Wednesday, September 16, 2009

She's getting the hang of it


Some of you may know that we enlisted the help of a dog trainer for our German Shepard, Star. We've been having some issues with her listening and jumping on people, and since I'm the person that's with her the most, I need her to listen to me. It's like having another child at home. Except that she sleeps a lot more than the kids do! Anyway, I have a very good friend who just had her dog trained by a close friend and they had an awesome experience. And they were very happy with the results.


So I checked out the trainer's website, and thought, well, I need to start somewhere. And of course once I saw him on TV, with my friend's dog, it was a done deal. I knew he might be the help Star needed.


First a little background on Star. We bought her when she was about 3 months old. So she was still a puppy, but crate trained and potty trained already. Which were major pluses for me. I am NOT a dog person. Still not really, but I love my dog and don't know what I would do without her. She's taught me to love and respect dogs and I have even contemplated *gasp* getting another dog. She is very gentle with the kids, and just loves to be around them. Being that Star is a German Shepard her obvious purpose is to be a good guard dog...which she is. She scares anyone who doesn't know her, but really she's just a big old baby.


Back to the point...so our dog Trainer, Tommy, started on Monday. And so far I have honestly seen some amazing results with Star. I have to admit, since I know absolutely nothing about dogs and the training for them, I wasn't sure if a week would be enough for Star. But seriously, she is already more calm, and I have only two times where she's tried to jump on me. Typically, she would try to jump on me about 200 hundred times a day. She seems happier in general which makes me feel good b/c it's definitely something she needed. Star is still playful, but it's nice to see her feel more comfortable and not be so darn excitable around the family all the time. It got to the point where we would sometimes have to put her out in her kennel when family would come over b/c she would just be all over them. And I have some friends and family who aren't used to Star....it's not like she's a lightweight either. She's a big girl, 80 lbs and still thinks she's a lap dog!


Tommy is doing such a fantastic job with her. I'm throughly impressed with all of his credentials. He has trained dogs in the military, among many other things, but that alone is impressive. I can't wait to see how much even better Star is by the end of the week. I am very excited to have an obedient dog that I'm not afraid to leave out when we have company.


Thanks Tommy D!

www.americank9trainingservices.com

0 comments: