Taki, German Shepherd Dog, and Tobi, the Border Collie/Lab mix

Genevieve Larimer
Morgantown, WV 

I have 2 dogs who were both having behavioral issues. Megan was amazing working with them and with me to help us resolve these problems. My first dog, Taki, is a rescued German Shepherd, who came from a neglectful and abusive background. She did not trust anyone but my family, and became very aggressively defensive toward anyone she saw as a potential threat. I couldn't have people over to my house or take her anywhere with me because she would lash out at people. Megan helped us out so much! She developed an excellent plan, which included working with rewards around people so that Taki could develop a new behavior pattern and more positive associations. After only a couple of sessions I was able to safely take her on walks through my neighborhood with no problem. After about a month of using Megan's techniques Taki made huge improvements and even showed friendly behavior to my neighbors, allowing them to pet her, which was amazing! With continued work I am now able to have friends over to my house as well. I have not had any problems walking her in the last two years and she lives a much happier life now since she is not stuck in the house all the time. 

Toby is my other dog. He is also a rescued dog who came from the animal shelter at 4 months old. He is a border collie/lab mix. He was a wonderfully sweet puppy and I was able to take him everywhere with me. However, as he got older I noticed that he started to display some concerning signs of fear around people. He would bark at people when they approached sometimes, and I couldn't figure out why, because he was generally friendly. I called on Megan for help in dealing with this problem because I wanted to stop any such behavior before it became dangerous! She developed a plan of working with Toby around increasingly large groups of people with rewards, to create positive associations for him and boost his confidence being around people. The plan worked really well and Toby is a very happy, friendly dog. Thanks Megan!