Jacey had been waiting to get a dog for a long time. After all, she grew up with dogs throughout her childhood. When she finally found a rescue puppy, she hopped in her car to drive to Indiana to meet an 8 week old yellow lab named Scarlett. Since that trip, Scarlett and Jacey have been inseparable.

“She’s my best friend,” Jacey says fondly, “we do everything together.” Jacey quickly realized, though, that training Scarlett wasn’t quite going as planned. While Jacey had grown up with well behaved dogs as a child, she discovered that having dogs on her childhood farm was much different than having Scarlett in a suburban townhome.

“I was working with her on commands like Sit and Stay,” recalls Jacey, “but it wasn’t as effective as I thought it would be.” Jacey was able to housetrain Scarlett, but leash manners were nonexistent. It wasn’t long before Jacey knew that she was going to need some help. She drove by Dog Training Now on her way to work every morning, and one day she finally decided to make the call for information.

After the consultation, Jacey signed up Scarlett for the Boot Camp program, hoping that Scarlett would come out with good leash manners. She was nervous, though, that her fun loving and silly puppy may return to her a bit too serious. “It was such an intensive training, and I didn’t know if she would come back to me after the two weeks as an obedient robot,” remembers Jacey.

Jacey’s nerves got the best of her and she knew that dropping off Scarlett for that first day of training would be hard. In fact, Jacey enlisted the help of a friend to drop off Scarlett to the studio! Within just a few hours of Scarlett being at the studio, Trainer Marcus sent a picture via text message of her happy pup, giving Jacey the chance to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Over the next two weeks, Marcus sent me pictures and videos of Scarlett throughout the day,” says Jacey. Scarlett had full days of training and practice, but she also had plenty of time to play, relax, and cuddle with her Trainers. Jacey always felt connected to Scarlett, and appreciated the pictures on text and on Facebook. Nonetheless, she was excited to pick up Scarlett after the two weeks.

When pick up day finally came, Jacey was relieved to see that Scarlett still was fun and silly. But she was impressed to see that Scarlett was also obedient, following commands by Marcus perfectly. “When I saw Trainer Marcus giving commands and Scarlett following them so well, I immediately started to worry that I would never be able to replicate it at home,” remembers Jacey.

But Trainer Marcus put Jacey at ease, reminding her that command practice at home is a part of daily routine. “Now, I put her in a Sit before she gets out of her kennel in the morning and Heel while we are on walks,” says Jacey. “We practice Wait before we go through any doors and I put her in a Down during walks too.”

Jacey and Scarlett are still best friends that do everything together. Now though, Jacey is confident that she can get Scarlett to obey, and that means there is a whole new level of respect between the two of them. Jacey isn’t the only one that notices Scarlett’s new obedience skills. She recently had neighbors complement Scarlett on her good behavior while out on a walk. “Now Scarlett is the well behaved dog,” gushes Jacey, “and I love that!”

We’d love to help you gain that confidence and make your relationship with your dog even stronger; give us a call to set up your consultation and start your journey at Dog Training Now.