i had a call the other day from a very good friend of mine who was having trouble with her puppy being food aggressive. puppy is 13 weeks old border collie. most strange to be food aggressive at such a young age. anyway....after much chatting i suggested i took Tania down with me to meet the puppy, see the family in action so to speak and that between us we would come up with a management plan for the family to follow to try and rectify it.
WoW and WoW again - Tania was so tuned in to the dog from the outset it was a priveledge to watch and be part of. The couple who have bought the dog have two very young children so it was imperative for safety reasons to get this dog sorted asap. We spent in total 2 hrs with the family. Tania did most of the assessing and talking while i acted as assistant so to speak. She was so thorough and came out with loads of questions about the dog that i am not sure i would have thought of had i been there on my own. We came to the conclusion that as the puppy had been the last of the litter to get a home the chances were it had got used to fighting its brothers and sisters for food and had then had to fight its mum for food. We saw a video that the family had the good sense to take of the puppy growling, snapping, lunging and trying to bite the owner. it was full teeth, lips back, ears back kind of biting but with tail between the legs which confirmed the fear part of it we had suspected.
Tania was quick to point out the benefits of clicker training. Between us we made my friends husband be a puppy and perform for Tania without commands, just by reacting to the clicker and working out what she wanted him to do. He said afterwards the exercise had totally made him understand how the clicker got through to the puppy and he was up for anything after that. The pair of the owners were armed with clickers and cheese. Before too long the puppy would allow us all to touch her food bowl, she had a go at nipping Tania the once but that was because 4 of us were in a tiny kitchen and she got a bit intimidated.
i learned so much about how to communicate with people who have never had a dog before and i felt priveledged to watch at close quarters such a knowledgeable trainer in action. We left the family with a printed out plan of action and will be returning in a few days to check on their progress.
Great night out, great learning experience, great to be able to help my friends with my friend.