September 28, 2008

We first met Wayne in the summer of 2006. Hogan, our Lab/Golden cross, was 1 1/2 years old and had had extensive hip surgery on both sides when he was six months and then a year old. His recovery took a total of almost 5 months and during that time he had no contact with other dogs and very little with people other than family, simply because he had to be kept as quiet as possible in order to heal. Once he was healed and we began walking again, he grew progressively more aggressive with other dogs that we met. He would bark and lunge at them and would not listen to me when I called him off. I took to walking high in the hills above our house to avoid meeting other people with dogs and would immediately head off in a completely different direction if I saw anyone coming with a dog.

We heard about Wayne from our vet and were very excited to hear about his work with dog aggression. He came out to the house and met Hogan and we met weekly for a while. Wayne showed me ways to help get Hogan to listen to me and pay attention when I called him. Wayne also emphasized that I needed to become the “Pack Leader” in Hogan's eyes. In addition, we attended obedience classes where Hogan had a great deal of interaction with other dogs.

Wayne introduced the pager collar to Hogan and, in the beginning, I was paging quite frequently. I truly did not believe that anything would stop Hogan once he started running towards another dog, but it worked! Hogan still wears it when we go out nowadays but I rarely use it to page him anymore. It's more of a backup for me so that I know that, if I have to, I can re-direct Hogan if he's doing something he shouldn't be. We also joined Wayne's Adventure Walks which were quite impressive with 20 – 30 dogs and owners showing up to go for a walk and do some basic training as we went.

Hogan is a different dog than he was two years ago. He still has his moments but they are becoming less and less noticeable the more I work with him.

One of the main things that Wayne taught me is that there is no “end” in working with your dog. Training is continuous and ongoing. I realized that right away when I stopped working with Hogan and just began walking him again. He gradually went back to his old behaviours of barking and lunging at other dogs. So now we walk and train, play and train, have fun and train!

Thank you Wayne for giving us back the freedom to go to doggie parks, swimming at the doggie beach and to just go for long walks and hikes together without always being afraid of some kind of altercation with another dog. I would recommend Wayne to anyone looking for an excellent, caring trainer to work with their dog. He has a special something when it comes to communicating with dogs that is absolutely amazing!

Barb Bertram and Hogan