Margaret and William

February 2011

Hi Steve,
I hope you and yours are all well. William is now recovered from his ear operation and doing really well.
Our confidence around aggressive dogs continues to grow as we do tend get a lot of practice. Today for example on our morning walk he and I shrugged of the attentions of the local drug dealers large “Staffie” – probably from America, (if you know what I mean). This is not the first time we have come across this particular dog. Last week his “owner” was pulled over by him and the dog charged towards us with his lead flapping behind him. William was called to me and I put him on his lead. He then sat behind me while I confidently shouted at the dog to stop and grabbed his lead and handed him back to his “owner”.

Today this dog was in the children’s playground which is fenced off for rebuilding with his two “owners”. He charged at the fence and made to come under to us through a gap. I put my foot in the gap and told him to back off as we were not scared of him. I called him a big girls blouse and he lost interest in both as his aggressive behaviour did not get a reaction from either of us.

Then on the park there was a lost male Staffie. He ran over to us to take our tennis ball and I slipped my dogs lead on him. He then calmed down and was quite happy. William picked up his ball and as I was trying to find the Dog Wardens number in my phone, an out of breath owner appeared in the distance. We walked over to him and his dog was pleased to see him. I handed him over the owner was shocked that he had not been aggressive with my dog or me. I did not give him chance to be aggressive. Neither of us were frightened by his charge and he was obviously lost and scared.

Then a woman with a large male Staffie and a small female young Staffie appeared. A woman with a small terrier on an extender lead scooped up her dog and held it in the air where it yapped at the Staffies. Both these dogs jumped up at her and she was hysterical and terrified. She reminded me of someone...............who could that be (ok that used to be me!). I helped the owner of the Staffies to grab her out of control dogs and put them on leads. The terrier owner was in bits I told her she needed to take her dog to a training class as neither she nor the dog behaved appropriately to avoid the unwanted attention of the Staffies. She said the little dog was from the RSPCA and she was really frightened of bigger dogs but her terrier wanted to play with them. Oh dear, again I told her she needed help and to get into a class with it.

Then a large Staffie cross Boxer bounded over and the whole scenario happened again exactly the same as before. William and I were fine but no dog worried us at all we were ignored. Why was this? Because I have been to training classes with my dog since he was a puppy and we both have confidence in dealing with these situations. As a dog owner living in inner City Nottingham this happens frequently.  We both know how to deal with the situation when a out of control dog approaches us while on the park. Where was my training and who was my trainer. Mr Steven Havers in Leicester, a lovely man who knows what he is talking about and trains owners and dogs to deal with situations that happen in real life. We did not learn in a village hall we learnt in a field sometime in the dark, sometimes in daylight, sometimes in the sun shine and on occasions in the rain and snow, which is where owners will encounter tricky situations at home.

To all your owners: keep at it.  It is hard at first to learn new habits and let go of old ones but your dog will gain so much experience and you and s/he will be a lot safer after you have both listened to Steven and taken on board his training style. Trust me. My dog and I learnt and listened and we are a shining example of a team working together. I now have a dog that I deserve. We have put the work in and now reap the rewards. I will be returning to training as soon as I can because I really enjoy attending and love to see Steven as he always finds something that we are doing wrong and puts us on the right road again. Such fun!!

Kind Regards

Margaret Bordogna-Crane and William - Nottingham