Nikki from Phoenix, AZ called us to help with training for her Pomeranian, Lily. Nikki was having issues getting Lily to calm down inside the house whenever she would hear sounds from the outside and Lily had terrible walking manners. Nikki didn’t know how to discipline her small dog to stop these behaviors and she was growing increasingly frustrated by how often it would happen. Lily had no concept of anything when she would be running and barking all around. At those times it was as if Nikki no longer existed to Lily.

After chatting on the phone and talking about whether we might be able to help, we set up an initial visit to see Lily and go over training options. Once getting all of the information, Nikki signed Lily up for our Boarding School program, where Lily would be spending 2 weeks learning a foundation of training skills to carry over when she went home.

We worked on Lily’s leash walking first, as it was a big priority for Nikki and we were able to get Lily to walk on a loose leash without being over reactive when she saw another dog or animal. She could calmly walk past another dog, even when the other dog is acting like she used to. We also worked on command skills where Lily learned commands like “come”, “down”, “place” and “sit” to better be able to respond to Nikki inside and outside the house. Lily now helps us out nicely in our group classes when we need a calm, relaxed dog to help with our more reactive ones. She just patiently waits and listens to Nikki whenever we do exercises and Lily seems to enjoy the praise. It’s also always a joy to have her stay for boarding when Nikki needs to go out of town. Lily responds and listens beautifully.