When Spanish rescue Loki arrived on English shores, he did so following a number of negative interactions with humans and attacks from other dogs. His new owners were keen to overcome his resulting nervous behaviour and bring out his bouncy and loving personality so that he could feel at home as quickly as possible. They sought the help of Calm Canine Academy, an expert and passionate team of online dog trainers, to identify the cause of the problems and learn useful techniques to manage the challenges faced.
After a series of online group training sessions, Loki’s owners felt empowered to try new methods of establishing trust and Loki exhibited unwanted behaviour less and less.
To celebrate our new collaboration with Calm Canine Academy, we sat down with Loki’s happy humans to learn more about the training experience and how they were able to deal with Loki’s challenging behaviour and make him feel comfortable in his new bespoke pet bedroom from The Pet Carpenter.
Pet Profile
Name: Loki
Breed: English Bull Terrier X Podenco
Age: 2 and a half
Temperament: Lively, bouncy, submissive, loves dogs, loves people, food-driven!
Behaviour traits: Reactive to strange dogs and new people – resulted in lunging and barking
Background: Adopted in October 2022 from Spain, age 1. Loki’s owners, Carolyn and Jeremy, were informed that he had likely been kicked onto the streets in Spain and experienced attacks from other dogs and negative interactions with humans. This led to nervous behaviour around new people despite being quick to love and wanting to be friends with other dogs.
Loki’s Training With The Calm Canine Academy
Before Loki’s owners sought advice from Calm Canine Academy (CCA), Loki had previously been in both group and 1:1 training environments with a local dog trainer but behaved differently in these scenarios which meant that the trainer could not see any of his problematic behaviour traits.
Working online with Lauren from CCA, Loki’s owners were about to learn about Loki’s behaviour and the causes of his reactivity. Resources and examples were provided which could be practised in their own time, reducing the pressure placed on everybody involved. Lauren kept in contact via the CCA app and provided feedback and advice to keep Loki progressing!
Initially, Loki & his humans had a 1:1 online session which offered the opportunity to really discuss and understand his individual needs. Once it was clear what kind of support would help, Lauren recommended that Loki join the ‘Feisty Fidos’ group for 8 sessions over 12 weeks.
Carolyn, Loki’s owner, said: “The group session was fantastic, it gave us the opportunity to meet with other people and see that we are not alone in dealing with a dog with difficult behaviour. The excellent thing about the group is that often issues were mentioned which hadn’t seemed significant in Loki’s behaviour but could actually be easily addressed and therefore tackling these helped us make quick progress!”
Introducing Loki To His New Home
Loki loved his crate from day 1, viewing this space as his own and seeing it as a place of safety and security when there were new or lots of people in the home. After spending some time in a metal crate, Loki then moved to a new The Pet Carpenter bedroom with a bespoke roll-down curtain. He particularly enjoys being covered at nighttime and the curtain made this incredibly easy!
Loki’s CCA training also helped him to get used to his wider new home environment. The training encouraged the introduction of useful boundaries, such as using a mat in the home. This was particularly important in the kitchen where Loki’s urge for food in the past had gotten the better of him and he was becoming a counter surfer!
The Overall Experience
Loki’s humans could not be happier with the outcome of their experience with Calm Canine Academy. Lauren & the team’s methods and expertise made the whole process of establishing and maintaining boundaries both manageable and fulfilling, and Loki now enjoys his surroundings and makes friends with much greater confidence compared to when he first arrived in his new home.
“In all we feel our journey with Calm Canine Academy has been a great success and we now have a much happier, calmer dog and we in turn feel less stressed as we are more confident in managing his behaviour. Several friends and family members have commented on how much calmer he now is!”
“Having experienced both face-to-face and online training, we definitely preferred online. It enabled us to undertake the training at an appropriate time which met Loki’s needs and made it easier for us to showcase problematic behaviour traits as he was in a more familiar scenario.”
“Calm Canine Academy not only gave us the tools to deal with Loki’s immediate behaviour issues, but also a clear understanding of general canine behaviour and psychology which has helped us enormously in not only understanding Loki but also other dogs he has interactions with.”