Billy Jo the Bulldog has been a handful since the day we got her. She has eaten a half dozen pairs of shoes and unraveled as many throw rugs. She pulled up the carpeting in the dining room and unraveled the other half. She had us trained very well and we reacted on command. As soon as we answered the phone she would stand in front of the pantry door where we keep her treats and bark until you gave her a treat. She would grumble and bark at us until we played tug of war with her. We could not even hear the TV over her barking. She even bullied us off the couch when she wanted to lay down up there. She weighed almost 85 pounds so bullying us around was easy for her.

We had two beautiful cocker spaniels a male and an older female when Billy joined our family. From time-to-time, Billy Jo would get into a fight with the female but always left the male (Goosebumps) alone. The female passed away a few months ago and shortly after that Billy Jo started attacking Goosebumps when she thought he had food she didn’t have. She would charge him and get him by the ears and sounded so vicious that we were afraid she would kill him. We didn’t want to send Billy away and knew we had to do something about this aggression.

We are fans of the Dog Whisperer on National geographic and thought maybe something like that would work for Billy Jo. We searched the Internet and found Wag & Train. We liked what we read and emailed Kari for a consultation. During the first visit, while she was interviewing us, Billy Jo put on a show of all of her bad habits; barking, grumbling, jumping on her and us, trying to jump in the chair and on the couch…everything. Kari explained to us what was happening and why Billy Jo was doing the things she was. She demonstrated how to ignore her when she is behaving badly along with a few basic commands and then we tried them. She left us with pages of instructions for changing her food, toys to buy and other things. She assured us that it would not be easy but it would be worth it.

It is three months later and Billy Jo has made a complete turn around and so have we. She is happy and has fun with her training sessions and walks and so do we! Billy Jo did not know any commands before our training. Now, she can follow the commands of sit, stay, stand, focus, down, speak, sit pretty and free. Occasionally she tries to bark to get attention but the “Off” command is very effective with positive reinforcement. Best of all, she leaves Goosebumps alone. She even sleeps by him and lets him lick her ears. Billy Jo truly is a changed dog!

Thanks!
Owners - Jeff and Sue in Denver