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Lyra |
It is thanks to Dylan my five year old Weimeranna that I became an animal behaviourist. If I had known what I know now, I would have realised that we had chosen the alpha pup of the litter! Dylan was a very dominant male. His first two years with us were to say the least difficult. He had his good points, never jumped up, never chewed or destroyed things in the house and was house trained very quickly. The problems arose if we had visitors. Dylan would intimidate whoever came to the house. Getting in through the door was difficult, once inside he was ok as long as said visitors didn't move to quickly or go to the bathroom unattended!! Taking Dylan out for a walk was very stressful. He would never approach other dogs but if they approached him and didn't immediately become submissive he would spin them and stand on top of them. We got to the stage that we dreaded visitors arriving
and walking was far from enjoyable. I decided something had to be done
and took Dylan to school. Dylan was a quick learner and very quickly completed
both his bronze and silver kennel club good citizen award.
The problem was his behaviour with visitors and other dogs had not changed.
I decided to take a course with the College of Pet Animal Studies. Through
my studying and reading I learnt how to speak dog and realised Dylan was
only behaving this way because of where he saw his position in our pack.
To cut a long story short our pack order was re-established and Dylan
is now a very well behaved boy. We no longer dread visitors arriving and
walks are relaxed and enjoyable. I love what I do. I still find it very hard to
believe that I get paid for doing something I am so passionate about.
My Ideal Puppy is developing a great team of people including my husband
Gary, my daughter Amy, my nephew Barry as well as Katie, Dani and of course
the indispensable Michelle, whom I love like a daughter.
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