Chelsea & Reese

We have an Australian Cattle Dog named Reese. We got her as a seven-week-old puppy right before the pandemic lockdowns started. We had a lot of behavioral issues when she first came home, but we were able to overcome many of them through an online obedience training program and some Zoom training with a well-known dog trainer in Canada.

We worked hard with Reese and had her obedience at a pretty good level before starting training with Serena. But we had reached a plateau, especially when it came to Reese’s reactivity and general anxiety in public places. That’s when we discovered Serena and knew we needed her help.

Reese was 18 months old when Serena met with us. Serena quickly recognized that obedience wasn’t the problem. Reese lacked confidence and had a high level of anxiety.

Over the course of eight weeks of private training, Serena helped Reese get to a point where she was willing to work through her fears. I’d venture to say we even got her to 100% off-leash obedience.

But the biggest transformation was her confidence.

Reese is a completely different dog. She used to lose her mind whenever someone came near us in public. Her reactivity would take over as she tried to control the situation. Now, we can be in almost any public setting and she stays beside us, listens to us, and, most importantly, isn’t reactive toward people or other dogs.

We wanted a dog we could take everywhere with us, and before working with Serena, that felt completely out of reach.

Now, we have that dog.

We take Reese everywhere she’s allowed to go with us, and she’s reached a point where she genuinely enjoys it!