In our latest blog, PPGB Chairwoman Daisy, sits down with Brooke Smith, Bruce’s owner to talk about the training journey they have been on with Bruce.
How old is Bruce?
Bruce is 1 year 8 months old, he’ll be 2 in September.
Is Bruce your first dog?
Yes as a family, but Matt grew up with dogs.
What does a day in the life of Bruce look like?
Bruce now sleeps in his crate, so he generally barks/cries to be let out of the crate in the morning, usually around 6am. We let him out and he comes and gets into bed for a cuddle which we all love.
On weekdays he’ll have a morning Walk, followed by breakfast, then will spend the day lazing around. We’ll have some playtime, he particularly loves playing ‘find it’, with the tug-e-nuff, I’ll hide it, then he’ll find it and will run up and down the stairs and then I’ll hide it again.
Bruce will then have a nice evening walk then home for dinner.
At the weekend we like to go for longer walks through the forest.
How does Bruce interact with other dogs?
Bruce LOVES other dogs, and wants to play with all of them. As he has so much energy, we have to gauge with the other dog if they are happy to play. His best mate is Bear the Bearded Collie and they love playing together.
With Bruce, we have to sometimes remove him from the situation or else he will continue to play all day.
Could you outline the issues you were having with Bruce?
Pulling on the lead was probably the worst one. I couldn’t walk him at all once he hit a certain size, he’s now at 34kg!
Recall where there were distractions was terrible, we could only go to quiet fields where we could see someone coming and could put him on his lead before he bolted over to them.
Bruce always wanted to play with me when I was at home working, he wouldn’t settle or relax by himself and would follow me around the house, whereas if Matt was working at home, he’d relax and leave him alone.
Before we realised the positive impact of the crate, we had the opinion of it being mean to put him in there, since we have been using the crate in training he now takes himself off to his crate for some space. Bruce sleeps in his crate throughout the night now, he comes up in the evening for a cuddle with us and then Matt takes him down to his crate when Matt goes to sleep.
What training methods have you tried?
We started with puppy group classes when Bruce first came home which was really basic and mainly socialised him with other dogs.
Alongside this, for the first couple of months, before he’d had his jabs and could go out, I taught him some basic commands such as – sit, stay, paw and come. Using YouTube and treats.
When Bruce was 6/7 months, we reached out to a trainer and had a 1:1 class. The method she taught us for the lead pulling was on a slip lead, and to change direction every time he pulled. At the class Bruce was walking a bit better but once the class was over, on the same day he was back to pulling. The same trainer took him out on her own to practise this method but it just wasn’t working. Bruce wouldn’t engage with food or toys on walks.
There just wasn’t any interest in anything other than other people or dogs that would hold his attention.
After a couple of months with this trainer, I was walking back from shops and met a guy who trained police dogs. This trainer’s method was to stop walking him completely and only train him twice a day in the garden or the main road outside our house. He came to our house a couple of times but we needed to leave it a month – 6 weeks between visits.
In our first session, he taught us to lure Bruce with food under his nose until he followed us around the garden, then we’d ask him to sit, and we’d walk away with him still in a sit until we called him to come. We still do this with Bruce now as he’s very good at it.
In our second session he wanted us to work on play and food. It was quite a confusing session, and as we’d had to leave it so long in-between sessions we felt we weren’t getting anywhere with the real issues Bruce was having. In the end we stopped working with this trainer as it was a lot of money and we just weren’t getting anywhere.
We did carry on practising what we’d learned but didn’t know what to do next.
We tried the Halti face harness to help with Bruce’s lead pulling but he was absolutely petrified of it. We tried to desensitise Bruce to the Halti, putting it on him in the house and giving him lots of treats but he still hated it and was constantly trying to get it off his face on walks. The only things Bruce likes to wear is his collar and slip lead.
When we went on holiday in February this year, my brother looked after him for us, but Bruce was not engaging at all with him. He wasn’t listening, dragging him on walks. We realised that we had gotten used to his high maintenance behaviour but hadn’t really realised how bad it had got.
I found Best Life Dog Training on Instagram and watched before and after videos of his training methods and read all of the reviews. I scheduled a phone conversation and took it from there. Bruce was about to start living his best life!
They advised he would have to go in for residential training to be trained professionally and set the foundations for good behaviour so we can carry on. We’d need to implement what Bruce had learnt every day and keep it up.
When the trainer from Best Life picked Bruce up said he’d have him walking nicely in a day, and it took him a week. Usually it only takes 1-2 days so it shows how set in his ways Bruce was.
When we picked Bruce up the trainer said to us if we would have carried on as we were we’d have been training for years.
Bruce stayed with him for 2 weeks, and they worked on all of his issues.
It still is sometimes difficult and he definitely tries to push his luck but now we have the tools to be able to manage it. Bruce’s off lead behaviour and recall are amazing now, we can trust him anywhere and know he’ll always come back to us.
I would recommend residential training for those having issues with their PP. They are a breed that always craves attention whether that be from good or bad behaviour and are a lot of hard work.
I would also recommend only sending them to a residential trainer that only has 2 dogs at a time and can dedicate all day to working with your dog. Rewards based training is not for every dog and we learnt the hard way.
We were told the E-collar would be used in Bruce’s training and went in open minded. When Bruce came home we had to carry on using the E-collar but now it is only used in an emergency. Even just wearing the collar, he acts differently. Some of the walks we do now we never would have been able to do, but now we can keep him safe we can get out and explore a lot more, which makes Bruce very happy. Now all you have to do is say his name and he’ll sit down.
Bruce still wears the E-collar on walks as a precautionary measure, but he’s gone from a dog with no recall to being amazing, all within a couple of months. In time we are hoping to not have to use it at all.
How has Bruce changed since his residential training?
Bruce is already so much better and so are we, as we now know how to manage his behaviours.
He’s a lot calmer, although sometimes we have to help him to initiate being calm, he does now relax and settle.
Bruce is getting a lot more exercise, which has made him a much happier dog. We can now go out and explore new places without the worry and fear of him either pulling me over or not coming back when I recall him.
Would you recommend a PP to potential owners looking for a new dog? What advice would you give?
If you are a first time dog owner you need to know how much work you need to put the work in. They’re not the easiest breed but if you put the work in they are an amazing breed.
I would say that not all dogs react to force free training, and you have to be open minded with your training methods.
They are definitely not a breed for the faint hearted but if you’re willing to put the work in you’ll have a truly amazing dog. Obviously not all dogs of the same breed are the same, this is just our honest opinion of our experience.
With that being said, they are such a loving and affectionate breed and we’ll probably never have a dog with Bruce’s personality again. We love him so much and wouldn’t change him for the world.
