Cliff, Pat & Bracken, Brampton

My wife and I, having had golden retrievers for over 30 years, became concerned when our 2 year-old golden retriever Bracken started to show aggression towards other male dogs. The problem came to a head when Bracken and a dog belonging to some visitors had a fight in our hallway. Not knowing quite what to do for the best we approached our vet to ask whether we should consider castration. Her advice was that castration would make Bracken worse if he was suffering from a fear aggression but might help if he was showing dominance aggression. Although we felt fairly confident that Bracken was suffering from a fear aggression (he had been attacked by two different male dogs in the period leading up to the fight with our visitor’s dog)we could not be absolutely sure and,even if we had been sure, we would not have known what to do. We contacted Brian at Dogs Listen Up after seeing one of his leaflets in the Carlisle branch of Pets at Home. A quick look at his website confirmed that he would undertake a series of one-to-one sessions at our home and,although £200 seemed to be quite a lot at first, we nevertheless decided to contact Brian and seek his help. All we can say is that it was £200 very well spent. After spending nearly 3 hours with us on his first visit Brian had convinced us that Bracken’s aggression was because he lacked confidence. Moreover, we were partly to blame as we were treating Bracken too much like a child and not enough like a dog. In short, our pack lacked pack-structure! In the 6 one-to-one sessions that we had with Brian we have been shown how to relate to Bracken in a way that will make him feel more secure and confident – and thus more able to face other dogs without ailways thinking that attack is the best form of defence. Bracken is not yet fully cured of his tendency to be grumpy towards other dogs but he is far, far better than he was.Indeed, we are also enjoying somefringe-benefits in that we have a dog that is much happier and relaxed than he used to be and is a joy to walk on a lead ( before Brian’s help Bracken would often pace the house whimpering and would pull like mad when he was on the lead).

Also, Bracken sometimes lacked appetite (unheard of in a golden retriever) but this is much improved too. Some time ago we had need of another dog behaviourist but we both felt that his single visit was an event rather than a program. with Brian we had 6 long sessions each of which built on the previous ones. In addition, without additional charge charge, Brian invited us to attend his weekly group classes for dogs with behavioural problems (referred to us as Grumpy Classes).

We are grateful to Brian for his patience – and for the fact that he didn’t make us do anything that we felt uncomfortable about! All in all we would not hesitate to recommend Dogs Listen Up. It may not be possible to work miracles but with Brian’s expertise has helped enormously.