Grace, Living Up to her Name

We thought that having a companion would be good for Eva.... As soon as Grace came to the house, Eva turned and looked at my husband, smiled, looked at me, smiled, and started licking Grace's face. From that day, she became Grace's protector. We would walk with both Grace and Eva. Eva would bark at anyone who passed by. From growling, it went into snapping. So far Eva has snapped at three people, but I am concerned that this can escalate. Recently, she snapped at a friend who was visiting me and that is when I decided to look for other training options. I have to say that we have gone to several trainings and trainers. Several trainers did not know what to do since Eva is not food motivated....

I want to share this with you! I am so excited! I have started doing practices of Dialogue® with Eva and Grace individually 3 times per day (no more than 15 minutes). I started on Saturday. On Monday we went to visit my dear friend that lives in Carmel and went for a long walk….I had Eva on the collar that you recommend, and she did not bark at all in response to Grace's barking at other people!! This is an impressive change from before where she would try to launch as soon as she heard Grace. My friend was also very surprised by this change.

The other beautiful thing is that it is the first time that I see that Grace is excited to have a collar on (she hated the gentle leader and would try to run or hide whenever I tried to put it on). After two days of practice with your training, she comes towards this collar, wags her tail and even tries to put her head inside it! Eva loves it, too. She immediately puts her head in. The other day, while I was working at the computer, Eva sat in front of the collar and turned and looked at me and started making sounds that usually indicate to me that she wants something. Well, she wanted another walk! Grace and Eva are sitting now as soon as they hear the word "Sit," so we have started with Heel. Grace's barking has started to decrease. I think she has now realized that the only thing she needs to focus on paying attention to is me!

And now a story--I take Grace to work with me. We were at work, and it was late. Only the maintenance people and Grace and I were in the building. At some point, a maintenance person passed by with a huge bag of garbage, and Grace ran toward him barking….I ran after her, and out of my own impulse, I called her name and then asked her to Sit (I am realizing that the practice is also for me to have these automatic responses). Immediately, as if by magic, she stopped in the middle of the barking and running and sat down. I followed up with a Stay, and she did that calmly in front of the man with the huge bag. The maintenance person was impressed! He said I should make a video of this because it was amazing and looked like magic! He continued to walk calmly, and Grace just waited for my next direction!The more we do this training, the more grateful I am! Thank you so much,

(Some weeks later)

I am very happy that I got your DVD's. I have watched the one on saving the "bad dog." My husband has also started with the training. Your training has really brought such a turnaround in our lives!! The four of us are so grateful!  I have continued practicing with Eva and Grace (separately), doing the training 3 times per day, 15 minutes each time. I am so happy to report that I took Eva to an open mall for the first time in a long time. When we got there, she had her tail between her legs and was making herself little. She wanted to go back to the car. I continued with Dialogue, and as soon as she realized it was Dialogue that we were going to be doing (what we had been practicing at home), her tail started to go up, and she smiled and walked confidently! It was so cute!! She did not bark once and sat every time I asked her. Some of the people who were walking by commented that they wished their dog was as trained as mine! I talked with several people, and she stayed sitting all the time!! 

As for Grace, I took her today to the open mall and did a practice off leash!! (This is after having gone to the mall several times and practicing on leash.) She did so great! She followed me, did Heel, Sit, Sit- stay and Come! She seemed to enjoy it so much (and I loved it)!! It was great to have this interaction with her. A lovely woman at the mall commented that she had enjoyed seeing me train her and seeing how wonderfully she responds to the words and body posture without need of treats. I told her about you!!

Liliana, California