I realized I was in over my head with this sweet boy. My heart was broken. I didn’t know what to do with him to help him tolerate people he didn’t know. He wasn’t happy with our desire to interact with strangers in and out of our home and we can’t live a life where we don’t have people around him. My knight in shining armor came in the form of a dear friend who had trained her own pup as a search and rescue dog. With her help, Victor started boot camp at our house. It was not in my nature to control my dog’s every movement, every kibble, every nap. She assured me that if I did so, not only would Victor learn how to live in and around other people but we would end up with the dog to top all dogs in our family. He would offer us behaviors that would constantly entertain us and endear him to us. He would be loyal and faithful. He would be able to tolerate people he didn’t know petting him. I thought she was crazy and that it wasn’t possible but I committed to his boot camp for one month. She wrote out the plan. She helped me to understand how to execute it and why. I’m pretty sure she found my anthropomorphisms equal parts humorous and frustrating. She even took him for a long weekend while we had a break in the form of a family camping trip. Through this training process, she showed me that he needed this work and structure. He showed me that he not only would respond to it, and that he wouldn’t dislike me for it but that he would become so attached and devoted to me that he is, indeed, the dog of a lifetime.

– Torry (Victor & Regal) 2017