Tiring but productive day today!

6 behaviour cases back to back across Durham and Tyne and Wear with 4 assessment calls squeezed in between!

We kicked today off with Ben the Border Collie,(in the background behind Chloe) he’s a rescue that’s already had a ton of sessions with another trainer but they couldn’t quite get to the bottom of his lead pulling and reactivity to dogs, so we were called in. We’ve taught Ben to walk nicely on the lead and boosted his dog-guardian relationship while desensitizing to other dogs. Last session, he couldn’t even break his focus with a dog 60 meters away, today (a couple of weeks later) he saw plenty of dogs, and here are Chloe 5 meters away without any issue.

Next, I headed to Seaham to see Rick the Doberman, he’s had a few trainers already but only got worse. He bit a few dogs and escaped the garden to chase a dog, but got hit by a van in the process and seriously injured his leg. Today was our first session where we boosted his confidence and focus out the front of the house and started building his loose leash walking, which is usually the first step. Next time, we will start working with other dogs to reduce reactivity.

Back in shields, I saw Blue the mini dachshund. Blue is a bit anxious and reacts to other dogs from quite far away, we started with relationship-building activities and ditched walks while we get foundations in place, as he was too anxious on walks so quite frankly, why do them if they aren’t doing him any good? Blue did awesomely and picked it all up super quick. A few weeks of this and we will be off to a flyer!

Then I was off to Newcastle to see Milo the lurcher was our next dog. We’ve had a few sessions already and honestly, he’s one of my most difficult dogs at the minute. Another dog that’s had a ton of sessions with other trainers with no success, but I can sort of see why. He’s anxious when there’s nothing there, he’s frustrated, unfocused, and unmotivated. He did have a health issue that was missed and has improved, we have also dramatically reduced his reactivity to other dogs, but there’s still lots to do. Today we tapped into his chase drive a little more and started building some interactive play, which is the happiest I’ve ever seen him. Long way to go, but progress is being made and his guardians are awesome.

Next, I was in Gateshead for Charlie the lurched and Archie the Sprocker. We’ve completely sorted Charlie’s reactivity towards other dogs so working on Archie, last time we did some recall work, and this time we started working on his chase drive at squirrels, rats, and ducks. We got the first steps in place, and after some practice will be able to put him in situations where the training is needed. (Forgot pics of these!!)

Finally, we saw Olive who is barking at her guardians whenever they move! Literally, when they stand up, sit down, show each other their phones, bring food, etc in this session, we pretty much resolved this, all that’s left is to practice what we went over and she’ll be perfect.

And that’s a wrap for the day! I’ll sleep well tonight, and have it all to do again tomorrow on my last day before my holiday!!

Well done everyone today, you all did awesomely!

If this case sounds like your dog and you are having a similar issue, or a different issue entirely, book a FREE assessment call with us by clicking HERE.