Germany
I have 2 year old GSP (German Shorthair Pointer) named Dakota. After I got her I became a member of NAVHDA (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association) and trained with a local group of NAVHDA members. She accepted basic obedience almost too easily. After a few months everyone was complimenting me on how well behaved Dakota was, especially around kids and my son who was only 2 months old when I got her.
Dakota and my other dog Dixie (a Black Lab Mix) were inseparable and Dakota followed and copied everything Dixie did. After owning Dakota for 6 months Dixie was placed in a great new home after a very long and grueling decision to only keep one dog due to financial and time constraints.
One month later I received orders to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. When I got my orders our dog was not allowed to travel with us so she was left with my parents for 2 months while I moved and got settled and could pay to have her shipped over to Germany. When she finally arrived in Germany she was a completely different dog.
She was very aggressive toward other dogs, and disobedient and timid and often had accidents in the house when I was conducting training sessions with her. I tried everything to fix the problem I took her to the vet to see if the urinating problem was medical, took her to basic obedience classes offered through the local pet shop in Germany to try and correct her disobedience, and I brought her to Happy Hour for socialization. I was at a point where I was debating to give her up for adoption. Then as luck would have it I stumbled upon the Secrets to Dog Training website. I spent so much time (8 months) and money trying to fix the problems I was having with Dakota, that I was very skeptical but figured I would give it one more chance. I ordered Secrets to Dog Training and read through all the books in less than a week. A lot of the problems I was having were actually addressed in those books, but the book Secrets to becoming The Alpha Dog really caught my eye as my experience in trying to correct her problems had brought me to believe her problems were due to a dominance issue.
After only one month of using the techniques in Secrets to becoming The Alpha Dog Dakota had done a 180 degree change. She still had a couple disobedience issues and a few accidents in the house occasionally but we were finally making progress. After another month of using your techniques to become the Alpha Dog again and learning and using techniques in Secrets to Dog Training for Basic Obedience, Advanced Obedience, Tricks and Dog Whispering Dakota is back to her old self. She is everything I had hoped she would be and then some.
I can now let her run off leash again and not worry about her creating havoc or running away. Thanks Daniel for such a great training aid. I have recommended your books to many other military members who have asked how I got my dog to behave so well.Thank you for helping me keep my best friend!