Durango Telegraph: “Hope for the ‘midnight dog walkers’”


Local dog trainer Annie Phenix stands with her border collies, Echo and Radar, at her house near Ignacio. Phenix specializes in reactive and aggressive dogs, most of whom act out because of fear./Photo by Jennaye Derge.

Hope for the ‘midnight dog walkers’

Trainer and author Annie Phenix helps troubled dogs and their handlers

by Jen Reeder

When Judy Kolz was living in Grand Junction, she used to drive several miles out of town and into the desert to walk her dog, Gracie. But they didn’t make the daily trips for the scenery – the little border terrier would turn into a barking and lunging “whirling dervish” whenever she saw another dog approaching. So Kolz had to walk her where they had less chance of encountering other dogs. Classes with a trainer who suggested jerking on Gracie’s leash when she acted out only made matters worse.

“It was heartbreaking,” Kolz recalled. “I was just about ready to give up.”

[Read the rest on the Durango Herald … ]

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