I’ve had dogs all my life, and I’m proud to say that each of them lived a happy, adventurous, and well trained life. And then C.J. came into our lives, and my failure to manage her aggressive behavior has brought me to many tears and lots of frustration. From the time she was a puppy she showed signs of aggression towards other dogs, and Moja, due to her size and “big dog” temperament, bore the brunt of C.J.’s behavior. We debated and agonized over re-homing C.J., but ultimately decided it wouldn’t be ethical to give her to another family and have something potentially worse happen because the new family might not be as diligent with her as we’ve learned to be. That left two choices; one of which was to put her down. It broke my heart to think that might be our only option, so we invested heavily in hiring professional trainers to help us help her. Our first priority was managing her relationship with Moja. We learned C.J.’s triggers with her, and no longer allow competition, opportunities to resource guard, or dominant posturing. Consequently, it’s been over a year since there’s been an incident between the two of them. Despite all the work we did with her with boot camps and trainers, she still hasn’t learned to play well with others. If you have never had a reactive dog, consider yourself fortunate. I wish I could still say I’ve never had one. It’s exhausting, and I would never wish this anxiety on another dog owner (or another dog). Still, I work with her constantly, and have learned so much about dog training and behavior through hundreds of hours of watching training videos and reading books. That’s how I learned about Solid K9 Training, which happened to be just 40 minutes from my house. The owner offers intensive weekend seminars on aggressive dog training, and I immediately signed up for one. On day one I was a nervous wreck not knowing how C.J. was going to react being around 13 other dogs, some of which had the same problem as hers. She surprised me by settling down into her crate and just watching. When we were asked to start taking our dogs out so that we could practice problem solving, she still didn’t react. It wasn’t until day two when we took them outside that she started to show her fear aggression. That was when I was able to finally apply the tools and techniques I had been given to help C.J. make better choices. Jeff instructed me in real time what to watch for and when and how to take corrective action. The first two times she was approached, she reacted aggressively, but by the third approach she was actively avoiding eye contact and walking behind me. As his dog circled C.J. a fourth time, C.J. continued to avoid him by circling around me and looking to me for guidance. Finally, all the pieces fell into place. You can watch all the videos in the world and read all the books, but until you’ve had a chance to apply what you’ve learned in real time, none of that will do any good with a challenge dog like C.J. That’s the breakthrough she needed, and what Solid K9 Training provided. With the knowledge and practical experience I gained this weekend, I now have the confidence to help C.J. not only make better choices, but to build her own confidence through exposure to new experiences.