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Our female Berner was a totally bratty puppy. She nipped, jumped up on us and on the sofa, pee'd on the floor whenever her "friend" Snoopy came over, and had many sessions of running around like a dog possessed by the devil. I remember after one such session, (witnessed by a friend who is a cat owner), thinking, "OMG, what the heck have we gotten ourselves into with this little monster?". But, I have to say, I spent a good deal of time training her to sit, stay, rollover, come, wait, be still, be quiet, etc etc and it has all paid off in the long run. We also crate trained her, so she had lots of "quiet time" with only kong toys to calm and amuse her. By the age of 2, she was a very calm and confident dog and now (nearly 5), she is one of those supremely wonderfully obedient, confident and sweet dogs that everyone longs to have! We still marvel that that bratty puppy turned out to be our dear Shady! On the other hand, we have our boy Leo, (now 2 y.o.) a darling puppy who did everything we asked him to immediately, who is quite shy and scared of any new situations. When we have thunder and lightning storms, he has panic attacks that last hours! Panting and hyperventilating! Poor Leo!
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