Status Report: 1 Month After Bark Busters

Things have been crazy around my house lately, as I’m sure you’ve guessed based on my posts from the month of December, but the madness is finally under control. Tomorrow is one month from our Bark Busters appointment, and the dogs have done almost a complete 180.

When David the Dog guy came, we put Pickles and Ty outside and left Murphy in with us. David just talked with us about our wishlist (which filled an entire notebook page and included such items as, "No more fighting, No more treat aggression, Come when called, No means no, etc…") and observed Murphy’s defiant behavior before getting into it.

When we started working on the techniques, Murphy responded immediately. We did an exercise to teach him not to charge the front door, and when he got the stop cue Murphy hit the brakes so hard that his butt slid around and he fell flat on his face. It was like he stood on the brake pedal at 70 miles per hour. "Wow," David said, "He got that really fast. That’s exactly what we want. Well, except for falling down. But that was good."

Every exercise we did, Murphy figured it out on the first try. He was a model student. Pickles and Ty, however, we somewhat more of a challenge. Ty just kind of stared at us, and Pickles was scared of the noisemaker we used to get the dogs’ attention when they wouldn’t listen or disobeyed a command, so every time we used it, she hid under something. (We’ve been assured that that’s normal, especially since she’s the dog who, despite being the smallest, actually had the most numerous dominance issues. She was sulking.)

Now, after a month of practicing commands and leadership and new boundaries and rules, we have 3 completely different dogs. We’ve had only two incidents with Murphy attacking Ty, both minor and quick to break up, and all three dogs are now back to sleeping in our room. The three and a half weeks we kept them separated were the worst three and a half weeks of my adult life. Pickles, who hadn’t been a night out of my bed since we brought her home except for two short vacations, had to sleep in the guest room with Ty, who never did anything wrong in the first place. I cried almost every night when I closed them in there, and Jesse and I started affectionately referring to Murphy as "the life-ruiner."

But we all stuck it out, and it’s been worth it. There’s still a lot of work to do, but now at least we have some tools to help us, and an expert resource to call on whenever we have a problem.

My verdict? Hiring Bark Busters was the best thing I have ever done for my animals, and the best money I have spent in a long time. If you’re willing to put your dog’s needs first and make changes in your behavior, I think it’s 100% worthwhile. But if you don’t want to put in the work, you’ll be wasting your time and your money.

Have you used Bark Busters? Share your experience (and, please, your location, so others in your area have a sense of the Bark Busters contingency in your region). Leave a comment.

Tags: meow bark blog, bullmastiff, english mastiff, pug, bark busters, dog training, dog fighting, pet advice