Some of the dogs we have helped:

We noticed our GSP Bea was suspicious of people from when she was a only a puppy. As she grew up she started confronting strangers with a deep scary bark. Her behaviour caused me concern, and I had to stop taking her places. After some 121 sessions we realised that she was fearful and we were taught how to read her body language. When she saw an unfamiliar person in the distance, Bea would hesitate and stare - this was our cue to stop and not let the distance lessen. We kept hearing "distance is your friend!" and it really helped. Sometimes this would mean walking away a bit, and then letting her look again. We played the Engage-Disengage game a lot and we understood that if she could eat treats she was ok (under threshhold), but if she couldn't eat then we needed to make the distance greater. She gradually started associating strangers with a tasty treat and while she was snuffling about to retrieve the treat, she seemed less stary and tense. There is still more to do, she definitely wouldn't be comfortable if a stranger tried to stroke her. She currently wears a harness saying "Nervous Dog" which helps me intercept people who are coming into her space.

After rescuing a lovely one year old collie-type dog and taking her to training sessions, it felt as though her behaviour actually became worse. Her barking when in the garden started to happen more frequently, and then the first bite occurred. Having called and called her in from the garden with no response, Jennie reached down to gently pull her in by her collar. Unfortunately Lilly bit Jennie’s arm and drew blood. The owners realised that this was a case of redirected “aggression”. But these episodes of growling or snapping at her owners became more frequent, typically when tried to get her in from the garden. Also they also got growled at, and bitten when they tried to brush her fur, or dry her feet when she came in from a muddy walk. She also resource guarded her food bowl or if she had a special chew.

Jennie and partner Ben admitted that they sometimes got cross with her and shouted in exasperation, not wanting to let her “win”, and she did look nervous in these situations, but her behaviour didn’t change.

When she reached about four years old, another issue developed. She started to become growly in the evening at about 8.30pm. If she was lying in the living room with her owners, she’d sometimes wake up and stare at them and growl. It seemed as if they approached her then, she would bite them

Jennie and Ben increased their training sessions to try to teach her to recall in from the garden, paired brushing her fur, or handling her feet with treats but the growling continued. Lilly had a great recall in the park, but if she became agitated (like in the garden) she wouldn’t respond. Lilly was relaxed and friendly with her dog walker and her owners’ friends and family. They had never witnessed any defensive or aggressive behaviour.

The Friendly Creatures behaviourist assessed the situation and asked for a vet check in the first instance: Lilly was given the all clear for any health issues. She was a case of a much-loved healthy dog with experienced owners where training the usual behaviours hadn’t helped her to trust and respond to her owners. Lilly still couldn’t be brushed or handled, was growly after 8.30pm, wouldn’t come in from the garden without a fight, and resource guarded certain food items.

It was decided that the first priority was to regain trust. It was necessary to consider all of Lilly’s triggers and manage the environment so that conflict situations could not occur. The garden was out of bounds, she was fed in a different room from them, slept in a different room from them in the evening and she was not to be handled by her owners. If she came to them for head strokes, that was fine. Her owners were taught to read her body language so that they could ensure she was relaxed and confident in their company. If she had muddy feet, they got her to walk over a towel on the floor rather than attempting to handle her feed. After a few days of avoiding conflict Jennie and Ben realised that they had inadvertently been “trying to win” at the expense of their bond with Lilly and going forward there were no more growls or snaps. The behaviourist introduced some calming foraging and scentwork games to be done on a long line in the garden and once the game was over, there was no issue about coming back in the house. With regard to grooming, it was discovered that the professional positive reinforcement groomer was able to brush Lilly without any resistance, so Jennie and Ben deferred “handling” training for the time being. Sometimes the bond comes before the training.

Our adolescent rescue Shiba Inu dog Terri started growling at us when we tried to retrieve bits of tissue paper from her mouth. She even bit my partner once. Thankfully we sought 121 help and got some strategies to be going on with. The number one tip we learned was "avoid conflict" - we had been trying to correct her and teach her to Drop, not realising that when she was holding something she perceived as "treasure", she was stressed. She had become more and more defensive without us realising. The trainer explained what resource guarding was, or "possession aggression". We learned to read her body language - she was a relaxed happy dog 99% of the time, but when she had tissue she slunk away to a corner and looked at us out of the corner of her eye. We started to become much tidier so Terri never had access to the bins or any place she could find a piece of tissue paper. We played the "Drop" game but gave it a new cue "give" (as Drop had a negative association). Everytime we said "Give" we dropped some little pieces of dried venison (these were labelled high value treats) on the floor for her to go and find and eat. We gradually progressed to saying "give" when she was holding a toy (that she was not that bothered about) and continuing to sprinkle treats down. We started to see that Terri enjoyed this game and opened her mouth willingly to let go of things. We then tested it with scrunched up scrap paper, that she liked a lot more (but not as much as tissue) and she still gave it up to go and find the treats.

We have been told that if she does find some tissue in the meantime and adopts the slinking off, grumpy pose we are to ignore her, or if it's nearly walk time, go to the door and pick up the lead (she then changes back to happy and drops the tissue to come for a walk). In time, she will probably give up the tissue for venison, but we are taking it slowly. We don't want to undo all the good results we have had so far...... watch this space!

Dee Dee is a rescue dog who came to live with us when he was 6 years old. He was very generally very anxious but gradually became very settled and playful in his new loving home. The only area which caused him distress was when he thought we might be going out the front door. We tried a couple of times in the early days, but he barked and whined continuously. So we decided to never leave him alone until we had sought out some help. We started the online separation anxiety package and had numerous short zoom consultations and practice sessions over the course of a year. The process has taken longer than expected (we had health issues and other difficulties that halted progress for a while), but we are very happy that Dee Dee no longer shows any concern when we are out the front door. We have been doing “systematic desensitization” to alone time, and he is unphased by being left for five minutes or so. Our trainer said we are ready to extend the time now and should be able to actually go out. We are happy to take our time. Luckily for us, we work from home and don’t have any pressure to both be out at once.

We have the most beautiful lively clever australian shepherd called Elka. Ever since Elka was a puppy, she has been very nippy and bitey towards one of her owners (not so much to the other). She is now 23 months old and the behaviour seems to have got worse. At certain times of the day, she starts tugging on clothes and biting arms which really hurts. These episodes happen mostly after a walk, and in the early evening when we need her to rest and let us get on with work or food preparation. We have tried playing tug with her, or ignoring her, but she just bites harder. We have tried being firm with her, making a growling noise or saying Stop It, to no avail.

Luckily this has all resolved since we had a couple of 121 sessions with Friendly Creatures trainers: we found out that Elka is over-tired, conflicted and frustrated when she is mouthing - she can sense our tension (and anger) but is inadvertently rewarded with lots of attention so continues. Now we have taught her what is known as a “mutually exclusive behaviour” which is to have a chew/stuffed kong/antler in her pen when it is anticipated that she will get mouthy. She settles really quickly and often ends up having a nap once she is in her pen. We recognize that coming in from a walk and early evenings are times when she actually needs rest.