Sol The Pit Mix

Sol is a 4 year old Pit mix whom we adopted from a shelter when she was 11 months old; before that, she was a stray in Puerto Rico.

When we first brought Sol home, we took her everywhere (dog parks, doggie daycare, you name it), having no real understanding of dog reactivity. At first, she handled it all well. Over time, however, she began showing occasional signs of aggression and discomfort around other dogs, children, and people with specific characteristics. In response, we started avoiding any situation we thought might trigger her, which only made the problem worse. It eventually got to the point where we dreaded taking her out to use the bathroom in our apartment building, terrified of running into another dog in the elevator.

One day, I was venting to a coworker about Sol’s reactivity, and she told me about G&S Training and the incredible success she had with her own reactive dog. We were hesitant to commit at first. We’d had negative experiences leaving Sol with "strangers" in the past, and the idea of her spending two weeks away from us made us extremely nervous. But after several more stressful incidents that left us upset with ourselves and Sol, we realized it wasn’t fair to anyone to hold out any longer. We finally reached out to George and Sarai for an evaluation and they put us at ease.

Fast forward to today, and Sol is like a new dog, though she still retains all of her wonderful personality quirks. She actually listens and is able to relax in public. She walks perfectly in a heel, and we’ve even been able to take her on runs and walks down crowded trails. When we pass something we know used to trigger her, she stays in her heel or designated spot and allows it to pass without reacting.

Thanks to George and Sarai, we finally have the tools to do exactly what we envisioned when we first adopted Sol: bring her on all of our adventures and ensure she lives her most fulfilled life.