Helping Pets Behave

Where do I begin? We have a 3 year old Chow/Pit mix (Filomena) who has been extremely fearful and anxious since we rescued her at 8 weeks. She barks and growls out of fear when she sees strangers and other dogs and she and our other rescue got into a fight (provoked by Filomena) at the end of summer injuring her pretty badly. At that point, I knew something had to change. It wasn't fair that we all, including our other rescue were living a life walking on eggshells in the house because we weren't sure what mood Filomena would be in from day to day. I reached out to Mary and within a month, I met with her with Filomena for our first session. Prior to meeting with Mary, she had me complete a VERY thorough background and history of Filomena and our household (which was extremely helpful) in which she used to put together a very specific plan which we reviewed during our first session. Mary gave me and my family tools, recommendations and lifestyle changes to incorporate into our day to day life that would help Filomena relax and become more tolerant of triggers. After our first session, we went home and made huge adjustments to our life and incorporated and did everything Mary had recommended. We had a follow up with Mary a few weeks ago (about two months after our first session) and Filomena is doing so well! With Mary and our vets recommendation, we also started her on Prozac which we've learned does not "fix" her but certainly increases her tolerance and allows her to make better choices when she's triggered. Filomena seems much more relaxed and tolerant of triggers and we've all seen an improvement. Do not get me wrong, she still has work to do and may never be the dog who plays at the dog park with other dogs but I know that continuing to incorporate the tools and recommendations that Mary provided consistently, she'll continue to improve. I work in Dog Rescue and had Filomena been with any other family, they probably would have either surrendered her or put her down by now based on her previous history (snapping, fights with our other dog, aggressive behavior), obviously thats not an option for us as she's part of our family. It's important to note that Mary isn't going to fix your dog for you, she's going to educate you and give you professional advice, guidance and tools that you and your family MUST listen to and consistently implement if you need to change your dogs behavior. Mary trained us on what we as her humans need to do to make her better, happier, more trustworthy and more relaxed.Mary also explains why your dog may be doing or reacting in a certain way that helped me understand Filomena more. Use Mary if you are willing to put in the work and make changes, not if you're looking for someone to take your dog and fix them. I'm so incredibly happy I found Mary and can't express enough how much happier we are as a family now that Filomena is living a better, more confident life.Honestly, "trainers" and "behavioralists" are different and Mary is a phenomenal behavioralist that understands dogs and can help if you're willing to do the work that you as a dog owner should be doing to help your dog.

We used Mary’s training and expertise for our little chihuahua, Harper, who was having fear aggression issues and began reacting negatively (lunging, barking, shrieking etc) to other dogs around the neighborhood and on walks. Adding to that our dog is also very anxious, fearful, and sensitive in general so I appreciated the positive reinforcement science based methods that Helping Pets Behave uses. Mary teaches you about your dog’s behavior and the reasoning WHY they are acting in that manner. She creates a full training plan of action for you and your dog and I’m excited to say we saw our dog make great strides in the first 6 weeks. She’s stopped reacting to other dogs on walks and overall gained more confidence and self esteem. She now calmly ignores other dogs and walks past them calmly 99% of the time on her daily walks. She’s stopped chasing our cats and overall she seems more relaxed, happy, and even was able to go out in public a few times and do really well. We’re so pleased we found Mary and her company, her positivity and energy is infectious and she is a joy to work with. She’s extremely detailed oriented and always just a quick email or call away if you have additional questions or issues. Harper’s training will continue to be a work in progress and we plan to work toward new goals. My knowledge as a dog owner has increased greatly and I feel like the bond between Harper and I is now much stronger. I’d happily recommend Mary to anyone who wishes to improve any of their dog’s behavior!

Myself and my dog Bear have been working with Mary now for 3 months, and, in a word, Mary is nothing short of AMAZING!! She is thorough, patient and kind. You can tell that she has worked extremely hard to get to to where she is now, and she also CARES about dogs like they are her own. I am so appreciative of Mary's services, she has not only trained my dog, but she has trained me, to be more confident and patient in my daily trainings with my pup. She has said that she has seen SO much improvement in Bear and I have too! He used to be PETRIFIED of traffic, and he has made HUGE improvements. He still has a long way to go, but with Mary's training, commitment and reassurance, I just know that he will beat this phobia in the future!! I couldn't be more proud of Bear now, I am no longer embarrassed of him because we have gotten him on a structure/routine in which he THRIVES! I would recommend Mary to ANYONE, and have told many folks about her. Mary gets a 12/10 in my book. Thank you so much, Mary!!!

Mary is fantastic. We are thrilled with the progress we’ve made with our dog following Mary’s recommendations and advice. After taking a thorough accounting of the issues we were experiencing, she offered a comprehensive and easy to follow plan that she carefully walked through with us, answering any and all questions. And she was right there with encouragement as we followed through with implementation. We can’t thank her enough!