I've been looking for a behaviourist for Peach for a while now, but we're kind of in this black hole of southwestern Ontario where there are somehow no services or cool things. Finding qualified people in specialized areas is challenging. We found a few an hour or so north of us, but none of them would come to us. I really want just one at home assessment so Peach can be observed in her home and in her own surroundings out and about, because she will not be her normal self if I load her up and drive her now the highway and throw into a new strange place. No such luck for quite a few months.
The owner of the local pet food store gave me a name, and I was pretty skeptical because I had never heard of this person, but I gave her a call anyways, because what have I got to lose. WELL. This lady was so perfectly lovely to talk to on the phone. She seems to really know her stuff, and seems to have studied under a lot of prominent trainers and behaviourists. It's going to be a little expensive to have her come to us, and then fairly time consuming to have to go to her place for sessions, but if it could help it would be worth it. She does private consults and runs reactive dog classes. I'm hoping we'll be able to do a consult this weekend, or next. Peach seems to be getting worse, despite my best efforts at counter conditioning and desensitization. She's becoming afraid of more and more things, for no reason that I can tell, and she's becoming super afraid of strangers when we're out and about. I feel like if she keeps going down this path she's going to end up being one of those dogs that can't leave her house much, and I'm just not ready to accept that yet.
The nice part too is, I asked my agility trainer if she knew of this lady, and she was like "oh yeah, she's who gave me my start in agility 15 years ago and encouraged me to compete!". Peach is still enjoying her agility and doing well, so I'm glad she has that at least. I just want her to be able to enjoy her life, and enjoy many aspects of life, without fear. Keep your paws crossed for us!
The owner of the local pet food store gave me a name, and I was pretty skeptical because I had never heard of this person, but I gave her a call anyways, because what have I got to lose. WELL. This lady was so perfectly lovely to talk to on the phone. She seems to really know her stuff, and seems to have studied under a lot of prominent trainers and behaviourists. It's going to be a little expensive to have her come to us, and then fairly time consuming to have to go to her place for sessions, but if it could help it would be worth it. She does private consults and runs reactive dog classes. I'm hoping we'll be able to do a consult this weekend, or next. Peach seems to be getting worse, despite my best efforts at counter conditioning and desensitization. She's becoming afraid of more and more things, for no reason that I can tell, and she's becoming super afraid of strangers when we're out and about. I feel like if she keeps going down this path she's going to end up being one of those dogs that can't leave her house much, and I'm just not ready to accept that yet.
The nice part too is, I asked my agility trainer if she knew of this lady, and she was like "oh yeah, she's who gave me my start in agility 15 years ago and encouraged me to compete!". Peach is still enjoying her agility and doing well, so I'm glad she has that at least. I just want her to be able to enjoy her life, and enjoy many aspects of life, without fear. Keep your paws crossed for us!
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