Ponto's history

I have had Ponto since she was a seven week old puppy. I was to have had the pick of her mother's litter, but unfortunately all the other puppies died after a couple of days and she was, therefore, a singleton. Her mother was fed up with her by the time she was a few weeks old and couldn't be fed in the same area as her. She fitted in fine with my other two dogs and played with Dylan especially. However she was very frightened of other puppies and of other dogs who wanted to play with her once she was old enough to go for walks. However, this remained behaviourwise as ignoring or running away from other dogs. I took her to puppy classes. At one class, unfortunately, a bull mastiff puppy was overly playful and "mugged" her. I found a different puppy class where she was very good but not inclined to be social and would hide behind me or under the chair. She was moved up to Good Manners early as she was way ahead of the other puppies in ordinary training, and did well in that, not minding the older dogs.

She continued doing well and passed both her bronze and silver KC Good Citizens awards by the time she was six months old. She was fearful at that time of people she didn't know so although she was perfect at everything else for the Gold award, I didn't enter her as the Judge needs to handle the dogs in that test. Nowadays she is friendly with all people and has overcome this timidity nicely.

At one year old she began agility training and at her first show at eighteen months she got a clear round in Steeplechase and came fourth in Gamblers. However, she didn't like the trainers at agility helping me with things such as the seesaw very much, although now, she is fine with trainers help etc. So people are no problem at all. She has never so much as growled at a person, it is only dogs she doesn't like. She also is fine with her own two companions, my other dogs.

I did everything I was supposed to to socialise her. We went on Social Dog walks. We went to the beach where there are plenty of other dogs and things were fine with no aggression, although she was still timid of other dogs, until she was about nine months old. At this point I went to visit my son and his family in Madrid. As I live with my elderly mother, I decided not to put the dogs in kennels but instead to have a reputable dog walker for the five days I was away. It was when I got back that I discovered that flight had turned to fight. The dog walker says that no incidents happened but the timing of her turn makes me think that I did not hear what really happened. I have therefore been left with a problem of a dog aggressive dog.

We continued with the social dog walks where, once she had met the other dogs a couple of times (and there were sometimes up to 20 or more dogs there), she would ignore them and so this was fine, but if another dog walker in the Forest came along with a dog she didn't know, then the problem would arise, and I would have to catch her to avoid conflict.

At this time she was fine at training, heelwork to music and agility.

My agility trainer thinks the problem has reoccurred as her confidence in agility and working away from me has improved so she is more daring as she comes to the end of a course.

I have taken her to behaviourists and followed advice, seen small improvements. Ready everything I can about the problem. All the standard methods, such as making her sit and look at me when other dogs pass work but if a dog is loose and races past then she becomes aggressive. This happens whether she is on or off lead, with or without me, say if she is tied to the car with the others while I put their crates up. If I am off my guard, chatting while she lies beside me at a show and a dog walks past and looks at her in what, I assume, she thinks is the wrong way, she'll lunge. So it is not necessarily anything going down the lead at that point. Also, she could be relaxed like this and totally ignore loads of other dogs going past. She doesn't seem to fit the standard patterns that most articles and behaviourists set down.

Well, I have now contacted another behaviourist. One called a holistic behaviourist and hopefully we will be able to have a consultation soon. I am determined to rehabilitate her so our walks can be peaceful again, without always having to be on the lookout for other dogs and what they are doing. But most of all I want to be confident to take her back into the agility ring at competition.

My goal is that by this time next year she will be competing again without the problem of the last jump. That she will know that as long as she is with me and stays in the ring she is secure so there will be no need to run out to chase off the dogs in the queue at shows.