[Teresa]

I used to own a notorious talker - my Ripley (now gone to the bridge). She was also dominant with other girls, and I had to take the "overlord" approach to the house of girls to be sure nothing escalated.

She would growl on both inhale and exhale - we still laugh about her very loud and signature purr.

But, since it made some people nervous, we did some training to minimize it. Sit down with her, and start petting - the minute a growl comes out, pull your hand away. Wait a few seconds, and try again. Works especially well if after you stop, they seek more petting. As soon as you can manage a couple of seconds with no noise (work up slowly) - priase with "good quiet". She eventually learned that we would stop petting as long as she was growling, and became MUCH quieter. Once they associate the "not growling" with the "quiet" command, you can gently chide/correct if they start growling excessively when loving on them.

We went slowly with this, and used nothing like correction (remember this is when we wanted to love on her!)...but after a few sessions we made much progress and could eventually pet her in public without it sounding like a den full of bears!!!

Teresa