Below are some examples of cases we have worked on with very specific detils of the dog’s issues, the treatment and the outcome.
Del Boy
Del Boy is a fabulous 4yo lurcher. At home he is the most loving gentle boy you could possibly meat. Out and about however he was the scourge of the neighbourhood. He would react violently to any passing dog. His reactivity was so strong that he was muzzled and his owners wore gloves and long sleeves. Del Boy would kick off so badly that he would scratch and bite his handler.
Del Boy was rescued at 18 weeks old having spent almost all of his young life chained up in a yard. This lack of human or canine socialisation was a body blow to his development. When we learned how severe his mistreatment had been we were worried that his potential for improvement out and about may be limited and we warned his owners of this. Del Boy however, confounded us.
We started off with clicker training (look it up) Big heavy fully loaded clicker training to the point where when he heard the clicker, his head snapped round like a hungry velociraptor who heard a chicken. Then we carefully took his new skill on the road. Keeping our distance from all things bad (that’s de-sensitisation) then clicking and treating like it was falling from heaven while he managed to keep his cool (counter conditioning)
Del Boy was a rock star. In time he learned that other dogs weren’t scary and even cats could be ignored.
Jane, Del Boy’s mum said. ‘We never believed that it would be possible to walk him like we are doing, We used to dread walking him, now we love it. This has changed everything’
Ozzy
Ozzy was a perfectly happy and normal family lab until he had knee surgery last year. He was superbly well cared for at the surgery but despite this, Ozzy was traumatised by the experience. Trauma led this beautiful family pet to develop aggressive tendencies towards other dogs on walks and even at home.
After an extensive course of DSCC (De-sensitisation and counter conditioning) Ozzy is back to his normal self and can happily walk off lead and socialise with other dogs.
Ozzy’s behaviour was driven by fear. He was traumatised and became scared of lots of things. Some trainers will have you believe that when a dog becomes aggressive, they need to be ‘taken in hand’. They need teaching who is boss. They need to learn the chain of command. Ozzy was traumatised and scared. He needed love, time, space and a structured, caring, humane plan to help him become the dog he was.
YOU CAN’T TREAT FEAR WITH FEAR.
Poppy
Poppy wasn’t a complicated case, but she was very rewarding.
Poppy is a young Cocker Spaniel. Her mum is a first-time dog owner with little dog experience. Because of this lack of experience. Mum was terrified to let poppy of her lead and so this pup had never had the chance to run free.
Mum reached out to us for help and after an hour of simple easy-going training, Poppy’s recall was pretty dam good.
Next week we received a video of Poppy running free on a beach in North Wales. It was a special moment.
Arnie
Arnie was a full on 0-60 faster than you can blink, 20 week Lab puppy. Arnie loved his family and his family loved him. As a 20 week old pup, Arnie went into everything mouth first. All puppies behave like this, but there is a spectrum and Arnie was at the far far end of the puppy biting spectrum. His family all had scars from his biting.
Teething and mouthing is perfectly normal and acceptable (if painful) but Arnie had to learn that full teeth on skin was not acceptable under any circumstances.
We felt that communication between Arnie and his family wasn’t perfect so we went back to basics with eye contact and touch games, lots of nose work and of course only positive re-enforcement. We gave the family a strategy for what to do when Arnie did bite.
After 3 weeks, nights on the sofa were much more pleasant and Arnie was set on his way to becoming the delicious gorgeous dog he was always meant to be.