We chose our rescue puppy from a litter of four that had been separated from their mother at birth. At three months, he was ten pounds of pure energy. We named him Trapper. Like some puppies do with their siblings, Trapper liked to circle, growl and nip at us. However, as he grew into a muscular seventy-pounder, the circling-growling-nipping behavior became a serious problem. When off the leash, Trapper would not come when called; but, when he felt like it, he would come at us with the circling-growling-nipping. No one was safe from his “attacks”. When on the leash, holding Trapper back was like trying to restrain a locomotive. Both my wife and I had been pulled to the ground by his sudden moves. With bandaged tooth-scrapes and torn clothes, we sought special group and individual training for him. After spending several hundred dollars and many hours, none of these efforts helped Trapper. The prospect of being able to take walks with him on our fifteen acres seemed to fall away; and his future activities seemed to be limited to restraint cables and separation from society.
Then one day I spoke to Mark at Market Place Pets of Clarkston about Trapper. He said the only person that might be able to help was Lisa at Canine Academy. He knew of other tough cases she had solved. So, after some phone conversation and a thorough personal interview, we handed Trapper over to Lisa and her team at Canine Academy for six weeks of care and training.
On the first of August, 2009, we were greeted by our new dog, Trapper. Lisa and her friends transferred the training keys to us. Our “new” dog Trapper will walk at our side or on a five foot leash without pulling us. Off the leash, he comes when he is called and no longer circles or growls or nips at us. He walks with us, with or without the leash. He is joy to be around. He sits and lays down on command; and he is socializing with family, friends and neighbors. With the ongoing training for Trapper and us (which is provided by Lisa and her friends at Canine Academy), we are now able to enjoy and treasure the time we have with our great, new dog.
