I honestly am blown away with the positive and long lasting experience we had with At Attention Dog Training. After several unsuccessful attempts with other trainers and recommendations of medication for my 8 y.o. King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, I contacted you for help with Lady’s aggression. From the start I was hooked, my husband, well he is a skeptic and wanted to see if the results would last. Well they have, we are almost a year past your training of our household and all I can say is thank you! Lady has a history of medical issues and pain but she also had a history of aggression. Who would think that a 22 lb fur ball could be aggressive? what were we doing wrong? She had attacked or aggressively warned her two fur brothers, myself, my husband and our friends. It got to the point where we were nervous to leave her with a sitter for an extended period of time in fear that she would bite them.
6 weeks of training at our home ( once a week with homework) was all it took. Ms. Lesley taught us that we were not in tune with Lady’s communication. We learned that Lady works best with choices, with positive reinforcement and with space. Although she is a lap dog, she needs to have her space. Instead of walking over to her and sitting with her on the couch to offer petting, I have learned to wait for Lady to come over to me and initiate, on her terms, her space. Well, such a small act but, huge results. I used to sit next to her petting and she would be fine ( so I thought) and then all of a sudden growl quick and nip at me. Lady was very food aggressive, she would come after whoever fed her or went near her bowl, well after doing exercises to gain her trust, ( and our confidence) she is now fine with whoever feeds her and has no problem with anyone in her area of eating. She used to steal items and it was horrible to get her to offer the item up, she would growl, snarl, bite and drool. Now we give her choices and she gladly responds to “touch” leading her away from the item and on to a better choice. We called out of desperation but, we learned how to better read her signals, and how to communicate effectively with her. We are forever grateful, that our baby girl is back to her pleasant self!!
Thank you again,
Allison, Paul, Lady, Oliver and Henry