Angus

We have a two year old mixed breed (Springer Spaniel X Border Collie X Australian Kelpie) dog Angus, who we have had since he was 9 weeks old. As well as being super active, at the age of about 5 / 6 months we noticed that he started to struggle with interactions with unfamiliar dogs, occasionally resorting to aggression when overwhelmed or really frustrated (particularly walking on a lead). We also noticed he was struggling at meeting new people, often barking when strangers entered the house or if we spoke to people he didn’t know when out and about.

We were very active with Angus’s training from the get go - having taken him to a couple of puppy and training classes and groups, as well as some 1-1 sessions with some other really excellent trainers in Edinburgh. He knew loads of party tricks, and his recall was really good (especially if there was a ball involved). However, we still felt useless at handling situations where he became overstimulated or overwhelmed and we were struggling to build his confidence in such situations in a controlled way.

We first approached Linnea at Walk & Train after a recommendation from one of her other clients. After an initial ZOOM consultation, where we talked through our situation, Linnea helped us come up with a new structure / routine to help Angus change his mindset - creating a foundation to better prepare him for these challenging situations out on walks. From here we have had several 1-2-1 lessons to work on our leash handling, general communication and long line work. We have also attended weekly group walks directed by Linnea, with other owners going through a similar process. Through this process, we have been given loads of feedback on how to handle Angus around other dogs in different environments and get a weekly opportunity to practice our skills and see how Angus copes with both the dogs in the classes, and all the other dogs we see out and about. This exposure has been invaluable to Angus, but also to us, to build on our own confidence week on week. Getting to meet and work with a group of dogs and owners who are having similar experiences to us, and learning and discussing experiences has also been a massive positive for us.

In little under a year of working with Linnea and Walk and Train, we can now confidently take Angus to busy places in city centres, bars, cafes, hikes with other dogs, all activities which we found unmanageable before Walk & Train. We are partaking in the Level 2 Sunday classes, and have recently just started GRC training with Linnea, and cannot wait for Angus' confidence (and ours) continue to grow. We could not recommend Walk & Train more highly.

-Sean