It can be hard to find the key to calm, especially when your dog suffers from anxiety. Dogs, just like people, suffer from stress and anxiety. One of the cornerstones of our training philosophy here at Balancing Paws is to build calm and reliable dogs no matter the situation. That means trusting that your dog won’t run and cower from boxes or the mailman, react aggressively on the leash towards other dogs, or bark incessantly at each and every noise in your home. We build reliable dogs by determining the cause of their anxiety and tackling it head on with our training methods. Shielding anxious dogs from the causes of their anxiety is a mistake owners make again and again. It’s also frequently one of the most common reasons people do not send their dogs to training camp. We continually hear, “Won’t training camp make the anxiety worse?” To answer that question, I’d like you to meet Harper. She suffered from severe anxiety and phobias. She pulled incessantly on the leash, was terrified of bath time, cowered and hid whenever a box or large object came out, could not be walked on trash day, and had started eating the baseboards in her house when left alone!
At the beginning of training she was drooling, tucking her tail, trying to hide and crying. But the ultimate goal was to work through that and show her that hey -- this scary thing that’s making you anxious is not a big deal. We are experts at desensitizing anxious pups and changing behavior. Harper spent three weeks with us, working through (very slowly) our Four Phase program that helped her learn effective doggy communication, self control, patience, focus, and most importantly, how to make better decisions and not let her anxiety rule her life. She’s now a master at loose-leash walks (even on trash day), bath time, and calmly listens to her mom even when something scares her or makes her anxious. We aren’t trying to make a bunch of badass dogs who obey just to obey instead of working through the anxiety. Anxious dogs may always be anxious dogs. But by working through that anxiety instead of avoiding it, we give our dogs the ability to make better decisions when stressful situations present themselves. We know how frustrating anxiety can be. With our unconventional training methods, we teach both you and your dog how to tackle their anxiety and create the best companions anyone could ask for!
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Here at Balancing Paws we pride ourselves in our attention to detail and mastering the basics. It’s important to have a solid foundation of communication in order to make serious progress toward your dog training goals.
That’s where the Initial Session comes in! We’ll go over positive and practical exercises to help your dog develop what we believe to be the foundation to a successful training program: Focus, Patience, & Self Control. During this session, you’ll be meeting with Yoni, our World-Class dog behavior specialist, to go over all of your dog training goals. Our main focus is to give you a better understand of WHY your dog is displaying any undesirable behaviors, then start to address them head on! You’ll see some amazing results in this first session, whether your main focus is keeping your dog from jumping on guests, or walking on the leash around other dogs. Our facility is equipped to help you reach all your dog training goals! By the end of this session we’ll help you come up with a game plan to see long term success toward your training goals. Whether you decide to continue working with us in a private or a group setting, or you decide to tackle the training with everything you’ve learned during your Initial-Session. No matter what your goals or struggles might be, the first step is setting up your Initial Session. We look forward to meeting you and your dog! We saw incredible results in the first visit with Yoni. He is very personable and explained really well how we will work with our rescue shepherd mix to help her become a happy, confident part of our family. We are looking forward to the next phase of training and know that the outcome will be just what our family needs. Thank you Yoni! -Kandyce Miller October 23, 2019 |