Raffie the Black Labrador

We got in touch with Sally when our black lab was 5.5 months old, because he had started to show some worrying behaviours. He had always been a bit nervous of people he didn’t know but this had recently escalated into barking at people out and about. He then started running over to people nowhere near him to chase them (while still barking). This came to a head when he ran out of the park and across a road after a lady with a pushchair. We became increasingly concerned about both his safety and that of the people he was chasing, particularly as he was growing into a big dog. We could tell he was feeling anxious out and about but didn’t really know what to do about it. Our vet suggested a behaviourist and while searching I came across Sally’s website. I read every single one of her testimonials and it sounded like just the sort of help we needed - treating the root cause rather than symptoms.

Sally got back to me straightaway and we made an appointment for the following day. She definitely tells it how it is but we really valued her no nonsense approach. Everything she said made perfect sense and we saw where we had been going wrong. After our session we noticed changes almost immediately. Whereas previously he would have spent the evenings roaming about, on the first evening after our appointment he lay down quietly with a yak chew. He also started happily taking himself off to his crate to relax rather than pacing round the house after us. We haven’t (touch wood) had a single incident of chasing people since implementing Sally’s methods. And while it takes some focus not to slip back to old ways, it also feels like a lot less work in many ways. I used to spend a lot of time worrying that he was bored and trying to find ways to entertain him whereas now we have a few basic groundrules in place to make life easier for everyone, especially the calmer dog!

Obviously it remains a work in progress. ‘The dog’ is 9 months now and adolescence has hit so we still have our challenges but whenever I have had a question Sally has been on the other end of the phone with her no nonsense words of wisdom. I only wish I had known Sally’s methods from the start!

Eleanor