Michele Bertamini
6 years ago
We adopted a rescue, being told she was about 4 years old, house trained and good with kids. Well, she is good with kids. She is not 4 yrs old, still a puppy with lots of energy, and had odd bathroom habits, mostly indoors. She was mo ... See More
We adopted a rescue, being told she was about 4 years old, house trained and good with kids. Well, she is good with kids. She is not 4 yrs old, still a puppy with lots of energy, and had odd bathroom habits, mostly indoors. She was more than half crazy, a little less than half love bug. Also, there was no schedule to her bathroom times, so I ended up taking her outside throughout the night. I was as exhausted as when I had a newborn. This dog would poop in her crate. I tried scouring the internet for help. I knew I needed training! Based on the positive reviews, I scheduled an assessment with Sam Ivy K9. Claudia was very nice and was clear in her explanations. To be honest, I was skeptical and resistant to some of their training techniques, that was based on a lack of knowledge on my part. Desperate, I signed up and BLAS came for our first training session. I take the training seriously, knowing from the get go, I was the one being trained on how to properly deal with this spitfire we adopted. We have completed 8 sessions so far and the difference is fantastic. She is mostly on a regular bathroom schedule, doesn’t prefer pooping on hard surfaces anymore but will poop in the grass and goes to the door when she has to go outside. Walking her is easy peasy now and no longer an effort of trying to walk a dog that performed like a circus dog, jumping, laying down refusing to move, grabbing her own leash while I was trying to walk her, getting in-between my feet to where I tripped numerous times, and pooping on the sidewalk or the road. I would say now she is 1/4 crazy and 3/4 love bug! We have an older dog, they play really well together. Cues I didn’t know I was missing before, BLAS helped open my eyes to dog behavior and what it means. Our dog came from a house of hoarders and most likely experienced abuse. While we do not know completely what she has dealt with in her short life so far, Blas was willing to work within her ‘limits’ while still sticking with the Sam Ivy program. She still has a little ways to go, but I feel like I have gotten my money’s worth. Most of what is left, is me continuing to reinforce what she has been taught, so she continues to grow and feel more and more secure. Interestingly, I heard from the person that fostered her after her rescue, wanting to know how things were going. When I told her we hired a dog trainer and she is responding very well, the foster person said, “That’s great, we thought she was untrainable.” We have just had her 6 weeks, and thanks to BLAS she has become an enjoyable part of our family.