since getting mariska and adding her to the family, we've been trying to train her and make her civil on our own. on command she sits, lays down, and will stay (however only when she wants to). she's housebroken as well...but beyond that she does her own thing, and it's really starting to make life with her not so fun. this past weekend we were celebrating the holidays in syracuse with my parents and brother, and it was a very frustrating trip with her...most notably when given a bone for christmas. she became very possessive of it, and when i would even come near her with it, she tensed up and growled. that wasn't cool. i slowly approached her as she growled and bore her teeth, and as she tried to bite she quickly was ushered into her crate and i took the bone. she's yet to get it back.
this is a little extreme for her, but it's habit she can't continue...definitely not with the kids in the home. we love having people over to the house, and we want to be able to bring her with us as often as we can. but that kinda thing doesn't fly.
so after putting it off for a few months now, mariska is scheduled to go to doggy boot camp! a friend at the church has been giving rave reviews of a trainer in the area who does a phenomenal job. we take her to him and leave her with him for 2 weeks. he does 3-4 training sessions a day during that time, and boards the dog. we also get as many follow up visits as we want within 6 months. we're definitely getting excited to see her come back knowing her place and functioning better in our home. maybe she'll even come back doing push ups.
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