Phoebe - Jack Russell, Husky Mix

we rescued Phoebe from the local shelter, she seemed calm, after approximately 3 months we began to notice a lot of aggression. Her aggression was towards everything. She would not allow anyone to come into the house, if they came in she would lunge, bark, snarl, and attempt to bite. We had to try and keep her on a leash.  We gave up on inviting people to our home, it was too much to handle her. We would have to put her in another locked room.  Walking her outside was an even bigger challenge. If she saw another dog way in the distance she would start to lunge, snarl, almost flip on her leash. So our walks were reduced to extremely early in the AM and extremely late at night, to avoid any risk of bumping into dogs. Our life with Phoebe was challenging.  We did not know what to do. So we did nothing but try to avoid situations. We stopped inviting people to our home and this went on for over a year.

We spoke to our veterinarian who referred Janet Oquendo with Pawz for Health In Home Dog Training. When Janet met Phoebe she was rather shocked at Phoebe's response. Phoebe lunged, barked, tried to bite her at her first visit.  We had our hands full.

Janet encouraged us and  explained to us what was going on with Phoebe and reassured us that we can change her behavior through positive reinforcement.   We began immediately!  After 2 weeks Phoebe's emotional state changed. She began to wag her tail when Janet came to the house, and at the final session with Janet, Phoebe wagged her tail, was relaxed, ate bones in front of her.  We then took the training to Janet's facility to work with dog / dog aggression. This was awesome. After 2 sessions. Phoebe was able to sniff one of her dogs, and walk a foot away side by side together with no growling, or attempts to bite.  We are so thrilled at the progress Phoebe has made. We never though it would be possible to change her behavior. We still have a little way to go, but we are certainly 70% better. We notice now that Phoebe checks in with us all the time. Its just amazing.

thanks you Janet, you are an awesome trainer!

Janet and Tony Li, Silver Spring MD