We are the proud owners of Diesel,
he’s a 3yr old black & tan GSD. He was not an intended addition
to our family but came to us at 4.5months old as his owner couldn’t give
him the life he deserved and we felt we could. He wasn’t house-trained,
he had separation anxiety and had no idea how to walk on the lead, so we
knew we had to seek help with these issues before they got out of control
and he got too big. Dan took him to see Mic Martin, who runs Hertfordshire
Dog Training School, when he was 5 months old. Mic discussed absolutely
every last detail with him, including his diet, his toy, his behavior whilst
in the house & pack mentality.
Within minutes of Mic handling Diesel he walked to heel & watching
it was amazing to see. He told us to change his diet as soon as we
could wean him off; he was eating Bakers and was very hyper. We changed
his diet and within weeks he was so much calmer, no more jumping from sofa
to sofa in his mad half hour!! (He now eats Arden Grange). We were
told to remove all soft and squeaky toys and to never let him play with
these as it teaches them to enjoy playing & biting with soft things and
the last thing you want is your dog to bite a child or another dog because
of this; to this day Diesel has never had a soft squeaky toy. Mic gave
us invaluable tips on housetraining and within 2 weeks Diesel was fully housetrained
and has never messed in the house. I can’t begin to tell you just how
excited we both were when we came home to no mess in the house and he went
outside as soon as he was taken out!! He taught us how to walk Diesel
to heel, without being dragged and looking like an idiot with an out of control
dog which is still practiced every day on every walk.
The major issue for us was his separation anxiety. I can’t tell you
how distressing it is to hear your new puppy throwing himself at the door
and crying/whining whenever you left him….I quite often drove to work in
tears. Mic told us that we had to stop, with immediate effect, giving
him affection when we came in and when we left him and only acknowledge him
once all humans in the house had been greeted and he was calm. This
was hard at first because your instinct is to greet the young pup when he
jumps up at you, but we had to learn to push him down and ignore him – it
was the best thing we ever did!! He now never rushes to jump up when
we come home and in fact waits patiently to be greeted and doesn’t bat an
eyelid at you leaving…..he now likes to have some down time on his own in
another room from us – what a triumph!!
Mic also taught us about pack mentality and how a dog thinks and sees things.
Diesel is never allowed food from our plates, all food for him has to be
placed in his bowl or treats he eats in his bed. We learnt that in
order for Diesel to be calm and well mannered he has to work for things and
that can be just a simple sit command before he eats. He must never
eat before us. Diesel must always be reminded that he is not the leader
of our pack, he is in fact the bottom of our pack and he’s a much happier
dog because of this. Diesel is also groomed by one of us, which not
only reinforces us as pack leaders but he loves it and we now only have to
take his brush out and he’ll run to the window ready to be brushed.
We were signed up for Mic’s 6 week course but unfortunately Diesel was
diagnosed with Panosteitis, which is an inflammation of the bones, at 6
months so he had to have very restricted exercise of 20 minutes a day until
he was 14 months old. This meant we were unable to start this course,
much to our disappointment. We therefore continued everything Mic taught
us at home by ourselves and still to this day Diesel is put through his paces.
I can’t stress enough to other dog owners just how important early training
and socialisation is for any dog large or small. We also find trips
to different parks & woods etc help stop him getting bored. We
quite regularly drive down to the New Forest or the coast so he can play
in the sea – which he absolutely loves. It’s great watching him run
on the beach and make new friends. People regularly comment on how
well-behaved & calm he is. This is through a lot of hard work,
constant stimulation & affection but it’s so worth it. These are
invaluable lessons we learnt from Mic, which we will always be grateful for.
Thank you to Lynn and Dan Frankham for this article.
