Katie's Story

Katie is one of our Obedience Instructors. She is very experienced and has been instructing for 10 years! Katie has always owned rescue dogs who were looking for a second, third or even forth home for various reasons.

We asked Katie if there was a dog who she had learnt the most from and she said yes, Bayley.

Here's Katie's story about owning Bayley. 

I don't remember not having a dog as we always had a family Cocker Spaniel and had had two show cockers before we got Poppy, a working cocker. Poppy got us into flyball and agility and then through my flyball contacts I was told about a working cocker that was looking for a new home. At this point I was still living with my parents so it wasn't the right time, but he was from the same place as Poppy so therefore I had a look at his pedigree and lo and behold he was a full brother to Poppy - clearly meant to be!

I went to meet Bayley and fell in love immediately and then got told about his behaviour issues. He had lived with the same family since a puppy and had been spoilt rotten and treated like a baby. But when the family had a baby the attention he was getting was dwindling so his behaviour escalated to get attention and included guarding items, refusing to come in from the garden, snarling, growling and if pushed he would bite. After biting the baby they had made an appointment at the vets for him to be PTS after an appointment with Bark Busters had not worked out well. 

Now I will admit that at the time I was a bit arrogant, I had always had dogs from puppies and had helped at classes for a while and thought that I could handle everything thrown at me, however Bayley proved me wrong - at least at first. He didn't conform to any rules my other dogs did and I remember about a week after we got him thinking what the hell have I done and thinking that I had made a huge mistake!  

Therefore after a couple of sleepless nights I stopped trying to apply people logic and started to think like a dog to get to the bottom of why he was doing those things. Fundamentally it all came down to attention and him trying to get attention in a way that had proven effective in the past. At first we had been giving him attention or talking to him and this was just escalating the behaviour. So instead we ignored him and as his behaviour was that bad at first, he got ignored for a large proportion of the time! After a few times of him parading round the house with my underwear in his mouth he gradually got the idea that none of these tricks work anymore. Gradually through rewarding the behaviours we liked we got the sweet Bayley that was hiding underneath the angry exterior! Sure he would still have the odd tantrum but over all we had a lovely dog that was a lot more relaxed.

Bayley was 5 when we got him and we owned him until he was found to have splenic cancer at the age of 11. As much as it was hard work and tough at times, he taught me more about dogs than any of the dogs I had had before or have had since!
I have so much to thank him for, he taught me about dogs body language, calming signals, warning signs and how rewarding it is to take a dog that has got mixed up and set them back on the right track.

Bayley & his sister Poppy