The question is, "Is there such a thing as a dog whisperer?" Good question.
We needed one. Our 1 1/2 year old pointing lab became gun shy and shut down. He refused to hunt or even move on his own when out in a field. It was horribly sad and most likely my fault.
Then we rescued a 4-year-old red bone coon hound mix. What can you do with a hound dog when you are an upland game bird hunter? The two dogs quickly became best buddies.
We searched high and low for a dog trainer who could possibly help. Finally, a decision to call Jennifer Goodwin at Valhalla-Bijou Hunt Club was made. She called back that evening, we discussed the issues, and a date was set to meet and see what we, or more appropriately, she could do.
After a few training sessions I watched our lab hunt today. If you were to ask, I would say Jennifer performed miracles each time she worked with our dogs. She figures out what each dog is up to and has the understanding and patience, lots of patience, to effectively help the dog. She quickly saw that our hound dog could be used for support and confidence to help get our lab excited about birds. She utilized the competition between the two dogs as an advantage to correct the lab's behavior.
As an example, I watched as she trained our hound dog to stay. When I tried, I couldn't get more than a few feet away before he would break. Within a couple minutes she had him stay and was able to move 30 feet away and he still didn't break until she told him to. Jennifer has never worked with a hound dog before, but she said she loves a challenge. Challenge downright conquered. Same thing with the kennel command and many other challenging steps in the process.
You might think that Jennifer uses some special or harsh methods. Nope. Jennifer is just smart, very smart, understands what makes a dog tick, knows how to fix problems, and she is nice!
So, the answer to the question is yes, I am sure there are many great dog whisperers out there and Jennifer Goodwin is most certainly one of the best. I did watch our lab hunt today. read more