By Lynn –
On my walk with Z yesterday, we were approached by a medium-sized dog, very nice boy, just let me grab him and attach the leash (we were walking with the Dogtra but I had the leash snapped around my shoulders anyway). Noticed this boy Jake had a check chain on, so I called the owners, planned to meet them at a close-by intersection, and before I even started out, I made sure this dog would not pull. He did great, I wasn’t looking for CGC Heel, but he definitely didn’t pull. Met the owner’s daughter and got to talking with her; apparently he’s a puller and likes to run away. I told her how to fix the pulling, just to walk back and forth every time he forges ahead and she then asked me “Are you a dog trainer?” and I said “Yes,” not even thinking what I was getting myself into.
I’m not even home and the family calls me back on my cell phone asking if I was available for hire because they had a few problems with Jake. Apparently, on the way home, the daughter tried the loose-leash method and when she walked into the house, she was very impressed that it had actually worked!
I was pretty floored that they were calling me so quickly! However, I was also a bit nervous (believe me, I wished I’d had someone, anyone’s number from this site to go over things one more time), but I figured if I could do this own-self, big-girl, then I guess (while the rest won’t be EASY), it’d be OK.
All in all, the session went well, I told her I charged $25/session with a free first session…I want them to feel comfortable with me and I want to learn about the dog(s) and the family and see if they’d be able to follow everything. I’ll write a more in-depth blog about it later (time limits here at la bibliotheque), but just figured I’d let everyone know here that I’m getting results in the real world!
(Now comes the concern about insurance, credentials, liability, etc…honestly though, I figure if I stick with general obedience and not major dogfighting rehabbing, I should be OK.)