Bobby

I just had to add a post about Bobby... I visited Bobby, a rescued 20wk male Labrador puppy today for a one-to-one Puppy Consultation.

He was your average (sadly undersocialised however) male Labrador; bouncy, enthusiastic, loving etc, but credit must go to his new owner (who is also new to the world of dog ownership) who handled him beautifully and so consistently that within 10mins of working with him, had him trotting along beautifully by her side while on a lead; no mean feat for even an experienced dog handler!

I have nothing but the utmost admiration for owners of new puppies that know how important those first few weeks are to get right and how difficult that is in the weeks before their vaccinations clear them for exercise and training in public areas.

Getting a behaviour consultant to come to the home and start your new life together off on the right foot is simply the best way to ensure that you give your puppy his or her best chance of being an emotionally balanced, well-trained, sociable member of the your family. The message is don't 'leave it for a couple of weeks' - start the right way with the proper guidance as early as possible!

Well done Bobby and especially well done to his new family!

I will try and update on how Bobby does in future weeks / months as I am hoping to join him up to the Youth Club.

Busy Times

Again, apologies for it being a few weeks since the last entry. I had a major problem with communications and didn't have broadband or phone for two weeks!

One of the major things that has happened lately is that I've taken on the role of central administrator for Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare. This is a time-gulping job but ultimately very rewarding! I've spent a lot of time in the past few weeks restructuring the organisation, the documentatione etc but hopefully now the foundation has been laid and I have some wonderful people helping up and down the country, things should be a little easier now and I should have more time to get on with my other commitments!

The Puppy & Youth Clubs continue to produce emotionally well-balanced, sociable and happy young dogs and owners, with the most recent dogs graduating from Puppy Club; Mischief & Alfie and dogs graduating from Youth Club; being Basil and Magic.

Basil came along to his first monthly meet up at the Dog Walk Club and he had a wonderful time! The Dog Walk Club is only open to those that have graduated from the Youth Club after attending from early puppyhood so that at least once a month we can all keep in touch and go for a sociable walk in the woods with other ex-members of the Youth Club followed by a coffee and a chat. There is no charge, no commitment, just turn up if you're free! All dogs remain the responsibility of their owners of course but I'll always give advice and help with any issues relating to the dogs.

I had the pleasure of working with a lovely yellow Labrador called Freddie who had 'forgotten' how to be calm around other dogs. He was immensely powerful and we used a Halti Harness to get back some control while we could do some socialisation work and training. Within 30 minutes him and his owner were working together beautifully, with the trust restored between them and Freddie actually ignoring dogs and looking at his owner with a loving gaze and wagging tail. It is always so wonderful to see the love and trust restored in the partnership between a dog and owner after such a short space of time. It's like being an interpreter for two people that don't speak the same language and suddenly getting them to understand each other. I wish Freddie and his owner the very best of luck and hope that now they're understanding each other's body language a lot better that the partnership goes from strength to strength.