DOGS BARK
This once peaceful country house...
GROWLS
This is our life.
...is now a special place...
Back, back.
My house smells of his wee.
...for those at the end of their tether.
I'm frightened it's going to kill him.
AGGRESSIVE BARKING
He has pulled my arm out the socket.
If she could get off that lead, she'd be hanging off their face.
This is make or break for us.
Here, a team of expert trainers...
Down. Back.
Look at them.
.Take on... Stop it!
...some of Britain's worst-behaved dogs...
Whoa! No, not good.
Oh, my God.
...and their humans...
How much training do you guys do now?
None.
What's this?
She's lost trust with humans.
...at an academy...
This is your opportunity to move forward,
and we're going to give you those skills. Yeah.
...unlike any other.
We need to get that muzzle off you.
Oh, I love your face.
Good boy!
That has never happened before.
Yes!
Can you believe that?
Ba-ba-ba-ba!
SHE GASPS
It's like he's a different dog.
DOGS BARK
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. It's this way.
Off to school boys. Off to school we go.
We may not have enjoyed going to school when we were younger.
However, our dogs love going to dog school.
What do you think about doing some more work?
It's mental simulation, it's enrichment.
Look at his little nose working.
It's very similar to us doing a pub quiz or perhaps playing sudoku.
Good boy. Get your toy!
Sit.
Yes. Good.
It's an opportunity for them to work their brain
and get that hit of dopamine that makes you feel good.
Yeah! Nice!
When you throw the owner into the mix
and a handful of dog treats,
there's nowhere else that that dog wants to be.
DOG WHINES
He's trying to think how he can get out, isn't he? Exactly.
He's looking for an escape route, aren't you, little man?
As most of the students enjoy their lessons...
...a brand-new pupil is en route to the dog academy.
SHEEP BAA
One-year-old poodle Daisy...
Ever since the day we picked her up she's worn a flower.
Even though she's dead scruffy and what have you,
she still wears a flower.
She's dead scruffy! Yes.
...who lives at home with Wendy and Dahana.
So, what is this family relationship, are you two sisters?
Oh, thank you very much. We are.
You're having that one, Wendy! This is the younger sister.
You've earned a brownie point today! Yes!
Yeah, mum and daughter.
Lovely. So who's the boss at home?
Dahana. You big fibber.
You're the boss.
You are. You're like a tyrant.
Only when we're in the car
and she drives above the speed limit!
So, tell me about Daisy.
95% of the time she's such a warm little girl.
But then there's just the 5% of time where she's a wild child.
A sassy one. Yes.
DAISY GROWLS
If Daisy was a celebrity she would be Madonna
with the curly hair and, you know, the conical bras,
and she'd be...
You know, "You will do what I want you to do.”
Yeah.
DAISY WHIMPERS
So, ladies, we're nearly here.
THEY GASP
Welcome to the dog academy.
We're doing the lottery to be able to win money
to buy something like this.
Thank you very much.
Here they come.
Casting an eye over the academy's latest pupil...
See you later. All the best, see you later on.
There you go mum.
...are trainers Nancy and Jo.
Good girl.
Wow, that is some mop of hair.
Come on then, Daisy.
Hello. Good morning.
Are you all right? Yes, thank you, are you? Good.
Look how much she's using her nose because she can't see anything.
I love her hair.
She desperately needs grooming.
Where are her eyes? Does she have any?
If we can't see in she can't see out.
What's her personality like?
Feisty.
When you're wanting her to do something she doesn't want to do,
you know, she doesn't like that.
She doesn't like doing as she's told?
Nope. Not with certain things.
GROWLS Eh! Hey, Daisy.
Ooo!
Daisy.
Oh, she's fierce. Yeah.
Now let me brush you. GROWLS
" Ooh! ow. Not a happy dog
Come on Daisy, let's put your harness on. Come on.
GROWLS That's not good.
She's a little dog that really is speaking her mind.
Oh, she is.
Come on. Come on.
The dreaded harness.
We can't have that kind of biting on skin.
PANTS
We're here to ask for help.
Yeah, the trainers will be out shortly, is that all right?
All right, thank you. Thanks, sweetheart.
See you in a bit.
I mean, this rug must be a fortune.
I know.
It's gorgeous.
Beautiful.
I think this might be just a little bit too big.
Yeah, I think so.
But we can dream.
THEY LAUGH
Good morning. DAISY BARKS
Don't worry about that, it's fine.
Can I put her down? Pop her down, absolutely.
Hi!
You noisy, noisy little lady.
So, tell us about the behaviours that are getting in the way
of Daisy being the perfect dog.
She is so lovable
but try putting her harness on.
OK.
Try brushing her.
It's a different story.
Yeah. You can see, without wishing to be critical,
because what you're struggling with is really difficult,
she really does need a good groom, doesn't she? Oh, she does.
I don't want a poodle what's all pom-poms
and that you know - she's a dog.
But she's got knots in her legs.
You've got to keep a poodle looking clean and tidy.
It's going to affect her health if we can't convince her
that she needs to be groomed.
The groomers will ring us up after half an hour or an hour
and say, "Can you come and pick her up?"
Because when they put her on the grooming table she just screams.
They're a bit frightened of her.
Not of her mouth thing or anything but she had to have a hip operation.
They're a bit frightened of hurting, you know, when she gets all...
And before she had the surgery?
She was fine.
What would you like to be able to do with her
with regard to the harness?
If you could just put it on her.
As soon as Mum tries to put the harness on her she'll get snappy.
If she makes that noise it's scares Mum. It scares me.
It does scare you.
I really am frightened of her.
It sounds silly - a big older woman and a little thing like that
can frighten me, but she really does.
Does she let you put the harness on her?
She's a bit fidgety, but I tell her just to shut up.
Do you have your harness with you? Yes.
Could you show us, could we have a little look what this looks like?
Come on darling. Come on.
Good girl. Good.
So, she is mouthing at your hand, isn't she?
Yeah, yeah. A lot.
OK, yeah. Did you see?
Yeah, don't ask her for any more.
We just keep on persevering.
We don't stop trying to do it.
And why did you guys get Daisy in the first place?
Company for my mum.
And it would encourage Mum to leave the house
and that way she would meet people.
When Dad died it was awful
because I was leaving Mum at home all day in the house on her own.
Mum had been married for over 50 years
and they did everything together.
So, I thought having a little dog would be absolutely perfect.
Sorry. And this is...
It's not worked out, has it?
I don't really like taking her out for a walk. OK.
I just don't want to be struggling,
putting things on her.
I can understand that.
If I can just get Daisy where I can put her harness on
without the fight, oh, it would be fabulous.
DOG BARKS
Yes!
This way, come on.
BARKS
Argh! Oh...
SHE SIGHS
What am I like?
Hoping the trainers can help sort out their mess
are the academy's latest arrivals.
So if you were to describe Marley as a song... Yeah.
...what song would it be?
"Don't leave me baby."
THEY LAUGH
I don't even know if it's that, is it that? Don't leave me...
I think the song is, "don't leave me this way."
I think it's your age, Louise, you're fine.
THEY LAUGH
Trusting the trainers will hit the right note
with seven-year-old Yorkshire terrier Marley
is sound engineer Louise.
So, it's just me and Marley at home.
Sorry, Marley.
Are you single? Am I single? Yeah?
MARLEY WHIMPERS
He's a beautiful dog. Does he get a lot of attention? Yeah.
Does he? Yeah, I was in Arsenal
and one of the matches was on
and I just heard like from the hot dog van - "So beautiful!”
I was like, "Oh, no-one really says that."
I said, "Thank you." She goes, "Not you silly, the dog!"
THEY LAUGH
Has Marley ever been a sort of good wing man?
If I bring a guy home he just stares at them.
Or he'll just come and sit in between
so they're like, "What the hell's this?"
So Marley, we're nearly here.
Oh, here they come. Let's have a look.
Watching on are trainers Sean and Kamal.
Bye. Bye, see ya, Marley. Bye!
THEY LAUGH
She's not got him on a lead. That's interesting, isn't it?
Hmm.
That would indicate that he doesn't want to leave her, you know. Yeah.
Are you excited? Yeah!
Hello, you all right? I'm fine, how are you?
I'm good, thank you, I'm Grace.
Who've we got here? Marley.
He's a happy little chap pie.
He's adorable.
Look, where are we?
He's beautiful. So why Marley? I love the name.
Well, basically, when I got him he was like quite matted,
so like Bob Marley, like Rasta dreadlocks.
I was like, "OK." I love that!
THEY LAUGH
He's come in quite confident and happy.
He likes his toys, he's toy motivated,
that's nice, that's really, really helpful.
I can tell he's playful. Very.
He went straight for the ball, didn't he? Yeah, very much so.
Does he run you round? Um... Keeps you on your feet.
Having the one person like now, he'll just sit and stare.
Is he your little bestie? Yeah.
Is he? Are you close? Yeah, yeah, yeah, very close.
Separation anxiety, he's got.
He literally has to come everywhere with me,
even if I go to get up,
which I'll show you,
he'll get up too.
Everything you do. Yeah, basically.
He's just staring at her, isn't he? Yeah, yeah.
He can't take his eyes off her.
Yeah, he's became very focused, hasn't he?
I wonder what would happen if she moved. Mmm.
If she wasn't there with him, yeah. That'll be interesting.
I'll leave you for a little while. OK.
Let Marley have a roam round and the trainers will be out shortly
to have a chat. Amazing. Is that all right?
Yeah, that's perfect. OK, good luck.
So, are you going to be OK? Yeah. Not going to cry?
You're going to be a good boy, aren't you? Yeah. OK, up. That's it.
Come on. Good lad.
Good girlie, OK, that's fine.
What we don't want to do is go and grab her and make it happen.
And that's what I do, manhandling. It is what we've done.
But I also know the importance of grooming her.
So how would you describe your relationship with Daisy now?
I love her to bits. I love her to bits.
I was in a funny little place after losing David
and I can't think of life without her now, really.
Yeah. So you said it was after David passed that you got Daisy?
Yes. What do you think he would've thought of her?
I don't think we would've had her, to be quite honest.
Because me and David had nomadic lives, really. We had a narrow boat
and then we had a motor home.
We had such fun. Yeah.
If we had the money to do something
and we wanted to do it, we did it. And I'm right glad we did. Yes.
Because you can be here today and gone tomorrow.
He got this infection in his leg, went into hospital,
cos it was fairly bad.
Caught Covid in hospital. In hospital?
You know, and, uh, and he didn't come home.
So it were, yeah, it were difficult.
Cos I loved him to bits.
He was everything to me. I wish you could've met him,
you'd have liked him. You know. Everybody liked David.
We'd been together 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We'd done everything together. I'm not doing anything.
I'm just, I'm stagnating. Yeah.
And I'm missing out.
I've been stuck in the house for over a year now,
I need to move on. I need to get out and do things
and start a bit of a new life I think, really.
I do hope Daisy can help me do that.
I don't take her out now, like I'm hoping to.
And when you've got a dog you meet people.
Yeah. She was there to get you out and about,
but now she's kind of keeping you in.
Yeah. Now she's keeping me in.
So tell us what, what's the issue, what's the deal?
So basically if I leave him, he gets separation anxiety
so he just can't be left alone. OK.
Cos he just really starts barking, scratching the door,
it's just a bit of a nightmare.
Wow. Do you think if you left here now, do you think he'd do it?
Yeah. Do you want to try? Do you want to give it a go?
Just leave him in here, let's see what happens, yeah?
So just keep him in here. Ooh!
Marley, just pop him back that's OK. Good boy, that's it,
we're going in. Come on, this way, this way.
Perfect, OK. Let's see what happens then.
OK.
DOG WHINES, RATTLES DOOR
Wow. Marley... Marley.
That's pretty extreme, isn't it? OK, Louise.
Yeah, come back in, please.
Ah, there you are! I just went to go to the shop! Yay.
Come on, this way. OK. Bring him back.
It's really interesting that as soon as you left... Yeah.
...he just loses all interest in toys, everything.
In everything. And he's just... His focus, yeah.
"Get my mum back, get my mum back.” Yeah. So he'll do that
like constantly. Mm-hm. Until I come back.
I feel like I'm a prisoner, cos I can't leave my house,
if I do, he's going to be upset, just a nervous wreck.
Shaking, barking, become hysterical.
So, yeah, I can't really do anything.
You know, it's just so upsetting.
If I said put a flag in the sand,
when this started, where would you go to?
Probably around one and a half like, he started being really clingy
and very problematic, I'd say.
Since I've had Marley, I've not been on holiday.
I don't have a social life.
I can't physically go out with my friends,
go out for a drink.
Marley has stopped my love life from progressing.
I can't just go out on dates. I can't.
Literally, he has taken over my life.
Are you getting anxious now? A little bit.
Just relax. It's all right. OK, yeah, cos I'm like...
BREATHES TIGHTLY You're sort of up there.
I know, I'm like, "Oh, my God, I feel so tense."
Just relax, everything, everything's all right,
and it's just one of things where we're going to get you
back on track. OK. All right, just relax, it's all right.
It's really important that, Marley's behaviour is fixed.
Just so I can literally have like a day to day life.
It's too much for me like, there's only so much
a person can take.
This is like the last, the last bit of hope that I've got.
Good girl.
She will ask to be put up on my mum’s knee. Yeah.
For my mum to back scratch, which is why we can't understand
why she won't let us do the same with a brush.
I think because of the surgery she's had... Yeah.
...her association with being picked up
and handled in a situation where she has no control, equals pain.
Oh. Painful memories stick very, very well.
When a dog has had stroking or touching in an area
where they feel pain,
even when the illness or injury's been resolved
the memory of that pain is still there and can cause dogs to react.
Because up to now you haven't always listened to her communication
she's escalated to the point where she is heard.
Her go to is growl and snap.
Dogs have very little control over their every day life.
We decide what they eat, where they sleep,
where they go, who they interact with.
So it's really important that we learn
to listen when they're communicating their wants and their needs.
Daisy is being forced to do things she doesn't consent to.
She does lots of dog body language behaviours saying
I'm not comfortable, I want this to stop,
please somebody help me. She's not listened to.
And when that happens repeatedly there is that breakdown of trust.
Wow. I knew it was what
we were doing but I didn't know what it was.
Her feelings are causing the behaviours.
If she doesn't feel threatened, if she doesn't feel, overwhelmed,
she doesn't feel those feelings she won't need to bite.
Yes. Does that make sense?
It does. It does, it makes a lot of sense.
This is what we were hoping we would get.
A light bulb moment.
It's these issues, like Daisy with the harness and,
and the, the grooming,
very easy to treat - once you listen to your dog.
Yeah. And with that the relationship will just change forever.
Oh, that's wonderful. We just want her to be happy.
So, what I'm going to do,
I'm going to offer her some food and stroke.
Good girl. We're creating positive association.
I can feel this happening to me but I'm eating
and I feel good, this is quite nice.
She has a long history of saying no so we have
to go in tiny steps. Hey, are you ready for some more?
So we need to go at her pace.
When she says she wants a break, we give her a break. OK.
OK, going to offer her some cheese
and I'm going to stroke with the grooming mitt.
Wow, good girl!
Gosh, how clever is that?
So when she backs off and says can I have a break please, Jo,
I said, yeah, no problem. When she comes forward.
Oh, that's beautiful sitting. Wow.
I'm going to ask her again with the grooming mitt with
the flat side.
Good girl. Nice job.
So she backs off so I say OK.
So you see what I mean about consent, when she says
she's had enough I say OK, you let me know when you want to come back
so she doesn't feel the need to growl.
She goes away, she had a little think about it.
Yeah? OK.
Good girlie.
So you've got a bit of a mountain to climb.
But I think she's proved this
morning that it is not insurmountable for her.
I think it's just been amazing what you've managed to do.
Good. It's, it's magical.
BARK
Let's go again and round.
Yes. Nice work.
It's mid-morning.
Down. Yes.
And the trainers are hard at work.
And to help with Marley's separation anxiety.
Who's a good boy?
Sean has had to enlist Louise's friend Mark to come to
the academy to keep him calm.
What's wrong?
Only now can training begin.
OK, how you feeling at the moment?
Um, yeah, a little bit better.
OK. I'm just like, oh, like how's Marley.
OK. Yeah.
OK. You've got quite a close bond, haven't you?
Yeah.
Yeah, when was the last time you actually left him then
and for how long?
I don't think I have, I have to take him basically with me.
WWow. And I feel like I can't be living my life
for another ten years, just very restricted.
So, why did you get Marley?
Because I was leaving, my home town,
Manchester, and I was just like I just want that companion.
I think cos I had a dog as a child,
when I was a child that was my comfort blanket.
Moving from Manchester to London by myself, obviously,
I was a little bit anxious.
It's a big city and I didn't want to feel like isolated and alone
and obviously having a dog when I was younger I knew that
I would have comfort and companionship.
What sort of dog did you have as a child then?
Collie. Oh, did you? A Border collie, yeah.
OK. Champ. He was just literally my best friend
and I would play out with the dog and, you know,
for hours and hours so, yeah, it,
it ran away one time like, the window was down in the car.
The dog ran off?
Yeah. OK.
I was trying to put the dog into the,
into like, put the seat belt over the dog
and then he just like jumped out the window and ran off.
The dog was my everything. I was devastated.
And I remember I wouldn't speak.
Champ was a big part of my life. Like,
growing up as a child like, just my comfort pillow,
like he was just there and...
Oh...
You really loved him? Mm.
How old were you when this all happened?
Like eight or nine.
Miraculously, he just come back like a month later.
Wow. Yeah.
And you didn't talk for a month? No, I just didn't speak.
Wow. I just didn't speak to anyone.
And you internalised it, did you?
Yeah.
When we were in reception, we said to you,
erm, could you just go out the door.
You physically changed in your being
to walk less than six foot out of the door.
You literally changed.
You could see everything about you went from being chilled
to, you suddenly went, I'm anxious.
And actually what you were doing was you were going back
to that place when Champ was away
from you and you didn't know what was happening.
Yeah.
So you've conditioned your brain.
Yeah. That when you're away from Champ.
Mm-hm. Substitute Champ for Marley, you get anxious.
Yeah. When you leave him, right?
He senses, "Oh, jeez," because what's happening is,
you're projecting onto the dog.
Yeah. Yeah. Can you see that?
Yeah. Oh, God, poor Marley.
The thing is about dogs and humans is that relationship we have
with them it doesn't just get confined
to things that we want them to pick up.
They will pick up on your emotional Wi-Fi. Oh, wow. Do they?
Yeah. OK? That's crazy.
You need to ref, think about reframing the Champ experience.
Yeah, your, your, everything about that relationship
you're defining by that one moment. Mm-hm. Yeah?
That was, in the grand scheme of things, actually a blip.
Yeah. That he came back.
Mm-hm. It wasn't what you're telling yourself.
Yeah. Are you with me?
Mm-hm. By reframing that, you're going to be able to help Marley.
In the process of helping Marley you're going to help yourself.
Mm-hm, thank you. All right?
Yeah. You feel better about things?
Yeah, very much so, yeah.
Daisy. I can see Grandma.
Daisy. Daisy. I can see Grandma.
You can let her go if you like. Hello.
Now reunited... Hello, sweetheart. Yay!
Now the family's back together.
...it's time for Wendy to begin harness training with Daisy.
Are you ready for your nemesis now? Are you ready?
No.
So the way we're going to do this. Yeah.
Going to get some food in your hand. Right.
And you're going to slip the harness over your wrist.
Right. OK?
Going to turn your palm up and bring her head through.
Right.
What's really important,
as you're putting this on is that you're not pushing it on her.
You're holding it still and asking her to come through.
Yeah.
You ready? Good girl. Well done.
So if you let her know you've got some food.
Daisy, look what I've got. Ooh, look.
And then you pull your hand back. That's it. Oh.
That's it.
Nearly. That's it.
Keep pulling your hand backwards so she leans in.
Don't push it over.
Good girl, Daisy. Oh, good girl. Beautiful. Good girl.
But we don't want her to get stuck.
Oh, we'll take it off. Your big fluffy head.
I think that once she's had her hair cut it might be a little bit easier. Yes, easier.
Ooh.
So next step, if we can, I'd like to get that fastened. OK?
Oh, look at this, look at this.
And if she tells you to stop, then you stop.
It's all about understanding consent and reading each other.
No. All right, darling.
That's lovely, well done.
Good girl. Now back with the treats again if she'll take treats again.
Treat?
Yeah, good girl.
Harness on, nobody bitten.
Brilliant. No growls, no teeth.
It's all about consent. Yeah.
And once you understand that, everything will change.
Yeah. At the moment two of you needed for the harness.
BOTH: Yeah. But, I believe with training and patience
and time, I think you'd be able to do that by yourself.
Can I give you both a hug? Yeah! Thank you so much.
It's exciting, isn't it? You did all the hard work.
Well done.
Unbelievable. You're getting emotional, are you?
Uh, it's all I wanted.
Aw.
Well done. Well done.
Now everyone's on the same page, it's time
to get Daisy into the grooming room. Ooh!
The trainers have set up a makeshift grooming room
to test how well Dahana
and Wendy read Daisy when she gives
and withdraws consent in her most feared place.
What's in here Daisy?
Going to the groomers can be quite terrifying.
For us, it's quite similar to going to
a dentist who doesn't speak the same language as us,
perhaps they start poking and prodding around.
That's terrifying.
So it's really important that we listen to our dogs.
Your first task is going to be
to get Daisy up onto the grooming table.
Oh, look,
there's your steps, Daisy.
What's these?
What? Daisy?
She's saying no. Mm-hm.
Come on. Round this side. Good girl. Come on.
Come on.
No, you can't have the jar.
Come on. Come on, Daisy.
Come on, little dog. You can do it.
Daisy, look what we've got.
Come on, then.
I've got to say, I'm, I don't think she's going to get up there.
Where's Dahana. Come on.
Don't you want to do those steps, come on?
Dais, Daisy... Daisy.
DAISY BARKS Ooh. It's all right, it's only wind.
Not going great at the moment.
Daisy. Come on.
Come on.
BARKING
He does this even if we're going to the shops
and I have to wait outside with him and she's gone into the shop.
He'll still do this. He'll do this, yeah.
So... BARKING CONTINUES
All right, oi, come on, look. SQUEAKS TOY
In the indoor training room, despite Mark's presence,
Marley is still not settling
and Sean is yet to begin his training.
What's this, whoa.
What's this?
Mmm, mmm.
It's nice. Here you go. Come on, oh, get some water at least.
Ah, come on. Marley.
Marley.
BARKING
There's a few different things that cause separation anxiety.
But the main thing is that we spend stacks
and stacks of time around them,
and then you decide to leave that dog,
the dog starts to panic,
it can't sort of function by itself and it creates this anxiety.
Oi, what's that?
Look, what's that?
The way that Marley's being right now, this is one of
the worst separation anxiety cases that I've seen.
Marley's not responding to anything
and I just can't do any training with him.
Even with Mark he's still expressing
his really severe separation anxiety.
So what we're going to do is we're going to get Louise back in,
to start building that confidence away from her.
With Marley, we are starting from the bottom.
If we manage to get Marley doing his thing,
being a dog and confident whilst Louise isn't there,
that would be more than an achievement for me.
But that is a massive challenge with how severe he is.
What we got?
Come on then. Look.
Back in the pen... Good girl, that's it, good girl.
Ah, go, go, go. All the way. Come on.
...Dahana and Wendy are struggling to get Daisy to consent
to climbing onto the grooming table.
She might need a bit of a sniff about, you know. Yeah.
Let's go for a walk around. Good girl. And have a sniff.
Let her have a sniff, spot on.
You have a walk round and a sniff
and then we'll have another go in a minute.
What do you want to do? You tell us what you want to do.
Wendy, that's beautiful.
The fact that you recognise that she needed a minute,
spot on. Keep going, well done.
Come on, Daisy. Come on.
Come on, you can do it. Run. Come on Daisy, come on.
Oh! Oh! Come on, Daisy, up you get.
Come on, Daisy, up, up, up, up, up, up, please.
Good girl. Come on then, are you ready?
Shall we try again?
We going to run and jump? Are we? Come on.
I feel like Daisy's run out of steam a little bit.
I think she's a little bit tired.
You having a good sniff. Sniffing's good.
There's nothing to be scared of.
Yeah, I think the fact that they're giving her a breather is perfect.
We can't ask for much more than that. No.
Eh?
Oh, look, look what Grandma's got.
Look what Grandma's got, go on.
Oh! Clever girl. Good girl.
Oh, yes! Nearly.
Good girl. Good girl, come on then. Nearly.
Clever girl. You're trying so hard.
Come on. Good girl, go on, then.
Woo! BOTH: Yay! Good girl.
What a dog.
Well done. That's amazing.
Well done, guys, that was absolutely brilliant.
I don't think she could've shown you more consent of being willing
to get on that table. It was amazing. Amazing.
Lovely.
Next step, we're going to do some grooming. OK. Right.
So just ahead of you on the table is a grooming mitt. Yes.
I'd like you to pop the grooming mitt on your hand.
And then just gently let her know you've got it, let her see it.
Look what, look what Grandma's got. Whoa.
And then you're going to start grooming.
Oh, my goodness!
And that is our job done.
LAUGHTER
Oh, Daisy. That was brilliant.
OK. She was just starting to show her teeth
a little bit there so I'm just stopping now.
Good girl.
That's lovely.
Wow.
Just gentle. Oh, is that nice?
No, you, all right, darling. I'm listening to you.
I'm listening and you don't want it.
Oh.
Look how relaxed she is on that grooming table.
Is that nice?
It was like watching you baby take the first steps.
Just to see her jump up on her own accord,
it was such a breakthrough. It, it was terrific.
It was. So exciting.
Good girl, well done.
Oh, good girl, Daisy.
Beautiful. Come on, sweetheart. Well done.
This is a, a big step forward. You'll be going out soon.
I will. Walking with her. You will. You'll be having fun.
With a beautifully groomed dog.
Oh, yes. Yeah.
Come on, sweetheart.
Good girl.
Well done.
Go on, then.
Hello. Yay!
In the courtyard...
You're a good boy, aren't you? Hiya.
...after being reunited with Louise,
it's time for Marley to begin working on his independence.
Marley has a very, very unhealthy attachment to you
and let's be truthful, you have with him. Yeah.
OK, we've discussed that at length. Mm-hm.
So it's going to take time to change that narrative
in his mind as well as yours. OK? Mm-hm.
But that doesn't mean that we can't change it. Yeah.
So we're going to work on allowing him to be who he is.
OK. OK? So that he can build confidence.
So what we're going to do is randomly put the ball in one of the cones.
OK. And see if he'll go and find the ball. OK? Yeah, OK.
This is him building independence.
So he's taking on a challenge and then he's achieving it
and he looks around and he goes, ah, my mum's not there.
Yeah. I did that myself.
True. And that's the key that builds confidence.
So. What's this? See what he does. Where's the ball? Marley, look.
So are we going to fake out where it goes, eh?
Go and get it. Good, OK. Get it. Go and get it, go on.
Get it, get it, get it, get it. Good boy.
Where's it, where's that ball? It's OK. Where's that ball?
He's OK, go. Let him figure it out.
Good boy.
Good. Good boy.
Nice! Yes, good boy.
APPLAUSE
Good. See all that time...
Yeah? ..he's getting more engrossed in this task.
Yeah. Cos he's not so... Absorbed. ..concerned about you. Exactly.
We're starting to just build that little bit of independence. OK?
So what we're going to do now,
we're going to move it where he's starting to go out of sight. OK.
So around a corner.
DRAMATIC MUSIC
Confidence is the first step to training separation anxiety.
So let's take him through here, let him see.
So let him see the ball.
What's this? Hey, what's this?
We've got to build it up in really small steps
so we start with five seconds away,
but then that quickly becomes ten seconds
and before you know it you get into minutes
and you build and you build and build.
The whole key to it is the dog's learning that they can succeed, cope
and be independent away from the owner.
OK, so we're going to back off. OK? OK.
And Sean's going to come out so back right up, back up, let's push it.
So I'm out in the pen, now you. OK. Go on, from here. OK? OK.
Stay there, you're all right, you're good.
You can do this. OK? Off you go, go on, go for it.
Find it, Marley. Go get it. Yes.
Go find, quick. Good boy!
So he's by his self. Doesn't know where, you could be walking off now.
True. And he's just being a dog. He's being a terrier now. Yeah.
Back in the pen... There he is. Oh, has he got it? Oh, he's not got it.
That's OK. That's all right. So we send him again.
Let's go back, yeah. Go back, go find your ball. Go find it. Go get
your ball. It's in there. Go and find it, good boy, Marley. Go on.
...Marley is taking on a challenge
to build his confidence away from Louise.
So that terrier that was stuck to your side,
you then just sent him away. Yeah.
Yeah, not even with you. It's amazing. Yeah.
Has he got it? Good boy.
CHEERING
Good boy! And he went...
And, yeah, he's like, oh, Sean's my bestie.
...and he went to you. How does that feel? How does that feel?
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah?
Cos I think the first time he went he was probably a little bit
anxious, then the second time he was like, no, I can do this.
He can do this! Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
All right? So... OK. ..because he's been smashing that so well... Yeah.
...all right, we're going to move to a harder challenge. Mm-hm.
All right? We're going to let you do this on your own. OK? Mm-hm.
Sean and Kamal have set up a living room
to test how Marley will react in a home environment.
He'll have to find the ball in the cone without Louise in the room.
What do you reckon to your living room, bit different?
It's amazing, I love it. An outside living room.
It's great in the summer, not so good in the winter.
Are you ready to roll?
Yeah.
Genuinely, my palms are sweaty.
Yeah, me too.
Good boy.
So we're going to do the same game with him.
And you're going to go out of sight.
This is all about just stage by stage building that confidence.
All right? OK, yeah. One step at a time, he'll then build it.
All right? All right? Cool. OK, this way, Marley.
That's it pick him up.
Just take a moment, don't rush. You're in control, stay calm.
OK.
There we go.
This is a big one. This is a big one.
With severe separation anxiety, it can take years to fix.
And when treating cases like this on day one of training
to get the dog to be out of sight from the owner for ten,
20, 30 seconds is a huge victory.
OK. That's it, go to the door, send him in,
you're going to shut that door, we'll tell you when.
OK. Ready?
Yeah.
Go for it.
Go find, go, Marley. Go. Quick.
Close the door.
Let him figure it out. Let him figure it out.
Oh, God.
Aw, come on, Marley.
Nice. Awesome.
Oh, we've got it, he's got it.
Yay! Yes!
SHE WHOOPS
Yeah.
Woo!
Excellent.
How do you feel, Louise?
Oh, yeah, that was amazing cos I,
cos he even come over and then he come back.
And he couldn't even see you there. Yeah.
And he's still not freaking out.
He's like, no, no, I'm doing my job. I'm being a dog,
I've got that confidence, I am going to get this tennis ball.
Yeah. That was amazing.
This is the first time I've seen him just go off on his own.
I've been living like this for so many years like
a prisoner basically, and today I feel free.
You can do this in the long grass. Oh, yeah, true.
So you can have a ball with you and
you just chuck it in there and you go, "You go be a terrier now." Yeah.
And he just goes in there and he's going through,
getting muddy, covered and stuff like that. And that's what we want
rather than him just walking along looking at you. Yep.
Yeah. He's like, right, where's the next challenge?
What am I going to get after?
This time next year, I'll be packing my bags.
I'll be sending a postcard from wherever I am
to Marley saying, I'm enjoying myself,
I'm having a great time and I hope you are.
Come on. Ho-ho-ho.
Good boy.
And I can now brush her using the brush in one hand,
cheese in the other and she's not got any big knots in her.
Now, when you are putting the harness on,
yes, she is still, she's dancing and wriggling,
but it, it's manageable now.
The harness goes on and she's happy and out we go.
Good girl.
We go round the shops.
Daisy loves going into a coffee shop and having sit down.
We have managed to get to the doggie cafe.
There's a separate menu for dogs. It's lovely.
Love you, don't we? Love you, baby.
I've encouraged like more of an independent environment
for Marley which has really helped with his confidence.
He's not always looking for me for reassurance.
It's allowed me and Marley not to be so co-dependent on each other.
So I can now leave Marley three to four hours
without me getting stressed and Marley getting stressed
because we're both stress free now.
Because he knows I'm coming back
and I know that I haven't got a stressed dog at home.
I feel like a new person, I can go out on dates.
Words can't express like how happy I am.
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