We adopted Kona in September of 2020. The shelter didn’t know much about her past except that she was found tied to a fence with another dog, which may have been Kona’s brother or son. Thankfully, she was found healthy and with no visible signs of abuse. She was 46 lbs. and around 8 months old at the time that we adopted her.

Kona’s first couple of weeks in our home were filled with energy and excitement. She was a very open and curious dog. She would pull a lot on the leash to get all the sniffs and check out every part of her new neighborhood.

On her first day at home, we took her to the dog park in our building. She got along well with all the other dogs in the park, big and small.

However, during later visits to the park, she got into some scuffles and we quickly realized that without proper training and recall, the dog park was not a good idea.

We didn’t know how to read her body language properly, and overall, did not feel comfortable putting her in that environment.

With the dog park out of the question, we resorted to taking her on long walks to burn all her puppy energy. We walked her using a body harness, but it gave us no control- it felt like she was walking us. She would pull so hard on the leash that within a couple of days, she had burns under her arms, and we had leash burns on our hands.

During this time, we also tried introducing Kona to other dogs on our walks. Some introductions went well, some not so well. After a quick sniff, Kona would often play too rough with the other dog– jumping on them or lunging with her two front paws in the air. Looking back, during most of her early experiences, we did not teach her to be calm around other dogs, nor did we introduce her to dogs in the proper way.

At around the 2-week mark, Kona became an increasingly anxious and fearful dog. Her zest for life and the outside world was zapped by bouts of constant whining during our walks.

She would whine at everything - from people in hoodies to skateboards, too, of course, other dogs. She whined even when there seemed to be no apparent trigger in the environment. We stopped using the elevator in our building because Kona lunged at every dog in sight. This became increasingly problematic because we live in a very dog-friendly building. So instead, we walked 5 flights of stairs to get to and from our apartment.

We quickly realized that we didn’t have the knowledge or tools to improve our situation and to give Kona a happy life.

We had fostered dogs in Florida before, but these experiences were completely different than raising a dog in an urban environment. We needed professional help, so we turned to a trainer. Our first trainer was recommended to us by a neighbor. He helped us with basic obedience, teaching Kona her name, and introduced us to a head halter. He was the first person to suggest medication to treat Kona’s anxiety, however, we weren’t ready to take that step yet. Ultimately, although our experience with this trainer was beneficial, we felt that Kona’s reactivity with dogs was not improving.

Aside from lunging and whining, Kona would fixate on every dog we passed by. We knew we needed a trainer that specialized in reactive and anxious dogs. 

This is when our local vet recommended Canine Cohen. Even before our first session, Jason took the time to speak to us over the phone to get a better understanding of the issues we were facing. Although he was completely booked for the next month, he immediately gave us pointers and action steps that we could take while we waited for our first training session. This was a huge sigh of relief. 

At our first session, Jason provided us with a wealth of information that ranged from how to best communicate with Kona, to detailed explanations for her behavior.

Jason helped us think and see the world through the lens of a dog, which ultimately helped us advocate for and empathize with Kona.

Jason also explained how our own behavior was having a major impact on Kona’s behavior. Jason helped build our confidence as handlers, which in turn, helped build her confidence as well. 

After our first session, Jason gave us plenty of homework and behavior modification techniques. We worked extensively on the ‘place’ cue to help Kona settle, used the clicker as a training tool to counter-condition triggers, and most of all learned that Kona now had to work for her food through training.

We discussed medication as a possible add-on to the training protocol, but this was never the main focus. We all understood that without the proper training to complement the medication, we would not achieve any long-term results. 

At first, we tried CBD at different doses. We noticed that with CBD, Kona was more receptive and reachable during training. However, after about 6 weeks, Kona still had lingering anxiety that was not improving.

We met with our vet and decided that after trying out all other options, we felt comfortable putting Kona on Fluoxetine, a common medication that treats anxiety in dogs. We started with a very low dose and gradually moved up as needed.

After about 3 weeks, we began to see major improvements in Kona’s anxiety and reactivity. This made her even more receptive to Jason’s behavior modification protocol; all the effort that we put towards training was further complemented by the meds.

Kona finally started to settle while at home. She would check in with us more often during our walks. We even started taking the elevator again! She was finally relaxed and enjoying life. As our dog walker says, “she’s a completely different dog”- and we couldn’t agree more.

Before working with Jason, our walks were limited to a couple of blocks on specific streets that were calm.

If we ventured outside of this bubble, she would whine and cry nonstop. This is no longer the case.

Early in our training, Jason placed a lot of emphasis on leash communication. With his advice, we switched Kona to a prong collar to see how it could help. Kona seemed much more relaxed, and we found that the prong provided the most communication of all the tools we’ve tried.

We also played plenty of leash games, which kept Kona engaged on our walks. Jason even brought his own two dogs, Karma and Whiskey, to some of our training sessions to help Kona gain confidence around other dogs in a controlled environment. "

Now, we can walk on the busiest of streets and it feels like we are holding hands with Kona, instead of being pulled by her.

We don’t have to stick to the same walking routes and can finally enjoy our neighborhood with our dog by our side. Kona’s reactivity has also improved significantly. Lunging at other dogs is no longer her go-to response. Through behavior modification and counter conditioning, we have slowly shortened the distance at which Kona is comfortable around other dogs.

We can now walk past another dog on the sidewalk calmly. She also tolerates dogs when passing through our lobby, waiting for the elevator, and in our building’s hallways. She has even shared the elevator with another dog! Even though this is not something we do often, it was a big moment of validation to see her remain calm in such a small space with another dog. 

We continue to work with Jason by attending his group walks to further socialize Kona and help her gain confidence around other 4-legged pals.

Thanks to his ongoing support, guidance, and expertise, Jason helped us give Kona a new lease on life.