Horus Lacked Confidence
There aren’t enough stars to rate this amazing dog and dog owner trainer!!!
Horus is a very dominant/alpha dog and highly intelligent. But he is also very scared and lacking in confidence. A dog like this was not something I was equipped to handle. I needed help. Luckily, my friend referred me to Ralf. The first day we met Ralf, Horus took to him right away. A good sign. I felt very comfortable and at ease around Ralf.
During all our training sessions, Ralf made sure to physically guide me through everything I needed to do, the rationale and science behind it, and prompted me to look over the website tutorials as well. The trifecta of training instilled the lessons that I needed to teach my dog and how I was going to do that. Not to mention, training was always fun because Ralf was easy to talk to and not just about dog training!
Training Outcomes
Months later, and after 15 sessions with Ralf, Horus can go out in public and be around people, which wasn’t something we could do before. He is now very patient with my niece and even licks and cuddles with her. When she is rambunctious, he either lays there as she plays around him, or he moves into another room when it becomes too much. I have had family and friends comment on how much better Horus has become, and they are shocked that he has progressed this much!
After training with Ralf, I have learned Horus’ physical markers that indicate when he is scared or stressed and proactively work with him to prevent a negative response. The use of “ah-ah” and the cheese rain of distracting food still do the trick. The list of things that scare him is becoming much smaller since we started training with Ralf! Horus and I have continued to train, even after the end of our 15 sessions with Ralf. All the videos and blogs on the website have been immensely helpful for this. Horus is a new dog, I’m a better dog owner, and we couldn’t be happier!
Thank you, Ralf, for helping polish this diamond in the rough!
Training Highlights
During one of the first training days, a stray dog attempted to mount Horus (which he didn’t like), so Horus went after the dog. Unfortunately, he slipped out of his collar and ran after this dog onto a very busy main street. Immediately, Ralf stepped in front of the oncoming traffic to ensure that Horus returned safely into our yard. At this moment, I knew without a doubt that Ralf was a fantastic trainer that would do anything for animals. He jumped in front of traffic for a dog that wasn’t his. Also, we promptly switched to the Leather Agitation Collar (2 inches) from Leerburg to avoid this situation from happening again (big neck, small head).
In the next lesson, I learned that my stressed reactions only worsened Horus. At one point, Ralf had me stand back and observe. When I was not in the picture, Horus was calm and didn’t even respond to the situation like he previously had. The dog owner also got a bit of training.
— Amanda D.