I can't say enough good things about Buddy. Our dog, Matty, is incredibly sweet and smart, but due…read moreto puppy trauma, can be highly reactive. Matty, has been working with Buddy for several years and today she's a different dog. She does outings 2-3 times per week with the most phenomenal humans on the Buddy team. You should see Matty bound down the stairs to shower them with kisses every time. Likewise, she comes back tired and deliriously happy. But, where Buddy has really helped us is in training, both basic commands and due to safety issues, shock collar training.
Lilith, the owner of Buddy, was very concerned about Matty's reactivity and strong prey drive which affected her recall. Lilith knew if she ran off after something like a wild animal, bikers, runners, or other dog, Matty could get gravely hurt or worse. I was very against collar training due to my own trauma where my stepfather would torture our family dog for fun with a shock collar at full capacity when I was a child. Just the mention of a shock collar sent me into tears so when Lilith suggested it, I was highly resistant. However, after much thought and a few sketchy situations on the trail with both bears and other dogs, I finally caved. I felt like I couldn't stomach shocking Matty, but the one thing I really couldn't stomach was losing her.
Throughout the training process, Lilith was with me and my husband every step of the way, explaining the process as well as having great empathy for my unique trauma. Slowly, I got used to using it and only had to use the vibrate mode and never the shock setting. My husband had to use the shock once and thankfully Matty is so smart, that imprinted on her so quickly, that vibrate was all that was needed for her to run back our sides when called. It was like walking a different dog and because she loves to please us, I think she was relieved to finally understand what we wanted too. She seemed happier instead of confused.
Then, one day I was in the forest and Matty was off leash. I saw her tense up, so I looked off into the bushes. A coyote was stalking us. Matty took off running at full speed. I pushed vibrate. No response as her drive was too intense. They were so fast that they made it into a grove of trees about 100 years away by the time I pressed shock. I heard a yelp and then saw the coyote run out of the trees and up the hill, but no Matty. I feared the worst because of the yelp, but then Matty came trotting out of the trees, wagging her tail. The yelp was from the shock collar which startled her enough to call off the chase (which never would have ended until the coyote ran back to their pack).
One could say that the collar saved my beloved dog, but really it was Lilith & the Buddy Team who saved Matty. She was the one who could see that Matty's intense drive could lead her to being hurt, but she loved our dog enough to push me to overcome a childhood trauma in order to keep her safe. I'm forever grateful.