From Barking Bully to Perfect Pooch

Harry a six-year old Jack Russell turned out to be the dog from hell.  For such a small creature he certainly caused a big disturbance and drove Justine to the point of absolute desperation.

‘Harry barked at everything, all the time.  He would bark at us to throw things for him, he would push stones at me to throw and bark incessantly if I sat in the garden, he would bark if I talked to anyone whether in the house or outside.  I couldn’t even stop when I was walking with him to say hallo to anyone because his barking would drown us out.  He would bark non-stop if I put him out in the garden and I was then stuck with him barking his head off because I couldn’t get him back indoors again’.

Life became increasingly stressful following the birth of the couple’s three children, now aged five, two and 11 months.  ‘Before we had the children we were able to give Harry the attention he demanded, but since the children things had gone from bad to worse’.

Harry’s bad behaviour wasn’t limited to barking either.  He was nicknamed ‘Harry Houdini’ because of his habit of escaping from the garden and then leading his owners on a merry dance.

‘Harry would escape at any opportunity.  If you opened the gate he would make a dash to get out and once he was gone I had no hope of getting him back.  Many is the time I have run from one garden to the next with three children in tow trying to catch him, all to no avail.  On some occasions I even rang Stephen at work and he had to come home to go and find the dog’.

The final straw came a few weeks ago when Justine had let Harry out in the garden where he chose to bark endlessly at some squirrels in a tree.

‘I tried to get Harry back in the house, but he just wouldn’t come and I couldn’t get hold of him.  When I finally did get near him he started to growl at me and bared his teeth.  I was really upset and scared by this and knew that something had to be done’.

Although Harry was better behaved with Stephen even he couldn’t control the barking.

‘Because Harry did take some notice of Stephen, I don’t think he realised just how stressful it was for me to be on my own with Harry and the children, knowing that I had no control of him whatsoever.  Many’s the time he has reduced me to tears of frustration’ says Justine.

The couple had tried various methods to stop Harry’s unwanted barking, including an anti-bark collar which emitted a high pitched sound, but nothing worked.

Deliverance from this naughty dog came in the form of Kim Lummis of Bark Busters home dog training.  Kim, a behavioural therapist with Bark Busters soon had peace and sanity restored in the Moore household.

‘I am honestly jubilant at what Kim has achieved with Harry.  Within the first hour of Kim being here Harry had started taking notice of me and by the end of the first session I had got Harry’s barking totally under control.  Everything Kim showed me was so straightforward, yet it worked brilliantly.  When Stephen came home that evening he couldn’t believe the difference in Harry.  We were both astounded.’ says Justine.

Kim explains that ‘Harry is a lovely dog, but it was pretty clear that he felt he had to be in charge of not only the house and garden, but of Justine and Stephen too.  What he really needed was some strong leadership in a way that he could clearly understand’. 

The training certainly worked for everyone. ‘When I went back both Justine and Harry looked considerably more relaxed – Justine because she no longer had to cope with a four legged terror as well as a busy family and Harry because he had been relieved of the stress of looking after everyone’ says Kim.

Four weeks on and Harry is making excellent progress.  Justine has good control of Harry and knows that if he does start to bark that she can stop him. 

‘It is such a relief to know that I now do have control over Harry and am so very glad that we found Bark Busters’.

For more information about Bark Busters take a look at www.barkbusters.co.uk

To contact a Bark Buster Therapist call Freephone 0808 100 4071

Bark Busters, the world’s largest, most trusted dog training company, started in Australia in 1989 and came to the United Kingdom in 1999. Since inception, over 400,000 dogs have been trained worldwide. With more than 230 offices in eight countries, Bark Busters is continuing its mission to build a global network of dog behavioural therapists to enhance responsible dog ownership and reduce the possibility of maltreatment, abandonment, and euthanasia of companion dogs. Bark Busters is the only international dog training company that offers a lifetime guarantee. Therapists will provide future sessions free of charge if problem behaviours recur, or if any new problems develop. For more information, call 0808 100 4071 or visit www.barkbusters.co.uk, where dog owners can complete a Dog Behavioural Quiz to rate their dogs’ behaviour.