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Benji Testimonial ...

The following story is about a very, very handsome, but very, very demanding male chocolate Labrador called Benji.

He came to live with us from the kind people at ‘The Labrador Rescue Trust’, after what appears to have been a rather poor start in life. He, as with many ‘rescue’ dogs came with a little (to say the least), emotional baggage.

Benji had a number of issues that needed addressing and following a referral from Christine at the trust, we contacted Nic from ‘Pippins’ and initially sought his advice. We subsequently made an appointment for him to come and see us, and more importantly to experience Benji in action.

Benji basically did pretty much what he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it. He would come when called, only if there was nothing else of interest happening. Benji would jump all over guests immediately upon arrival, he refused to sit, stay, lie etc. on command and he had a habit of mouthing, usually our 6 year old and on one occasion, a WPC on the seafront!

From the minute Nic arrived at our home, he was in ‘diagnostic’ mode. He seemed to recognise specific behaviours in Benji immediately - triggers that we hadn’t noticed during the weeks that Benji had already been with us. Nic explained what Benji was doing, and why. He also left us with some instructions and training aids to work with.

After this initial consultation, we agreed that we thought the investment was going to be worthwhile and booked a further 5 sessions with Nic.

On the second meeting Nic came fully prepared with a strategy to address Benji’s problem areas. He outlined where Benji was currently at, what he thought were realistic goals for us and Benji, and a step-by-step guide to assist us all, in achieving these goals.

That’s pretty much how it worked, Nic would explain the exercise, he would demonstrate it with Benji and then we would then imitate it. This all sounds easier than it is, but Nic showed us how timing and the correct body language, are very important to minimise confusing an already, very confused doggy.

Over the course of the 6 weeks we made huge progress with Benji, which was only possible with Nic’s help and his ability to identify the problem(s) and subsequently formulate an effective route to the solution.

Changing unwanted behaviour that is firmly established is never going to be easy to remedy, but with professional advice from a trainer like Nic, who truly cares about and loves what he does, anything is possible.

He doesn’t know this, but we nicknamed him ‘The Dog Whisperer’!

Thanks to both Nic and Sandra at Pippins,

from both of us and Benji x.

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