Review:
This is a long story.
I have had Winnie, a female spayed Rottweiler, for the last six years. Winnie has always been an amazing dog and although not perfect, she has been very obedient as far a coming when called, sitting, NEVER jumping, not counter surfing, not going on the furniture etc. She has always been docile and gentle. Whenever people have met Winnie they always tell us what friendly, loving and well-behaved dog she is.
For this reason, my husband and I were absolutely shocked when 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 started by aggressively sniffing the baby and then tried to jump up at the baby. Her behaviour escalated to the point where she was drooling, whining, panting and barking. Her eyes had glazed over and she was completely unresponsive to us trying to “correct” her. The evening ended with our friend leaving and us being very scared at what we had just seen. There was no way we were going to let another child into our house until we got some help.
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. The trainer did see Winnie around older children, aged 2-6 years, but never around an infant and the trainer determined Winnie’s behaviour to be fine. We were then told that we could do nothing else until we had a real life infant to work with. As no parent was willing to bring their small baby over for “dog bait” we felt there was nothing more to do.
A few months later, I found myself happily pregnant. We knew that we had not dealt with Winnie’s issue directly but the trainer had given us some confidence that we would be ok. 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! This time I could not go near the doll without Winnie literally going insane. We were in a panic as I was due in 5 weeks!
We called the trainer that we had before and this time we were able to show her exactly what we had been concerned about. Winnie jumped up at her while trying to get at the doll. The trainer’s response was to kick Winnie in the chest and to yell “off” and that was the end of the training session. It was clear that this case was beyond what the trainer could handle. This same trainer whom we had spent hundreds of dollars with and who had previously told us that Winnie was fine NOW 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. We were also told that if we went with option B we were risking having our baby mauled, us being charged with neglect and that our dog would end up being put down. My husband and I were beside ourselves with grief but knew that with Winnie’s current behaviour she was in fact correct with her assessment and we could never bring our new child in home! Winnie was a member of our family for so long and now we had no option but to say goodbye. Painstakingly, we managed to find someone to adopt Winnie. Thankfully, however, around the same time, someone in my husband’s office recommended Barkbusters. My husband called Lisa Marshall and told her our story.
The first thing we noticed when Lisa arrived was that she spent an entire hour just talking to us about Winnie and her behaviour. What we learned was that Winnie was passively dominant and was quietly controlling us in many aspects of her daily life. Lisa then spent another two hours working with Winnie and correcting some of her behaviours that we previously thought were harmless. Finally, we brought the infamous doll out and we couldn’t believe it; Winnie was a different dog in just three hours. She was still slightly stressed but there was no jumping, barking or drooling. To say that we were in awe is an understatement!
Lisa was then very honest with us. She told us that in order to fix Winnie’s problems we were going to have to put in the work and she also told us that we were going to do intense training over the next 4 weeks before the baby was born. This was not something that was going to be fixed overnight. We had to look at the training as “a new way of living with Winnie” and that this was an ongoing process. After considering this and the cost of the training we decided to go ahead with the program. The cost 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.
Low and behold two days later and a whole month early, I gave birth to our little baby boy, Miles. We were overjoyed but also thought that we were in big trouble as far as went Winnie went as she only had one training session and one day of homework. 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. Once again, Lisa worked with Winnie for another two hours. She is clearly dedicated to her clients. 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. She also offered us phone, email and blackberry messenger support, which we used and still use regularly.
Lisa had also helped me work with some of MY separation issues with Winnie and has helped me to see that many of Winnie’s problems were linked to MY behaviour around Winnie. It is a hard adjustment but a necessary one if I wanted my dog to be well behaved and to listen to me. I have learned that a lot of training is about the owner, not the dog!
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. The other day Winnie, Miles and I went for a long walk and I felt like we were one happy family. We have even felt comfortable enough to have our friends over with their babies and small children. Last week there were three infants and a toddler together in our house and using the techniques that Lisa taught us, the evening went by without issue. Lisa still checks in with us on a regular basis and we see her every week or two. Winnie’s training is ongoing and with each new stage of Miles’ development we will have to ensure that Winnie’s behaviour is in check. We are, however, 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.
Dara B– Winnie’s owner