Moss is 2 year old rescue Collie. He was found as a stray in Wales living with other Collies for the first 6 months of his life. Then he was picked up by a rescue and put in kennels for 6 months with the other Collies in Wales until he was brought over to England by a rescue and put into kennels again with the other Collies for 6 months until they found him his current home. He has been living in his new home since January and his owners have done some really, really great work with him. 

He’s a very laid back, unfazed

dog. He’s quite hard to motivate sometimes and round the house he’s very good, he likes to play games and isn’t toy obsessed.

However unfortunately out on walks his lead work hasn’t always been spot on although he’s been great around the house and back garden. He has a tendency to go into hunt mode to chase rabbits and deer and be so focused as he as a high prey drive, that’s from living stray and being independent.

We had a lovely session and worked in areas that are important to Moss and instead of looking at the walk like a human we structured it like the hunt, giving him stuff to do that’s important to a dog, help manage his adrenalin, help build up on his owner awareness, get him working with his owner of his own free will rather than battling through the lead or miscommunication.

We had a lovely Educational Guided Walk as you can see from the photos and we could see where there were certain sticking points where he stopped listening to his owner, so we would stop and work on building a connection again. We established the working tools and started to work on their working relationship so they can become a team and teaching his owner how to use her environment to build a relationship to become interesting to her dog, to help her dog cope, using an enriched environment, mental stimulation and using natural agility.

I’m really looking forward to our next session.

I went to see them because since the arrival of Tilly tensions are running high within the pack. She’s a very independent madam and when she’s in the house she is quite bolshie with the other dogs, quite stressed in the fact that she doesn’t take to settling very often, jumping on tables, climbing units, scrapping when there’s food around, not all of the time but some of the time and just basically pushing the boundaries as you would expect a teenage dog that has had a lot of upset in their life to do.

As a pack on the whole walking out as become really, really stressful. Paddy is not keen on other dogs, and actually Tilly is the opposite of being out on a walk to being in the house, she becomes very anxious when she sees other dogs, hides between her owners legs and chatters her teeth. Paddy starts barking so the whole experience has become a complete nightmare.

But we had a lovely session, setting some clear rules and boundaries for Tilly, as she liked to test which was quite funny. We took zero tolerance towards the aggro she demonstrated towards the other dogs.  Actually having some mental stimulation and the owners taking the decision making role, instigating some lovely team building games, just seeing the girls suddenly start working together rather than being concerned about each other and on what’s going on was lovely to see.

It was also lovely to see tensions subside and then enjoy themselves. And Paddy who normally didn’t like to be in the garden if Tilly was out there comfortably and happily started to join in the games, which was a bit of a revelation for his owners because he’s normally quite a lazy bum.

Something else that was a first for the owners to see was that they had never seen Tilly drink out of a bowl. So I made a suggestion of putting some water down in a plastic bowl rather than a metal bowl and they saw her drink for the first time

Some dogs especially if they have ad upheaval or strain are not keen on the reflective surface of the metal bowl so if you see a dog that’s not keen its always best to try different water containers until you find something they feel comfortable to drink out of.

All in all it was a really good session and I really look forward to see how they get on.

I had a lovely session with them and their dog sitter, who before was completely de-moralised with locking horns, particularly with Sparkle and they just didn’t get on.

It was smashing to see that within the space of a few weeks the handlers work has really paid off to the point where she was actually enjoying her job of looking after these dogs and had completely bonded.

I have never seen 2 such happy dogs. The massive difference in them since my first meeting with them only a couple of months ago with their owner to now. Happy, connected, enjoying life, present, free from worry and inquisitive. It was a complete joy, as you can see in the photographs.

I had a super day yesterday working with these two and their owners. Recent event meant there has been a massive shift in the pack dynamics. They sadly lost their Great Dane in January and Freddie took it quite hard and then Sparkle arrived 5 weeks ago, she was un-socialised and nervous with other dogs on a walk, this has consequently made Freddie join her in barking and reacting to other dogs on a walk and unfortunately escalated on a occasion.

 With the right tools and communication and great understanding of how their dogs are coping, their owners can take the job description of protecting the pack away from the dogs as they are much better equipped to deal with this responsibility as they all live in a man made world.

Great pic of her and her owner connecting and working together, Smudge looks so proud of herself and I was amazed at what a quick learner she was, with the right tools her pulling is already a thing of the past.

 As you can see from the photo both Lola & Riise chillaxing together, this is a rare sight as Lola never settled on the floor or very often at all. We had a wonderful lead work session too, despite the weather and she responded beautifully with all the family, lead work is a simple but effective game that even children can do and enjoy. 

We also looked at improving their communication on a walk to strengthen their relationship and start working together so that he listens to them and is interested in them. What a gorgeous boy!!! He even matched their rug….. cuteness x

Bless his, through communication break down with his owners and conflicting messages from them both, Milo had become very stressed. With the new arrival of a baby 3 weeks ago, his stress levels were through the roof, not with the baby I hasten to add but when visitors came he would go into a frenzied state of adrenalin, running, jumping, mouthing at sleeves, trousers.

We had the perfect opportunity to practice when some unsuspecting visitors arrived to collect some furniture. We gave the people very clear instructions about how to react when they saw Milo and what to do if he jumped and the difference in that dog was marvelous.

We had fun teaching him some games that were useful tools and did some classic reconditioning with the ramp for the car as unfortunately he had had a negative experience that had put him off, poor poppet.

She was an absolute pleasure to work with and is a very sensitive and intelligent dog, who had her owners well trained. However with some simple changes to communication, interactions and reactions and some lovely mental stimulation games to teach useful tools Poppy turned out to be a delightful dog, who is actually happy to settle on the floor and to work with and listen to her owners, to the point where her owners invited me to move in.

What a lovely afternoon we all had and it was a pleasure to be able to work outside in the sunshine.

Bea had a pretty rough start in life and has grown to have an aversion towards other dogs which Lily is picking up on and out on their walks they react towards other dogs, cyclists, buggies, motorbikes and certain cars. Bea is very frightened of her own shadow and is very introvert, whereas Lily is a lot more confident and tends to be the brute force in the ignorance. So between the two of them walking them has become a nightmare for their owners. They pull on the lead, react to things and get into altercations. At home they bark at things, jump up and are very excitable so there’s a lot going on here.

But to calm things down we looked at how they communicate with them, building trust and teaching them that their owners can make good decisions to protect and ensure survival so the dogs don’t feel they have to worry about it.

It’s going to be baby steps with there being 2 of them working together, but already yesterday we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, as both dogs responded beautifully. We made some fabulous progress in such a short space of time.

After all the trauma they have been through it was really nice for me to be able to show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and there is a way forward. And to be able to take away all the stress and to show their owners that they can actually do this.

Looking forward to our next session and to see how this story unfolds.