Barney the Bulldog

Barnabus Jackson – Barney the 3 year old Bulldog

We’ve had Barney since he was 8 weeks old, and treated him like our baby. He’d always been quite a chilled lad, but was always a little noise sensitive, especially with large vehicles (buses etc.)

Initially, he was always great off the lead, but as he got older, his recall skills became non-existent. At home, he generally barked and growled when the delivery/post people came to the door, hurtling like a bowling ball, intent on getting the post. We thought this was pretty normal. He then started to run after the postman and his post cart whenever we spotted them on a walk. He also started to chase joggers, and men dressed as if they were delivery people, wearing dark colours or Hi Vis and carrying anything. At three, he was being completely dominant, without us realising. Not surprisingly as we hadn’t established any boundaries with him, even allowing him to sleep with us – every night! This did have its advantages – he was like a big hot water bottle!

Things started to get worse, when staying with my family, he ran straight after the village priest, jumping up and bearing his teeth. VERY EMBARRASSING! Shortly after this, Barney chased a pushchair. This wasn’t acceptable, and I feared he may hurt someone, and we’d end up having him put down all because of our basic lack of making him see his place in our pack.

I had seen a few episodes of the Dog Whisperer on TV, and hoped that I could find someone local to help. We had attended puppy training, but issues hadn’t developed at this point, so didn’t feel equipped to deal with the problems. Barney had also been given many treats, so was only used to obeying for food.

Fortunately, I found Sally from a Google Search. We immediately booked a session. It turned out to be money very well spent. 

Neither, my husband or I had any idea of what to expect, or whether Sally would be able to unveil the behaviour that we saw developing into potential disaster.

During the first week, we followed Sally’s commands. Barney was very good and adjusted perfectly. We noticed he was more relaxed. Barney seemed to want us to be his pack leader, and was less stressed for it.

Our second session with Sally was 10 days later. We went on a walk with Sally and her dog. Initially, Barney felt very threatened, and growled at Sally’s dog, trying to assert his dominance, but she’d explained how to deal with him. During the whole thing, Sally’s dog remained completely calm.

By the end of the walk, Barney was walking off the lead, following our pack, and walking nicely with Sally’s dog. We are now applying Sally’s methods, putting Barney into the situations which we know previously would have caused unwanted behaviour, but now know how to deal with it and hopefully Barney will adjust his behaviour, and graduate to more off-lead walks.

We have a long way to go, and understand the importance now of Barney not being able to be a dominant character as this had the potential of spilling over into aggression. We feel that with consistency and reaffirming all that Sally has taught us, Barney will become a re-trained happy little bulldog. What is also worth mentioning, is how much happier our cat is for Sally’s efforts!

We are very grateful to Sally for coming to our home – which is rare for a dog trainer/whisperer. We cannot recommend her more highly.

Phil, Judith, Max & Barney