Ken’s Comments:
My life as a dog trainer and behaviourist in this province brings be into contact with the most interesting people and their dogs. These last couple of years, as my name has grown and word has spread, I have more people contacting me from outside of St. John’s to work with them.
Early this summer I planned to attend the Ride for Sight in Gander. It is a great cause that raises tens of thousands for the sight impaired every year. This year a new dog walking group called The Gander Pooch Patrol starte led by Rexene Lockyer. She modelled it loosely after my For the Love of Dogs Group. When Rexene found out I was coming to Gander, she asked if I was willing to take on some one on ones in the area. I responded that I was, an announcement was made and within 24 hours, there were 7 one on ones lined up. It made for a busy weekend.
One of the one on ones was with this guy.
Bruce had a bit of a rough life. He is a rescue who was on his third home. Michelle contacted me and said that Bruce needed to learn some manners especially when it came to being around other dogs. She said that he was extremely aggressive and, being the size he is, quite difficult to control.
We made arrangements to meet up and off we went for a walk. I talked to mom and dad about ways to increase his confidence, build his bond with them, have him begin trusting and taking cues from them. We discussed how to properly and correctly socialized Bruce, counter condition and desensitize him around other dogs. One thing was in Bruce’s favour, him mom and dad were VERY committed to this.
I remember when we got back to the hotel, his mom and dad were still unsure this could be done. I took Bruce by the leash, walked him up the road running him through a couple of drills. When we returned to the parking lot, there was a dog and his owners on the lot, I walked Bruce up to them, got him to sit and proceeded to chat with the other owners and their dog. Bruce was the perfect gentleman. His mom and dad’s face hit the ground.
We made arrangements later that day to meet up with the Gander Pooch Patrol. Again Bruce stepped up to the plate, met with 20 plus dog and did so well.
I have kept in touch with his mom and dad these last couple of months. A couple of days ago, I received a message from his mom relating a huge success for him so I asked her to do a write up.
Dogs like Bruce take time, effort and patience. Fortunately for him, his forever home came along and were willing to do this. With some more time and effort, the sky is the limit for Bruce.
Here is his story as told by his mom, Michelle:
On February 16th, 2015 an opportunity that I had been waiting for had come my way; an opportunity to rescue a Great Dane. Already having one and falling in love with the breed I had wanted another one. But I had wanted to rescue one as my girl was a gift from my husband. In saying that we did also have another dog we rescued the previous April. But after discussing if Bruce would fit into our family we filled out the application and well, lucky for us we got to we adopt Bruce on February 19th, 2015, our second Great Dane from the Clarenville SPCA. I’ve always wanted and still do, as I call it, a rainbow of them! I applied for him right away and a couple days later I received a call that we were approved for this almost two year old, as I call him, nut job, haha ! We were informed by the SPCA that we were his third owners. He was given up to another lady by his first owner at the age of 10 months, not sure why. The second owner had two other Great Danes and from what I gather she was the breeder of Bruce. She said Bruce would go over their fence to get at an unspayed female as he was not neutered and the neighbours would beat him with baseball bats and broom sticks. The young lady who was now pregnant could no longer handle him and decide it would be best to bring him to Clareville SPCA where he would be given a good home and to a family that adores him. Boy do we adore him! He was everything I wanted in a Great Dane. His sister Jaeda, who is also a Great Dane, is the queen of all queens, snot if you want to say! She’s not lovable at all, but she still got my heart. Bruce on the other hand wants to be by you all the time, he wants to lie on you, he wants to sit on you, he wants to kiss you, he loves to snuggle.
Bruce has been a wonderful addition to our family. A few days after the adoption we took him on a playdate with 7 other Great Danes and of course his sister Jaeda and his brother Milo (lab/husky), who is a Gander SPCA adoption. We were a bit nervous, not knowing how he would react, everyone there knowing our situation said let him go and run and have fun. Thank goodness for awesome people like take, but he done well. We took him in the woods every Friday and Saturday and he ran the whole way in and back and had tons of fun there in the snow with my other two. A week or so after he was neutered my husband did his Friday thing and took the three up in the woods. When he got back to unpack his wood Bruce took off and ran like there was no tomorrow. My husband was about a half hour trying to get him and that’s when our troubles begin. We begin to notice that Bruce became very agitated with a female that is not tethered and walks our road all the time. When I say agitated I don’t say that lightly. He froths at the mouth and I cannot control him at all. He also started to bark at all other dogs and cars that drove by, which he had never done before. I contacted the SPCA and they kindly contacted the last owner to find out why he would be so aggressive towards this one dog. They had found out that the female he is aggressive towards was the same kind of female dog he would go after and get beat for in his previous home; now I’m thinking he’s associating her with the beatings. He was so uncontrollable; he began to cause bodily damage to me and others who tried to control him. He didn’t try to hurt us, he was just in his zone and nothing else mattered. When I would sit and be occupied with my phone or anything else he would bark at me very loudly and kind of scared me at first because I didn’t know him. I tried being stern, I tried being loud, I tried making him sit; I even at times would lock myself in my room if I was home alone until he would stop. I was really at my wits end. We live in central NL and finding a trainer for this kind of behaviour was impossible. I then found out through a group in Gander called the pouch patrol that Ken Reid was going to be in central for the weekend and he was going to do some one on ones while he was here. I was all on top of that and thank goodness I got to meet this man.
In only 1 hour he was able to help us see how well behaved Bruce could be. It seemed like a miracle when he passed by and got close to a dog and ken took control and I got shivers just seeing that this majestic boy was able to be trained. I was very persistent with all the tips Ken had given us and its working!! I am still working on controlling him when he sees the female dog, but he is so strong and I find it very difficult to control him.
He did get off a couple times since and I’m so impressed that when I call him, he does come back, not right away, but he does come back. Its baby steps, but its improvement.
My daughter had asked us to go to Lumsden this past weekend and at first we said no because of Bruce and I wasn’t leaving him home by himself and my daughter said to take him because he needs it. She said there were 4 of us to help so we went. We were nervous on the way there; my husband and I were discussing on the way that it’s new to him so he may be a little over the top at first. We also thought about the fact that we were going to go there and with other dogs there so he may get a little out of control at first. Oh my goodness, did that boy ever surprise us. Pretty well right after getting out of the car we met a dog and he walked on! When we got to the beach he seen other dogs and acted as if they weren’t even there! Once again he gave me the shivers. All was on his mind was the huge waves that he wanted to dive into. He looked like he had so much freedom and it was the best day of his life!!!
Bruce still has the aggression with the female dog here in our town, his improvements are small, but still improvements and put it all together and we almost have a perfect boy.
He’s still a work in progress, but his behaviour is improved so much it’s so awesome. He doesn’t bark at me anymore even when he needs to go out he will just whine. After 6 months with this boy I’ve learned a lot about him, his likes, such as his favourite toy being a water bottle and he dislikes taking baths, but strangely enough, loves the ocean. All we need was the tools of proper training for our boy from Ken to see all Brucey’s potential!
Bruce is now with his forever family who loves him very much and who are doing everything they possibly can to make him the best boy he could be!
Bruce and I would like to thank Ken Reid for being there for us via email when we need him. It’s much appreciated!
