Rodger and Margot contacted me regarding Alfie, a labradoodle just over 1 year old and already in his 3rd home. Second chance readers will be familiar with Alfie as he’s been a regular presence on the site over the passed few months.
Alfie is a handsome chap with tons of drive and a personality that would charm the knicks off miss world. He was showing some petulant behaviour towards other dogs and had a “talent” for pulling his owners on the lead.
I arrived at the house to be assaulted by this big hairy lump. Alfie was not aggressive towards me. He was just exuberant and playful.
I introduced myself to the owners and spoke about domestic behavioural do’s and don’ts. I performed some clicker training with Alfie to get him to sit in his bed. Alfie was very enthusiastic and really enjoyed the clicker training.
Next step was to tackle the lead work. We walked Alfie to an area nearby and performed some loose lead work with him. Alfie soon got the hang of things and was happy to keep pace with me in return for some tasty liver cake.
I noticed that Rodger and Margot were speaking too much to Alfie.These vocal cues were not being interpreted correcty and Alfie's response was unreliable and inconsistent. I advised that they reduce the amount of verbal commands and concentrate on clicker work where Alfie can be encouraged to offer them behaviour.
My next visit was going to handle Alfie’s aggression towards other dogs. I had my son Louis and my young dog Lulu with me to act as decoys. We walked Alfie to an open area nearby and Louis brought Lulu into the frame. Alfie initially got very grumpy and snarly. I decided it was better to control his head so I placed a gentle leader on him. I find a gentle leader is great for calming dogs down and after the initial rebellious antics; most dogs walk really well and don’t mind them too much. As expected, Alfie tried to release himself from the halti by twisting and stopping but soon calmed down when he learned that there was no escape.
Next step was to get Margot to handle Alfie while I walked beside them with Lulu. As soon as Margot took charge of the lead, Alfie attempted to manoeuvre himself into a position where he could have a go at Lulu. I pointed this out to Margot and instructed her to take the strong position where he could be corrected if he moved out of position. Within seconds Alfie was walking perfectly with Margot. Rodger then took charge of the “controls” and I started to introduce some distractions like throwing a ball in front of him and getting Lulu to retrieve it. Within a few minutes Alfie was walking to heel with Rodger totally ignoring Lulu – job done.
Alfie has a similar temperament to my own dog Oscar. He has a hard edge and needs to kept interested. Like all these high drive dogs; Alfie is very intelligent. He is capable of assessing situations very quickly and working out where he sits in the large scheme of things. I’ve no doubt that Alfie’s previous demise can be attributed to his ingenuity and ability to work out who he needs to pay attention to and who he can ignore. These types of dogs need very consistent and deliberate handling.
I think Alfie has found his forever home now. My only concern is that Alfie’s owners will continue to let him dominate situations. This is never advisable for dogs with a strong will and inevitably leads to further misdemeanours and disobedience. Sometime I think dogs like Alfie adopt a "I will because I can" policy and if they are not set straight, they continue to rule the roost.
Alfie’s owners are not looking for a dog with robotic obedience. My objective was to help them get Alfie to a position where he can be walked without pulling their arms out their sockets or barking and snarling at other dogs. I’ve gave them the foundations and the tools to achieve this. Hopefully Alfie will continue to improve with the application of consistent handling and solid leadership.
Alfie is a handsome chap with tons of drive and a personality that would charm the knicks off miss world. He was showing some petulant behaviour towards other dogs and had a “talent” for pulling his owners on the lead.
I arrived at the house to be assaulted by this big hairy lump. Alfie was not aggressive towards me. He was just exuberant and playful.
I introduced myself to the owners and spoke about domestic behavioural do’s and don’ts. I performed some clicker training with Alfie to get him to sit in his bed. Alfie was very enthusiastic and really enjoyed the clicker training.
Next step was to tackle the lead work. We walked Alfie to an area nearby and performed some loose lead work with him. Alfie soon got the hang of things and was happy to keep pace with me in return for some tasty liver cake.
I noticed that Rodger and Margot were speaking too much to Alfie.These vocal cues were not being interpreted correcty and Alfie's response was unreliable and inconsistent. I advised that they reduce the amount of verbal commands and concentrate on clicker work where Alfie can be encouraged to offer them behaviour.
My next visit was going to handle Alfie’s aggression towards other dogs. I had my son Louis and my young dog Lulu with me to act as decoys. We walked Alfie to an open area nearby and Louis brought Lulu into the frame. Alfie initially got very grumpy and snarly. I decided it was better to control his head so I placed a gentle leader on him. I find a gentle leader is great for calming dogs down and after the initial rebellious antics; most dogs walk really well and don’t mind them too much. As expected, Alfie tried to release himself from the halti by twisting and stopping but soon calmed down when he learned that there was no escape.
Next step was to get Margot to handle Alfie while I walked beside them with Lulu. As soon as Margot took charge of the lead, Alfie attempted to manoeuvre himself into a position where he could have a go at Lulu. I pointed this out to Margot and instructed her to take the strong position where he could be corrected if he moved out of position. Within seconds Alfie was walking perfectly with Margot. Rodger then took charge of the “controls” and I started to introduce some distractions like throwing a ball in front of him and getting Lulu to retrieve it. Within a few minutes Alfie was walking to heel with Rodger totally ignoring Lulu – job done.
Alfie has a similar temperament to my own dog Oscar. He has a hard edge and needs to kept interested. Like all these high drive dogs; Alfie is very intelligent. He is capable of assessing situations very quickly and working out where he sits in the large scheme of things. I’ve no doubt that Alfie’s previous demise can be attributed to his ingenuity and ability to work out who he needs to pay attention to and who he can ignore. These types of dogs need very consistent and deliberate handling.
I think Alfie has found his forever home now. My only concern is that Alfie’s owners will continue to let him dominate situations. This is never advisable for dogs with a strong will and inevitably leads to further misdemeanours and disobedience. Sometime I think dogs like Alfie adopt a "I will because I can" policy and if they are not set straight, they continue to rule the roost.
Alfie’s owners are not looking for a dog with robotic obedience. My objective was to help them get Alfie to a position where he can be walked without pulling their arms out their sockets or barking and snarling at other dogs. I’ve gave them the foundations and the tools to achieve this. Hopefully Alfie will continue to improve with the application of consistent handling and solid leadership.
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