We separation-anxiety-pup parents celebrate SNOOZE! Some clients are modeling what "relaxed" looks like...
When we first started working with Alexandra, our pup, Rolo, was alert and whining at our door after about two minutes of being alone. We worked with Alexandra for 8 weeks and then a few additional weeks on our own, and now Rolo snoozes comfortably for 2 hours. Alexandra is knowledgeable in her field, has a calm and professional demeanor, and most of all we appreciated the collaborative nature of our relationship with her. She was always willing to offer suggestions and listen to our feedback, and she would adjust her plan accordingly, for example, scaling back the training when Rolo wasn't feeling well. Alexandra was communicative, easy to work with, and we feel it was money well spent as Rolo has made incredible progress with his separation anxiety. She has even been so kind as to follow up with us after we completed our sessions with her, and she gave us the tools for us to continue behavior training on our own. We credit Alexandra with helping us and Rolo to enjoy a better quality of life, and that is all we wanted for Rolo, the ability to feel comfortable and safe while home alone. Thank you, Alexandra!
We are grateful to our trainer Alexandra for working with us. We now have the tools to increase our time away from Coal so he can stay safe, happy and stress-free. We look forward to building up his independence. Thanks!
Without Jennifer's help, I am convinced that we would have ended up re-homing her. We felt in over our heads, exhausted, and hopeless. Jennifer helped us turn everything around. She expertly guided us through SA training, including some bumps in the road, and helped us to better understand our sweet girl, suggesting mental games to help tame her endless zoomies and cat fixation. We started training with a baseline of less than 15 seconds (with Lola doing a backflip when we left!). With Jennifer's help, we made it to an hour and 15 minutes (with Lola falling asleep two minutes after we left). As we move to training on our own, we feel confident that we can do it with all of the tips and guidance that Jennifer has provided. Now, we can enjoy our sweet girl and also leave her behind sometimes. (And, Jennifer is a really cool person, who we enjoyed getting to know.)
In her patient and methodical way, she helped us go from not being able to walk out of the door for even a second without our dog incessantly barking, to being able to leave her alone for a whole hour. As we continue our training we keep going back to Jennifer's basic principles of below threshold training and learning how to take care of a sensitive pup. We could not be more grateful for Jennifer's help and care.
Our 6 month old pup could not stand to be alone for more than a few moments before he started crying, whining and barking (and our town house neighbors were a bit fed up too). We couldn't go to the bathroom without him barking at the door, let alone consider going out to grocery shop or to eat together without finding him a babysitter. We felt totally in over our heads. From the very first call with Jennifer, I knew we were in good hands, and we started to feel real hope. The training methods she used were nothing I'd ever heard of or read about online, but we started to see results in just a few sessions. Fast forward to now- Bodhi is a professional chill master, and when we leave, he naps comfortably. We are so grateful to Jennifer and the team at SA&B for giving us back a sense of balance in our puppy parenthood journey. Would 100% recommend!
Last summer, I couldn't leave him alone for more than 2-3 minutes; now in January he snoozes on his own for 4+ hours (but is always eager to jump up and greet me with the nearest shoe in his mouth as soon as I come home). Learning to manage Rusty's anxiety was often overwhelming for me, and I could not have gotten through it without Joanna's patience, responsiveness, and empathy. Joanna taught me SO much about how to read Rusty's cues and body language, and develop trust with him. I honestly feel that I understand his emotional and psychological state of being on a far deeper level than I anticipated when I first adopted him. We went through many challenges (including an ill-timed move) and Joanna was there every step of the way checking in, celebrating small wins, and giving me the encouragement I needed to stay patient. Now that he can stay home alone, Rusty and I have some other challenges to tackle - but I feel far better equipped and confident to handle those moving forward
When we started, Sadie couldn't be alone more than a minute before showing signs of anxiety. Now when we leave her, she relaxes and falls asleep. Jennifer was so encouraging, and made us feel confident that we were never making Sadie uncomfortable or anxious throughout training. We are so grateful for her help, and would recommend her to any family that has a dog that's uncomfortable being alone!
Her method really worked with our dog, Bagel,who we've recently adopted knowing he had separation anxiety. The shelter had recommended Tracy and we're glad they did! He went from not being able to stay alone for a few minutes without barking and scratching the door to being and relaxed alone for more than 2 hours in just a month! Thanks for everything Tracy!
Joanna, through her kindness and patience, taught us all the signs and behaviors to look out for while we followed her step-by-step instructions. Now we can leave Bumi home alone for an hour and his only reaction is to flop on his side. Joanna was so helpful during the process and was always available to answer questions. It was so evident that she truly cares about the dogs she works with and the progress we made with Bumi. Joanna celebrated with us when Bumi made huge improvements and offered great advice and compassion when we had to give him some extra time to adjust. If you and your dog are struggling with separation anxiety, we highly recommend Joanna. Thank you for everything!
Tracy carefully designs exercises that are tailored to meet the needs of both dog and person and provides daily follow-up to ensure she has the most up-to-date information possible. Perhaps most importantly, though, she understands the complicated feelings that go with training a dog with SA: sympathy, sadness, love, frustration, and so much more. Her thoughtful and caring feedback offers a lifeline for people struggling to deal with this challenging condition. She combines impressive expertise, boundless energy, compassionate responsiveness – and a winning sense of humor. I am delighted to recommend her.
We were unable to leave Juniper home alone at all, and her separation anxiety (or separation frustration, as Tracy termed it) started to become worse and worse, even when one person left the house. We needed specific, concrete guidance and tools to help us understand Juniper's behavior, her thresholds, and how to build her resilience to being alone. Tracy was beyond kind, compassionate, and we loved that her approach was tailored and customized to Juniper's needs. Over the course of our formal training, Tracy guided us every step of the way, first from helping Juniper learn to feel comfortable in her gated area to eventually having us leave the house successfully. We went from Juniper not being able to settle down at all in her gated area to being able to leave her in it and leave the house for nearly 50 minutes. Now, several months on from formal training, we've built up Juniper's duration alone to two hours and continue to practice with the tools Tracy gave us. We are so thankful that we can leave Juniper alone to run errands without coordinating schedules or sending her to daycare, all while knowing that she is happy and comfortable. As pet owners, it has been such a relief to feel equipped and confident to help our pup continue to thrive - and this is all due to Tracy. Although our formal training is complete, we still send her updates on Juniper's progress and she continues to cheerlead us from afar. Thank you so much, Tracy!
I had a shelter dog before Riley, but he did not have Separation Anxiety so this was a whole new matter to for me to address. Thankfully the shelter had Tracy’s information on their website. I contacted Tracy and we quickly got training for Riley set up through Zoom. The training was thoughtful, methodical, non threatening. It worked perfectly for Riley. All exercises we did went extremely well. When we got to point of my leaving the house for periods of time, some extended, I had a WYZE camera/audio set up in the kitchen and could look at the live video/sound from my iPhone. As a result of Tracy’s caring and remarkable training program, Riley is now happy to be home alone! Tracy was a delight to work with, she was so positive and encouraging throughout the training. She had so many suggestions and solutions. Tracy’s program worked beautifully for Riley and me! I cannot recommend her more highly.
We went on a walk tonight and then came home and went our separate ways. Remy is generally in one of three places - living room with me, looking out one particular window, or upstairs with Brian. He wasn’t with me, so when I went upstairs to take a shower, I stopped by Brian’s office Remy wasn’t there. I thought maybe he had accidentally shut himself in the bedroom, but he wasn’t there either. He was in my bathroom, where he had followed Brian in and not out. Brian had accidentally shut him in there. I opened the door and Remy stood up and stretched. He was lying on the bath mat (one of his mats I send him to). He was there for at least an hour and just put himself to rest. He always lies down on his mats, puts his head down, and often lies on his side or curls up and sleeps. Thank you again for your help, Tracy!
Though I’ve incredibly never met Tracy before in person, I feel like she is a lifelong friend. And her four weeks of intensive daily training instruction via lesson plans and video feeds has truly given Enzo and me stability, trust, and love. He is a new dog. A sweet dog, A good dog. A dog who is no longer afraid or aggressive. And I owe this all to Tracy!
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