From our newsletter...

Hannah is a 15 month old Labrador going on 5 months. Her owners were having incredible difficulty coping with her and she had become very difficult for them to cope with.

This is a very common problem, people get a cute puppy and think that they are born with all the skills to mature into the perfect adult dog.

Hannah had started growling at her owners whenever they came near her, her owners would tell her off and smack her for growling which of course only made Hannah growl as soon as they approached.

The daft thing is that these weren’t cruel owners, they had looked for advice in many places, unfortunately much of it revolved around dominating and punishing Hannah. One dog trainer even insisted that it was her breeding that was at fault and very little could be done to help her.

Although we know there are many dogs destroyed for their behaviour, It does make us wonder just how many other dogs like Hannah have been destroyed, because their owners couldn’t cope. Especially in light of the fact that their vet said that there was nothing that could be done and it would be best if Hannah was destroyed.

In only her first week with us Hannah is improving, she is already learning not to jump up all the time and is beginning to learn that not everything on the floor is for grabbing and teasing people with.

Hannah doesn’t actually have any behaviour problems, she is very excitable and doesn’t really know how to interact politely with people but this is only because she has never been taught these skills.

Over the next few weeks we will teach Hannah the things she needs to know and then we should be able to find her a good home without much trouble at all.

Update January 2002
The photo on the right is Hannah when she first arrived. It's nice to see just how much happier and self confident she looks in her recent photo at the top of the page.

We are making progress with Hannah but because we have so much else on at the moment, it is a little slower than we would like, but she is now enjoying her life, instead of thinking of everything as a game, battle or competition.

One habit that she has nearly lost, is chewing and swallowing almost everything that she can get her paws on. To date she has destroyed several pairs of shoes, a telephone socket and cables, and various other household items.

Hannah is an extreme but still typical example of the problems we see every day. She hasn’t really got anything wrong with her, she has just developed some bad habits and now, needs to lose those and develop some good ones.

If you have any questions or comments on any part of our work, please contact us:
Animals in Mind, 31 Magdalen Way, Worle, North Somerset, BS22 7PG
01934 516714 - email us