My husband and I recently adopted a 3 year old pitbull (Thatcher). He is the gentlest and sweetest dog, but has so much energy and anxiety that he was really unmanageable- he was hyper alert and would bark at every noise outside, sometimes for hours, and was like a 70lb missile on walks. He would bark and try to run to every dog and person out in the world, and we worried that he would end up hurting or scaring a smaller dog or a more feeble adult, given his strength. We were at a point where we couldn't take him on runs or hikes, and then he would just get more amped up and difficult at home. Our quality of life had really started to suffer, and most importantly we both had started to resent him, which isn't fair to anyone. We had looked at doing DTC USA before, but the price tag gave us pause. Ultimately we decided that the money would be an investment in our life with Thatcher, and sent him to the 3 week training camp with Lateria.
It's hard to put into words what this program(and trainer) has done for Thatcher. After an initial evaluation, they matched him with Lateria, who loves and has experience with bully breeds. She took time to see what we were hoping to get from the program, and she delivered. All the things we love about thatcher are exactly the same, but in other ways he is unrecognizable- his anxiety is so much better, he is able to relax at home and is clearly so much happier than he was before. He is polite, has really good self control even over tough things like waiting to go through the front door or waiting for dinner, and we love having him around. Lateria has also been in contact since he finished, and we plan on sending him up for "tune ups" with her when we go out of town (instead of boarding). read more