Success Story 3
Toby -
Cocker Spaniel x Golden Retriever
When I first tell people that I’m a dog trainer, one of the questions they ask is “have you ever been bitten by a dog you were training?”, and the honest answer is no. Thankfully, I haven’t. When a guardian phones you to ask for help with their aggressive dog, you don’t go into the house expecting the dog to know you’re a dog trainer, so they won’t attack you! You set up strong management in the environment. Barriers, leads, muzzles, the whole works! I have such a soft spot for Toby, because he was rehomed to a couple who really wanted to help him. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, their first trainer took a different approach to Toby’s Resource Guarding problem, and it escalated his behaviours. Toby took a disliking to strange people entering the house, and he became insecure and untrusting, which was devastating to see.
So, I arrived at the house for the first time, both owners visibly quite anxious, Toby feeling a little bit defensive, and me feeling calm and collected because I trusted our safety management. We sat down, had chats, put our protocol in place, and after me chucking small bits of his favourite treats towards him, one and a half hours later, Toby entered my space to ask for a rub. I knew we were going to be best friends from there on. Many sessions and months of training, we worked on Toby feeling more relaxed about visitors, we worked on his food resource guarding, and we worked on his leash reactivity. Now, years later, it’s as if he never had those problems; his guardians have welcomed a second dog to the household and their first baby, and Toby has been a gentleman throughout. Toby is one of the lucky ones who was gifted with guardians who took the time to understand what he was struggling with, accepted it, and worked tirelessly to help him, and it paid off massively!