All Stage Canine Development

I am a big fan of All Stage and especially the "socially awkward" indoor and trail classes! Less than a year ago I rescued a dog who was said to be found nearly dead. The rescue organization’s vet guessed she had possibly been used as a bait dog or had been attacked by a pack of wild animals. Despite her horrific past, at home she is a sweet, affectionate and smart, however early on I discovered while taking her on walks, car rides and to the vet's office that she is highly reactive and lunges and barks at other animals. I have had many rescue dogs, but had never heard of reactivity and have since read a lot about reactive/aggressive dogs and decided I needed professional help for us to have a chance at a happy life. I found All Stage online, had a free phone consultation, an evaluation and then started training. Our first training sessions were with Julie and she was great!, kindly helping us learn—mostly training me on what to do and what not to do—all the basic stuff such as loose leash walking, basic obedience commands, along with fun games, and, we also had a couple of sessions with Julie and Miranda (the president of All Stage) and their resident calm dog “Toast”, who, in a controlled setting, helped begin with socialization. I was thrilled when my dog got close and sniffed Toast without overreacting. Then I heard about the “socially awkward” class taught by Miranda. Immediately I thought this type of class could be most helpful. Our first session was at the facility with about eight unruly, barking, snarling dogs and their owners. Miranda ushered us in a pair at a time into a large studio. Just getting us all in the room was unnerving to me and I nearly turned around to go home and give up, then decided I had to do this. Somehow Miranda calmly gained control of the chaos. She is a kind, compassionate master at knowing what to do whenever a frenzy arose. A couple of sessions later we started group trail classes at Bannister Park, which are awesome! Not only do we get to hang out in nature and get some exercise with our classmates who we have so much in common with, we have lots of opportunities to pass by other things going on outside of our group: people of all ages, pets, squirrels, people fishing, runners, bicyclers and such. I’m amazed that Miranda has taught our group to mostly keep control as we pass by so many distractions. My dog and I are no where near where we need to be, but I’m slowly starting to see small incremental positive changes in both of us. I'm feeling less stressed when we’re out. We are both learning impulse control. Recently we had our first vet visit without an outburst. I have hope that someday we will be able to be out in public without having an embarrassing scene. I am grateful to All Stage!