Dylan & Briar
We adopted Dylan from Cyprus via a small UK-based rescue in early 2016. When he arrived in the UK he was about a year old, very skinny at 26 kg, and with a thin coat totally unsuited to the Scottish climate! It was love at first sight when he met Briar, our golden/flat-coat retriever cross, and they bonded instantly, playing and sleeping together from the start.
All went well for the first few months and Dylan continued to grow and put on weight (he is now 36 kg with a thick, luscious coat!). Unfortunately, as his confidence and strength increased, he began to show a number of behavioural issues. Despite looking like a black retriever, he has a lot of German shepherd traits and is highly intelligent and very sensitive. Our biggest problem, however, was his strong hunting instinct and this escalated to the point where he would disappear for hours if he picked up a scent. Much more worrying was the fact that Briar regarded him as pack leader and would follow him on his hunting trips, despite her usually perfect recall. We were forced to made the decision to walk them separately and to keep Dylan on a long line on walks. This led to him becoming increasingly frustrated and reactive towards certain dogs.
Thankfully, we then discovered Linnea and Gregor. We arranged for Gregor to take Briar out on his pack walks to give us more time to concentrate on Dylan. Briar is a real outdoor girl and being up in the hills all day is her idea of heaven – her fitness has increased with the long walks and she is now much more confident around other dogs. She is very calm and Gregor allows her to be off leash with freedom to explore, but is always in control. She returns from the walks tired and very happy.
Our work with Dylan is an ongoing project. We attended Linnea and Gregor’s Sunday group classes with him, where he excelled in obedience and learnt to be calm around the other, often excitable, dogs. We also worked on a one-to- one basis with Linnea in the Meadows and were shown how to read his reactions to other dogs and to anticipate when there might be a problem. Linnea explained how our behaviour affects his response to situations and we progressed to being able to let him off leash to chase a ball in a busy area and to walk calmly past other dogs and people without reacting. Dylan now has a number of doggy friends he can play with and is much happier and more relaxed. Linnea and Gregor’s advice has been invaluable in helping us to understand his complex character. We are now much more aware of the issues that can arise when adopting a rescue dog, especially one from abroad, and would highly recommend contacting Walk & Train if you are thinking of doing so!
- Anne
