some coaching from me and Lucille was able to get this under control too.
Client Comment / Review:
What happened with our dogs, they are so transformed, I cannot believe it. Both dogs slept in their kennels all night long in the kitchen on the first night. We did not hear any whining from Max and prior to today we couldn’t even close the door on the kennel without him going crazy. Ruby whimpered twice where I needed to do the Bah and that was all it took. A neighbour saw me walking the dogs today and was amazed and shocked at the difference, in just 24 hours. Her comment was, “it just can't be this simple a solution.” Yes it can, once the dogs started seeing us as pack leaders.