Bark Busters: Week 1

The Larkins family had a pretty busy Sunday.  We signed up for Bark Busters home dog training, and the pups had their first lesson.  We think our dogs are great but they do have some behaviours that get us a little worried for when Everly comes.  Since it was the first week, it was a three hour session where we pretty much just talked to the trainer for most of it before we got a little hands on.

The first thing we worked on was the doorbell. These guys will go crazy if they hear the doorbell, even on TV.  So we had a little pouch with a chain in it and we would throw it on the floor and give them a growl when they would run up to the door.  It took only about three times before they would stay back and let us open the door freely.  For those who have met our dogs, you know that they will do ANYTHING for food, but with this training we were able to put a piece of cheese on the edge of the couch and they would just stare at it.  We were also able to get them to walk beside us instead of tugging us when we walk them.  They still have a lot of work to do but we have already seen a big difference in them.

After the session, the trainer said that with all that they learned today they will probably be a little tried from using their brains so much.  He couldn't have been more right, here are a couple of pics of them shortly after the trainer left:

We're hoping that by the time we get to bring Everly home, they will be great pups and we won't have to worry about jumping or anything like that.  I'm pretty confident they are on the right track. Bark Busters is a pretty good service, it's a one time fee and it covers all of their training aids, and it is a lifetime guarantee, so if they develop some kind of problem we can't handle in the future they will come back out and help us with it. Even if we move across the country, we can get a local trainer to come to our house and help us!