Holy cow, it really works!

One of my friends is a dog whisperer type person, and I had him come up to the house to work with the four of us.

Apache is my violent problem child.  Arsey’s the stubborn one.  He definitely had his work cut out for him, or so I thought.

He got both dogs under control relatively quickly and squashed my belief that the “Dog Whisperer” tv show is heavily edited to make it look quick / fit it into an hour-long episode.  It’s amazing what you can do with that sort of knowledge.

We’ve been working hard this past week and we’re seeing progress.  Not huge amounts of progress, but progress nonetheless.  More so with Apache than Arsey, but Apache is working stock and he NEEDS to be working.  Even if working means a sit/stay while the doorbell rings.  Anything to help curb his aggression. Arsey is more stubborn and much older, so I figured she might be the harder one to work with. At the same time, though, she’s much better with people so once we can get her even a little more under control, I’ll be pleased. 

We’ve always had them “wait” before they can go in and out of the house.  We’ve added a sit to that and in most cases, we can at least get them to wait before they come inside. I’m sure the sit won’t be too far behind.  Last night, we added the doorbell.  We never got Arsey under control (wicked disappointing), but Apache did several rings very well.  Laying down and staying instead of jumping up and barking.  There was whining and shaking, but I’ll take the whining and shaking down/stay over the barking and attacking of the door area.

My goal is to have them in some sort of decent shape by April so the dog whisperer can come back for a check-up before I (finally) hold my gradjitation party in May. 

I think that’s highly possible and I’m loving watching Apache’s behavior begin to change!

Thank you so much!!!