Testimonials – client kudos and success stories
Our Two “Crazy” Pits
It’s been a long road that has turned from fear to fun. We want to give a lot of “THANKS” to Valrie Marasco for putting many hours of time, many hours of patience and many hours investing in our family.
Our situation was a unique one (aren’t all of ours). We have been walking on egg shells with both our dogs being in the same room since January 2007, which was the date we adopted our 15 month old female pit bull, Myah. Bringing Myah into Xena’s (our 5 yr old female pit bull) home was a lot more complicated than we ever would have imagined. It’s one of those lessons you learn after the fact.
One week before Valrie was asked to come to our home Xena and Myah got in a huge fight in our backyard, which involved blood, punctures, horrendous vet bills and a trip to the urgent care for the bite on my wrist due to an attempt to grab a collar in the middle of it all (a non-intentional bite). In other words, it was bad.
Then, Valrie was referred to us. A week later she was over to witness another nasty fight between the dogs. This is when she became very, very determined in having these two dogs live in peace with one another. Our thoughts were very doubtful. Because of Val’s passion to help situations such as ours, she spent many hours training us how to work with our dogs as well as one-on-one with her and the dogs. The girls took her in as the pack leader right away. Valrie spent a lot of her time working with behavioral training as well as obedient training. There was a 3 week period she was here everyday during our work day to work with them one-on-one.
Since Valrie had been here many mornings and afternoons, she had several opportunities to test Myah and Xena in situations that would create aggression. There was no sign of aggression. The next big step was to convince me (Jackie) to trust that she had established dominance and there would be no fighting. What happened was a very traumatizing situation which means it will take time to personally feel 100% at ease. Val’s been a great help. Dave now has the dominant pack leader position that Valrie had established and then passed on. As of right now, Val has another success story under her belt. We’ve been having a lot of fun here at the house living as one big happy family. Walks with all of us together are fun, field trips to our friends’ houses go smooth & I (Jackie) can finally relax around the house when the Myah and Xena are together. I strongly recommend Valrie to any who ask. She has been great to work with, her heart for animals is HUGE & we appreciate her so, so much.
Much Thanks, Dave & Jackie
Rascal my dog lost in translation
Most people I come across at the dog park are people such as myself, who have adopted a dog from a rescue center. In speaking with them further most people have no background on the animal which in most cases means it’s been abandoned or abused. This is where I found myself 3 years ago.
I began “training” Rascal, my dog a pit bull mix, myself and found he already knew many simple commands. I thought I had it easy. Then little things began cropping up that had no rhyme or reason to me. No matter how many books I read, I came to the realization that none of them were helping me see through my dogs eyes. I knew there were things he was trying to tell me but I could not read dog language. It was frustrating for us both before Val entered the picture.
I understood a dog’s true nature is to want to please his pack leader and fit into the pack. Val has a true gift to view the world from the dog’s prospective and breaks it down to her clients what’s happening for the dog and how to correct the behavior.
We are a happy well adjusted family which consists of myself, three children and our loveable Rascal. Thanks to Val and her endless knowledge and experience she has shared with us. I would recommend her to anyone who would desire this type of result.
Charissa
