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Wonderful Clients Make All Our Work Worthwhile!
I recently had the privilege of working with a young couple and Raven, their new puppy. Raven is just the cutest pitopotamus (aka pibble, velvet burrito, house seal) and very lucky to have been chosen by her pet parents. ???? They hired me as soon as she arrived, listened carefully and implemented the oh-so-important guidelines I shared about proper socialization. They embraced the concept of dedicating themselves to raising a wonderful pittie ambassador. They worked on her manners and obedience skills every day and were so proud to show off her impressive progress week by week. They asked smart questions, did plenty of additional reading on their own, and were SO much fun to work with.
To add icing on the cake ???? they booked a second package of lessons and added a $100 tip to the check. That was such a lovely surprise but, honestly, the most wonderful aspect of having them as clients was their FOLLOW-THROUGH! We trainers work hard to deliver quality service and care deeply about the pet parents’ training success. If they don’t follow through with our advice, we still get paid, but it’s so disheartening when they don’t achieve the results we know their dog is capable of.
Please share a story about one of your favorite clients!
[Photo courtesy of James S.]
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11 Replies
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Love when a client follows through and actually turns our professional opinion into action!
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Congrats on yours and your clients successes! It is an inspiration on why we do what we do! Thank you!
This is a photo of a Mei. She was adopted by a family who had never owned a dog before. Family was mom, dad, the children; approx. 9 (son) and 11-ish (daughter).
Mei was adopted at approx. 2 years old and she was from the streets of PR.
After having her for about a year they became concerned of her “aggressive” nature, barking, growling and lunging at everyone in the house, including their children’s friends. She is noise and movement sensitive etc. She had done this from the beginning but “now” it was frightening that is had not stopped or she was not “over it” (after seeing delivery people, guests, hearing doorbells, car doors closing, and being away from people even though they were in the house, etc,).
Through my behavior intake forms, in-person questions and observations, my guess was Mei was displaying territorial aggression and herding type behaviors. I implemented safety, management, training and behavior modification over the next 8 months. Everyone was on board and progress for HER was being made. I also suggested at the 2nd or 3rd sessions the book “Meet your dog” by Kim Brophy for them to read- they loved it. They knew once they read about livestock guarding and herding/working dogs, Mei’s behaviors were validated as “normal”. They adored her even more for being the dog she is. It has been a year and I was contacted just under two weeks ago to “make sure we are on the right track, still”. They have done amazing work! I was able to approach the door, step in, talk to mom as Mei looked at me (on leash for safety still), turned back to her mom for guidance and then go to her mat away from the door! She stayed there with mom for her intermittent rewards. No barking, no lunging, no growling but, still got a quick glance every now and then and that’s ok!
The part I love the most is, the children were willing and participated with mom and dad’s guidance! The daughter even started volunteering at their local shelter to read to the dogs on weekends!
Mei hit the jackpot with them and visa-versa. I am usually concerned when a novice dog owner gets a herding/ livestock guardian type dog but….. they accept Mei for who she is, understand her and work around her needs!
They did her DNA right before contacting me, (I was always curious! They did not care about it) She was 42% Chihuahua, then 5 other breeds including, Shepherd, Lab, Golden and Pekingese, Supermutt! In my opinion, the Shepherd genes “control” most of her observable behaviors!
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What an inspiring success story, @jenz ! Gives me the goose bumps, in a really good way. I often think to myself, I wish I could clone pet parents like the ones you describe! ????
p.s. Mei is also super-cute!
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This is so awesome!! I totally agree???? Without the clients following through the training falls apart. Such a cutie pie ????????
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I am so excited for you, @jenz and @virginiad ! That is the very best feeling to have clients that listen and do the work and the puppy/dog become dog ambassadors because of the loving and nurturing people (you and the clients)!!! Kudos and congratulations all around.⭐️⭐️⭐️
I feel this way about the pup I’ve shared recently in the Polite greeting video. They are an awesome family. They take him everywhere possible and socialize him, at ball games for the daughter and the 20-something year old son takes him fishing with his pals. Amazing that they find time to complete Reading and homework, since we began private lessons at 11 weeks old. He is a Pit and Doodle mix, of all things. He reminds me of my former pup, Samson, (my Berner boy) at that age, in spirit and eyes and composure. (Even my grown son said that, when I showed a recent picture of Diesel!)
Love hearing these stories about the follow through with good people believing in their awesome PR trainers!
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A well-deserved congrats to you, too!
In my opinion, it is both an eerie feeling and soothing feeling when we can “see” our past dogs in dogs we encounter. I hope “seeing” Sampson in Diesel is comforting and reinforcing that you are on the right path with dogs!
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Totally comforting! And, no expectations of him to “Be” Sam. I feel like “seeing” those sometimes-twinkles of my 3 special kids (Kelsey, Samson & Tara) are my ultimate reward for this profession! Great to keep them in my heart every day and feel them so close in other pups!
Thank you for asking, Jen! Have you ever felt similarly with your own dogs and clients’ dogs?
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I have with clients dogs and, my dog Titan now, reminds me of my Daisey. In fact, as the doggie universe aligned, I adopted Titan at 10 am and lost Daisey at 6 pm. I never had time to grieve but, Titan was so much like her as the days passed, I felt like she was and is, still here.
As always, thank you for being a compassionate trainer, dog mom and human.
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Kudos right back atcha, @bernerlabreclectus !!
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Woowoowooooooo! Yes! What a wonderful experience! Congratulations on a job well done and on having such excellent people (and pup!) to work with ❤️
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These are great stories – I missed them while I was out that week! So fun to read about all the successes.
I’m dropping this discussion into our newsletter this week and hope more folks will jump in with stories too.
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