In the home Zack could be gentle and lovable but several times a day he had sessions flying round the house at great speed with a toy in his mouth. If restrained he would growl, use his mouth hard and resist all attempts to calm him. On other occasions he would jump up at his owners scratching them and grabbing with his mouth. On a walk he was pulling on the lead and jumping up at anyone he passed.

Feb.'07       Full Behaviour Session and Halti Training

At a full behaviour consultation we planned how to re-establish Mr & Mrs C as leaders of the pack. We used a trailing lead to make it easier to catch Zack when he was being hyper, we established a method of firm gentle handling so as to teach him to become calm on demand, we used a house cage at intervals throughout the day. We worked on game-play so his owners would win the game not Zack, and we taught his owners to be calm and assertive. We also introduced the use of a Halti Headcollar.

Two weeks later Zack was much improved, he was generally less hyper and not pulling on the lead. But he was still aggressive to Mrs C in particular, mouthing her hands and knees hard, mainly when Mr C wasn’t home.

May '07        Neutering and Hormone Treatment

We encouraged Mrs C to give him attention for several short periods throughout the day but ignore him in silence at other times. We neutered Zack, as planned, as he was now 6mo. old. We also treated him with  an injectable calming hormone to reduces his teenage emotional ups and downs. 

Zack responded as if by magic! Almost overnight his behaviour was calmer, and any silly play was gentle and fun rather than aggressive. A month later he began to show signs of reverting to hyper-aggressive play. We repeated the hormone injection and he was back to normal within a couple of days.

Sept '07

Zack is now nearly 12 months old. He is still a bundle of fun and very much loved. We have continued the hormone treatment monthly with success and expect to be able to stop using it once he is fully-grown.

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