Pet Dog

Meet Blue, a hyper active 18 month old Border collie with dog reactivity, toy guarding, lead pulling and an overall uncontrolled way about him leaving it difficult for his owner Sam to enjoy walks and times out with her dog.

Upon meeting Blue it's clear he is very loving, friendly and smart, but with humans he starts jumping and loses his focus from too much excitement which makes it hard to get him to calm down and be the lovely dog that he is. When he's out on his walks his overexcitement can lead to more problems because his ability to focus and follow instructions goes out of the window, especially when he sees another dog, and this can make him very difficult to manage for Sam and can be upsetting.

In these moments Blue can act up by running up to other dogs and snapping at them and if they react this can lead to full on fighting. When this happens there is no recall or control, even if he is on the lead, so if another dog approaches he will pull as hard as he can to try and get to them which is what makes walking and exercising him particularly difficult and stressful. 

 

 

We agreed that I would take Blue on a 4 week residential board and train where he would live with me and I would work him through a structured training programme covering all the areas that are important to Sam to overcome.

I started off building up the relationship and trust with hand feed around specific obedience work that would pay off further down the road in Blue's programme. Getting and maintaining Blue's attention was very important so consistent exercises around that whilst keeping everything positive worked really well. When I was confident he understood commands and I could get his attention and recall I started to add distractions and more complex situations to train around. 

 

When it came to dealing with Blue's dog reactivity I started to introduce him to other dogs that I knew were not reactive in a controlled environment using the exact scenarios I had been working on so he wasn't put under any extra pressure Then I gradually increased the randomness of the encounters while working him through the training he was familiar with, keeping his energy low and his comfort and positivity high throughout.

When this was at a level I was happy with I went from having Blue on a lead to a long line to the point where he was fully unleashed by working through the existing steps and consolidating all of the training while monitoring his reactivity and energy levels to make sure the training had stuck at every stage.

 

Throughout the programme Blue responded to each step and moved forward through the stages very well with minimum backward steps, taking him to the point where I feel confident that he is now ready to go back to Sam. To round tings off with Sam I will have an instructional handover with her to go through all the areas we have tackled and give her a comprehensive do and don't list as it is very important that she understands how to keep moving Blue forward and manage any regression to help her build on the work and have confidence in her ability to do this herself as well as to recognise when she might need to give me a call for any top up advice if problems start to resurface and before they bed in again.

Blue safely back home and big smiles.

 

Blue's owner said...

My 18 month border collie, Blu was having behavioural issues around dog reactivity, lead manners, recall and paying attention through distractions as well as over excitement when greeting indoors.

Steve was able to assess that all these behavioural issues stemmed from Blu's over excitement and resorting to instincts. I was pleased to find that Blu was not aggressive and Steve was able to implement commands that allowed Blu to calm down and pay attention.

Following a 4 week behaviour course with Steve (at a very reasonable price), Blu came back with excellent recall, lead manners instilled and embedded commands that allow Blu to calm instantly. I can now let my dog run off lead & not be worried about snapping at other dogs or running off to greet people/dogs as soon as he sees them. It is now up to me to keep up his training after Steve did all the hard work.

I would recommend Steve to any dog owner and can confidently say that your dog is in good hands.

Thanks,

Sam

 

Meet Luna, a 1 year old Dachshund with fear of humans and severe dog reactivity issues stemming from anxiety due to lack of socialisation and incorrect handling.

On assessment Luna wouldn't let me to even clip her up and would not stop barking, the first thing I did was build relationship and help her to interact with me with trust building exercises and start to instil 'sit' and 'look' attention commands.

Working her and getting her to respond to me while showing Luna's owners with instructional videos was key to keeping Luna confident and able to deal with situations that arise in a dogs everyday life. 

When Luna was responsive to me and trusted me I could then introduce other people with 'sit' and 'look' attention commands while they gave her a treat and other dogs in a controlled way so by extension I could control Luna's reactions.

When Luna got to a place where I was confident I could control her reactivity I started introducing her into areas I couldn't control like a walk in a public park she responded to the long line very well and as that progressed we could walk her unleashed all under control and deal with any situation that happened.

On Luna's return she was able to function normally around new people and dogs and even the dreaded vacuum cleaner!

Here is a before and after video from day 1 until end of programme, huge improvement in reactivity and ability to actually be a dog without anxiety or fear.