Sensitive Dog

Our two rescue dogs had become unmanageable on our daily walks, reacting so strongly to other dogs that we struggled to control them. In addition to barking and lunging, they had begun attacking each other as we strained to separate them and move past the other dog. We came to Julie after working with other trainers whose purely positive techniques hadn’t helped Dory and Erie at all, thinking we might just have to give up walking them. After working with Julie for several sessions—and practicing at home—we’ve seen real progress. Julie’s understanding of canine behavior and communication has helped us understand how our dogs think and feel, and what they need us to do in order for them to respond appropriately. In addition to walking skills, we’ve learned new commands, activities and games that provide the dogs with mental stimulation, improve in-home behavior, and help tire them out, especially useful when long walks aren’t an option. We’re not only doing much better on walks, we’re also happier in general. We couldn’t have achieved this without Sensitive Dog.

I was at my wits end with my Pit-mix, Pirate!!! I had spent $1000’s on training ; a five week doggy boot camp, online classes, trainers to the house. Military based, reward based. You name it I tried it. I knew in my heart Pirate was trainable. My husband said “no more, we will just keep him away from people”, :0 I decided maybe we needed a dog Psychologist or behaviorist. So I started looking online. Most of the reviews were about putting dogs on drugs. Well I had done that before and Pirate bit our neighbor. As it turns out he was more aggressive on them. Then I saw an ad for “Sensitive Dog”. One particular review was so heartfelt and it sounded like all my issues with Pirate, plus all the reviews were great. My husband was willing to do one last try. Julie at Sensitive dog was everything Pirate and I needed.!!!! The first appointment was so positive. It was 2 1/2 hours observing Pirate, talking to me at length about all our issues with him. She was a nice mix of reward based training as well as consequential training. It’s such a great mix and you can tell that she really cares about you and your dog. It may seem like a lot of money, but it’s really not, because you will get so many valuable lessons and solutions. The one that stands out most in my mind, is that dogs need mental stimulation. Julie gave me lots of ways to help him get his mind working. When I got home, for a week, I tried some of her suggestions for mental games. It was amazing, he got calmer and less reactive. That’s just one example of our success. The most important one was that he became much better with our grand kids! We have lots of ways now to get him to be safe with them. If you’re reading this and can relate, go ahead and make the appointment you’ll be so glad you did! Julie is a natural and Pirate adores her!

My family and our newly adopted rescue Buddy, a Chihuahua mix, had a wonderful experience with Julie at Sensitive Dog. We adopted a senior rescue dog shortly after losing our family dog of 12 years. The lessons we learned were valuable for both Buddy and us humans, as the transition to the new family dynamic and dealing with grief were more challenging than we expected. With Julie’s help, we gained a better understanding of Buddy and his needs, as well as how to best care for him, which was different from our previous dog. We’ve developed a new and special bond with Buddy, engaging in new activities. He has increased confidence, reduced anxiety, and greater playfulness.

We had recently adopted a dog (Hank) who had extreme separation anxiety. We don't know much about his past, but his behaviors led us to believe he'd been left in crates and small places prior to being abandoned. Initially when we got him and started to leave him alone at home for a few hours, we realized we couldn't crate him so gave him relatively free reign of the house. He peed and pooped, and literally tore up screens, window shades, and door frames as if he was trying to claw is way out of the house. We were feeling pretty desperate when we reaced out to Sensitive Dog, and thankfully, after getting the details of what Hank was experiencing, allowed us to get in quickly to assist with Hank's issues. We had one 2-1/2 hour session with Julie, who was amazing. She showed us a very specific game to play with Hank to help to tire his mind and relax him when we were planning to be away from the house. She also taught us how to desensitize him when we were going to leave, and we are so grateful we found Julie! It has now been four months since our training session with Hank, and he's doing great! We can now leave him comfortably and know that he doesn't panic when we leave. He now goes to his comfy place on the couch and relaxes until we return. We are so very thankful for the skills Julie taught us to make all our lives more peaceful and comfortable, and we highly recommend Sensitive Dog to anyone who needs help with their beloved doggies!

Julie is excellent and I highly recommend her. Haggis was adopted and had a few issues to work through. Julie provided fantastic insight into both the dogs mind and ours on how to work with him. She is patient, interactive, caring and truly has the animals best interest at the core of her instruction. The physical environment you work with her in is warm, calm and inviting helping to put everyone at ease. She has a lot of resources (written, videos, etc.) that are shared and I encourage you to view/read those as it will help you on your journey.