Whatever Your Circumstances, Keep Training Your Dog

I have trained with Sascha in the past and she had a short stay in my residential kennels. She was owned by a couple and during this time, the husband was very unwell and wanted the dog with him. His wife knew that Sascha needed training but allowed the dog to be overloved. Sadly, he passed away and his wife then used Sascha as a comfort, further indulging the dog.

As a result, Sascha became very defiant. The owner loves to visit the Lake District and has many happy memories there but fear of how the dog would behave was robbing her of this time. We agreed to work together to get the dog back on track.

At a lesson a few weeks ago, Sascha began to run around uncontrollably. I said to the owner that we needed to get her back because she was about to run off. However, she was adamant that Sascha would never do that. One and half hours later, I got a call from a neighbouring farmer saying they had the dog. While my training grounds are rural and a good distance from any busy roads, losing a dog is always a risky business. She was lucky to have ended up with someone who would work out where she had come from.

A New Training Plan

Since then, the owner has agreed to change track with the training. In just under a month, she now has a dog that will walk to heel off lead and respond to a stop whistle. In today’s training, she flushed a hare and while this startled her and she initially gave chase, I was able to quickly get her to stop and recall.

The owner is delighted with this turnaround in her dog. Life throws all kinds of things at you but keep training your dog – don’t let it slide. Use it as a positive outlet so that your dog can bring you joy, even when you are grieving.

Posted: November 2, 2020