Ellie: Progress Report (01/11/10)

From Lori, Ellie's Foster Mom:

Ellie has begun her training with Darin Shepard of Sit Means Sit Atlanta!

Darin came out to my house on December 29th to meet with my Dad and I to talk about obedience training for Ellie, and how it will benefit her in her journey of rehabilitation. Given all of the unknowns about her past, apparent from her scars, we decided that training would be a good thing for both her and others to reinforce positive communication between Ellie and people and to give Ellie a constructive outlet for her energies.

Upon Darin's first interaction with Ellie, he explained that almost all dogs can be trained. He even had one of his dogs with him to test Ellie's reaction to new dogs. He rescued his dog from a shelter that was about to euthanize the animal for terrible aggression towards other dogs and people alike. He told me that he wanted to put his training knowledge to the extreme to see what kind of results he could get. My dad and I watched this dog respond to his every command which were mostly hand signals. It was nothing short of amazing!

Ellie obviously wanted to meet this dog. She was wound up like a top but showed no signs of aggression. It was a relief to know her initial reaction was more or less excited curiosity than anything else. Ellie has gotten into two altercations with my other dog Dasha. Darin asked that I bring Dasha out so he could see the reaction between the two females. He watched them both and let me know that Dasha was definitely the aggressor, which came as no surprise to me since Dasha has gotten into spats with other dogs before.

Darin explained the basics of the remote collar training and tried the collar out on Ellie. It was amazing to see her under his command in just minutes! Ellie is so eager to please us!