Karen Kelley of K-9 Consultants recommends building dogs their own digging boxes. Her dog, BooBoo, enjoys curling up in the dirt for a quick nap at Kelley’s North Little Rock home.

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE
RESCUE IN THE ROCK

Her clients call her the Dog Whisperer. I was hoping she could whisper some sense into my pound puppy, JoJo, who had been running the house since we got her.

Karen Kelley of K-9 Consultants arrived at our home and immediately started assessing JoJo, who was jumping at her and biting her fingers and generally being JoJo.

Having been separated from her litter because of food aggression, JoJo didn’t know about bite inhibition. “If she’d been around puppies, they would have let her know when she was biting too hard, but she didn’t have that,” Kelley, 38, explained.

She said JoJo was a dominant female miniature dachshund. “She’d be leading the pack if she had one.”

JoJo was a holy terror. If she wasn’t chewing on something she shouldn’t, she was biting us or barking at the cats or squatting on the carpet or trying to chew on the cats’ tails or trying to electrocute herself by chewing on the wires to the television or digging for gold in the litterbox. In short, JoJo thought she was in charge.

Our two cats, Annabel and Simon, haven’t been disciplined or trained since they were kittens years ago. So a pushy dachshund puppy posed quite a challenge for us.

“This is a whole new world for JoJo, but she’s willing to accept it,” Kelley said.

For us too.

In 5 minutes, JoJo was very politely sitting, mouth closed, with Kelley. I was floored.

OK, but can she get JoJo to respect the cats?

My husband picked up Annabel, who’s quickest with the smackdown, and in a few minutes, Kelley had JoJo in his lap as well.

Annabel was not growling or hissing or trying to kill the puppy. And JoJo, while interested in Annabel, was respecting her space.

“You have to be calm and share that calmness with the animals,” Kelley said.

She said that because I felt assured she could control the situation, the animals picked up on that. I was amazed as my grouchy Annabel, who hates strangers, accepted petting from Kelley.

Annabel also risked getting puppy germs by sitting with JoJo. At this point, I was thinking Kelley must be a cat whisperer as well.

Kelley uses simple techniques, covering the dog’s head and eyes to calm her, offering a firm poke to correct behavior. But the real key is attitude, she said.

“You have to let them know you’re the leader, and they’ll follow,” she said. “They’re happy to follow.”

Kelley started K-9 Consultants about a year ago after seeing adopted dogs returned to the shelters she volunteered at because owners couldn’t control the dogs’ behavior.

So she began to talk to people and show them her techniques. Almost always, the dogs got a second chance with their adopters. Kelley’s instructions worked.

“So I thought maybe I can educate people and save dogs,” Kelley said. She had always had dogs, her father teaching her early that dogs follow a strong, stable leader.

Blending the lessons of her father with her experience in the Army Reserves and as a detention officer at the Pulaski County jail, Kelley learned a lot about the importance of respect.

“When you’re in a crowd of inmates, they learn to respect you,” Kelley said. “You have to address the person with calm energy, and move forward. I never had problems with the inmates.”

She said it’s the same with dogs.

“You can’t have sympathy or pity for an animal,” she said. “Have compassion. I know you have problems, and I’m here to help you move forward.”

Erin Bradford, a 28-year-old magazine editor from Little Rock, contacted Kelley to help with her terrier-mix, Tai. Bradford said Kelley helped her be proud of her dog again.

“She’s amazing!” Bradford said. “Karen walked right in and identified the mistakes I was making with Tai right away. With just a couple of simple changes that she showed me in a very hands-on manner, I was dealing with a totally different dog. I started changing my attitude and behavior, and the very next day, I had results.”

Kelley said she hasn’t met a dog she couldn’t help, and she’s met a lot of dogs in 15 years. In fact, she shares her home with 10 of them, all rescues. One, Mia, she brought to my house to socialize with JoJo.

I was a little nervous letting my 3-pound puppy play with a 65-pound pit bull terrier, but Kelley had proven herself.

Sure enough, this huge dog was gentle and well-mannered, patiently enduring JoJo’s excited play and gingerly correcting her when she bit too hard.

Mia was found chained to a stop sign when she was 10 months old. At only 22 pounds, she had already had puppies. Kelley took her in and saw that she was aggressive toward her other dogs. She’d been bred to fight.

It took Kelley a month to correct Mia’s behavior so she could interact with other dogs. Now she comes with Kelley on home consultations.

Aside from caring for 10 dogs and volunteering at the Pulaski County Humane Society, Kelley is caregiver to her mother, 90, and her 60-year-old uncle, who is disabled.

“My time with the dogs is a destressor for me,” she said. “I can come outside and meditate with the dogs, and it’s all good.”

Her mother, Blanche Kelley, said her daughter has always had a gift with animals.

“It amazes me really. I never gave her credit for being that smart. I thought she just thought she could do it, but people call all the time asking her what to do,” she said.

“And I learn things from her every day,” Blanche Kelley said.

As I use the lessons I’ve learned from Kelley to correct JoJo, I notice that she’s growing into a well-mannered dog — even if she did eat my cell phone just a couple days ago.

Kelley’s philosophy of letting go, staying calm and sharing that calmness with the people and animals around her is not only how she does her job; it’s how she’s come to live her life.

“Once I found peace and balance within myself, it was a ripple effect,” she said.

For an in-home consultation with Kelley, please visit K-9 Consultants at www.alphadogk9consultants.com.