WHY WE SUCCEED WHERE OTHER TRAINERS FAIL
We believe in using dog psychology for dealing with unwanted dog behaviour and human psychology for dealing with unwanted human behaviour. A ‘wishy washy’ mix of the two (which worryingly is becoming more and more popular with trainers) may work on a laid back, low/medium energy dog but with a medium/high energy dog it can be, at best, frustrating and, at worst, dangerous, especially when dealing with nervous or dominant behaviour.
Like most things in life, prevention is better than cure. When a puppy is influenced by a balanced mother, it is conditioned to follow and comes to us as a balanced puppy, usually at eight weeks old.
We owe it to our puppy to continue the work of its mother by introducing clear structures and boundaries that are consistently applied to avoid confusion. Confusion creates anxiety and anxiety, in turn, creates behaviour issues for our puppy at a crucial development period of its life.
Worryingly, an ever growing number of our clientele have come to the end of their tether by the time they contact us. They have been subjected to a minefield of conflicting advice and spent time and money on puppy classes, dog trainers and training aids, only to find varying degrees of unwanted behaviour creeping into their daily lives, as their dogs reach adolescence. When they seek advice, they are often told their dogs are untrainable or just bad dogs. In our experience there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ dog. Training fads come and go but the basic needs of dogs will always remain the same and by using dog psychology to communicate with them, we are giving our dogs the opportunity to reach their natural potential.
The human/dog relationship can be a mutually beneficial one but often we humanise our dogs whilst unwittingly neglecting their basic needs as dogs first and human companions second, creating an imbalance. In Britain, a huge industry has developed around humanising our pets which, although designed to appeal to our empathetic side as humans, sadly can perpetuate problems for our pets. To reinforce the unique relationship we have with our dogs, the balance needs to be redressed by owners learning when to love and when to lead their dogs which is where our work begins.
