Welcome to Marlee and Me: Navigating Life with a Bully Breed

Welcome to Marlee and Me! As this is the first post to kick off this blog page, I decided it was important to give a little background on the perfection that is Marlee and to document where we are. Hopefully, this will give you all something to relate to and will provide a personal benchmark so I can track our growth!

Marlee is a 6-year-old American Bully. I was fortunate enough to adopt Marlee when she was three years old. She was previously in a home where her owner had to move away, and her next stop was the shelter. Though I had only known her for a couple of months, I knew I couldn’t let that happen to such an angel. Within an hour of learning about her situation, I let her owner know I would absolutely adopt her. 

Over the past two (almost three!) years of having her, I have learned more than I ever expected. I have always been surrounded by dogs, but this is the first time I’ve had sole responsibility for one. Let me tell you, it has been a journey, to say the least.

If you’ve met Marlee, you know that she is the most loving girl ever. Her favorite activities include cuddling, kissing, and playing. Anyone who shows her any kind of attention instantly becomes her best friend, and I will never worry about her not getting along with anyone who comes into our house.

Although she is the most perfect dog, she does have her struggles. Marlee deals with skin allergies, separation anxiety, and impulse control. However, the hardest struggle we’ve been dealing with is leash/barrier reactivity. Marlee is reactive to other dogs while on a leash, and managing this has been extremely difficult. If you have a reactive dog, you know that working through this can feel hopeless and can put a significant amount of stress on you and your pup. Trust me, we’ve been through the wringer, and her reactivity still remains a major stressor for both of us. I’ve worked with two different trainers, enrolled in three different online training courses, read countless books, joined multiple Facebook groups, etc.. Each of these has its positives and negatives, to the point that I feel it would only be appropriate to go into detail about each one in a separate post. Ultimately, I have decided to take the majority of the training into my own hands. I know my dog better than anyone, and with research and proper trainer assistance, I believe she can be successful.

Dealing with dog reactivity is hard for anyone, especially when the dog belongs to a breed that is already highly prejudiced against. People have their preconceived ideas about certain breeds, and when your dog openly displays these negative behaviors, it's easy for people to judge them even further. That's why training her and being able to share what has worked for us is so important to me.

I hope you can see our blog as a place of support, advice, and understanding. For those who have a reactive dog or even just a bully breed, I hope you can see how I am dealing with it and how it can help you feel more hopeful and confident when advocating for your dog. For those who simply love to read dog content and seek advice for all kinds of scenarios concerning your dog, I hope you can also find some helpful information in this blog! I also hope that anyone who stumbles across this blog but doesn’t have a reactive dog can learn more about reactive dogs and can help advocate for them when they see someone taking the time and energy to help their sweet pup.

While reactivity is our biggest concern training-wise, this blog will not solely focus on training her reactivity. I believe reactivity should not consume you or your dog’s life, so ensuring I post a healthy balance of all things Marlee is important to me. So if you don’t have a reactive dog (lucky you!), don’t worry because there will be plenty of useful information for you too!

We are excited to share our journey and adventures with all of you, so be sure to follow along! If you would like to share about your own personal journey, questions, or ideas for what you would like to see, please leave it in the comments or send us a message, we’d love to hear from you.