We came to Debra after having worked with a local shelter's behaviorists. After that visit were feeling lost as we were told that our lovely little dog, Tiger cannot be corrected and eventually have to be re-homed or humanely euthanized as agression cannot be fixed but sometimes can be modified. He had shown a bit of aggressive behavior which had just started in the 6 months or so with charging and barking at our child and visitors, as well as some resource guarding. He's 3 years old and we have had him since he was about 12 weeks old. We took puppy training classes and thought we were doing right by our dog.
After that meeting, we scratched our heads, we didn't want to give him back to the shelter or humanely euthanize him; that was just too extreme as he has not attacked anyone but the signs were there that this behavior could escalate. We reached out to Bark Busters and Debra Boswell. At her first visit, working with the suggestions she provided, we saw a change immediately. But, doubt was there. Will it work? Is our dog really changed for the better? Will he change back? After our first meeting with Debra, we know that we have to maintain consistency, work with the training suggestions provided and keep it up, which we are happy to do. Since then, we have seen wonderful changes in Tiger. Even though we don't have many guests visit our home, we incorporated information she shared and tried expanding our training to include visitors coming to the door. We are impressed already as our dog wasn't barking at people walking down the block, across the street, nowhere near out home. So, why not try for people coming to the doorway.
When Debra came back for a follow up session and additional training work, we practiced what she told us and our dog was surprisingly not barking his head off at a car in the driveway and running up and down the stairs to the doorway like a wild beast. He stayed as he should, didn't seem to have anxiety and was quiet. That was a first! We are very glad to have taken that next step to work with Bark Busters and Debra to help keep our little fur baby in the house and keep us and the neighbors safe from a wildly barking machine! His whole attitude seems to have changed. Is he perfectly behaved? Not yet, but it's been a night vs. day change.
We came to Debra after having worked with a local shelter's behaviorists. After that visit were feeling lost as we were told that our lovely little dog, Tiger cannot be corrected and eventually have to be re-homed or humanely euthanized as agression cannot be fixed but sometimes can be modified. He had shown a bit of aggressive behavior which had just started in the 6 months or so with charging and barking at our child and visitors, as well as some resource guarding. He's 3 years old and we have had him since he was about 12 weeks old. We took puppy training classes and thought we were doing right by our dog.
PermalinkAfter that meeting, we scratched our heads, we didn't want to give him back to the shelter or humanely euthanize him; that was just too extreme as he has not attacked anyone but the signs were there that this behavior could escalate. We reached out to Bark Busters and Debra Boswell. At her first visit, working with the suggestions she provided, we saw a change immediately. But, doubt was there. Will it work? Is our dog really changed for the better? Will he change back? After our first meeting with Debra, we know that we have to maintain consistency, work with the training suggestions provided and keep it up, which we are happy to do. Since then, we have seen wonderful changes in Tiger. Even though we don't have many guests visit our home, we incorporated information she shared and tried expanding our training to include visitors coming to the door. We are impressed already as our dog wasn't barking at people walking down the block, across the street, nowhere near out home. So, why not try for people coming to the doorway.
When Debra came back for a follow up session and additional training work, we practiced what she told us and our dog was surprisingly not barking his head off at a car in the driveway and running up and down the stairs to the doorway like a wild beast. He stayed as he should, didn't seem to have anxiety and was quiet. That was a first! We are very glad to have taken that next step to work with Bark Busters and Debra to help keep our little fur baby in the house and keep us and the neighbors safe from a wildly barking machine! His whole attitude seems to have changed. Is he perfectly behaved? Not yet, but it's been a night vs. day change.