This Reactive German Shepherd Put His Owner In Hospital (Extreme Case Study)

If you've got a reactive dog, the hard bit usually isn't that they can't sit down or even be calm inside the house. Most of them can. The hard bit is what happens when real life turns up. A dog around the corner, somebody at the front door, a bloke saying, he's friendly, while he marches straight at you with a Labrador. You stop having people round. You spend every single walk scanning the street like you're border patrol. That doesn't mean you've got a bad dog or that you've failed them. Usually it means they don't know what to do when they feel wound up or unsure. So they go back to the one thing that has worked before. Make a lot of noise, create space, survive the moment. This is about giving the dog a better answer and giving the owner their real life back. This is Joey, a German Shepherd, and before we get into the training, you need to understand exactly what you're working with. Joey's bitten his owner before. He's redirected his frustrations and his problems towards her. Badly enough to cause serious injury. On top of that, his reactions to both other dogs and unfamiliar people are big, full explosive reactions that are genuinely difficult to manage. Because of that, his owner can't have people over anymore. She's even called him the cockblock. No visitors, no family popping around, nothing that risks setting him off. Her world's been getting smaller and smaller around him. She's not just dealing with an awkward dog, she's dealing with the fear that comes from actually having been hurt by her own dog. and the guilt and confusion that comes along with that. She still loves him, but the life that they had has shrunk down to what they can tolerate. The goal for this week is simple to say and hard to do. A normal walk and a home she can invite people into again without the fear that Joey might do something silly. Over the next 5 days, our trainers are gonna work hands-on to understand exactly why Joey's doing this stuff and exactly how to rebuild that trust for both of them.

So tell me about Joey. Tell me his age, his background.

He's 3 years old. I've always wanted a German Shepherd. I've had one before, but he was 7 months old when I first got him. He was in a house full of 6 other German Shepherds and another puppy. So his name was Fuggly when I first got him. He'd never been on a lead. He'd like never been in a car before. So when I first put him on the lead, he was— that's why I called him Joey, because he was just bouncing like mad. So now we've got him to a nice stage where you wouldn't believe it, he does actually walk really nicely on the side and that. So he's great, the obedience is there, he's good with recall and that. It's just if there's someone else there or if someone comes into the house—

What does he do?

If someone comes into the house and we haven't prepared him, as in like walked in with him, he will find you and sort of nip and then come back and then nip again if you haven't left. So now we have to start putting I say we, me. I have to put him into the crate and that, so I'm not getting any friends.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, quite lonely.

Yeah, of course. Talk me through the situation that happened where he put you in hospital.

So it was about 2, 3 weeks ago. I'd literally just left my house and I'd gone around the corner and there was another German Shepherd, which I think was also reactive because she started on barking at him.

Okay.

So then I got Joey into such a good space And then he wasn't having it, so I pulled up on the prong collar and he's just gone, yeah, nah, and gone for my leg. And it's the first time he's not nipped, but he's shook his head as well. And I was like, it's either I need to do something about it or he's gonna have to get put down because this is too dangerous now, really.

Yeah, absolutely.

So yeah, here I am.

What have you already tried then? So you've used a prong collar before? I have, yes. What have you already tried training-wise?

I've had 2 trainers which have told me to Do the whole tap, like sort of you let him go forward and then come back sort of thing, and he's reacted really well to it. But now I think, is it the poison that you call it or something like that? Yeah, I think now I'm a bit too scared to use a prong because in my head I'm like, he's going to turn at any moment.

Of course. Has there been a moment where you thought, I can't do this with Joey, I just can't keep going?

Every day, yeah. Yeah, yeah. When you get to the point where you get home from work, there's just, I don't want to go out walking with him anymore, like I just do everything at home, but I don't want to do that. It's not nice, is it? He doesn't know, does he? Yeah, it's not his problem, it's mine, unfortunately.

And how are you feeling about being here around all these dogs and at the end of the week being off lead with all these dogs?

Oh, do you know what? I've seen the pub video about 100 times and I'm like, if I can get that. I've been calling it Joey's update to 2.0, so Joey 2.0. So I'm actually really excited to learn new things as well. Like, I'm always interested in To see how other people do the training.

What's the dream outcome for Joey?

To just not be a knob.

Nice.

Just have people over for like a party and know that he's gonna actually enjoy having people over.

Yeah,

and me as well.

So it's Monday of the boot camp, we've not really started yet. How are you feeling about Friday being that, that dream goal?

It's still mad in my head to think that he's gonna go get to that point. Like, I think you get so used to how he is

that

you don't see the other side of the tunnel. I've seen snippets of it when he's really good, and then sometimes it's like, now you've turned back around, you numpty. Yeah, the light's that way.

When we saw Joey come out for the assessment, you got the sense that he was an unsure dog in general. I don't like using the word fearful particularly, but he was definitely unsure, one, of the environment, and even of the people surrounding him. It's not just a dog thing, he's also unsure about people. He actually dealt with the people in the proximity pretty well,

But then as soon as the dog came out, he lost his mind. Equally, it was very much like a forward-backward movement. So what we mean by that is like, okay, it's not full-blown violence. It's literally the dog is trying to make himself look big and scary so that he creates distance from the thing that he has a problem with, which in this case was the dogs. Predominantly, the issue that he's got is he's not a confident guy. He sees things, he's very unsure about them, and he's He's picked a certain way of dealing with those things that he's had a lot of success out of. Obviously, he's a German Shepherd. He's going to enjoy the barking and the song and dance, and it works for him. So he's going to pick that as his predominant option. Obviously, the problem with a decent-sized dog like Joey is he's quite a lot to manage in situations. He's also quite an unusual-looking German Shepherd, and he's going to attract a lot of attention. So when people come over to say hello, he's obviously telling them he doesn't want to do that, and that's reinforcing that behavior too. The problem for Chelsea then is that She can't have people around to the house because he's not social with people. She can't walk him down the street because he's shouting at dogs, and all it's doing is closing down the world. It's getting in the way because every time he reacts, she understands that it's reinforcing his behavior, so she's trying to mitigate that, but she's literally got nowhere to go anymore. A couple of the biggest needle movers that we foresee being for Joey would certainly be a resocialization process. So it may well be that we have to stop this behavior, which Fine. At some point, if we have to say that he can't react to people and dogs anymore, okay, no problem. But if we don't crack the resocialization process so that he also becomes more comfortable with those two things, all we'll be doing is putting out the embers of a fire that could then just ignite when he goes home. So some meaningful markers of proof for us would be to be able to get him off lead around dogs, even if he has to wear a muzzle. She's muzzle trained him already. That'd be really cool. And him being accepting in close proximity with people. Making sure he can feel affiliated to those people will be really key and a really nice thing to see by the end of the week.

How old is he?

3.

How long you had him?

About 2 and a bit years.

Yeah. Was he a rehome or rescue or puppy?

Rehome, yeah. Rehome. He was 7 months when I got him.

Yeah.

And yeah, he was in with 6 other German Shepherds. He'd never been on a lead, never done anything. He's getting new.

What we will do, as long as he's not going to get upset with those lot kicking off at him, we'll use this space here to play the redirect game you've just seen people play inside.

Yeah.

And then we'll take a lap of the field and we'll do his recall.

Okay.

Just clip his short lead onto his slip collar. Good. And I just want you to give him his marker, walk away, and peck.

Yes.

Good. If he hesitates or delays at all, just tap your leash. Anytime that he looks at Lucas or I as well, Yes, pay. Do it now.

Yes.

Good, cool. Bring him down towards us. Good. Walk away. Yes, pay.

Yes.

Nice. Good.

Yes.

Lovely. Really good timing. Good. Let him stare at Lucas or I for a little bit longer. Whoa, next time he does that— good. Cool. So you almost like your arm extends a little bit as you walk away from him.

Okay.

I want you to be able to use your leash to be like, no, you have to come here.

Okay, cool,

cool. Walk towards me. Stay within leash distance. Keep going, keep going, keep going. No, towards

me. Towards you.

Towards me. Good. Yes,

yes.

Go, go, go, go. Keep going, keep going. No, no, it's okay. Good.

Am I paying?

It's all right, relax. Pay him now, she made you, you said yes. Walk down towards me and stop level with like where the post is, just further than Lucas. You're okay, relax. What's the matter?

Panicking.

Say

yes.

Good. Walk down towards me. Why are you panicking?

For your safety.

For my safety? You had him, you are my safety. Now.

Yes.

Good. So every so often you are going to recall, you are going to say yes, and you are going to pay him exactly how you saw inside. I am always going to stand more than 8 metres away. That retractable is 8 metres.

Go.

Fine, nice, good. Keep on walking forwards. So if he runs at me, don't shit your pants.

Okay, well, you shit your pants, not me.

Me? Yeah, maybe. Come. Don't forget your yes before you give him his pen. That's okay, keep on walking. Good. Let him have a wander. Okay. Good. Walk backwards and say come.

Come. Yes.

Good.

There, is that right? Yeah, that's fine.

You can even walk backwards slower as well, don't need to run. Start to walk backwards and say come.

Come. Yes.

Good, cool. So I want your yes before your hand goes in your pouch, otherwise good.

Okay.

Nice, good. Say come.

Come. Yes.

Nice.

Sorry, I put my hand right in your mouth.

Good, give him his OK again. OK. Just walk backwards slowly and say come.

Come. Yes.

Good. Yeah, I will follow you back to your car. We will go this way. I'll hand you the remote to your car once he's back in.

Okay.

Because I think if I throw it at you, he's going to kick off.

Yeah.

How long has he been like this?

2 years.

2 years. Has he ever actually bitten anyone other than you?

Yeah.

Has he?

Yeah.

Who's he bit?

Um, my friend who got in the way because he thought there was a bloke in the house, so he got straight to him. Her. Yeah. A massive cock block.

I'm so glad that's on camera. Amazing.

So

we're just gonna

have a little quick chat about why we use punishment. Punishment is a really taboo and scary word in dog training and in life these days, but realistically all it means is to diminish the chances of that behaviour happening or the intensity of that behaviour. We could rely sometimes on extinction for behaviors to disappear, but sometimes from a safety perspective, and even from the perspective of that may not actually even happen in a realistic time frame, punishment's actually really quite useful. So with Joey, this is a kind of a special case as well because the setup is very different to what we might do normally. With Joey, obviously you can see that he's got two leads on. It's to stop Joey redirecting on his mum. Redirecting basically means the frustration that he's got. But when he's directing his intensity of behavior towards something else, he's turning around and he's biting mum. That's not safe. It's also not acceptable. So the second lead is there just on his flat collar, purely for a safety thing. It does add a nice element of we can create more distance from him. So when he does the behavior, he also wants to suck into mum like, "Hey, I know you weren't too happy with me, but can I throw you all this appeasement stuff?" What it allows us to do is get away from him a little bit, create distance, and really convey the fact that we're disappointed. In him when he does these behaviors. The other thing we're trying to do is leverage relationship as much as possible. A lot of people think the tools themselves are the punishment. That's really outdated info. We may use tools to help us reorientate the dog to what it does. We may use a tool to help the process of the punishment. But really, the main juice lies in leveraging relationship. There is an upper echelon of how much pressure is even effective with a dog, how much pressure is ethical to use on a dog. And with some dogs, they're fairly immune to actual physical attrition and pressure. So we really have to leverage this, the social relationship with the owner as much as possible, pull on some heartstrings, because there's no kind of limit to how much we can leverage that. Pay the man.

Yes.

See that bit at the end, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

So we've said you can't fucking kick off with the dog,

but you can check.

And then he shows a different option. And then, then he showed curiosity. So what that probably tells us is he's not like a lost cause in terms of becoming more social, right?

Okay.

He's not thinking, fuck, I need to murder this twat.

Yes.

He's just really unsure.

Bad. Bad. No. Bad. We're not playing that game. That's not very nice, is it?

But I want you to walk with the lead round that way so you can turn him round that way.

This way.

Keep facing him. So if that happens again, I want you to take your lead, and then you're gonna go like this way so that he has to turn that way. Does that make sense?

Away from— all right, okay.

Yeah, because all he did was keep going like, yeah, you're saying bad, but I'm looking at this motherfucker, right? Yeah, so it probably didn't compute. Give him some money. If you really don't want it, just give him a really good fuss. Because he almost took that under duress. I think you waterboarded him with kibble. Just do like one more pass with— just one more pass with Nix in, and we'll just take him out. What do you think, Nix Tricks?

Yes! Yay! Yes! Oh, now you're looking

Good. Now don't pay him for a bit, otherwise we risk blinkering him. Let him do all that shit, because if he's doing that, he's not bothered about them or me.

It's like a reward, isn't it?

So that's his reward, right? You get to engage with the environment a bit. And then if he pulls on the slip lead, just keep him off the end of it. It's just his revs going a bit higher. It's okay.

He's normally really, really good on a lead, not like this.

Yeah, I know, but is he normally around this many dogs?

No.

Yeah, it's like the only feedback I've got— your timing's really good, like really good. Like the only feedback would be, okay, well, just don't meet fire with fire.

Yeah, I know. Yeah.

Which is really difficult because you've got a bit of PTSD.

I'm quite like that at work though. I'm quite a gobshite at work. You don't do what I want, then I'll have a go at

you. Yeah, fair enough. We're gonna go all the way to the gate and then just a slightly bigger lap than everyone else because I want him to just in between, right? I hate saying it, but his like reactivity genuinely is like a fear thing, right? A lot of people assume it's fear. This is like, he's genuinely fucking unsure about stuff.

Yeah, I could see that in him, to be fair, especially when he, um, there's a person there. You could tell he wants them to get away, and then he goes behind me. Yeah, yeah, if they don't go away, he's back again.

Of course, stick to that fence line. Yeah, you peepee like a girl.

Yeah, it's embarrassing, isn't it?

Not so much for me, I'm okay with you. I'm gonna sit down wee.

Little boy wee.

Scooch around that fence there. And one of the worst things you could do would be to let him out when he's in that mindset,

right?

Okay, because he'll be like, oh, I can pull you out.

Yeah,

and I'll try that next time, I'll do that next time.

So he'll go through me before he gets the dog? That's what happened before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if he does that I press this, you just go to the end of your lead. Same as what we were doing with the back tie in there, right?

It's just trust. It's full trust that I need to do this.

I know, yeah. I once, um, when we opened the Perth site, I had to do this when Jacob had a really big mastiff breed. It's like, like, this job is like the worst ever because you're responsible for someone else, right? I'd rather be on that end and we're just like, well, it's fucking my problem, innit?

I always said like vet bills are more expensive than the NHS, so I'd rather them go through me than the

dog. Fair enough, yeah, fair enough. From this point, if he shows curiosity—

Leave it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Because the problem is if he goes, oh, if I do this, it'll, it'll recognize the pattern, and we might actually stop him being curious, which obviously for him we don't want to do.

Right.

Because at some point you're going to be sniffing the dog's butt, aren't you?

That's it.

Yeah, it's okay because it's just curious, right? You just look. Obviously, particularly because he's got the history redirection part, we'll still be super careful with management. But the only thing you do with this is after you've said bad, tap the black S button twice. So you know like how everyone else was tap tap on the lead?

Yeah.

You're just tap tap.

Okay.

That's the only difference.

One thing people get wrong with energetic dogs is thinking more exercise solves everything. You can march a German Shepherd for miles, bring him home knackered, and still have a dog whose head is buzzing. That's not because he needs another lap of the block. He needs a proper outlet and a proper job that involves his brain. And with Joey, that matters even more. Here's a dog who gets wound up, gets unsure, Then puts all that energy into the environment. Dogs, people, movement, whatever happens to be in front of him. Play gives him somewhere appropriate to put all of that intensity. He can chase, tug, grab, hold, be noisy, be a little bit mad, then learn that he can come back down, listen, and re-engage with Chelsea. That last bit is the point. We're not trying to tire him out until he falls asleep in the car. We're building engagement with his owner. Showing him that the fun comes through her. And giving him a better answer than kicking off at everything. The goal isn't to flatten the dog; it's to give that energy somewhere useful to go.

So I'm going to go ready until I'm ready, and then what I'm going to do is present my ball. I'm going to give him my cue. Oh, good boy! Oh, clever! Now he likes a little bit of roughhousing, a bit of a smack, and a bit of a. Bit rough, but what I want him to do is when he puts that bit of effort in, I'm gonna let it slip through my fingers. Oh, and I'm gonna be really expressive with him like he is the strongest boy in the world. Now what you'll notice, I am consistently moving away from him. At any point am I going towards him? Out. Oh, clever. Now my pause, I relax my toy, I say out. He's stuck on his tooth, and he's not allowed to regrab that toy until I say, good boy. Now, I would never beat him, but I'm going to try my absolute hardest to. If I'm not gassed by the end of this— I'm already gassed, but I'm not doing it right. Clever boy. Oh, good man. When we start introducing our outs, out. The minute the dog spits, you're gonna give your cue. Clever. Oh, good boy. Oh, oh, oh, good man. Finished. Now for me, I do it slightly different, but what you guys are gonna do— down— you guys are gonna put the toy on the floor. What I want from you guys is when you say your end of play, so you're finished, the toy goes down, we walk past it, he is not allowed to go near that toy again or touch it. Make sense? If they do, we've got a lead. Pop, pop, not allowed.

So what we're going to do, we're going to start with your start cue. So you're going to say whatever you want to say, it could be ready, it could be play. Once you say that, you're going to start moving. We're going to come alive. We're going to become active. I want you consistently moving away from him, and I want you to get him to chase you. It's a bit of a keep away game.

Okay.

So when you're ready, ready? Move. Go. Energy. Nice. Nice. Lots of energy. Fast, fast, fast.

Come on then. Let's go. That's it. That's it.

There we go. Hey, good boy! Tug, tug, tug. Genuinely try beat him. Oh, that's it! When he puts some effort in, let it slip through them fingers and run away. Run, run, run! Get him to come to you. There we go. Nice. Very good. Oh, he lost it. Make it a little bit harder. Lovely. Keep going. Tug, tug, tug. Try untangling while you're tugging. Good, that's it. Tug, tug, tug, tug, tug. Keep that pressure on. When again, when he puts a bit of effort in, you're gonna slip through them fingers and run away. Like slip, run, run, run, run. Keep away game. Get him to come to you. Perfect. Snatch it again. Tug, tug, tug. Really nice. Does he know a drop or an out? Cool, let's have a look then. Relax it. Oh, never mind, keep playing. Next time you get opportunity, you're going to relax the pressure off the toy. You're going to say you're out. If he doesn't, you're going to use your lead initially and you're going to pop, pop, pop until he spits. As soon as he does, we give it back. If he's spit it, give him it straight back. Snatch it. Yeah, that's it. Keep going. Ten more seconds of good play for me. Come on. Let him get hold of it. Good. Tug tug tug. Go go go! Energy energy energy. Nice. Tug tug tug wrestling. Throw it again. Go. That's it. Give him a good fight. Okay, what I want you to do is getting him chase it round your body. Tell him your finish cue. Put the toy down. Walk past it a few times. He's flagging a little bit. Go. That's it. Don't let him get it. Oh, never mind. Keep tugging. Tug, tug, tug, tug, tug. That's nice. Next time he lets it go, don't let him get it again and tell him finished. Finish. Toy on the floor. Walk past it. Your lead stops him from actually getting it. Go walk past it. Walk past the toy. He's not allowed to have it. Tap. That's it. A little bit steadier. That's okay. Walk past again. And again. Very nice. Okay, pick that toy up. He is not allowed to have it. Only thing I'd say, a little bit more intensity in the wrestling from you. Um, let him win a few times, but just give him that competition that he's looking for. Capture them moments where you start to see him flagging. We need to cut it off before he gets to the point of going, oh, sod this, I don't want to play.

I think we've got the same, like, flag end date sort of thing.

Um, but your timing of your Application of the pressure was really nice. As soon as he spits it, give him it straight back. We'll build up from there.

What do I do about him? Because I don't know if you've seen, but there's a few times he was like, oh, you're the one I'm playing with.

But you do have a tendency to like push him. Yeah. And like provoke him a little bit of personal play, so that probably needs to stop. But if he is coming to like nip at you, you've got your lead to correct that.

Okay.

You're not allowed to do that. Um, it wouldn't be full punishment unless he starts to be really consistent with it, and then we can use punishment for that. Cool. But for now, just build that drive up, get him wanting to be there, get him wanting to wrestle with you, and get it going a little bit longer.

Okay.

Lovely. Okay, leave that toy there, and I'll let you head out back to the car.

Training somewhere controlled is the easy bit. If a dog looks good in a field they know, with people they've met before, and dogs at sensible distance, that's great. But it isn't the finish line. The real test is out in the real world. A busy path, strange dogs, People running around, kids shouting. That's where you really find out whether the dog has actually learned something or whether we've just made a nice little training montage. So when we take a dog out offsite, we're not trying to set them up to fail. We're seeing whether the new habits still show up when the world gets a little bit messy, because that is when it really matters.

Okay, so obviously this is the first time we've brought Joey offsite. I say Joey, Joey and Chelsea. In all honesty, I think this visit is Probably more about you, Chelsea, than it is than it is Joey. Yeah, he's done pretty well over the last sort of day and a half. We started managing to get non-reactive to people that at least he's fairly familiar with. This park's really nice and open, so we've got loads of distance. We can see some stuff. He's seen a few dogs that he's not seen before yet. No reactions, but it's more about getting their confidence up together. Obviously, we've got like contagious emotions knocking around. We have a bit of anxiety running both. ways, um, and they kind of feed off each other. So it's more about— we like— we've— I've seen a big change in Chelsea, to be fair, over the last kind of day. She's way more confident than she was, so I think it's going to go fairly swimmingly. What do you think?

Uh, yeah, I'm definitely a little bit more confident with a dog now.

With the dog? Not in life, just with the dog?

Oh, I'm confident in life anyway.

You've gone like 4 strides away from me.

That's it. It feels like you don't have to protect me anymore a little bit. Well, I mean, you're stood there, so Yeah, but no, I definitely feel a shift in him as well.

Yeah, good. To be fair, in the field today, the distance won't be too much different to that.

I mean, he squeezed past you through the gate.

He did squeeze past me through the gate. Yeah, he didn't give a shit, did he? So there's some good signs there. And he likes Lucas now. He's just like, oh, that's just that guy who hangs around. Yeah. Where's she going? Because she's got dogs on long leads. Which is perfect, but the dogs you don't know. So we need to like interject their course casually,

casually,

casually. So we don't want to make it look like we're chasing her. I think you could probably get arrested for that. So we're just oh look, we just happen to be going the same way rather than hey look, I'm chasing you.

You know when you ask someone to act casual, the worst thing you can do is just like yeah.

What's it like with kids?

We've never tried. I don't.

Oh yeah, fair enough. Yeah, I'm the same.

I don't like kids, so I'm guessing he doesn't like them either.

Yeah, yeah, he's like, hang on, you don't like them, why the fuck should I like them? I don't know.

He is the child.

So when you've been out, like, I don't know if you've been adapting your walks or whatever, but when you've been out in the, in the weeks previous to this, what kind of distance would he be bothered by a person or a dog?

Opposite, you know, on the other side of the road.

Okay, so this distance is cool then?

Yeah, he's cool with this. Yeah, we've got quite a— it's a good-sized field, not as this big, but

yeah,

he can be on this other side of that and we sound— we'll be doing all sorts.

Yeah,

they've walked past him, not bothered, but if like they throw a ball and the dog's gone speeding past, that's when he's like, ah, don't like that.

That way. Everyone just follows us, don't they? I was kind of in my own little world.

Sorry. No steps in today. Go back. No,

yeah. Go back to those like bunch of trees. When's the last time you sniffed a dog?

It would have been the Sunday. Oh.

The retriever.

Yes. Yeah.

And is that the only one?

Yeah.

That he's got like

close

symbiotic relationships with?

Yeah. Yeah. Bad. Bad. That wasn't very nice, was it? All he did was move. No, bad.

And you're not stimming there, right?

Nope.

Beautiful. Nice. Because he knows, right? And he was like, oh, I know, I know, I just can't help myself. So yeah, fine.

All right, we're good, mate.

So like, this is kind of what you want, right? Where he's gonna start sniffing a bit, we're gonna walk around, because then he's not gonna be like whipping his head round to this guy and he goes, oh shit, he's suddenly in my face. That makes sense?

Yeah.

So we want the most distracting place we can find rather than a sterile pit. So we want to be at the edge of the field and then say, okay, cool, we're going to just start walking around. Start with a little bit of distance, close the distance down. He has a bit of a sniff. Your judgment of whether he feels comfortable with it. If he feels comfortable, cut it short and just like stop. Let us gap him a little bit.

Yeah.

Close it back down again. Lovely.

Leave it.

Cool. I reckon you could leave it longer. Mhm.

Okay,

cuz what we don't want him to think is that he can't do

it. Can't do it.

Okay, okay,

and

just go mooch over there. So the only problem I ever get— so he's good, right? But he's very like neutral. The only problem I ever get with him is that all dogs want to hump him.

Oh.

Yeah, and obviously he's not keen on that.

No, I bet not.

Because he is a boy.

Yeah.

So then he would tell off, whether that then ended up into a bit of a fracas or not. So we just want to be careful of that, but that was great, right? Yeah. Sniffed, he sniffed for as long as he wanted to, you didn't have to say anything, and then he was just like, all right, I've had my fill. Yeah. Good man.

Well done. Leave it. Perfect.

Leave it. Perfect.

So we're on day 3 with Joey, the end of day 3. Talk me through how you're feeling 3 days in.

I want to say surprised, but I'm still like probably still in the shocked mode that I can't even think that this is working. Like he's just gonna—

What progress have you seen from Monday to now?

He's following men round like they're best mates now.

Yeah.

Um, I think he's got a little soft spot for Kirkie, to be honest. And me, I feel a little bit— I wouldn't say all the weight's been lifted off, but I feel like a little bit has gone.

Still got 2 more days.

Yeah, that's what I need to remember. I keep thinking, oh yeah, he's all sorted.

So you've done resocialisation today with 2 different dogs. Talk me through how that went for you.

The first one, we was with one of the other dogs that are in the thing.

Aleria.

Yeah. So we went round this bush and we went behind them first. And he gave a little sniff, so I did a little leave it, and then we tried again and he was like, no. So we went round again, we swapped, and he let them sniff twice. There was no nothing with that, so we just carried on. And then we moved on to— do you say it's Blue?

Kirkisdog Blue.

Yeah. Um, he was a bit unsure because I did the timing a bit too quick, so I didn't leave him long enough to sort of think. So I told leave it, and then We tried again. He was having none of it. He was like, "No, I don't want to do it." But then once he got Blue to lie down, he was then like more interested, and I let him be, and he just he turned away on his own.

I was

like, "Yeah."

How did that make you feel? Him so close to other dogs?

After I breathed.

Yeah, you got to give him a minute to do that.

Yeah, yeah. I was just like, "I can't believe this is Joey." Like, I think I just need to trust him more. I think he's.

You was valid to feel how you felt. Yeah, he took chunks out of you. Like, you're valid to feel like that, but that's why you're both here with us.

Exactly, exactly.

A big part of this gets missed. The dog isn't the only one learning. If you've spent months or years waiting for the next reaction, you start living on the edge too. The lead gets tighter, you scan every corner, you panic before anything has even happened. Emotional contagion is a thing. That's not a criticism. After you've been hurt, embarrassed, or scared enough times, it's a pretty normal way to feel. But real progress is not a trainer holding the lead for you and looking brilliant for the camera. It's the owner making a good decision, staying calm throughout, following through, and going home knowing they can handle a normal Tuesday morning. That's when the training truly belongs to them. So why did this work for Joey? We didn't just try and shut down the barking and call it a day. That would have missed the whole point. Joey was unsure. He'd learnt that making a scene created distance. It was working. It was effective. And Chelsea had understandably got scared of what might happen next. So we had to stop him rehearsing that same reaction, give all the energy somewhere better to go, and build his trust in Chelsea again. We didn't just ask him to stop barking and pretend that that was the whole job. We gave him a proper outlet for all of that intensity that he has. We built engagement with Chelsea. We made sure there was a sensible safety plan while she learned to trust herself and her own decisions again. And then we took it into real life. So Joey settling in a pub, it's not a party trick, and it's not just a dog behaving for a camera. It's a dog who can finally switch off because he's more clarity, and an owner who can finally enjoy being out with him. Then we had to take it out of the training environment and prove it where it actually counts— around people, dogs, and normal life. That's why the final bit of this story matters most. Chelsea isn't watching a trainer manage Joey. She's getting her own dog back. You see that?

So talk to me then, how's this week gone for you?

Really good, really happy. Yeah.

What are your highlights?

Uh, that pub. sitting and having a burger with him, and that was the best part, being able to just see him relax after he's been told, basically. Yeah. And then the off lead, I didn't think I'd ever get him off lead without a muzzle on.

How are you feeling compared to Monday then?

I'm, yeah, I'm just a little bit anxious going home. Yeah. And just bringing it on. But here I'm fine with you guys around.

Yeah.

But yeah, watch this space for sure. Yeah, definitely.

What are you most looking forward to doing with him?

The campervan. Yeah, definitely.

I can't wait to see it. Yeah, I really can't wait. So on Monday, he wasn't best pleased with us.

No.

Didn't really like any of us at all.

No.

How's that progressed throughout the week?

Uh, he's made friends with Lucas. Lucas was able to feed him through his hand, and he went up for a cuddle as well, which was a bit shocking to me. That's when I couldn't breathe.

I was

like,

oh, fair enough.

But he allowed it, so that's good.

Talk me through a bit of the process this week then, like What have you found the most successful from the different steps that we've taken with him?

I think the e-collar training has been massive. Like, for him, I've already used prongs, I've used slip collars, and they've all worked for their own sort of bits and bobs. But with the e-collar, you're getting it straight away, and they're understanding. Like, he understands straight away.

Talk me through your off-site visits then. What was your favourite one, apart from the pub, eating a burger, scoffing a burger?

Scoffing a burger. Temple Newsome. That one is beautiful. I love a good old building.

Did you enjoy the views?

Yeah, while walking in, really, really nice. And I was able to actually look at the views, which was nice. And he got off lead. And when someone told me you can take Joey off lead, I was like—

You stopped breathing again.

Yeah, are you sure? But yeah, everyone is so trustworthy here, which is really nice. And I can ask questions without feeling like I'm a bit stupid.

No, absolutely no stupid questions ever.

No, not at all. And you're also The criticism that you get is, it's good criticism sort of thing, so they know straight away, they click, they find it.

Nice.

And then get you. No, I'm really happy. Thank you very much for having me.

No problem at all. It's been an absolute pleasure having you here this week and seeing his progress as well.

So yeah, it literally is a month after boot camp.

I can stand next to you giving you a lot of Twixes and that because they're your favourites, but I suppose my question is, is life better? Totally. All right, is that it? So just totally?

Well, someone just gave me a Twix out of their fanny pack.

Yeah, that's right.

And then she choked on it and it was— and that was it. Um, yeah, so yeah. Is life significantly easier and is it better for him?

Yeah, I actually really enjoy taking him out now. Oh nice. I make effort, more effort to get him out more as well, which is nice. And there's just no worries. Like, I think I see people now with reactive dogs and I'm just walking towards them and they're the ones that move out the way now. Yeah, I'm like, go to YCA.

And, and in terms of obviously like prior to boot camp, you couldn't have anyone around your house. Have you been able to get people in?

I've had a sleepover since. Have you? Yeah, um, I've had a few sleepovers since. Same guy.

I was going to say, I don't know whether it was like, uh—

No, I was able to— so that my boyfriend was able to come over.

Oh, nice.

And I've also gone to his house with him, and he's got 2 golden retrievers, and they all settled. Oh, really? Yeah, they all played together nicely and then all settled. Yeah. All right.

Yeah. At least your social life's improved, if nothing else.

Yeah, big time. Not a loner anymore.

Yeah, fair enough. I, I never don't have a day when I don't laugh about the phrase cockwalk. One of the funniest things I ever heard. Oh yeah, what's next? Anything, anything you've got on the cards that you've never done before? Like, have you gonna go away with them or anything?

Uh, yeah, so I've booked at the end of this month to go to Northumberland I've booked 2 hotels and we're just gonna go for a little adventure together.

So happy enough?

Yeah, very, very, very happy.

Even eating Twixies and that?

Yeah, choking on them.

Choking on them, yeah. Choking on Twixies because you're laughing too much. How nice.

Joey's story isn't really about getting a dog to walk nicely for a camera. It's about what happens when a dog and their owner stop living in constant fight or flight. There'll always be work to do, That's normal. But the goal is simple. Life gets bigger again. You can walk your dog. You can have people around, go for lunch, make plans, all without your dog being the reason that you can't. If that's where you're at, don't keep guessing your way through it. Hit the link below, tell us what's going on, and we'll work out the right place to start.