Your adolescent dog has stopped listening. That can be fixed.
One-to-one training in and around Perth for owners whose teenage dog pulls, ignores recall, or reacts to everything that moves.
We couldn't recommend her highly enough, particularly to anyone navigating the joys and challenges of living with an adolescent dog!
He was easy as a puppy. He followed you everywhere, came bounding back the moment you called him, and everyone told you what a lovely dog you had.
Then he hit seven months and somebody swapped him.
Now he drags you from tree to tree like you are a dead weight on the end of the lead. He hears you call and carries on. He has an opinion about every dog, every jogger and every car that goes past. You have read the articles, tried the tips people gave you, watched the videos, and none of it has made a dent.
So the walks have moved to the hours when nobody is about. You pick the quiet routes. You brace yourself before every corner. You have stopped taking him places you used to go, and you come back from twenty minutes out feeling like you have done a full day.
And underneath it there is the part nobody says out loud. You love this dog, you are doing your best, and you have started to wonder whether you have ruined him.
You have not.
He is an adolescent, and adolescence is the hardest stage of a dog’s life. His brain is rewiring. Everything that worked on him as a puppy stops working, and most of the advice out there was written for puppies or for grown-up dogs, not for the dog standing in front of you right now. He needs a different approach for the next few months. So do you.
That is the only thing I do. Fifteen years of it, with hundreds of owners at exactly the point you are at today.
I train your dog, not just you
Most trainers stand and tell you what to do. I will work with your dog myself from the first session, if you want me to and if he is happy with it. There is nothing like watching somebody get a response out of your own dog to make you believe it is possible. Then you take over and I coach you until you can do it without me.
I see you often, not occasionally
A lesson every few weeks gives a teenage dog far too long to practise the wrong thing and get bored of the right one. We work closely together over a short, concentrated stretch, so nothing has time to drift and you are never left stuck with something that is not working.
What owners say
Nan is a naughty labrador. Full of mischief. She was a lively puppy and learned fast. Was walking off lead and coming back very nicely. Then one day she looked at me and I heard her say not today, it's not your day, and her behaviour changed dramatically. She became that adolescent. Didn't listen. Started to lunge at everything and I ended up on my nose a lot. I really lost my confidence and taking her out was no fun.
Agata took me to the local park where we played games with Nan and helped rebuild my confidence. I can distract her when I see the signs that she will react and want to go her own way. It's not a quick fix. I have to work on it every day. And every day she tests me. She wants to be the boss and I have to keep on working with her.
The time and money spent with Agata was well worth every penny. Agata has a way of seeing what needs to be done to change the behaviour gradually.
Dianne and NanBlack Labrador, Rhynd
We took our 16-month-old Cockapoo, Shuggie, to Agata for help with his confidence and recall.
We've noticed a real difference in him. He's much more confident around other dogs and a lot better off the lead, with his recall improving too. He's still young, so there's always room for improvement!
Agata was really knowledgeable, calm and patient, and gave us plenty of useful advice to work on ourselves.
We're really pleased with the progress Shuggie has made and would highly recommend Agata to anyone looking for help with their dog.
Michael and ShuggieCockapoo, Perth
If that sounds like what you have been looking for, request a call back and tell me a little about your dog. I will ring you when it suits you, and we will talk about what is going wrong and whether I am the right person to help. No pressure and no sales pitch, just a straight conversation about where you are.
I am Agata. I live just outside Dunning and work with owners across Perth and the surrounding area, mostly with adolescent dogs and the people who are quietly at the end of their tether with them. I have raised four dogs of my own. The first one nearly broke me.
More about me and how I work