Thursday 25 April 2013

Canine workshop BCDH: working with aggression towards men

We had a great couple of days working and teaching at Bath Cats and Dogs Home, which is one of the leading RSPCA Branches in the country, re-homing over 2,500 dogs, cats and small animals each year.

We worked with three dogs over the weekend, however it was working with Scoopie that brought tears to many of the students.

Scoopie was a nervous 8year old Collie who disliked men, she would lunge at them aggressively and was unpredictable around them. Scoopie  came to the centre as a puppy, but for the past four years he had been with a lady owner, who returned him due to his aggression towards men. During the past eight months at BCDH he could only be handled by female staff.

On the first day, while in the process of taking Scoopie into his subconscious mind, we gradually  introduced Steve (Head of Behaviour, below left). He lunged three times in succession aiming for Steve's jugular (he was wearing a muzzle!). Once fully in his subconscious mind and totally relaxed, Scoopie allowed Steve to get closer to him. We ended the session there for the day. After Steve left and we were tidying up, Scoopie got up and with his handler, came over to Martin and Alan (one of our students) and proceeded to walk calmly past both of them before returning to have a roll over Alan's feet! This was unheard of and the remaining students were left in amazement.

2 days following Scoopie's zoopharmacognosy session with Steve (left) and Dog handler (right)

Day 2 of course: Morning follow up: What we witnessed in the morning was incredible. Scoopie allowed both Alan and Steve to wipe his chosen oils onto his chest and then became very affectionate to Steve, rolling at this feet. Steve and Scoopie went into the garden area where they played fetch with a stick, with much exchange of affection. They looked like they had been together forever. Alan also joined them in the garden, again he was greeted with a wag of the tail. We then called a male stranger to come in (after replacing Scoopie's muzzle). This man had little behavioural experience and without knowing Scoopie's history, gave him some generous pats on his back, bent down looked straight into his eyes, kissed him on the nose and asked, "what was the problem with the dog?" All this time Scoopie stood there calmly wagging his tail.



Within 24hours Scoopie is muzzel free around men. Looking at these
 photos it is hard to beleive that there was ever a problem!

Feedback from Steve at BCDH:


Day one after course: Scoopie wags his tail when he sees me now even when I am not oiled up!

Day two after course: Scoopie has now met 4 more men. All went really well apart from one and that was the vet liason.


Follow-up on other the dogs that were on the course: from Steve BCDH


Chelsea:
Over the weekend was very stressed with visitors to the home. When she was put back in to her kennel she went and got one of the rags and took it to her bed then led down with it. I wasnt in work Sunday but when I went to see her today she did initially bark at me. I came back to see her with the oils and she was very keen to sniff all of them. Some she would bark at me straight after but was fine with me by the time I left her.

Larry:
We have not had time to do much with Larry today as Charlie is off this week but we are all looking forward to you coming down for the talk which me and Laura will be on as well as some of the other staff.