The first blow was when our indoor training venue was destroyed by fire early in the month. This was a really traumatic time for me because I take the responsibilities to my clients and their dogs really personally and I was frantically trying to find an alternative venue! I managed to find one, but as the wise know, the blackest cloud has the brightest lining sometimes and we couldn't get our normal club nights. This gave me the incentive to finally get a new project off the ground, the Supervised Walk Club!
The Puppy Club will still be indoors on a Wednesday evening, but the follow on clubs for medium and large sized breeds will take on a unique format now in the form of an outdoor, supervised walk. This is much more effective and realistic as it deals with the behaviour of puppies and dogs in 'the real world' rather than the confines of a hall.
'Travelling with your dog' is a favourite term of mine which describes the perfect activity that we can share with our dogs. 'Taking the dog for a walk' no longer exists for my clients! With our dogs we can travel together, sharing experiences together, learning to respect each other, learning to listen to each other - learning to understand each other...
I've been holding a Walk Club now for almost a couple of years and it has been amazing to watch a multi-species social group form slowly, with even dog/dog aggressive dogs learning to accept the other members of the group, both human and canine and enjoy travelling with us.
I hope to start Supervised Walk Clubs wherever and whenever I can to teach people how to travel with their dogs!
I have been fostering a beautiful Neapolitan Mastiff who came to us from the RSPCA who realised that a kennel environment was not ideal for this boy who had lived in a back yard for almost his entire life and needed critical habituation to new environments and socialisation to people, men in particular.Barney was a legend - he had a wonderfully stable 'foundation personality' and with careful behavioural rehabilitation including sound desensitisation, socialisation to people of all ages, habituation to things such as skateboards, cars, bikes, planes, traffic, car travel etc (none of which he had ever really had to deal with before), he was able to go his new home last week!
Good Luck Barney!
People ask me all the time how I cope with fostering. It's not easy but the one thing that makes it bearable to say goodbye is to realise that they are going to a better home than the one I've got (in Barney's case, a massive house, 4 acres of his own land to wander about it, people at home all day...I wanted to live there!). If I ever felt that a dog had such behavioural problems that nobody else would be able to cope with them, or we could not find a home for a dog, then of course the dog would stay with me, but as long as great people offering great homes for dogs keep opening their hearts to them, I'll continue to foster.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that Barney didn't get to me - he was a one in a million. I'd love to have kept him because of how he recovered from a life he really shouldn't have recovered (behaviourally) from - but knowing he is happy and knowing that there is another dog out there right now that is on their way to me makes it worthwhile.
I was also involved in the very sad case of a dog having to be destroyed due to aggression towards a human. I am in no doubt whatsoever that the humans in this case were to blame due to a complete and unbelieveable lack of understanding of the basics in canine behaviour. Despite being given express instructions to follow, a detailed profile on the personality of the dog, how to handle them and not to treat them like a child etc (the ultimate sin as far as I am concerned...) within a couple of hours they had ignored every single piece of advice. The dog was subsequently aroused to fever pitch and redirected its aggression towards a human who waded into a situation a human should never get involved in. This dog had never shown aggression towards anybody, either human or canine before but has had to lose its life due to a few hours with inexperienced humans. Terribly, shockingly sad story that will haunt me forever...
Lastly I was in a little country pub at lunchtime today catching up on some reading and I was appalled to overhear a dog owner recommend a citronella (spray) collar to someone with a nervous dog! I actually called over the owner of the dog (not with them at the time) and strongly advised them to ignore this advice as using a spray collar with an already nervous dog could push it into aggression...
It is absolutely ludicrous for unqualified pet owners without extensive canine behavioural knowledge to recommend the use of ANY aversive... Anything which promotes a negative emotional response in a dog should ONLY be recommended and used by a competent and qualified professional.
As I listened, mouth agape in disbelief to this naive and totally misinformed dog owner prescribe the use of a very strong aversive to a total stranger whose dog wasn't even with them, it made me think that people like this are the type to offer you some of their prescribed heart medication if you have a chesty cough saying 'it works for my sore chest - give it a go'... Equally as irresponsible and something you just wouldn't accept, but it's supposed to be okay for your dog?
Please think twice before accepting any well-meaning advice from a pet owner - it could just make your dog's problem immeasurably worse and you will be letting them down as surely as if you let them off the lead in the middle of a motorway, i.e. you will be playing russian roulette with their wellbeing...
