Harri and I knew that once we had bought a property of our own, we would be getting a dog. We have both grown up with dogs and couldn’t imagine making our house a home without one. We knew we wanted to a rescue a dog and were prepared for a training journey as rescuing a dog could be a big challenge. Luka was rescued from Bosnia by High Hopes Dog Rescue, Worcestershire, and after extensive chats, a home check and a visit, they allowed us to take him home. Extremely little was known about Luka’s background and he arrived very underweight, but despite this, he was a joy when we brought him home.
Harri, Luka and Stevie
Regardless of his surprising calm nature, we found Barking Buds and asked Beth to come along for a 1-2-1, especially after we had some issues crate training. We really wanted to be careful on how we were training him; we had no idea what he had been through previously. After a few disturbed nights and a neighbour complaint, Beth came and taught us all about the training games Barking Buds is based on, and after a week of positive boundary training, Luka decided he would happily sleep downstairs inside his crate. This was our first big training win.
We had three 1-2-1’s with Beth. Each time Beth came she updated our training programme after we had a catch up on how he had been getting on and what we thought needed some more work. She was amazing. From these sessions we have conquered crate training, disengagement from distractions, recall training and positive social interactions with other dogs over a four month period. When Beth asked if anyone would like to join Immersion classes, we leapt at the chance. Luka still struggles to control his excitement when we encounter other dogs whilst he is on lead, and we felt Immersion would be the perfect and correct social interaction he needed to work on this. Aimee, another trainer at Barking Buds, has been amazing in the classes. The monthly social walk also helps with his on lead dog interactions.
We are looking forward to continuing Immersion in 2023, and to achieving further Trick Titles with Barking Buds. Luka is currently a Novice trick dog and we are working towards our Novice Masters and Intermediate. The trick training has helped to build an amazing relationship between the three of us and provides some great mental stimulation for Luka.
