My first dog was perfect.
I thought they were all like that.
Then I got the bitch from hell.
Sharp learning curve or what?

apart from the dog bit that could've been written by my partner about me

When he had the pin cushion I was very calm and he wasn't racing around with it I just very calmly distracted him to get him away from it, he was on the operating table within the hour, 1 embedded in the roof of his mouth and 6 in his stomach.
That was an addition story to the major problem of getting aggressive with food and other food related articles really.

Just to update everyone with Alfie, we went to see Steve Mann at Alpha dogs on Wednesday. ( I'm sorry Krusewalker that I didn't come back to you again but last weekend was a problem to us) We have a feeding regime to follow, starting with an empty bowl and adding food etc etc. We also have a few other things to teach, a retrieve which will help with him accepting putting something into our hand also a couple of other little but significant things which will help with distraction from doing 'naughty' things. We are also hoping to start on a training course with them soon. Over all feeling fairly confident, we had one little 'gremlin' moment yesterday which was triggered by my other Giant I think but that was fairly quickly dispersed. Steve is a great guy, he made us feel very positive and he's got such a way with dogs and good people skills too, feeling happy and looking forward to more training a a very happy dog.
Nicola

That's great, good news

Great to read you are being so proactive and sorting this out with good help

Wys
x

That's absolutely fantastic.

I'm glad Steve was good, he's a great guy, and Alfie sounds like he should make real progress.

Is your daughter okay?

All the best with the training.

I thought you would like Steve, he knows his stuff, so chuffed that you have been to see him and followed through.

Having a plan and a good support gives you confidence.

Glad you got to see Steve he is a good bloke and I've known him a while

My daugther is alright with Alfie, it's been 2 weeks now, in the last few days she has made a fuss of him quite a few times, it takes a bit of time to heal from the image you have in your mind of what happened.

Steve said he is a lovely dog and as long as we do what he has suggested things should be fine.

Our ringcraft class we go to on a Wednesday had a competition night last week, it was only the 3rd time we'd been and several people commented on how well he was doing, the first week he couldn't stand still for 2 seconds, he will now stand for a judge for several minutes and he loves strutting his stuff, there were 8 puppies, sadly he didn't win anything this month but we are hoping to enter some companion and open shows through the summer and we would also like to get him doing something along the lines of agility perhaps once we have got some of the basic stuff covered, I want his life to be full and exciting.
I will keep you updated with our progress as it happens.
Thanks again everyone for your help and advice over the last couple of weeks.
Nicola

Steve is great, isn't he?

Onwards and upwards and it'll soon be something you look back on and wonder what on Earth happened