We decided to get our 2nd Great Dane after our first was such an angel. Winbley, our first, was so sweet and easy to train. We learned, however, that was not the case with all Danes! Kira, our 2nd, was a challenge from the beginning because she grew much faster than Winbley and had way more energy! It was really hard to control her, she had a dominant temperament, barked at everything, jumped on people, and lunged at little boys and babies. We didn't know how we were going to make a change! We took Kira to whole group training classes and had no luck! It seemed too basic and didn't address the problems we were having. We were actually told by our first trainer that we needed to get rid of her because there was no hope and she would corupt Winbley. We didnt stand for that because we knew she was a capable dog and we were the ones who didn't know how to handle her correctly. We werent doing her justice. Which is why finding Bark Busters was a miracle! Finally, a trainer who saw the good in Kira, wasn't fearful of her size, and made training easy for us. From the first day we met Deb, I had sooo much hope! It all made sense and I knew we were going to get through this. She made things very clear and seemed to have a way to handle anything! What I appreciate about Deb is that she doesn't move too fast. She works at our pace and Kira's. She wants to make sure the training sticks! We made progress the first day working with her and I felt we were seeing more good in Kira than before. I love the positive spin of this training method and how It focuses on what Kira does right. I catch myself praising her much more than before. After our first visit, I felt I knew exactly what to do because i understood her body language, but we did have some challenges because Kira wasn't picking things up quite as fast as I thought she would. This was frustrating. I think I expected miracles and that was not realistic, however, we were making progress in the right direction. Deb later told me to call her anytime we didn't feel things were going well. When she came back for the follow up she got us back on track and again we were so impressed with the growth Kira had made. Now, We have our 3rd visit around the corner, Kira is a much better listener, she is respecting us more, she barks less, and interacts with our guests better. We look forward to tackling our biggest problem of all, lunging at little boys, people holding babies, and people scared of her as we continue to work with Deb. I have all the hope we will overcome this with Deb's help because Kira is already less agitated around people. Thanks Bark Busters and Deb!
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