Leanne is a good dog trainer but she is not a magician. Until they invent a pill that turns your dog into Lassie overnight, there will always be parts of your dog’s training programme that will require you to change the way you live with your dog
Whilst there are many different techniques for dealing with each challenge, one thing remains constant, you must prevent your dog from rehearsing any unwanted behaviour. 100% of the time. No excuses. This is the vital first step and cannot be omitted. We will also teach your dog an alternative behaviour but in some cases this management will be for the life of your dog.
To give some examples:
| The challenge | Management |
| Your puppy/dog runs up to people in the park and jumps all over them. | Your dog must always be on a lead or a long line when out in public until the recall is perfect. |
| Your puppy/dog jumps all over visitors at the door. | Your dog must be put in a crate, another room or kept on lead until it has been trained to behave calmly when visitors arrive. |
| Your puppy/dog barks at passers-by when in the garden. | Your dog never has unsupervised access to the garden. If possible, your dog is not allowed access to any part of the garden where it can see passers-by. |
| Your puppy/dog barks at passers-by, cats, birds etc out of the window. | Your dog must not be allowed access to windows where it can see these stimuli. |
| Your puppy/dog acts like a lunatic in the car, barking and ‘chasing’ other vehicles. | Your dog must not be able to see out of the car, either by covering the crate or securing the dog below window height. |
| Your puppy/dog growls when you try to remove it from your bed. | Your dog does not have access to your bedroom. Shut doors at all times. |
| There are fights over food or toys in your multi-dog household. | You must either separate your dogs or remove any resources that cause conflict and keep them under your control. |
| Your puppy/dog wanders off your inadequately fenced property. | Fence your entire property or provide a smaller fenced enclosure for your dog. Remember to shut all gates. |
| Your puppy/dog steals valuable or dangerous items or your children’s toys and chews them. | Keep these items out of your dog’s reach. |
| Your puppy/dog gets over-excited and nips the children when they are playing. | Supervise all interactions between dogs and children and ensure both parties are calm. Separate dogs and children when either of them need their mad half hour. |
All dog training involves changing the way in which you interact with your dog. Most of these changes are fairly straight forward as illustrated above but they do require you to be consistent with your dog. If you want your dog’s behaviour to change, your behaviour will have to change too. Leanne can give you direction and help to give you all the information that you need but 90% of the training will happen with you training your dog at home. If you don’t work with your dog between lessons your dog’s behaviour is unlikely to change