19-05-2011, 11:14 PM
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Pet Forums VIP Member
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: off the Chesapeake Bay in USA
Posts: 11,350
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a great testimonial from a colleague, Mary W. Blanton
Mary kindly allowed me to share this, along with the attached picture.
the little red-fawn dog to the right, curled in a kitty-cup, is Sharkee - the relaxed kitty snoozing in the cup-bed
to his left is another of their pets. 
Quote:
Mary Wilson Blanton
May, 2010
We have really enjoyed working with Mary and learning about Positive Dog training. This has been such an about-face
from everything else we had learned from other trainers, but as she taught us how dogs perceive the world
& how to better understand them, training became more fun.
Our training was initiated by adding a 3rd-dog... a Beagle-mix, to our... 2 Labs. We met Sharkee at an adoption event
[where] we'd volunteered [with] our local shelter. Sharkee was one of the dogs we took to the event.
George spent the afternoon with Sharkee and fell in love with him. George took it upon himself to try to find Sharkee a home.
Sharkee got adopted and returned a couple of times... It [broke] George’s heart to see him in the shelter
when he was there to walk dogs (volunteer work he does at the shelter). After 4 months of seeing this poor, depressed
little dog, & many discussions on the logistics of adding another dog to our household, we decided to give it a try.
We committed to make every effort to make it work for him, and us. Sharkee had some 'labels' on his chart that gave
reason for concern. He was said to be an escape artist & supposedly [was] returned for escaping by previous adopters
(he's never escaped from our yard).
His chart also said that he could not live with cats (but no details as to why). Since we shared our home with some cats,
too, this was a real concern. We set up some tests for him at the shelter to observe how he might be with cats
& the 'tests' showed that he really wanted nothing to do with them. So we brought him home in November, 2010.
We did all the right things... having the cats in a safe place to get to know him though a door, etc, but it was clear
he would obsess on seeing/chasing them. We decided to call a dog trainer for help. We contacted one of the biggest
[training franchises] in the USA, and they sent us the one that had our 'territory'. We had 5 sessions & were
making little progress with squirting & growling at Sharkee, per his training techniques. It also became clear [that]
he really had no clue how to work with dogs and cats. Sharkee also sustained an injury from one of his
'leash training' techniques. I mentioned to the trainer that I had read that Beagles often do not respond well
to fear/dominance techniques & often responded better to positive training but he pretty much ignored what
I had to say. So I fired him.
I then started searching for a positive dog trainer. It took a little research but I found Mary.
Mary spent a few hours with us on our first session to get a clear understanding of what needed to happen
to bring peace to our home. We had a lot of work to do with all 3 dogs. Besides the Sharkee/cat issues we had to get
back to some “basic training” with all of them.
Mary gave us clear plans each time she was here. She would also follow-up with written directions for our 'homework'.
But what really showed us that we were on the right track was when we stopped squirting & growling at Sharkee
and started using some of the new 'tools' she gave us to work with, we saw a dramatic difference in Sharkee’s behavior
toward the cats. Within a week, I was able to capture the moment seen in the attached picture.
This was not possible before.
We still have some work to do but we have come a long way with Mary’s help. She has given us a lot to work with.
She has done a pretty good job of training the humans in our house!
- Vikki and George
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agree! building co-operation is much better vs authoritarian
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