Mr. Peter came from the streets of the city, so his manners need a little polishing before he hits the streets of home-life. Peter is making rapid progress under the care of Catalina though.
Peter likes to walk himself. In order to modify this behavior Catalina has been working to reward Peter greatly when he is walking like a gentleman, which is more often than not these days! When Peter decides to walk himself (see photo), Catalina waits patiently for him to resign his position as “guy in charge”. Peter is learning that gentlemanly demeanor=TREAT. Guy in charge=ZILCH!
Jamie is a little(ish) guy who crossed paths with Catalina when he entered Recycled Love Rescue this year. Upon his arrival, Jamie had a strong tendency to jump relentlessly and grab at his human companion with his teeth!
By working with Catalina, Jamie has learned that when jumps, he gets nothing at all. Instead he gets rewarded for curbing his urge to jump and sitting like a polite little dude. This motivation stops the jumping. Catalina has worked teaching him to sit about 50 times a day to help him to learn his new behavior, which is the key to help Jamie to learn not to jump.
Skinny Minnie (the little one on the right) is afraid of most other dogs. For about 6 months after she came off the streets of Baltimore, this fear manifested itself as general, but quiet nervousness in the face of other dogs. One day, however, Skinny Minnie realized she wasn’t so skinny anymore, and that she could effectively scare off any potential threat by barking like a MANIAC. Minnie quickly became unmanageable on a leash with this discovery of power, leaving her people in need of a way to help her be less afraid.
Catalina consulted with Minnie’s owners and came up with a plan to essentially re-program Minnie to look for a treat whenever she sees a dog on a walk, thereby replacing the negative association of the foreign dog with a positive association: TREATZ! Minnie is feeling much better, and much less skinny with all those treats!
“We adopted our dog Lucky from Recycled Love in April of 2009. He is a wonderful loving dog to our family and friends. Unfortunately Lucky was dog aggressive due to his history. Living in a house with other dogs was not easy for Lucky or for our family. Catalina changed all of this for us but mainly for Lucky. With her knowledge, hard work, dedication and love of animals, Catalina trained us to help Lucky to learn to coexist with our dogs.”
~Ruth and Michael Lamb
Jackson LOVES to hike. If Jackson could speak human, he’d tell you how much fun it is to take field trips with Catalina. In addition, Jackson has been introduced to the world of Kong-Feeding and a structured exercise program by his hike-buddy and behaviorist friend, and he couldn’t be more contented and grateful.
