Client - My Dogs Fight Daily

Stats: 3 In-person Behavioural Sessions

I met Minnie after her adopter called me, desperately seeking advice on his dogs fighting at home. It seemed Minnie was the main culprit, and the fights were extreme, daily and causing injury to his other dogs.

He worked closely with a charity and had taken Minnie on after finding out she had already had 9 homes in her short lifetime - 3 of which she had in just ONE day.

The situation was becoming unfair on all three dogs, so he decided to do all he could for her to prepare her for the best possible chance at a more suitable home. He was really responsible and I have a huge amount of respect for what he did. To help prepare Minnie, he did a few amazing things for her:

• Had her spayed so she could never be used for breeding

• Contacted a charity that specifically rehome her breed of dog

• Called me at Raising My Rescue to make sure Minnie was confident, happy and prepared for her upcoming life change

• Raised money for the charity through his own business

I knew the stakes were high for this little dog, and I’ll be honest I was a bit nervous about this case - multi-dog households where aggression is present is notoriously difficult because of all the moving parts involved - you have to read the body language of all three dogs at once in a fast-moving situation.

During our first session, where I sat down with the client and talked everything through, the dogs had a fight right in front of me. I could see why this situation had to change and sadly why Minnie would need to be rehomed.

I gave some initial advice - three important but subtle changes in feeding and routines. We talked about the plan moving forward and the goals being to help Minnie feel happier on walks too as she was very dog reactive.

Three weeks later

I visited again for our second session. The impact from those initial changes we made was massive - the dogs went from DAILY fights to two fights in three weeks. All three dogs were so much happier from our first behavioural session.

We looked at next steps and took Minnie on a walk to evaluate her reactivity towards other dogs, and began learning some reactivity techniques. She made immediate progress. We also looked at how Minnie’s breeding affects the way she thinks, how she learns, and what drives or upsets her.

Our Third Session

In our third session, it was clear how much the bond had grown between my clients and Minnie. She was really engaged with them, and I could see how they smiled at her and she seemed to smile back - it was so lovely to watch.

We worked even harder on her reactivity. She did have a setback, when a dog was too close for comfort and surprised us all. This can happen - progress in dog training is never linear.

We practiced walking with all three dogs and Minnie did amazingly. The dogs hadn’t fought again since our last session and they were all so much happier.

I finally plucked up the courage to ask if Minnie was still going to be rehomed.

He said “no, she belongs with us”.