06/02/2026
These are videos I never thought I’d show anyone. I don’t have any from her crazy bad moments but these are from the early days of working/struggling through her reactivity.
Not because I’m ashamed of Blu… but because those years were HARD. Emotionally draining, embarrassing, and heartbreaking at times.
Blu lived in an apartment with me when she was younger, and looking back, it was basically a haunted house environment for a reactive dog. Off leash dogs everywhere, irresponsible college kids, tight spaces, unpredictable situations around every corner. We started training when she was only 9 weeks old, but sometimes no matter how hard you try, reactivity still happens.
Blu’s mental state slowly continued to escalate and as her anxiety got worse, so did mine as her owner.
Blu was everything to me. I dreamed of that fun dog lifestyle with beach days, restaurants, hiking, all of it. Eventually things got so hard that every walk was with anxiety. I was constantly scanning the environment trying to avoid situations that would push her over threshold. There were multiple moments where I completely broke down in tears. Two days still stick with me. One of them was at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale with dogs constantly walking by. Blu completely lost it over and over again until we were asked to leave by the staff. I was defeated. Something had to change.
When Blu got frustrated enough, she would redirect onto me. It was harder than hard. To everyone watching, she probably looked aggressive and out of control.
That was years ago and long before I became a trainer.
The truth is… Blu and I both needed help.
Thankfully, from the day I brought her home, I had someone in my corner that I still consider one of the greatest trainers out there who didn’t give up on us (huge shoutout to Keely from Ruff Rules). There was tough love, hard conversations, and a lot of learning through the struggles. I had to completely change the way I approached things. Our relationship had to change. And together, we had to do a LOT of hard things to get through it and consistency mattered.
Continued👇👇👇
