Meet and Greet with the Trainer

"One does not need to be cruel to train a pet..."

I am writing this story BUT please don't judge me on this. All this is from the heart of how I met this wonderful trainer.

This is a little story of how I met Liz Norris.

I met Liz Norris about the time I lost my Dad in 2004. I was so sad, as many of you might know that feeling. I had to get my life back in order and I did that thru my dogs.

Bella was my first therapy dog and we had a bond like no other. Trust me I love all my dogs but sometimes there is that one that is special.

I had taken Bella as a puppy to another trainer that used choke chains. On a 3 lb pup that was hard to find one, plus this trainer used aggressive training methods. At the time, I knew nothing about these methods. I was also taught the jerk and snap method with the choke chain. The dog doesn't listen to the owner just the jerking of the collar. After I took a 6 week class, I saw in the paper about training dogs for therapy work.

I thought Bella can do this, plus I had taken in a mother dog with pups and fell in love with one of them, Bruiser. So the story really begins.

I worked months on building their confidence and ridding them of human fear. Bella would not do relax because I taught her about bullying and aggressive behavior about being on her back. She finally would do relax but was always scared. Even till the day she passed with cancer in 2014, she hated relax. Bruiser loved the attention and the treats so he was ok. Still skittish with some people. Bruiser has since passed in 2018.for Bella.

I worked months on building their confidence and ridding them of human fear. Bella would not do relax because I taught her about bullying and aggressive behavior about being on her back. She finally would do relax but was always scared. Even till the day she passed with cancer in 2014, she hated relax. Bruiser loved the attention and the treats so he was ok. Still skiddish with some people. Bruiser has since passed in 2018.

At home, we work on a lot of this training and I taught them all kinds of tricks. They knew that they could trust me and the love was there. That to me is why positive training is important to me. Soon after the dogs got more confident, Liz told me she had the perfect job for them. Wanted me to work with a little boy that had ADD and ADHD. Bruiser was the one he read to cause he was calmer and if he did good then he would get to work with Bella on tricks. This was a great opportunity for everyone involved. We did this for about 2 years. I only worked Bella and Bru with children as that is what they were comfortable doing. I never put them or any of my dogs in a position to fail. Liz Norris taught me the positive interactions are best.

Everyone has their own ways of training, BUT I will always use the skills that I was taught by Liz Norris.

I have gotten a lot of fabulous dogs from Liz Norris. Been training with her since 2004 and will continue. I have trained my own therapy dogs and 1 service dog along with a pup in training for service dog work with her help.

Liz taught me that respect on both sides of the spectrum between animal and human is the MOST important thing, plus love. Also, that the human is the alpha in a positive way. One does not have to be cruel to train a pet but just firm in a good way.

Cindy Barker & "B" Team Pack