Ever heard this joke? “What happens when you play a country song backwards? The singer gets his dog back, his truck back, his house back, and his girl back!” Ha ha! I have felt similarly since we have worked with Sit Means Sit Dog Training. With their expert help in training our two dogs, I’ve gotten my control back, my sanity back, my enjoyment of my dogs back, and my reputation back. Does that seem unreal to you? I get it – it seems too good to be true that dog training could do all of that. And just in case you are one of those folks who “has to see it to believe it,” I’ve included lots of before and after videos of our dogs. I received a week of Sit Means Sit’s Board and Train services in return for this and future posts highlighting our training experience.
Meet Tucker and Lexie
Meet our two dogs, Tucker and Lexie. Tucker is our frisky, headstrong, often naughty-but-sweet one year old rescue mix. Tucker listened when he wanted to (which wasn’t very often). Lexie is our 7 year old Chocolate Lab rescue. She’s sweet, affectionate, sometimes anxious, headstrong, and protective of her property.
Our dogs are truly members of our family, and we love them dearly. However, we weren’t loving, or even liking, their problem behaviors. These bad behaviors seemed to be ruling our family, too. There was way too much yelling by all of us at barking dogs (as if the yelling made a difference). We weren’t able to calmly walk our dogs around the block. Neither my husband nor myself could safely walk both dogs by ourselves. And as ridiculous as it might sound, I was tired of being embarrassed by my dogs’ behaviors. I felt like the whole neighborhood probably referred to us as “the crazy dog house.”
Paul Pollock, owner of Cleveland/Akron Sit Means Sit Dog Training, assured us that all of these issues could be addressed with their proven training techniques. Paul shared with us that the basic training is centered around mastery of a core group of commands: Sit, Come, Off, Place, and Heel, with several of these commands being able to be used for multiple behaviors. We knew we, and our 5 and 10 year old girls, could handle a handful of commands. Paul further explained that their training system can flex to deal with almost any undesirable behavior. So if new issues arose, we’d have the tools we needed to fix the problem.
During the week long training, our dogs lived at the Sit Means Sit Copley, OH training facility. They worked with trainers three to four times each day. The progress was amazing, and it was clear that our dogs were happy and enjoying the challenges of being trained. The videos Sit Means Sit emails to dog owners during the training are genius! As worried doggy “mom and dad,” it gave us such peace of mind and pride to see how well our dogs were doing! We were able to see both Tucker and Lexie following the trainers’ commands with their tails wagging happily. As corny as it might sound, I almost cried when I saw the video of Lexie socializing with other dogs, and listening to the trainers “sit and place” commands while other dogs were catching frisbees close by.
These were HUGE, amazing strides for Lexie. Strides that we were never able to make on our own. At Sit Means Sit Dog Training, they were confidently leading our dogs to being their best within days of meeting them…astounding!
How Sit Means Sit Dog Training Gave Us Back Our Control
Getting control back with our dogs was paramount. We wanted to be able to control the excessive barking both inside and outside the house. Here’s a video I shot of our dogs prior to their training with Sit Means Sit Dog Training:
Here’s how things look after training:
Lexie still barks strongly from time to time, but using the Sit Means Sit Training tools, we are able to put an end to the bad behavior almost instantly. THAT is amazingly empowering. Our home is so much calmer, quieter, and under control since our Sit Means Sit Dog Training experience. My husband and I both comment that we feel more sane and less stressed…and we wonder why we waited so long to work with Paul and his staff!
Here’s a video of how little control we had of our dogs while walking them. You’ll see in the video that in reality, THEY are walking (or pulling) ME.
Now walking the dogs is a much more enjoyable experience. In the first video you can see that the leashes are completely taught. not so in the after video below – the leashes, dogs, and owner are all relaxed.
I always dreamed of being able to take a jog with our dogs, but honestly thought it would never happen. I just didn’t feel confident that I had the control of the dogs I needed to do so. Since our Sit Means Sit Dog Training, I have run with our dogs many times. I take one dog with me for the mile jog around our neighborhood, stop and the house and drop the first dog off, catch my breath, and take the second dog for another lap. The dogs love it, and so do I!
How Sit Means Sit Dog Training Gave Us Back The Enjoyment of Our Dogs
Our relationship has improved with both of our dogs. With problem behaviors under control, Tucker and Lexie now get more positive feedback from us than negative. Tucker, who could be aloof, is more affectionate. A couple of weeks after our dogs returned from their Sit Means Sit training, I said to my family, “Is it just me, or is Tucker cuter than he used to be?!” In my book, he went from being an over-active, young dog who needed constant monitoring, to a playful, loving, good listening member of our family.
How Sit Means Sit Dog Training Gave Us Back Our Reputation
I no longer feel like my dogs are so noisy and nuts when people walk by that we’re known as “the ones with the crazy dogs.” I honestly used to time letting my dogs out to play in the yard with when I didn’t see any neighbors walking by – I was so embarrassed by both dogs barking and Lexie’s running from one end of the yard to the other with the hair on her back up, barking uncontrollably. Controlling these behaviors is a process, and we have made great improvement.
Now I am proud to walk around the neighborhood with my dogs, and am confident that I can control their behaviors, even with distractions. If we hear too much barking outside in the yard, we use our Sit Means Sit training, and the behavior stops. Friends and neighbors have cautiously asked us “what we did with our dogs.” They see the huge improvement in our dogs’ behaviors. Hooray for not being the “crazy dog house” anymore! 🙂
Sit Means Sit Dog Training in Cleveland-Akron
1062A Jacoby Rd
Copley, Ohio 44321
330-310-3647
440-972-0511
