Sensitive Dog

My family and our newly adopted rescue Buddy, a Chihuahua mix, had a wonderful experience with Julie at Sensitive Dog. We adopted a senior rescue dog shortly after losing our family dog of 12 years. The lessons we learned were valuable for both Buddy and us humans, as the transition to the new family dynamic and dealing with grief were more challenging than we expected. With Julie’s help, we gained a better understanding of Buddy and his needs, as well as how to best care for him, which was different from our previous dog. We’ve developed a new and special bond with Buddy, engaging in new activities. He has increased confidence, reduced anxiety, and greater playfulness.

We had recently adopted a dog (Hank) who had extreme separation anxiety. We don't know much about his past, but his behaviors led us to believe he'd been left in crates and small places prior to being abandoned. Initially when we got him and started to leave him alone at home for a few hours, we realized we couldn't crate him so gave him relatively free reign of the house. He peed and pooped, and literally tore up screens, window shades, and door frames as if he was trying to claw is way out of the house. We were feeling pretty desperate when we reaced out to Sensitive Dog, and thankfully, after getting the details of what Hank was experiencing, allowed us to get in quickly to assist with Hank's issues. We had one 2-1/2 hour session with Julie, who was amazing. She showed us a very specific game to play with Hank to help to tire his mind and relax him when we were planning to be away from the house. She also taught us how to desensitize him when we were going to leave, and we are so grateful we found Julie! It has now been four months since our training session with Hank, and he's doing great! We can now leave him comfortably and know that he doesn't panic when we leave. He now goes to his comfy place on the couch and relaxes until we return. We are so very thankful for the skills Julie taught us to make all our lives more peaceful and comfortable, and we highly recommend Sensitive Dog to anyone who needs help with their beloved doggies!

Julie Forbes, the Sensitive Dog trainer saved us! Our 11 month old adopted puppy, Haggis was adorable, but soon became known in the neighborhood as Haggis the Horrible. He devolved into a frenzy of barking when any person, dog, bike, car, or even a garbage can was in his field of view. My vet recommended Ahimsa, which was absolutely no help. Haggis failed their Growley Class and thus was barred from any further classes. I did one on one training with them that was a complete waste of time and left poor little Haggis catatonic with fear. I never returned. The wonderful people at Portland Dachshund Rescue, where we adopted Haggis from, encouraged me to find a trainer who had worked with Dachshunds before, and or really understood how to help sensitive dogs. My hunt for a new trainer took over a year! But it was well worth the time and energy. When I contacted Julie I was hopeless and a bit frantic myself. We had to cancel vacations because poor Haggis couldn't tolerate anyone in the house except me and my husband. Julie was terrific! She talked me down off the imaginary cliff I was on and we signed up for the initial lessons. I warned her Haggis would bark at her the entire time, which he pretty much did. But Julie ignored him and kept talking to us over his barking. Haggis finally wore himself out and curled up at my feet throwing a stink-eye at Julie occasionally to reminder her he was watching her. Then a remarkable thing happened. Julie taught us a calming game for Haggis. She had us lead him through the basics while she continued to ignore his chuffs. After a few trials of learning the game, Haggis completely forgot about Julie. He was absorbed in the sniff game, which utilized all dachshunds's super skill: their nose! Haggis ran through the game eager to do it again and again. He approached Julie without barking and looked up at her wanting to play *with* her, instead. At the end of the lesson he jumped up on her couch and sat next to her, content with his new friend. Each class with Julie provided a similar breakthrough for Haggis. At the second class Haggis, bound out of the car, ran up to Julies classroom and barked to be let in. Haggis's affection never wavered for Julie, an neither did ours. WE learned valuable tools and correct training techniques to help Haggis overcome his fear aggression. Within months, Haggis stopped barking at people and let them approach to say hi. Dogs were still something he preferred to keep across the street from him, but soon he stopped barking like a frenzied Doberman ready to attack (I had two Dobermans and they were the sweetest boys!). I am grateful and astonished to say that with Julie's training and guidance, Haggis has no problem letting dogs pass him on the sidewalk and has made a few walking buddies in our neighborhood. Haggis, once the Horrible, has turned into Haggis the Adorable! And Julie Forbes deserves 100% of the credit. We are indebted to her forever!!!!

Julie is excellent and I highly recommend her. Haggis was adopted and had a few issues to work through. Julie provided fantastic insight into both the dogs mind and ours on how to work with him. She is patient, interactive, caring and truly has the animals best interest at the core of her instruction. The physical environment you work with her in is warm, calm and inviting helping to put everyone at ease. She has a lot of resources (written, videos, etc.) that are shared and I encourage you to view/read those as it will help you on your journey.

It’s worth every penny! We have a dog with terrible separation anxiety and we were at a point that we felt nothing was working. We reached out and got a session and they gave us the tools we needed to help resolve our dog’s separation anxiety. Now our dog is able to be home alone and even calm herself down. I am extremely grateful for all their work. I have been telling all my friends who have dogs that if they ever need help with training they need to look into sensitive dog. Thank you so much again!