After much conversations with the family and our animal communicator, we all agreed that this dog would be our newest member of our family.  We brought him home on December 23, 2006.  We named him “Makana” which means “gift” in the Hawaiian language, as we believe that we were blessed with his sudden appearance in our lives. 

However, Makana came with no history available.  He was found wandering the streets and probably had a confusing and frightening few weeks at the Sacramento SPCA before he arrived in our home.  So although a very gentle and loving dog, he and Kekoa fought a lot!  I started to get worried when he started to destroy household furniture and my son’s toys in just a few seconds!  He was like a puppy in an adult’s body! 

I quickly started seeking advice from the Basenji Rescue foster parent and other pet savvy friends.  They recommended I look for a trainer.  The Basenji breed is known to be stubborn and very hard to train.  And as a Basenji owner who’s been denied training help, I know how hard it is to find a trainer that will agree to help train the breed.  “Good luck finding a trainer who’ll take him”, was the comment I got from other Basenji owners. 

I started making inquiries to several trainers with no response.  Then one day, Ashley Starling from Sit Means Sit returned my call and is excited about training a Basenji!  What was nice was that his first training class was free.  That gave me the “breathing room” to see how well he and Makana would interact, and also get a feel for his style and level of patience with our pet.  Although he was the only trainer to respond, we were excited when we noticed Ashley saw the positive traits in Makana and wasn’t intimidated with the breed. 

We signed up for the basic 14 session lessons.  It was amazing to see how quickly Ashley was able to get Makana’s attention and make progress in a one hour session.  All the “Why…” questions I had were very well answered.  He has a great background for understanding the “pack world” and their mindset. 

Ashley uses tools that are very safe and humane.  And he seems to have an innate ability to read the dogs’ personality.  We are very happy with the progress Makana has made.  In just a few weeks, he went from a “wild, uncontrollable animal” to a domesticated member of our family who is getting better each day with training and much praise. 

What I realized from the beginning and is the most important piece, is that Ashley’s training is as much for the human as it is for the pet.  The difference starts when the owner takes the time to practice with their pet.  The bond and respect for each other start, and integrating well earned praise throughout the daily routine is priceless. 

I am very grateful to have found a confident and understanding trainer who takes the time to learn about the breed he is working with.  He’s also very realistic in understanding the vaious levels of training each owner will expect out of their pet.  He will go as far and as strict to guidelines as the pet owner is desiring. 

Though initially it takes extra hours throughout the week to train, in the end we get to enjoy our family much more and include our well mannered pets in our daily activities. 

Thank you, Ashley, for giving us the tools needed to bring a little peace and harmony to our home. 

Royene, Stephen, Kanoa & Kekoa “Monkey” Chun