Lead walking
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!
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!
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!
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!
