PJ Dog Training

Max is a Weimeraner/German Short Haired Pointer crossbreed; he was born in Sept 2006 and he is intelligent and extremely driven by his main instinct/interest, which is ‘the chase/hunt’. Max is very tall, strong and powerful he’s not always conscious of his size and strength, but luckily he has a lovely temperament.

I have had dogs all my life including 2 rescue Labrador crosses both from the RSPCA. My partner has never had a dog before but he agreed we should have one.

I wanted to rescue a dog again so began the search. We wanted a large dog and were originally looking for Labrador crossbreeds.

I found Max’s details on dogsblog.com and we agreed to find out more. When I telephoned the rescue centre they informed me he had already gone on a trial visit to a potential family but they took my number. A couple of days later I got a call to say the family had returned Max because he was too strong and too large (they had very small children).

We arranged to visit Max in Stockton On Tees where he was still living at the home he had known since being bought as a puppy, but he was registered with rescue charity for a re home. Max’s family had problems and were struggling to care for him and he was left for long periods on his own with access to the garden and part of the house. All he had to do all day was chase garden birds.

Max was stressed by his situation, he was quite skinny, very out of control and it was obvious he had little or no training. We spent a couple of hours finding more out about Max; we also took him for a little walk. We talked about Max all the way back to Sheffield and we decided that we should adopt him. We felt we were ideal because we had the time and we also had the space for a large dog. We have no children, plus our routine meant Max would not be left alone for long periods.

We went through the adoption checks and collected Max the following week, he was approximately 20months old.

Although Max settled very well in the house, his lack of training soon became apparent and Max's sheer size and strength meant walking on the lead was very hard work. This improved over time and I also took Max to two terms of dog training classes, to socialise him with other dogs and improve his basic obedience. Max passed his Bronze Good Citizen Award. We also had some one to one training with the trainer who ran the classes. Whilst this was useful sometimes her personality clashed with that of my partner! Despite all efforts a year on from adopting Max none of the training had addressed the main issue, which was our inability to allow him off the lead safely.

I saw Phil’s advert in a local shop and decided to contact him for help, he came round to meet us and make an initial assessment. We found him very friendly and approachable; Max also took an instant liking to him. It was a relief to us to find someone who was genuine and really wanted to help. We arranged a series of one to one sessions.

Phil suggested various methods we could try in order to improve Max’s recall. We also found tracking to be something which Max enjoyed. Max seemed to be a natural tracker, it gave him focus, occupied his active mind and it was also perfect for Max and I to work together as a team. We were able to progress to allow Max to run free, at a location recommended by Phil. This was a huge achievement and something I would never have had the confidence to try alone. Max is a different dog to the one that we first met. He is calmer, more relaxed and obedient.

Phil has always been tremendously supportive, making suggestions for new things to try, this included going out of his way to seek further advice from HPR (Hunt Point Retrieve) specialists. Phil has never given up on Max and always been determined to help where he can. We continue to attend weekly classes arranged by Phil so that Max is interacting with other dogs and his mind is occupied. Max always does impeccable recalls at the classes and this is something which would have been impossible a year ago.

Thanks