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Page 2 of 35 Factual Background History, General Disposition & Training of Hammerheart We adopted Hammerheart in September 2017 at which time he was estimated to be approximately one and a half to two years old, making him approximately four or five years old at this time. Hammerheart does not have paperwork, but his breed appears to be that of an American Pit Bull Terrier. He resides with our other dog, a beagle named Talisker. Hammerheart has lived since his adoption in St. Anthony. Hammerheart came to us being well trained indoors, including being trained not to run out of open doors, to go to his crate when you say “crate,” and basic obedience training such as sit, come, and stay. Hammerheart is extremely friendly both inside and outside, and has positively interacted with people of all ages, including youth, toddlers, and babies. There has never been an incident in which he was reactive or aggressive inside our home or any other space where he was off-leash. Enclosed please find a statement from one of my neighbors, Karolyn Busacker, regarding the experience of her family with Hammerheart as a friendly dog. See Exhibit 1. I have not had time to collect additional written statements from people familiar with Hammerheart’s temperament, but reserve the right to do so and/or have people come to the hearing to make statements. Hammerheart was not leash trained when we adopted him. Initially, he did not seem to understand what happened when you hit the end of a leash, and was very excited by everything he saw on walks. When we first adopted Hammerheart, he would jump and bark excitedly at virtually every car that drove by, every person, every dog, etc. In May 2018, we contracted with Bark Busters for a lifetime training membership for Hammerheart and Talisker. We have worked with a trainer / animal behavioral therapist named Lynne Willeke, with experience since 2006 working with thousands of dogs. See Exhibit 2. We had three training session in 2018 with Ms. Willeke and worked extensively based on those trainings with Hammerheart to become less leash reactive. The training includes reconditioning a dog’s emotional response to a stimulus, redirecting the dog to avoid the stimulus triggering reactiveness, and exercising verbal control over the dog – primarily sit, look, stay utilizing a “bah” sound that asserts you are the alpha. After the training sessions in 2018, Hammerheart made substantial improvement with is leash reactive behaviors. This demonstrates that he is very capable of being trained to decrease his leash reactive behaviors. As a result of the training, Hammerheart now almost never reacts to people walking or cars. When it comes to runners and people on bicycles, it is rare (estimated at less than five percent of the time) for Hammerheart to react to a runner or a biker at this time provided they are at least half a road width away. When Hammerheart does react to a biker or runner, it is to jump or lunge excitedly in their direction while barking. The bark is loud and deep, but is almost always accompanied by a wagging tail. To the best of our recollection, we have never seen Hammerheart exhibit the classic signs of aggression at a biker or 18