Dog/Human relationship expert

How do you work with a German Shepherd cross Malemute that weighs 46 kg and his owner doesn't weigh an awful lot more and is quite small and petite? The dog gets very excited at the sight of other dogs and people and indeed for passing cars and will drag his owner into the road. When you consider a battle of that nature clearly it can't be a physical battle because the owner is nowhere near as strong as the dog.

When the size clearly does matter a different approach has to be taken and in this case the battle has to be a purely psychological battle. In order to teach the dog to behave differently at the sound, site or any event driven stimulation, we need to train the dog in an environment in which he can be calmer. Additional information was given today about how the dog behaves in the garden. The garden is adjacent to a road and footpaths where people and their dogs frequently walk past. The dog reacts to this stimulation with barking and jumping at the fence. The people walking past often talk to him, or even shout to him to be quiet so he actually gets interaction for this behaviour.

The owner, by letting him exercise his decision to behave this way has allowed the dog to believe he can act independently of her. The way forward with this dog is to retrain his behaviour in the back garden. Here the owner is more relaxed and by having the dog on the lead in the garden he can be retrained to behave calmly and quietly when people and dogs walk past the garden. Once he has learned to do this only then can taking him onto the streets for a walk be considered because it is out on the streets where he will be more stimulated and more difficult to control so it's far better he learns in the calmer, quieter environment of the garden.

Then the outside can be ventured into initially, quite cautiously and then not too far away from the house. By taking this approach the dog will learn that he cannot hold his own, he does not get rewarded for being excited and he will get rewarded for calming down.  Changing how a dog expects to behave for its owner, with whom he spends the majority of his time, will take time, patients and consistency. The dog is entirely capable of changing his behaviour provided these conditions are met and I am very confident that this owner and this dog can get this behaviour under control so they can both enjoy a walk and stay relaxed despite external stimulation caused by other people and their excitable out-of-control dogs.

Separation anxiety comes in many shapes and forms and in varying degrees of extremity. I think it is safe to say the dog I've been working with this morning as one of the most extreme cases of separation anxiety that I've seen in a very long time. The dog is a mixed breed, cocker spaniel crossed with a Bassett hound and the combination makes for a stubborn yet intelligent dog that clearly before the current owners acquired the dog had experienced high stress and fear at the hands of his previous owners. What this means for the current owner is a great deal of hard work, patience and persistence whilst this high separation anxiety is retrained.

The dog is unwilling to do anything he does not want to do, he is unwilling to do as he is told and will protest with howling and screaming if he is left on his own. This behaviour is really frustrating the owner to the point of almost giving up on the dog yet she persists because she knows she is the dogs last chance for a good home. The dog has to have consistency and the owners husband is finding this difficult to achieve to actually wait until the dog has calmed before interaction takes place. It is only through this the dog will be able to learn to be relaxed when shut in a room without any human company.

At the moment his protests are loud and prolonged which makes it very difficult to ignore. The strategy I have worked with today with the owner actually demonstrates to the dog that his howling and stress does not generate the interaction he expects nor does it get him out of the cage or make a human come into the room where he is. This is to show him his stress is not necessary, is not wanted and therefore not required behaviour. Because his stress builds and explodes, it is important that the buildup is interrupted thus preventing the levels getting to high and this can be achieved with the use of a sound that is unfamiliar to the dog and is unique to his surroundings and today we used a child's wooden whistle that sounds like a train.

The sound of this stops the dog howling interrupts the buildup of stress which allows the dog to be calm which means he can then be praised and this achieved quite rapid results which gave the owner hope that the next two weeks before my next visit will be much more bearable than the previous two where she has had to endure a lot of stress from the dog. She now feels more confident about progressing with this behaviour and making it better for her dog. She remains however, dubious about the success of retraining her husband.

Home visits can be very very rewarding whilst being very very frustrating. I think today is first visit would fall into the former category without question. People are without doubt the eternal variable when it comes to working with dogs. People all learn at different rates and in different ways. New concepts and new ideas can be very difficult sometimes to understand and it can take quite a long time before new ideas and new concepts are understood. This is especially apparent with older people as new ideas and different ways of thinking can present more of a challenge than perhaps to a younger person.

I did they've visit with this dog over a week ago and upon my visit today I was very disappointed to note that there was no improvement what so ever. What was equally frustrating was the level of understanding had not improved either. After my last visit, I left instructions for the owner to contact me with any questions that email have had. This didn't happen which is why I think I was particularly frustrated today to see no improvement in Either the dogs behaviour all the owners understanding. I spent 20 minutes it going over the basics again to ensure that the owner now does understand what is required of him to make the changes in his dogs behaviour. I have left it up to him now to contact me when he thinks there has been an improvement in the dogs behaviour on which we can then progress the training. Until this happens, there will not be a follow-up appointment.

In this case I think this will focus the owners attention on making the changes inside the house which will then enable the changes to be made outside of the house. I hope he will ring for the next appointment so I can continue to help him but until he starts to help himself there is nothing more I can do at this stage.

A very interesting home visit yesterday, to Ruddington in Notts. A young Jack Russell female, was concerning her owners by the anxiety and fear she demonstrated at the sound of trains. Even though the trains were half a mile distant, the noise of their activity made the dog hide away until the noise stopped. In the eyes of her owners, this appeared to be the problem. However, this was not the case and we proved this by actually taking the dog to the station where a train was waiting at the platform and she was quite happy to approach it, to sniff it, to explore it so she could actually begin to understand what was causing the noise. The train was at the station, it made lots of different noises, different things started, different things stopped and she coped very well with the variation. It was interesting to note also that on various parts of the walk her behaviour would change the closer you got to the railway and indeed when she got to the exit of the park to where the car was parked.

What particularly interesting and no real surprise, was that the level of interaction that the owners had with the dog. As ever, it is the timing of interaction that causes behaviours to become entrenched as I explained to the owners, as you're walking around the park, how their behaviour was interpreted by the dog. As they started to get to grips with the timing of their interaction, they began to understand how the dog has  learned to behave this way because anxiety and fear are the most commonly rewarded behaviours by owners as we feel the need to reassure a dog that is feeling insecure or anxious.

We want the dog to feel better so we believe we should be comforting and soothing. However, what this means to the dog is that the behaviour you are apparently reassuring is desired because you are actually rewarding so the dog learns to be anxious and fearful because that is the behaviour that generates the biggest interaction. By changing the interaction the dog can learn to relax and, also a major factor was that most of these behaviours were actually occurring when the dog was off the lead and the only recourse for communication from the owners then is a verbal interaction so the dog was being really rewarded whilst away and for being stressed and anxious. The dog then believed that this is how had to behave and being away from the owners got the the attention. To have the dog on the long lead still gives sufficient freedom to move them round and able to communicate much more effectively, the dog was far better behaved and far more relaxed. So they have their homework to do and then there will be a follow up visit to see how they are getting on so we can progress the training.

Picture the scene, an excitable German shepherd cross Malamute, a 12 week old Labrador puppy and a five month old human baby all meeting for the first time. Add to the mix a concerned dog owner, a nervous mother and me trying to train three people and two dogs at the same time. 

The human baby was fine he just took it all in his stride whilst we vowed the older dog how to behave around him. To be fair, he was much more interested in the puppy but he had to learn how to behave with him as well so there was a great deal for the older dog to cope with. The biggest problem was the owner as she was very nervous and prone to nervous reaction. This was making it difficult for her to listen and concentrate enough to understand what I was explaining and asking her to do. This is quite common in a Home Visit as there is a great deal to do, much more than just dog training!!

It is the owner I have to work the most with and challenge the human psyche and thought process and teaching a different way of thinking can be difficult for the owner to grasp.

The dog quickly learned the baby was not a source of interest, even when I sat the baby on the floor, much to his mothers anxiety, but the older dog was very relaxed and accepted the restrictions we placed upon his interaction with the baby very well and this allowed his mother to relax. The dog also soon learned how to interact in a calm way with the puppy. They are going to be living together so getting the correct behavioural patterns, expectations and levels set from the word go is essential and they have all done this very well today. This is the start of their real training, the class environment is OK but the real work is always done during a Home Visit as it is in the home that the real differences are made.

Dogs in rescue centres need more help than they are currently getting. Dogs in rescue centres are not being prepared for life in a new home, they are being looked after on a day to day basis and that a is not good enough to break the cycle of rehoming for bad behaviour.

I have been working with dog rescue centres for a long time now but it is always nice to be asked to help a dog rescue centre I have not been to before, let alone a breed specific rescue centre. I have four German shepherds my self and the breed has a special place in my heart, those of you who have had Home visits and come to my classes will have met Burrough, my two and a half year old male and you will have seen what a special bond we have and I would wish every dog owner could share this same bond with their own dog.

In this rescue centre, a five year old German shepherd male was proving a handful. Because he has spent over a year in kennels prior to coming to this centre, he has established patterns of behaviour and associations of behaviour living in kennels. He is a confident and assertive dog who will try and insist he gets what he wants and the main issue I was asked to help with was his biting of the kennel staff when they tried to leave him in his kennel after he had been out and spending time with them. This is not surprising when you consider he has been in kennels for a long time and all he wants is human company. His behaviour was exacerbated because the kennel staff gave him too much freedom of decision and allowed him to behave largely how he wanted. So he did!

I have a nice imprint of his teeth in my left leg where he tried to convince me I was in his way when I tried to block him from getting back out of his kennel so he was clearly having a bad time letting the kennel staff leave him. Now you might think this was the problem that needed addressing but you would be mistaken. This issue is only the manifestation of the root cause and the root cause is the dog believes he can do what he wants. The secret here is to change the dogs behaviour without making it confrontational or more stressful because this dog will happily fight if he believes he has to so my mission was to address the issue and the root cause so the kennel staff could help change the dogs behaviour in a safe and less stressed way and this is exactly what I achieved in two hours. By the end of the two hours, the dog was much more relaxed in his kennel and, interestingly, so were all of the other dogs in the other kennels. The staff can apply the behaviour changing techniques I taught them to all of the dogs in their care and the result will be a more relaxed and calm kennel which can only enhance the dogs chances of finding a new home.

There comes a time when even the most patient and determined person begins to doubt there will ever be an improvement from what they do when they are faced with unbending negativity or apathy. It takes a special kind of person to continue to follow their heart and to retain self belief despite very trying times, so to come through these tough and challenging times and get to a point where a genuine and real breakthrough happens means all that effort and hard work have been worthwhile. That happened today at the RSPCA in Leicester. I enjoy the unwavering support of the centre manager and she has recently promoted two members of staff to the role of supervisor and it is with one of these newly appointed supervisors I was working today. She has been working with a 9 yer old German shepherd cross who has had serious aggression issues with other dogs. We have put in a lot of hard work with this dog and he has made excellent progress but the real icing on the cake came today.

In one of my regular training sessions at the centre, there was a mixture of dogs, some reasonably OK and some not and it was into this mix that Cody stopped the supervisor in her tracks and she uttered the most gratifying words I ever hear" I never thought this dog would be able to be off the lead around other dogs, let alone come back to when asked" This is one of the dogs in my training classes that has really helped me to change perceptions of what is actually achievable with dogs the staff thought were beyond hope. Cody has learned in only a few short weeks to be relaxed around other dogs, even when other dogs in the same dog training class are off the lead and to come back to his handler.

The opportunities in front of us now are incredible. As I have said I have always had the managers support and belief, now I have the staff seeing with their own eyes and from their own work what they can achieve. Now we can really make a difference to the dogs in  this rescue centre and prepare them for the greatest challenge of their lives, living with people, especially as living with people is what got them into the rescue centre in the first place. Today has been a very happy day.

Watching the world go by has always fascinated me, watching people and their interactions with each other and I find watching people with their dogs even more fascinating. Bradgate Park is a country park in Leicestershire and it is open to the public and their dogs. It is about 850 acres in size and is home to several herds of deer and yes, I have witnessed several "Fenton" situations. I was in the park with my children for an afternoon of exercise and fresh air playing all sorts of games with them. Given what I do for my living, I do find it very difficult to switch off completely and whenever I go to a public place, I just cannot stop myself watching people and their dogs and, certainly here in Bradgate park, I find myself wondering why these people, who all seem fairly normal and intelligent, put up with the behaviours their dogs give them. I saw one man walking a black Labrador and he was having to lean his whole body weight onto the lead because the dog was pulling so much. He was leaning back so far as he walked his dog back to the car, if the dogs lead had snapped, he would have fallen straight on his bum. 

I think the part which concerned me the most was the amount of children walking, or trying to walk their family dogs. All of them were struggling to hold the dogs, let alone walk them and the dog was effectively being allowed to believe the children are not important and can be dragged wherever the dog wanted to go, up tp other people and even up to other dogs. I find the midst of parents allowing their children to do this strange, I find the mindset of letting your dog believe he can drag your children wherever he wants to go an even stranger concept. Then these people will wonder where their dogs bed behaviour comes from!

I also found it concerning, whilst I was paying with my children, just how many dog owners just let their dogs wander around, off the lead. They allow them to come up to my children whilst they are playing. Now my children are used to German shepherds, they should be, they live with four of them. But our dogs are calm and relaxed and under control, the same cannot be said about the dogs we were encountering in Bradgate Park and on several occasions I intervened with an offload dog as out was clearly making my children feel uncomfortable but the owner was clearly not remotely concerned that his dog might actually be an unwanted visitor to my family play time. I bet if I wandered over to him and just started walking with him he would find it a bit strange yet  dog owners seem to believe their dogs can go wherever they please without regard for the other people who are also trying to enjoy an afternoon in a lovely country park.

Dog training in Elmsthorpe, Leicestershire with a rescue Staffie cross Lurcher who was completely different to the previous dogs the owners had owned and the differences were out of their range of experience in training dogs. When this is the case, dog owners owe it to their dog to seek expert help with the training and that help should be practical, hands on dog training that addresses the behaviour of the dog and at least changes the behaviour of the dog within the time frame of the first visit. If the behaviour of the dog is not changed within the first hour, then the dog trainer or dog behaviourist you have hired is not up to the job.

In this case, time was against me because the owners had a great deal to tell me about how their dog was behaving and how they had tried to change her behaviour so far. The dog was on constant alert in the house and would bark at any noise she heard. If the owners left the room she would immediately follow them  and when they came back to the room they had just left, she would come back with them. 

Walking the dog was very difficult because of her lead pulling. Even when the lead was produced in the house, she would get very stressed at the mere prospect of going for a walk. This is such a common issue that is entirely created by owners. The dogs lead only comes out when going for a walk so the dog has an association of high excitement for the lead. This only increases when the dog is walked towards to door and then goes into the stratosphere when the door opens. It is this type of departure when walking the dog that creates the behaviour outside. The lead pulling, dog awareness or even dog aggression all stem from the dog leaving the house in a high state of stress.

Yes, I made a difference to the dog's behaviour within an hour but there is much work to be done to make sure this dog learns the behaviours her owners want so she can become the pleasure to walk they so desperately want her to be. Dogs should be enjoyed, not endured!!

Who will defend dog owners like me?

This is the title of an article written by Allison Pearson in the Daily Telegraph in which she describes several experiences recounted by dog owners, including her, about the fear and apprehension they experience when out walking their dogs. She details, in particular, an attack on a dog by 10 other dogs that were all off lead. She includes comment from a dog behaviourist and bemoans, quite rightly the lack of redress available for dogs attacking other dogs.

This highlights a marked change in the dog owning society at large but one that has been coming for quite a long time. All the signs are there and have been for over 10 years and like so many pressure cookers, they take time to build up to bursting point and this pressure cooker is just starting to get warm.

Attitudes to dogs have changed and yes there a minority of dogs used as protection or weapons that are a deliberate threat to society. The rest, however, are a product of our society. I am not going on to talk about the lack of discipline in homes and schools, even though this can be a factor. No, I am going to talk about the ridiculous farce that represents dog training in this country as it is this which sets the expectations and standards that we are now starting to see the consequences of in adult dogs.

Firstly, some information about me. so you can understand how and why I have arrived at these conclusions. I am a professional dog behaviourist and have been for 19 years. I am also a professional dog trainer and those two disciplines are entirely different yet one directly affects the other and this is why the two must be combined in order to have a well-behaved dog. I work with challenging dogs. Very often these dogs have been kicked out of your typical dog training class because they are disruptive. I work with dogs that are aggressive, both to dogs and to people, I work with dogs the courts have classified as dangerous and I work with these dogs in a class environment. I successfully retrain these dogs to be well-behaved members of society.

In Allison’s article the biggest problem is dogs who are out of control when off the lead and how these dogs think they can behave when off the lead, especially around other dogs. Now, you might think this is a problem with aggressive adult dogs and whilst that is when these behaviours are displayed, their root cause goes much further back. The root causes of these behaviours stem from puppyhood and the “socialization” the dog gets as a puppy. The biggest problem with puppy socialization is that it is decided by people what is best for a puppy and this is why it sets a bad example for the puppy.

People are under the impression a puppy should be encouraged to meet every dog it sees and every person it sees as this is “socializing” the puppy. That is an incredible belief yet you see it on every park and open space in the country. What is worse is you see it in almost every dog training school in the country as well.

So why is this a bad thing? It is a bad thing because it does not take into account how the puppy is feeling or thinking and, it sets a very dangerous perception in the puppy. Let me ask you this. Do you want to meet every person you see? Did you like every one you were at school with? Do you like everyone you work with? Do you like all of your neighbours?

So why do you think your puppy will want to meet every dog it sees and every person? Do you think if the puppy was still with its mother that she would let other dogs get very close to her puppies? Or do you think she would ensure they are safe and protected and trust her to look after them?

Most people would not let a toddler go and play with older kids unsupervised if they didn’t know them yet we do exactly this with our dogs. All this teaches our dogs is they have to fend for themselves and that we, as owners, do not want to look after them and do not want to be involved in their upbringing.

 

Most dogs find this whole experience very frightening, puppies very often are forced to show submissive behaviours to older dogs when they meet because this is the only way they can prevent the older dog beating them up. The more often this is repeated, the worse the fear grows in the puppy. As the puppy grows and gains confidence, and this is especially relevant in Terrier breeds, they start to resent having to submit and they decide to take a stand. When anyone stands up to a bully, it takes courage and strength, it is also mixed with a healthy dose of fear so when the dog takes this stand, the barking is rapid, the body is stiff and the posture is aggressive.

The human reaction to this “sudden” change in behaviour is usually “Where did that come form? They have always been fine with other dogs.” Then the barking dog receives a royal telling off, which in reality only fuels the behaviour. So now the dog has associated a fear based behaviour towards other dogs and this has been reinforced by the owner, the dog now believes it has to apply this to every dog it sees and when it does, the behaviour again generates a big reaction from the owner and so the behaviour builds and builds. When a dog like this is off the lead, there is a very good chance it will “attack” other dogs. What it is really doing is making up for all the times the dog was forced to submit, the pent up frustration and anger spills over and he vents this usually in the face of another dog. This either results in the other dog fighting back or trying to run away. It always results in the owners matching the stress in their dogs so everyone and every dog is out of control.

When a group of dogs behave in this way, as Allison has described in her article, serious damage and even death can occur as one dog may defend themselves against one or two other dogs, but if they are up against a large number of dogs they will try and run. If they are caught, like Dozer was, there is little the dog can do against that many attackers.

There is also little anyone can do at the moment against the owner of the 10 dogs despite having 10 dogs off lead over which he had absolutely no control. For this there should be no excuse as the behaviours hos dogs have displayed are entirely allowed by him and even reinforced by him, whether willingly or not is irrelevant.

It is not enough to then try and address the issues these dogs have although they can be retrained, this takes time and dedication from a new owner but that is merely passing the burden of responsibility on to some one else. The onus of responsibility needs to be legally on the owner that they are solely responsible for the behaviour of their dog or dogs. Yes training should be mandatory but given the present state of dog training in this country, I don’t believe that would make any difference. As an aside, in my own dog behaviour classes, I teach dog owners how to deal with approaching, off lead dogs in a safe and controlled way.

Dog owners need to know how to teach their dogs to be well behaved. What do I mean by well behaved? Quite simple really, by well behaved I mean they should know how to walk on a slack lead, they should be calm and relaxed in as many situations as possible and they should come back to you when asked. That is a definition of a well-behaved dog. Is yours?

 

 

 

 

Dogs are not supposed to mix with other dogs with whom they do not live. Dogs are not social outside their family group of relations. So why are we surprised when our dogs behave in a way that means they dislike other dogs? Do you like every person you meet? No? so why do you think your dog should like every other dog they meet?

One factor that occupies a great deal of my time in my dog behaviour classes is undoing the effects of dog or puppy socialisation. This can be the most destructive thing we ever force our dogs to do, we force our dogs to meet other dogs whether they want to or not, most often our dogs do not wish to meet or socialise with other dogs.

Dogs that have been socialised in this way usually develop issues with other dogs as they get older, many of these dogs will not display a sufficiently disturbed behaviour to warrant any action being taken so they will be forced to meet every dog they meet because their owner has deemed that behaviour in his dog correct.

Your dog should believe the best place to be is with you and to be by your side. Why would you want your dog to believe the best place to be is away from you, why would you want your dog to prefer the company of other dogs to yours? Yet this is exactly what we train our dogs to do. Our best friends are actually taught to believe we don't want them near us, we don't want our dogs.

Yet dogs always surprise their owners when they re given a choice because your dog will always choose to be with you, if you give your dog the opportunity ti make a decision without the typical interference of you, the owner. Because it is you who has trained your dog to stay away from you. When this realisation hits dog owners, it is a remarkable moment. Even more remarkable when they change their behaviour and their dog begins to realise you do actually want your dog to prefer to be with you.

Now that is a real light bulb moment. 

I took a phone call from a dog owner who is experiencing problems with her dog. Nothing unusual about that you might think and you would be right. This dog owner comes from Berkshire and has been in contact with local trainers about addressing how her dog behaves when out on a walk, especially with her other dog. The other trainers have all wanted to come and stop the dog barking by only focussing on that particular behaviour. Dogs are like us, they display symptoms of behaviour yet these are rarely the real reason for the behaviour the dog is displaying. Therefore, you cannot resolve the problem with the dogs behaviour by only addressing one aspect.

Dogs behaviour is formed around a base principle and that base principle for dog behaviour is set by how you, the dogs owner, reacts to how your dog behaves. What you see your dog doing on a walk is an amplification of how your dog behaves in the house. So, to resolve the behaviour of barking at other dogs when on a walk, you have to look at how the dog behaves in the house and how the owner interacts with that behaviour. Only then can you truly change how the dog thinks it should behave. Unless the owner is made aware of how their interaction shapes their dogs behaviour, they will be unable to change how their dog behaves.

I have made an appointment to see their dog and the owner to help them resolve these issues. I also have no doubt that I will uncover a lot more to work on as well as I bring this dog out of stress and into a much calmer way of life. That is what the owner wants and it is certainly what the dog wants.

Snoopy is a young, rescue dog, he is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier dog and he can't cope. His owner has never had a dog like him, they have just rescued another dog, another young Staffordshire Bull Terrier dog and they do not want their new dog to copy the behaviour of Snoopy. They have now been to four dog behaviour training classes and are making good progress. They are also implementing the dog training at home and they are seeing a difference in their dogs at home too so they are well on the way to making changes.

Very stressed dogs like Snoopy are challenging dogs to work with, that is the reason they are in dog rescue centres and I admire anyone who takes on dogs like this because they are going to be hard work. When any interaction can add to a dogs stress levels, it is more difficult to work with the dog because the owners instinct is to react to the behaviour the dog is exhibiting and this is probably the hardest thing to learn when you have a dog that is stressed and is stressing you.

If you want your dog to relax, you must also relax. If your dog is pulling on the lead, it is very tempting to pull back and to allow your dog to make you frustrated, annoyed, even angry yet the last thing your dog needs is any of these feelings coming from you. If your dog feels you are both stressed, the dog will never learn to calm down because he will believe yoga re just as scared as he is. 

Your dog wants to feel you are calm and relaxed so he can feel safe with you. Your dog does not want to be stressed when with you, your dog wants to be able to trust you enough so he can be relaxed when he is with you and this is what Snoopy's owner is now learning to do and Snoopy is becoming a more relaxed dog.

Dogs in rescue centres are going to be stressed and whilst it is a priority to find these dogs new homes as quickly as possible, it should also be a priority to keep the dogs as stress free as possible. The main source of a dogs stress is people, the second biggest source is other dogs. If a dog is in a kennel next to another dog, it is similar to us living next door to our own neighbours. Dogs can find other dogs irritating just as we can find other people irritating and a source of stress. If a dog lives next door to another dog, there is a good chance they will not get on, if one of these dogs is a stressed dog, this can make the situation worse.

In a dog rescue centre, in this case Leicester Animal Rescue, I worked with the centre manager to assess each dog and their stress levels and then I assessed the dog next to them on either side. I moved some dogs into different kennels so they were next to different and more appropriate dogs who were more complimentary to the new dog next to them. I also changed the position of several dogs within their kennels using the closing dividing door. This gave each dog their own space, even with a dog next dooe=r because they ware in opposite parts on their kennels, effectively separated so they could have a break from the other dogs stress.

I did this with the staff and the manager so they could recognise the different needs of each dog and then place then next to a more suitable dog and when we left the kennel block, there was peace and quiet which meant the dogs were far more relaxed then previously. Dogs and dog behaviour are similar to us and our own, dogs also like peace and quiet and time on their own so they can relax. Make sure your dog has plenty if opportunity to relax, it makes for a happier dog and a happier you.

There is a dog with no name, no history and until this week, no future. There is a dog, however, that hates other dogs and bites people. What chance does a dog like this stand? Add to the problem the dog is a Staffordshire bull terrier cross and whatever glimmer of hope there was just went out.

This dog is in the RSPCA in Leicester and is so problematic that staff are refusing to go near him. He guards his kennel, he bites the person trying to put his lead on and the staff are afraid. Last Monday this dog was scheduled for euthanasia. His life was over as he was deemed to difficult to be rehomed. As a last resort, he came into my training session to give him one last chance to see if anything could be done. When working with a dog with issues this strong and stress this high, it is vital whatever is done does not add to the stress. Even with extreme behaviour like this, it has still developed in a defined pattern and predictable routine. Like with all behaviour, the dog expects the person on the other end of the lead to behave in a way that perpetrates the dogs behaviour. 

There fore, the only way to change behaviour this extreme is to change how the person on the end of the lead behaves as this will have a direct effect on how the dog thinks it should behave. As I put these changes into practice, the dog began to calm and relax and the periods of calm and relaxed behaviour slowly increased. As this new pattern becomes established, the dog is learning that calm and relaxed behaviour is OK, it is normal and it is allowed. Once these realisations are accepted by the dog, the behavioural changes will be permanent provided the person on the end of the lead continues to respond in the correct way.

This is the best and worse case scenario because the pressure is as real as it can be. There is literally a life in my hands. Days like this are rare and they are wonderful because there is always a chance, there is always hope and for the dog with no name there is now a future because he is responding so well to my rehabilitation. There is a member of staff also who has championed this dog and she has taken him on as  her special project and she is learning very quickly just how effective correct communication, handling and contact can be with a stressed and aggressive dog. The dog is now off death row and is a regular in my training sessions. Today he was even socialising with other dogs without aggression. He was still a little stressed but the progress he is making is quite remarkable and I am absolutely delighted with the progress he is making. Examples like this also help the members of staff and the volunteers realise they can make a difference, the biggest difference of all, the difference between life and death.

Bruno is a lovely dog, very gentle and soft natured in the house and he uses this to full effect by making sure he gets his attention just when he wants it. He is an expert with the puppy dog expression, the gentle placing of his muzzle in our hand, the caress of a paw on your hand all of which is designed to get you to make a fuss of him. With his family, it works and it works very well so when they leave the room, he has to follow them to make sure he still gets his share of attention. Now, reading this you may think that sounds fairly normal and why would there be anything wrong what this dog is doing. The problem is he is not able to relax. He has to be doing something in order to get any interaction with his owners, he is not allowed to settle and relax. This means his life is being lived in a constant state of alertness which is wearing, even for a Border Collie, let alone a Border Collie Springer Spaniel cross. The owner has had to take in a great deal of information today and she has done very well.

Because the dogs behaviour is worse on the lead and out in the garden, it was here the owner thought the work was needed to change her dogs behaviour. This is rarely the  case. Where your dog displays the worst of their behaviour is only an amplification of how they associate interaction with you.

When the owner brought Bruno's lead out, the excitement levels went up several notches. This dog has a real issue with the lead and the association that he goes outside in that heightened state of mind. This is only nmade worse because he is often allowed out ion the garden by himself where he winds up into a real stress frenzy, especially if the horses are out in the field that adjoins the house. He barks and runs around like a dervish and his behaviour on the lead is not much different.

I applied some reverse psychology which really confused his belief about how a dog should behave around horses and he was starting to understand the changes in leaving the house on the lead. The owner has some work to do but it is good work because it is going to make her dog use his intelligence by learning new dog behaviour. The revisit is booked for three weeks time and I do hope to receive a couple of emails at least in the interim with questions about how the dog should behave and how to deal with changes in the dogs behaviour.

A good, challenging dog and a very good Home Visit.

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This comes from my lunchtime dog behaviour training class today Wednesday 4th April 2012. Lucy is a delightful dog, she is great with people but her issues lie with other dogs, especially fast moving dogs, other Lurchers, Greyhounds and the like. Her stress today was an English short haired Pointer. She took a real dislike ti him yet she was perfectly relaxed around my own German shepherd dog whose name is Burrough. When a dog has such a specific issue, you can deduce she has spent her time around other dogs of that type before she arrived in her new home. Whether she has been used for hunting, hare coursing or racing, it is clear she views other dogs of her type as serious competition and worthy of her aggression.

There have been serious improvements in the three classes she has done prior to today but today there were free running dogs for the first time and she found this really difficult to cope with. When you are working with a deeply stressed dog, you have to take enormous care not to add to the stress. Today the weather was snowing, it was one degree above freezing and I was asking lucy to work very hard. She found all of this immensely stressful as she was trying really hard to control herself whilst the other dogs ran around. I stopped the session early was she was shaking due to a mix off the cold and the stress. She obviously wants to be calm and relaxed but finds it very difficult to do that around other dogs. We have a journey ahead of us and this will require a Home Visit because the dogs behaviour is not confined to the outside world.

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To find the answer you have to look in the right place and this can often be the most difficult part of dog behaviour. All dogs are different and with two Lurchers, two Border Terriers and a recent mixed breed addition, all rescue dogs, sometimes you can be too close to the action to see the cause. My clients here have been bringing the two Lurchers to my dog behaviour training classes for a while as they react badly around other dogs and they have been making good progress. Todays visit was to see the new dog, see how she was fitting in and how she was behaving but also to see if we could get the dogs out for a walk where they could encounter other dogs so their reaction could be changed.  

We didn't even get out of the door. It soon became apparent the ringleader was not the Lurchers, it iwas on of the Border Terriers who clearly held a soft spot in the owners heart and did get away with quite a lot of stuff the others were not allowed to get away with.

This was proven when we crated the other dogs and took this Border Terrier to the front door on the lead as if we were going for a walk. When the front door opened, the dog shot out and began pulling on the lead, even before the owner had stepped out side. This showed us how the dog was thinking so we closed the door and left the dog outside. We opened the door and gave the dog the opportunity to come back in, but he flatly refused so we brought him back in. I then went to my car to get my dog Burrough out and I brought him into the house. There was uproar from the dogs in their crates. I asked the owners to leave the house and the noise quickly subsided and after a couple of minutes, there was quiet. At this point I asked the owners to come back in to the house so they could then reward with praise the dogs for being quiet and relaxed with another dog in their house.

Now they have a much clearer idea of the root cause of the behaviour in their dogs and in particular the dog that sets it all off, they can eliminate the trigger behaviour which will prevent the other dogs reacting in the way they currently do. This will result in a clamer set of dogs and to ensure this happens, they are going to bring the Border Terrier to my classes. A very good visit.

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Helping staff and volunteers with training their most difficult dogs

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