Tia, the dog in the adjacent pictures is nine months old and was obtained by her owners at eight weeks of age. They purchased her from a rescue organisation and when she was collected by the new owners, they found her in a shed on her own with no canine or human company. The last few weeks of her life had been spent in isolation. Tia was a nervous wreck. It took them some considerable time, to get Tia to accept being stroked by guests to the home without her running behind the sofa. The owners were not really aware of the critical stages of puppy socialisation. They applied some common sense and took Tia into the local villages to get her accustomed to people which has worked well, and although she is still a little shy initially with strangers, she is generally gregarious and playful and enjoys interaction with people in the street and this improvement continues.

Tia’s owners had given little thought to her mixing with other dogs, but when they began walking in the parks and woodland, Tia’s aggression to dogs increased at a rapid rate. Having discussed Tia’s early start in life, I was certain that the cause of this aggression was fear through no exposure to her own kind. At the time when Tia should have been mixed with lots of other dogs in the local parks, under control, she was in a shed alone. She now viewed all dogs with suspicion and fear and had learnt over many months that attack was the best form of defence. Of course, her owners like others who walk such a dog suffered embarrassment and social isolation by fellow dog owners who kept away.

I and my associates began to conduct the tests with Tia in the centre grounds. True to form, Tia began barking and jumping in the air when, Vhko, one of my German Shepherd dogs was brought out on a lead. When we stood still in relatively close proximity, Tia began to panic and her learnt aggression was not effective in making him recoil, her fear was displayed by pulling away and yelping. She was then released form her lead, the trained dog left in a ‘Down-Stay’ Over the course of ten minutes, Tia came forward to investigate the other dog very cautiously, slowly gaining confidence; this was a first.    

Having trained dogs for the tests is vital, so that they can be controlled by voice at any stage to stop the interaction.