Pamela Dennison - Bringing Light to Shadow: A Dog Trainers Diary

The list of people who helped me to help Shadow is almost endless. My eternal appreciation goes to Carolyn Wilki, who was the first to show me how incredibly small the approximations have to be when starting out the retraining process and how to actually see progress in those tiny steps. A price beyond rubies for having faith in me and Shadow, when I had none.

To Ted Turner, who taught me to use my brain (not an easy feat!) and dedicated countless hours of his precious and valuable time to communicate back and forth, risking carpal tunnel by typing so much. His ever-present humor, endless patience, and prodding have meant the world to me.

To John and Cynthia Palmer, for their constant, steady and faithful help, wonderful friendship, confidence, and for always being there. For having been involved in so many firsts, such as the first people to get bitten (a dubious distinction, I am sure), to groom, board, hug, and train Shadow; yet through all of that, had no fear of him.

To my endless and continuing list of dog bait friends in no particular order (and please forgive me if I left anyone outit isnt on purpose): Jane Killion, Jennifer Petersen, Virginia Wind, Stacy and Keith Modica, Gerry Cassidy, Andrea Kelly, Eve Cutter, Janet Seltzer, Carol and Jef Vitelli, Diane Zdrodowksi, Dr. Karen Dashfield, DVM, Ethel Abelson, Jane Berger, Karen Luzzi, Lori Klimko, Terri Bright and Richard OConnell, Kathy Riley, Dr. Jon Bertoldo, DVM, Marsha Dominguez, Kris Kelleher, Lisa Dennison, Lisa Pattison, Lisa Judge, Claire Gelok, Laurie Shuren, Irene OConnor, Jon Katz, Ali Brown, Diane Mayer, Vanessa Clapper, Todd and Fred Gross, Peri Basil, Jennifer Nourse, Richard and Zelda Gross, Alex and Ben Gross. Also to my students and friends who read and gave me feedback on the original version of my diary.

To my friend Jacky Sach, for giving me the idea for the original layout, and for having faith in this book, and me as a writer. Last but certainly not least, to Larry and Charlene Woodward and Barb Steward from Dogwise Publishing for their valuable editing and encouragement in bringing this book to fruition.

Its kind of fun to do the impossible.

Walt Disney

There is no doubt in my mind that I am crazy. Who else but a crazy person would look at a Border Collie rescue site on the Internet, e-mail the contact person back and forth for weeks, ask all sorts of questions about one of the dogs, while telling herself the whole time she really wasnt interested in the him? Who else but a crazy dog person would make a firm decision not to take the dog, then drive four hours each way just to go look at him, all the while wondering, Just what am I doing? I dont want another dog! So, here I am now, a crazy person with an equally crazy dog. I am Pam Dennison, a dog trainer, and Shadow is my sixth rescue dog. I assumed, with a history of five dogs to my creditall successfully rescued and rehabilitatedthat I could quickly and easily turn this dog into the competitive obedience, agility, and sheep herding dog that I wanted him to be.

Unbeknownst to me, I had a human-aggressive dog on my hands. I did not truly realize or comprehend the magnitude of the work, total dedication and commitment required to help him. I had been humbled by a forty-pound, 12 month old Border Collie.

This journal chronicles our struggles together, from recognition of the aggressive behavior to the painstaking Efforts to turn Shadow into my dream dog: confident, calm, focused, and friendly. It is the story of taking him from a human-aggressive dog to passing his AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test. I have included my actual journal entries as well as training concepts and comments on what I learned in hindsight as I went through this experience. You will see that I made quite a few mistakes, especially in the beginning of the retraining process. I could have, quite easily, edited out all of them to make myself look better, but that is not what this book is about. The purpose of this book was not only to show the mistakes, but also to highlight them so that you might learn from my errors. Part of my intent is to demonstrate what does not work as well as what does when retraining an aggressive dog. I understand firsthand the denial, frustration, and anguish that comes with living with an aggressive dog. I want you to know that I feel your pain, but there can be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Working with Shadow quite literally changed my entire life for the better. I started out my dog training career focusing on pet classes and competition obedience. The addition of Shadow has enriched my life, and my work now includes training aggressive dogs. There are days when I get so many calls for help with aggressive behaviors that it scares me; and yet I am grateful that I am now able to help these people. It has made me a better trainer and a better person and I now hold aggressive dog classes and camps based on my work with Shadow.

Every night, I thank him for coming into my life.

If just one person learns from my successes, I will be pleased. If just one person learns from my mistakes, I will be overjoyed. And thus began the greatest adventure of my life. This is Shadows story

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Margaret Weis

Homecoming

MAY 29 DAY 1

Packed up my three dogsCarrie, Cody, and Beau*and my husband Jim to meet Fitz, Shadows original name. After about an hour of scuffling and posturing, all of the dogs were playing nicely. Fitz was a bit nervous about me and Jim, and in fact, hid under the deck at first. Once Jim dragged him out (gently of course!), Fitz took some food and I started training him for eye contact. I vacillated about bringing him home but couldnt think of a good enough reason to leave him, so home he came.