Kayli's Story

We adopted Kayli at the end of the summer in Maine. She was advertised as a "shy" dog, but we figured with love and attention we could help her overcome her shyness. We knew when we adopted her, we would be returning to NYC in September and that could be a difficult transition for her.

Everything went beautifully until we brought Kayli to the city. To say she was uncomfortable in the city is an understatement. She wouldn't go into buildings or elevators and quickly developed leash aggression walking down the streets. In the dog runs, she scaled and jumped the fences as she spotted squirrels. We were terrified we would have to return our sweet Kayli to the adoption agency.

Over the fall, Maggie taught us how to handle Kayli to alleviate her fears. Kayli was soon able to go into the vet's office and willingly entered our building's elevator. We learned to distract Kayli when approaching other dogs. We learned to keep her on a long leash in the park to prevent her from running off. Slowly, by avoiding confrontational issues, Kayli became less and less confrontational with other dogs. She now plays nicely with her dog friends and does not need to be on a leash in open areas in the park. We thank Maggie for helping us make this truly sweet and wonderful dog comfortable in an urban environment

-Mary Prince