My boyfriend and I adopted our sweet Lucy in March shortly after her 2nd Birthday. She was originally part of one of the groups of dogs brought up from an overflowing shelter in Mississippi. The couple we adopted her from rescued her from the Human Society here in Madison. After a year with Lucy they made the difficult but commendable decision to find another home from her.
During that year with them Lucy was crated at least 12 hours a day due to their busy schedules and gained 23 pounds. Shortly after she entered our lives we noticed that she was very reactive to new people (especially males) and had quite a bit of anxiety. The poor girl was afraid of everything from leaves falling out of trees to us folding laundry. The longer she was with us, the happier we could tell she was becoming. Each day there was something new and exciting that she was able to discover and experience, however, her anxiety was still very much holding her back. A friend also had a dog with anxiety problems and highly recommended us to check out Sit Means Sit. We had our consultation with Audra and at first (like many others I’m sure) I was very skeptical.
It’s not cheap and I was not the most comfortable with the idea of using the collars. However, I loved Audra’s energy and passion for what she does and she assured me that she too was skeptical when she first started. She promised me up and down that the collars were not “shock” collars and I even tried it on my arm for proof. Her confidence that she could help Lucy sold us and we signed up for the 10 Day Transformation Academy. Lucy stayed with Audra for 10 days in the beginning of June and since then we have had 4 private lessons with her and now have been going to group classes twice a week (or at least we try to!). We look forward to classes each week because it is a community of people going through everything you are and who doesn’t love a room full of dogs! Now Lucy is a whole different dog. She is confident, happy, playful, and curious. Her obedience is off the charts. We knew we had a smart dog but refocusing her anxious mind into working for us has helped her tremendously and I am confident that she will only keep improving.
It has only been a short 2.5 months but the progress our sweet girl has made is incredible. I will note that her sustained progress isn’t just from going to the lessons and classes, if you want this for your dog there is a lot of work you must put in at home. From the time we wake up in the morning until the time we all snuggle up in bed at night to watch Netflix, Lucy is being worked. Everything we do is an opportunity to work on her obedience and refocus her anxious little mind, whether it’s putting her on place while we cook or even playing fetch. We are constantly making sure we are following all of the guidelines that Mike and all the trainers expect as responsible owners.
If you have a dog that is struggling then I cannot recommend Sit Means Sit enough. Their knowledge, personal attention (they will answer your calls or texts with questions any time of day), and love for what they do is incredible. We are very happy with the progress Lucy has made and cannot wait to see what awesome tricks we can continue to learn in the future.