After 1 meeting with Jef we were able to immediately apply new skills with our 7 year-old rescue. When I called to make the appointment with Bark Busters, I was in tears and ready to give up on our dog. We had our rescue for three months, who had been returned to the shelter from another family because of his severe separation anxiety. The shelter told us he wasn’t dog aggressive, however, he was in our dog-packed neighborhood. We were becoming “those people with that dog”. In our first meeting with Jef, he taught us how to communicate with our pup and how to be the pack leader. It worked! We saw results that day. With our continued practice, it continues to work. We had tried the “treat method” of behavior change, but it didn’t stick because no treats meant inconsistent performance. We have been practicing what we learned every day, every walk, and working with him. We have emailed with Jef a couple of times and even had 2 visits. We are only in 5 weeks into applying these new behaviors with our dog. In this short time, our dog is now one of the best leash walkers in the neighborhood! He used to bark at almost every dog and would lunge and pull towards them. Now, he almost never barks at another dog and looks to us for what to do. We went from extreme separation behavior where pup could not be left home alone for even 5 minutes (or even out of eyesight), to being alone in another room for 2.5 hours without panicking or destruction. After our second visit, Jef showed us how to refine what we had learned in the first to get even better results. We still have a ways to go, but our dog is happier and we are too! We haven’t given up on him because Jef gave us the tools, encouragement, and reinforcement to be the pack leader. Thank you Bark Busters for your humane methods and thank you Jef for your support.
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Bark Busters dealt with Barking, Chewing, Pulling, Recall, Separation anxiety
Trainer note from Jef :
Hi Becky,
Wow, I'm choked up a little. Thank you. I love that you and Randy have had this experience with the best named dog in the world. You both have done hard work and done it very well. It's been a joy to have you as clients.
best,
Jef