Client Stories

Pixie

Pixie was rescued by her owners at 18 months. Before she was taken in my the rescue, she lived with an elderly man, who was unable to give her the physical exercise and mental stimulation she required. She had next to no training but an awful lot of love to give!

Her owners contacted me in the weeks leading up to Pixie’s adoption. We had a session before she came home to talk through the first days. We spoke about sleep, separations and what to expect in terms of her behaviour.

Over the next few months, we covered many areas including: lead walking, scent-work, breed specific games, recall, self-settling, car travel, basic obedience and how to handle interactions with other dogs.

We also spoke at length about diet and joint care, as Pixie has the early warning signs of mobility problems. This likely stems from a lack of appropriate exercise when she was younger.

Pixie is a very intelligent girl and her owners were 100% dedicated to giving her the best home possible. I am happy to say that she is thriving in her new home and has settled in beautifully!

Ash

I first met Ash and his owner when I was out for a walk with my own dog down by the river. Ash was nervous of the dogs around him, barking and growling if they came too close. We got chatting and it turned out that Ash had been attacked by a dog at this location just a day before. He was bitten, quite badly, and pinned down by a much larger dog.

Ash’s owner decided that he wanted some support to help Ash recover and regain his confidence around big dogs again. He also wanted to tighten up Ash’s recall and his lead walking.

We worked together to build Ash’s confidence back up and to teach him to disengage from dogs when he sees them, over the course of a couple of months.

Ash’s owner was brilliant with him and Ash already had a huge repertoire of commands he knew. We worked on some additional, fun tricks with him and incorporated new commands which would help him to focus on his owner and build a more solid recall.

Ash is now back to his former self – but with improved lead-manners and recall. Well done, Ash!

Monty

Monty originally came to me for puppy classes and was fabulous throughout his course – picking things up very quickly!

As he got older, it became clear that Monty was struggling with separations from his owners – and from his mum in particular. This was causing problems at work, as Monty goes to work with mum and would cry and work himself up whenever she had to leave him to go to a meeting.

We worked together over the course of two 1:1 sessions at home to help Monty with his anxieties. We established that rather than having true isolation distress, Monty was actually suffering from frustration/FOMO when he wasn’t with his owners, which is very common in young dogs.

We looked at how to make sure Monty’s needs were being met day to day through enrichment and scent work; how to get him having fun on independent tasks and how to show Monty that he wasn’t missing out on anything fun when mum & dad were out the room.

Now, Monty is happy to be left without his mum and is able to happily settle with other people when he’s in the office. A great result for Monty!

Bruno

Bruno’s owners initially got in contact when he was a puppy, as they wanted to give him the best start in life. They signed him up for a Puppy Package so that we could work together at home before he started his classes.

We spoke about the standard puppy behaviours of biting and toilet training, as well as helping Bruno to settle in the night and prevent separation anxiety from forming. He absolutely smashed puppy classes and was an attentive learner!

Half way through his course of classes, his owners mentioned that he had been resource guarding. When he was given a high value treat (in this case, a cow’s ear) and they went to take it off of him, he snarled, showed his teeth and snapped. This really took his owners aback because he had never shown these tendencies before.

We spoke about how to handle if Bruno ever had an item that he shouldn’t have, rather than chasing him. We also looked at how to teach him to ‘trade’ and how to distract him when he has something he shouldn’t. It was also important for us to work on Bruno seeing his owners approaching him when he had his. cows ear as a positive thing that was going to add to his experience rather than a negative that was going to take away.

As with all his training, Bruno picked this up very quickly and his owners have had no further issues with his guarding behaviours.

Mia

Working with puppies is one of the best parts of my job and I have a particular soft spot for Pomeranians! Mia’s owners contacted me when she was 9 weeks old as they were interested in puppy classes.

After a little conversation, it became clear that Mia had not had much of a chance for socialisation yet and so we decided to move forward with a Puppy Package to prevent any fearfulness or reactivity from forming.

When I first met Mia, she did not know her name or any basic commands so we looked at how to teach her the basics. We also spoke about toilet training, getting her to settle through the night, building up separations and diet. Mia was proving to be a little fussy around food so we spoke about how to get her motivated to work for her kibble, without using higher value treats.

Once she had had her vaccinations, Mia joined puppy classes and was very confident coming in, which was lovely to see. She picked up all of the commands and her owners worked hard with her at home so that she was able to move onto more advanced obedience.

Well done to little Mia!

Poppy & Patch

Poppy and Patch are springbats (springers x basset hounds). Poppy is Patch’s mum; she had just the one litter and they decided to keep Patch. Their owners got in contact with me because they were struggling with a few of their dogs’ behaviours.

Poppy has a very short temper with Patch; she did not like sharing her space with him and was not happy if he was receiving attention from her humans. She also had a skin condition, with small patches of dry skin and lost fur, which the vets were unable to help with.

Patch’s behaviours were more of a problem outside of the house. He was reactive to other dogs, bringing far too much excitement, which resulted in pulling on the lead, lunging and barking, all of which resulted in walks becoming very stressful.

Both Patch & Poppy were big barkers at home, barking at their owners but also continually barking at guests and being unable to settle.

To begin, we spoke about the importance of ignoring unwanted behaviours and giving the dogs something else to do, rather than barking. We looked at how enrichment can be used to promote calmness and reduce stress. Once we’d put these things in place, just a few weeks later, the demand barking was almost non-existent, Poppy had relaxed into Patch’s company and her fur had grown back.

Next, we began looking at Patch’s over-excitement on walks. We introduced basic command work to teach him that listening to his owners is valuable, with a focus on commands that teach impulse control. We also focused on engagement activities and loose lead walking techniques. Together, we also looked at how Patch’s owners can manage the environment on walks to prevent him from becoming over-stimulated.

Now, Patch’s owners can enjoy walking their dogs again and are no longer living in a barking-mad household. Both of the dogs are calmer and more confident in themselves.

Well done to Poppy & Patch!

Ready to work!

Enjoying a cuddle together.

Apollo

Apollo’s owners came to me because they were struggling to manage the standard poodle’s behaviour at home and on walks. Apollo was reactive, mainly towards dogs but also towards some people. His reactivity came out in the form of barking, lunging and growling and he would pull on the lead continually, making walks very difficult and stressful for him and his owners. He would also bark whenever a person or dog walked past at home, which meant the family were living in darkness with the curtains shut at all times.

We looked at strategies to build Apollo’s confidence as well as how to promote calmness at home. We spoke about how to respond to Apollo’s barking behaviours at home and how to set him up for success. We also looked at the equipment being used for Apollo’s walks and how different pieces could support him before teaching Apollo to focus on us and the value of walking to a heel. Additionally, we spoke about how to manage walks for Apollo to predict his triggers and prevent him from feeling like he needs to react.

Now, Apollo is like a different dog. He walks beautifully to heel on a loose lead, no longer barks at home, is calm when visitors arrive and is able to see multiple people, cats and dogs on walks without becoming over-stimulated.

A massive well done to this beautiful boy!

Loki

Puppy training for Loki, the Frenchie. His owners got in touch when they first brought Loki home to start their Puppy Package as they were keen to get advice on certain behaviours that come with bringing home a puppy. He was 11 weeks old when we first started work together.

Over the course of our 2 puppy sessions, we worked together on a number of key areas: toilet training, puppy biting, settling at night, crate training, separations, impulse control, jumping up, barking

After his vaccinations, Loki joined us at Puppy Classes where he learnt lots of new skills (most importantly, how to listen to his owners when there are distractions around!) and he did a wonderful job. Have you ever seen such a cute little face?!

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Squitchley

This French Basset Hound is cute – and he knows it! But his behaviours were making life at home difficult for his owners. Squitchley would bite his owners hands, feet, clothes (whatever he could get hold of!); steal and destroy high value items (including a designer handbag!) and become aggressive if his owners attempted to take it away; mount people’s legs, backs, arms; pull on the lead, bite the lead and would not recall to his owners. There was a lot for us to work on!

First port of call for us was to look at the routine that Squitchley had as it was clear that he was over-stimulated. We looked at implementing a routine where Squitchley had ample opportunity to sleep, relax and have quiet, calm time. We also spoke about how enrichment could be used to increase Squitchley’s calmness.

Next, we looked at introducing some impulse control exercises and well as basic obedience so that Squitchley could control his urges and listen to his owners, rather than tuning them out completely. This massively reduced his biting behaviour whilst increasing his ability to listen out on walks.

We spoke about how we needed to manage our behaviour to set Squitchley up for success and discussed how to best tackle his resource guarding. This was tricky for his owners as the items that Squitch was prone to stealing were so high value to us – glasses, tv remotes and even a steak knife!

Squitchley’s owners were 100% dedicated to his training and he is now a different dog. He is calm at home, no longer bites for attention, rarely feels the need to steal items and is able to listen to his owner and behave beautifully on his walks.

This training journey took us three months from start to finish, with 6 sessions in total – his story really is a testament to the power of positive training. A very big well done to Squitchley!

One of Squitchley’s victims.

“What, Mum?”

Elsie

Puppy training sessions for Elsie the blue staffy. Elsie’s owners came to me for training when she was 5 months old, seeking help to give her the best start in life but also to address a few unwanted behaviours that had cropped up and they were unsure of how to manage.

Over the course of our sessions, we worked together on a number of key areas:

Recall
Focus on walks
Loose lead walking
Calmness around visitors
Doorbell desensitisation
Boundary training at the front door
Mouthing/puppy biting behaviours
Over excitement around other dogs
Toilet training
Digging in the garden
Enrichment opportunities

This might seem like a lot to tackle but Elsie was a superstar throughout and her owners showed 100% dedication to her and her training. We found ways to address the route cause of her behaviours (which was general puppy excitement!) and by addressing this, everything else fell into place for Elsie.

Elsie has now learnt solid routines and behaviours, which she can take forward with her through adolescence and into adulthood, in order for her to be happy, calm, enriched pooch.