Services we offer at Pett - Behaviour.

Dog Maxim
Breed German Shepherd

Owners June and David

History June and David had brought Maxim from a reputable breeder at eight weeks old. They got him vaccinated and wormed and then immediately enrolled him in puppy classes. The classes were held in a field outdoors and they continued going week by week as Maxim grew up. This was all I knew about the family as when they first contacted me it was to enrol Maxim on one of my ‘doggy gyms’ (fun agility) classes. Behaviour Problem On the day of the ‘doggy gym’ June and David arrived with Maxim in the back of their car. As it was a class I was running there were other cars, people and dogs on the driveway. Whilst I was speaking with another client David opened the back of his car and Maxim shot out past him. Maxim was heading straight for a very mild mannered collie cross in an aggressive way. A colleague moved the collie cross whilst I took hold of Maxim.

At the one to one I discovered that the training club June and David had attended with Maxim since he was a puppy used a mixture of reward based methods of training and some old fashioned methods. The field contained a mixture of classes and it was not uncommon for adult dogs to break free from their own groups and charge into other groups, including the puppy class. On two occasions Maxim was attacked by adult dogs whilst he was in the puppy class. He then would not walk into the field and used to try to ‘pull back’ as June and David were trying to walk him in. They were advised by the trainer to drag him in. A behaviour consultation was arranged so we could gather all the relevant details and then weekly sessions arranged to work through the problems.

Action!
I explained to June and David at length that I diagnosed Maxim’s aggression as fear aggression. It seemed Maxim felt he just ‘had to get in there first’ when he saw another dog. We were therefore going to start to teach Maxim that some other dogs can be nice and fun to be with. We started in the office where we would have Maxim on a lead and I would take Xigi, my dog in. I had previously taught Xigi to just ignore any ‘shouting’ from other dogs. Maxim’s initial reaction was a lot of noise and lunging on the lead. After fitting him with a Gentle Leader head collar and rewarding him when he was quiet we soon lost that initial reaction. Once all was quiet when the two dogs were in the same room we moved to the field where we could just walk the two together on lead. It was after one session of walking the dogs together that we went back to my office to discuss the progress up to that point, Maxim was lying down quite relaxed and Xigi was lying down by my feet, all of a sudden Maxim put out a playful paw towards Xigi!!! There was not one dry eye in the room!
That was the breakthrough we were all waiting for; to get to that point we had been having weekly sessions and probably talked on the phone every day. From that day on progress was rapid. Maxim soon progressed to playing in the field off lead with Xigi. He started classes with us and also started attending another good dog training class in the area. The problems were explained to the trainer at the other training classes. This was an important step, I didn’t want Maxim just to feel safe enough to play with other dogs in my office or field. I cannot put in writing what was said when I suggested to June that we run Maxim in the field with my five month old puppy German Shepherd! There were a few choice words (I think she thought I was mad!) But run him with Mishka we did and boy they loved each other! All in all I had been working with June and David for nearly a year before I allowed him to run with Mishka, since then he has off lead play with many dogs including my latest rescue, Rubics.

June and David are now assistants at my training classes and offer help to any current behaviour clients. They know, as I do how hard it is when your dog displays problem behaviour and are only too happy to be there for other people and let other people know that we can work through these problems. My thanks goes to June and David for all their work with Maxim and the help they offer other people that are struggling with their pets and problem behaviour.