Labradoodles – from “wilfully deaf” to calm and happy !
I hadn’t realised just how energy sapping it was living with my two dogs...until it wasn’t !
I knew there were issues that I didn’t know how to fix and that my dogs were "highly strung". There seemed no point telling them off as it just sent them further into hysteria...like pouring more fuel onto a fire. But what was the alternative? Ignore the bad behaviour? That did not seem to be a viable alternative either. So I stumbled along reading a few dog training books along the way, trying to apply some of their methods but never seeming to get very far, and going along to obedience classes. My dogs complied with my requests but their attention was elsewhere, focussed on what was happening around us.
Max (3yo) and Ralph (22months) are father and son Labradoodles. The word I use to describe them is "exuberant"! Ralph had been the 'perfect puppy' until he was 6 months old. He had rarely been on a lead. He came quickly whenever called - even from within the midst of a group of playing dogs. That all changed. He started going where he wanted, becoming 'wilfully deaf', and demonstrating very dominant behaviour with younger dogs. We became restricted to a fully fenced oval for our daily walks. Unfortunately cars drove around this oval and my dogs learnt to chase them from inside the fence. Because they were 'safe' I relied on the fence to control them. They also showed other tell tale signs - separation anxiety, boundary running, barking at dogs we past in the car, demanding attention etc.
Ten weeks ago I came across a DVD of "The Dog Listener" TV series. As I watched it I started applying one of the techniques and within a few minutes had solved the problem of my dogs "talking to all the dogs in the TV". That was enough to convince me to look into the techniques further. I purchased two books by Jan Fennell, "The Dog Listener" and "The Practical Dog Listener" and began applying the program to the best of my ability. Immediate results! Calmer, happier dogs.
After a few weeks I realised that there were a few issues that I was not sure how to apply the method effectively and that I needed an 'objective eye' to assess what was happening with me and my dogs in order to iron out some of the remaining problems. I discovered that Joanna Meek was working as a Dog Listener in Victoria and contacted her. The afternoon she spent with us really helped to pin point the issues to tackle and she showed me how to approach them. I have remained in frequent phone contact over the subsequent weeks and have found her advice and encouragement invaluable. There were days when it all seemed too hard. I really needed Joanna's perspective and belief that if I just kept going I would see the improvements that I hoped for.
I know that I hoped it would be true that I would one day be able to walk together with my dogs both off lead, without me feeling panicky, but I admit that I'm not sure that I really believed that it would actually happen. The last few days have been wonderful. It is actually happening as I always hoped it would. I'm sure that we'll still have some up and down days but the 10 weeks now feel like a short time to apply myself to learning a new language to communicate with my dogs. All of us are far more relaxed and looking forward to where we will be in another 10 weeks. My sincere thanks to Jan Fennell for writing the books and making her techniques available and to Joanna for helping to interpret them for me and encouraging me to keep going.
Alison Brooker, Warragul, Victoria - July 2007