Paws Afoot

Where would we be without Lise? We would be a "dogless" home, and our dog's fate would have been difficult to bear. We brought our Norwegian Elkhound mix home from PAWS in February of 2014. There happened to be someone home over the first several weeks of having her in our home, and there were no problems. We fell head over heels in love with her. However, the first time (and every time thereafter)she was left alone she tore through the trash, chewed on the windowsills, and knocked what she could over that was along the wall (for example, my boxes of pictures organized by date), and spread and chewed up the items throughout the house. We tried to crate her. No go. Chewed through and escaped the first two crates, and then tried to chew through the industrial crate we purchased, but only succeeded in cutting her gums and lips and leaving a small pool of blood on the crate floor. (Her bottom teeth are little worn nubs, so she's apparently been a dog to chew out of places for quite some time ~ she is about 9 years old.) We couldn't trust her inside, so we put her out with a thunder jacket on when no one would be home. She chewed through the fence and escaped. We sheet metaled the interior of the fence. She threw her body weight against the gates until they popped open and escaped. We put locks on the gates. She barked incessantly and we bore the wrath of neighbors. At home, she would follow me from room to room, scared to let me out of her sight. We are first time dog owners. Our love bug was a menace. We needed some serious help. Enter Lise. Lise was friendly, professional, and extremely knowledgeable. She was reliable, trustworthy, sincere, and her love and enthusiasm for her craft is contagious. She was truly empathetic, and, thankfully, reassuring in regards to our “problem child”. She taught us about the tools of the trade, how to read our dog’s behaviors, how to change our dog’s behaviors, and how to interact with her in a positive way that would reinforce the training. Lise follows a positive training model, so we never felt as though we had to hurt or deprive our dog to get results. She was very up front about the commitment it would take from us to work with the tools she would give us to help manage our dog’s separation anxiety. It was going to take a lot. Over a six week period, Lise would come over once a week to check on the progress of the prior week and to teach us how to move into the next phase in her training for the following week. She would call and /or Skype each week in addition to the visit as well. She also worked in tangent with our veterinarian as part of the process in helping our dog cope with her separation anxiety. Because our dog was extremely dog aggressive as well, Lise taught us how to muzzle train her. She doesn’t like wearing it, but now allows us to put it on with no problems and doesn’t make a fuss. Slowly, but surely, we began to see improvements. We would have setbacks, but definitely were moving into a manageable situation. Today, we are in a totally different place from where we were when we brought our dog home seven months ago, and before our 6 week training program with Lise. I can go to work for the day and not have to worry (too much) about what she’s doing at home. She is able to stay in the house with a doggy door access outside without any problems (as long as I put the cat food up, make sure not to leave any food on the counters, and shut the trash cans away in the bathroom). It’s unbelievable! If it were not for Lise’s patience, understanding, never give up attitude, and help in training our 9 year old “pup” to manage her anxiety, we would have been in deep, deep trouble (no shelters would have ever taken her as she is on record for attacking another dog). She saved us a lot of heartache. She is a wonderful dog trainer who I can’t recommend strongly enough. She truly wants the dog and the family to succeed. What she did in my home with our dog is nothing short of a miracle!

We contacted Lise because we wanted a positive trainer for our Thumper, a Chihuahua/Shih Tzu mix. He is a great little guy, but we could see that without training he could turn into one of those annoying little yippy dogs that nobody likes. Enter Lise! She is knowlegeable, confident, enthusiastic, PATIENT, gentle and loving toward our little dog. Thumper is crazy about her. He responded immediately to her positive training methods. I absolutely love the steady, baby step by baby step approach to learning. It works wonders! To be honest, I had thought that Thumper was a little...um....s-l-o-w. But it turns out he just needed the right trainer. He is learning many thngs now and is making steady progress. We chose to do a series of private lessons, which worked out great for us. I told Lise the main issues we wanted to work on, and she had a training plan for each issue. We would work on training during the session, and then she would send me written instructions detailing the training that we were to work on during the week. This is so helpful because I needed the written instructions to refresh my memory. Not only that, but Lise made herself available by phone or email for any questions that might come up between sessions. Lise is very organized, professional, FUN, and knows her stuff! I would hightly recommend her as a dog trainer. Janet Pohl