Rob Alleyne on Dog Food

Rob talks about the shocking way that pet food manufacturers mislead us...

Rob Alleyne on Puppy Socialisation & 'Celebrity' Dog Trainers!

Sticky Bunn has settled in so well that we feel he's been here forever! I am always telling people to be patient and take their time finding the right dog for them and their home and Sticky is proof that this works!

We have a very relaxed home and dogs are allowed anywhere they want to go as long as they are safe and they accept that must move if we need them to. Sticks if fine with this but to be honest he's so small he fits in anywhere!

His socialisation training is coming along fabulously; again he has just slotted into the work like he was born to do it. He's spent the first week being 'apprenticed' by Bailey (No, she didn't say 'You're Fired!) and today he took his first solo run with one of the Walk Clubs. I noticed to my delight that he stepped into Bailey's shoes as the confident policeman / group leader very successfully and also communicated with the other dogs very fluently.

Here's a pic of him at one of the clubs last week with new pals, Eric & Ridley



Check back soon for more updates!

Say Hello to... Sticky!

Sticky is the new addition to the DogPsyche UK Team! He is a rescued 18mth Labrador x Dachshund with a bit of collie somewhere in there too! He will be trained in the next few weeks / months to take on most of the behaviour assistance work so that Bailey can go into semi-retirement! Watch this space for updates on how he gets on.

New Assistant...

Exciting news! I have a new 'Assistant' joining me this weekend...

Bailey, my 8yr Great Dane, is getting a bit arthritic in her old age and needs to be semi-retired so I've been on a major search for a dog that can help take some of the workload from her of socialising other dogs (hard life... loads of walks a week, the best food money can buy, loads of play with friendly dogs... Tough eh?). The search has ended and I will be picking up my new 'Assistant' and member of our family this weekend...

Check back soon to meet him!

In Flanders Fields - by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Little Gemma!

Couldnt resist taking this pic today of little Gemma, a 10wk Standard Schnauzer puppy. Meeting little cuties like this is one of the best parts of my work!

So Sad....

I've been to quite a few Fun Day type dog shows lately as I've been socialising my foster pup, BluBelle and I've been so saddened and at times angered by the use of choke chains on dogs... Just when I think that dog owners are becoming enlightened and more sensitive to the feelings of their friends, I see a whole range of dogs being literally choked to breathlessness by their owners yanking their dogs by the throat, ignoring the fact that they are doing massive soft tissue and blood vessel damage...

Please, if you currently use a choke chain, do some research on the damage you are causing your dog who trusts you to provide their care and keep them safe.

I can provide research on the negative effects of choke chains... Its not too late to change the tool you use and there are brilliant alternatives available.

Think about your dog. Chuck away the chain....

Busy Times!

Again I have had problems logging into my blog so all I've been able to do lately is post photos! Apologies for this. I'll try and get you up to speed with things at DogPsyche UK.

Meet Ozzy... A spirited, sweet little baby Staffie that I visited the other week for a Puppy Consultation. He was super-intelligent and very quick to learn.

Puppy Consultations are the ideal way to get your and your puppy off to the right start in life, learning from day one how to successfully communicate with each other, how to get your puppy to listen to you, how to understand your puppy's needs and generally make sure that you get the best foundation for your relationship that will hopefully last the rest of your dog's life.

Ozzy's owner was very committed and experienced with the Staffordshire Bull Terrier's 'unique' character and I'm hoping that he'll be ready to join us at one of the Walk Clubs soon.

This little sweetheart is Berkley.

He was another puppy whose owner wanted to give the best start in life and had a Puppy Consultation with me.

At the time of this photo he was barely 9wks of age and had only been in his new home for a couple of days.

This was the perfect time for the Puppy Consultation because we could nip bad habits in the bud and form brand new good ones to take their place!

Other recent news is that I was a judge for 'Britain's Brightest Dog' at the recent 'All About Dogs' show at Brentwood, Essex a couple of weeks ago. Although crossbreeds, Collies and Terriers were well-represented, the unanimous decision of the panel of judges was that a Springer Spaniel by the name of Sullie performed all of the tests beautifully. A brace of Hungarian Viszlas were the 2nd and 3rd brightest dogs of the weekend, working out a series of tests of intelligence at an astounding level. Congratulations to all of them and their owners!

It was fascinating for me to see the wonderful relationship that can be formed between dog and owner when the owner puts in the time and effort not just to train their dog but to enjoy time with their dog in the form of games and other mentally stimulating tasks. All of the judges agreed that it was wonderful to witness...

There is more info on the competition here:

http://www.allaboutdogs.org.uk/page59.html

The Walk Clubs continue to go from strength to strength with big successes with some dogs who have previously been quite stressed around people and other dogs learning gently to accept their place in the group and relax. Tillie, a young female German Shepherd has made huge steps forward in learning to trust her owners and relax around other dogs to the point that she is intermingling in the group amongst the other dogs now very calmly. Wonderful job, Paula and family!

One of the breed types I specialise in is the Cane Corso and we recently had a rescue join one of our Walk Clubs called Herman. Poor Herman hasn't had the best start in life and had his ears cut off (illegally) to make him look tougher. Thankfully Herman is a gentle, loving soul who loves other dogs and humans, despite having every reason not to. He is responding beautifully to training and his owners know how lucky they are to have such a special dog...

My Gus

I was sitting with my dog Gus and if woke up with this expression on his face! I couldn't resist taking a pic!

Poor Little BluBelle

My little foster pup recovering after her major eye surgery. Still sore and raw but ravenously hungry so obviously feeling better!

Little Blu

This poor little soul is the latest foster pup to come under my wing...

BluBelle was found on the Yorkshire Moors, we suspect dumped by her breeder because she was very ill, suffering from severe secondary infections all over her body but mostly on her feet due to extremely bad demodectic mange caused by a poor immune system. She had not been well cared for by her breeder in the first place but to be dumped on the moors to die in winter...

As if that wasn't bad enough she is almost blind due to one of the worst cases of cherry eye I've ever seen in such a young pup (20wks).

I'm not only the behavioural consultant for Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare but a foster carer too so she has come down here to Kent where she will be given the right to fight for her life...

How long has it been since my last blog post?!

I can't believe it's been so long since I updated my blog! The last few months have absolutely flown by!

A brief recap:

October and November: things continued much as normal but I noticed that the work I was doing for Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare was starting to take more and more hours in the day, not just through admin but more dog transports, homechecks etc.

The Supervised Walk Clubs were starting to pick up slowly. I had been concerned that, being outdoors, owners would not be as keen to keep coming but having initial consultations helped me to determine whether the owners would be likely to participate enthusiastically or to recommend other forms of training and I found the owners to be wonderfully enthusiastic and dedicated to this unique type of training club!

December: I had to take in an emergency foster. Luca had been taken into kennels in early November but was suffering from extreme kennel stress and was within a day or two of having to be put to sleep to end his suffering. Even though I knew I had to go into hospital for an operation just before Christmas, I knew I had to give this boy one more chance so he came home with me. It wasn't easy and to be perfectly honest, my consultancy business suffered the effects in that I wasn't able to spend the time actively promoting it as I normally would, but I found that the Supervised Walk Clubs were thriving... Was this signalling the end of the indoor clubs?

January: The hard work paid off and Luca was rehomed at the end of January. Unfortunately with the lack of time to promote the indoor Puppy Clubs, they have had to cease but as one door closes, another door opens and this sequence of events has led me to believe that indoor dog training classes are not necessarily the best way to train dogs! The Supervised Walk Clubs are working better than the indoor clubs EVER did, with dogs who were previously suffering from dog proximity issues making unprecedented progress as part of a Supervised Walk Club!

That brings me to February, and I've got some photos for you of the Supervised Walk Clubs!

A December Walk: Toby, Jess, Alfie, Basil and of course my Bailey!

Bailey & Alfie enjoying scenting a tree stump.

A February walk meeting another pack also on a walk.

Bailey, Bramble, Magic & Alfie enjoying a wonderful game!

September 2007

September has been a frantic month!



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...

News!

As part of my duties for Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare I recently took a microchipping course and am pleased to pass on the news that I am now a qualified implanter. I will be offering this service to any dog that needs it for price of only £20.00, but the real joy about doing this is that EVERY PENNY of the proceeds will go towards Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare UK!

Your £20.00 will pay for the following:

• One of the best microchips available at the moment (Tracer)
• LIFE registration with Petlog, the UK's leading pet registration database
• A year's membership of The Missing Pets Bureau
• A nickel-plated metal engraved ID tag with space for owner contact details on the back
• And the most valued gift of all... A very special thank you from Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare UK because by microchipping your dog with us you have donated another microchip for a rescue dog!

If you are interested, please get in touch with me via the contact details on my website!

The consultancy is as busy as ever, with special congratulations to Peachy & Harvey, my two favourite Pomeranians who graduated from Youth Club last week - hopefully we'll be seeing them again at our exclusive monthly Walk Club for ex-Youth Club members!

I've consulted on a couple of cases of separation anxiety and a few on resource guarding amongst other more basic cases of handling and training.

Resource guarding is one of the most worrying behaviours a dog can display but one of the easiest to avoid. It always makes me so sad to see the breakdown of a relationship between a dog and its owners in this way when it really should be one of the most cherished relationships in our lives.

There is absolutely no need for conflict or confrontation between dog and owner if there is understanding and empathy and what I always hope to achieve by the end of my consultations is a breakthrough in both understanding and empathy, in both directions, between dog and owner.

The relationship, when balanced and functional, can be beautiful to be a part of - a true empathetic connection between a human and dog. It doesn't always include unconditional kindness and rarely involves sympathy, in fact these actions can be toxic to the relationship because animals do not understand them. It's all about emotional balance, confidence, predictability, stability and living minute to minute, side by side. That is what 'love' is for a dog...

Microchipping ALL Puppies and Kittens bred Petition

Microchipping ALL Puppies and Kittens bred Petition

Be one of the first to sign this petition to try and get ALL pups and kittens identifiable and traceable from 8wks of age.

Sad Times...

It's been a sad time for us in the Bunn house...

Our beautiful lady Greyhound, Buffy, died from osteosarcoma (bone cancer) last week. She had only been diagnosed 3 weeks earlier.

She was not just a member of my family but my friend and working partner too - she helped countless dogs to overcome their fears and anxieties with her gentle, quiet way.

As anybody that has loved and lost a dog will know, the pain is absolutely unbearable and it is no different this time. I still expect to see her everywhere, hear her tags chink on her collar, hear her shuffling about or calling for me. It's a horrible time and no matter how much you fill your life with 'stuff' to pad out the time, that feeling of emptiness and loss hangs around like a dark mist waiting to envelop you.

Buffy was the most beautiful dog I have ever known, elegant and delicate with the most perfect brindle markings I've ever seen on a dog. She was as graceful as a swan in repose and in flight and I will miss her always...

Goodbye Little Buffy... Wait for me...
http://www.freewebs.com/buffythegreyhound

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.