40 mins read

Introduction

To expect a calm and balanced dog, a caregiver needs to provide 3 essential elements to the dog’s daily life- his/her calm and confident leadership to the dog, structured routine including proper exercise regimen for the dog, and socialisation with other dogs and people. This case study underscores these essentials and the impact on a dog’s behaviour going awry if any one of the above critical components are absent or mitigated. But more importantly, this study also serves to highlight the fine ability of a dog, irrespective of its adult age, breed or gender, to stop all unwanted behaviour in a short time (6-12 days) and embrace its natural calm and balanced self if the caregiver diligently works to restore these fundamentals for the dog.

The training for Ella and Simba were done at different dates and at two separate cities but they were dogs with same behaviour issues. So, for simplicity, their training is described together in this case study. Ella is 3y female Lab with Anshul Kumar at Crossing Republik, Ghaziabad. Simba is 3y male Pitbull with Ankita Dedha at Kondli, Delhi. Different breeds and genders, same adult age and behaviour issues. Ella had bitten both staff and Mausi and Simba had bitten a person in the house. Both dogs met guests with undue excitement, such as barking at the sound of doorbell, running to the door to meet and jump on the guests. On walks, both pulled on the leash and had severe dog-dog aggression (barking, growling and lunging). Ella had other biting/aggression triggers such as when she was removed from bed, her nails were clipped (grooming), while putting muzzle on her, and when an item was pulled from her mouth or picked from near her (resource guarding). Simba had bitten and severely injured the ear of a cow in Ankita’s cow shed.

At first glance, the reasons for the troubling behaviour of both dogs may lead to much head scratching. But, unlike us, dogs do not make things complicated. They present visible signs to their dys-regulated behaviour early on and readily look forward for it to be addressed by the caregiver. One may note by watching the training videos for either dog that all 3 essential pillars to lay the foundation of a calm and balance dog were unfortunately absent in both cases. So, lets re-visit each of these elements to understand them in relation to the vexing behaviour and later awesome rehabilitation of the two dogs.

1. Dogs naturally gravitate to and instinctively follow a calm and confident energy

On day 1 of training, I entered Anshul and Ankita’s home. My first read of their dogs, Ella and Simba respectively, was of insecure fearful dogs. Although both came menacingly charging at me, the nature of their bark instantly gave their insecurity away. Both dogs took charge of with meeting the guest (me) at the door, barking and running towards me while the caregivers assumed follower position at the back of the room. So, these were insecure dogs who were forced to take charge of situations because their caregivers had unwittingly yielded charge to them. As the training progressed, I realised Ella and Simba to be a combination of excited and fearful dogs. A fearful dog is prone to bite simply out of fear because most things (an unannounced human touch on its back when it was not looking or a roaring bike passing by) spook it. The common statement by caregivers that `he has suddenly started biting for no reason’ is grossly incorrect. Unlike us who use force with each other for every minor disagreement, dogs are forced to use a bite only as a last resort to desist whatever is spooking them, when all clear and multiple warnings (indirect eye contact, bark, growl) have been summarily ignored by the clueless human. Also, the dog has likely given these warnings over time in days, months, and sometimes years, with growls to register its protest with the caregiver as the latter continues to provoke it all along. The bite then evolves as a forced coping mechanism for the dog once it realises that this is the only thing which discourages the human to spook it repeatedly despite its clear and multiple warnings. We can understand this further by looking at the chronology of events which led to Ella biting Anshul’s Mausi. She had entered the home with much gusto and excitement and immediately induced this excitement with Ella by touching and speaking to it excitedly, who then joined in this excitement and responded by rolling over for a belly rub. This position is very vulnerable for any dog. Ella’s vulnerable position along with Mausi’s feverish pats and excited tone in time raised Ella’s insecurity. So, Ella responded by moving towards Mausi’s hand to ask her to stop the offending excited touch to rub her belly which was feeding her insecurity. Mausi in turn responded with a shrill scream and rapidly moved her hand towards herself, away from Ella. Dogs are predators. They chase any movement (dupatta end dangling to the ground, moving/retreating hand, moving feet, loud bike) and especially any movement tinged with excitement or fear. The fearfully screaming Mausi with her retreating hand created the perfect storm which fed Ella’s insecurity further and she reacted instinctively with a bite to allay her own fear. Had Mausi caught Ella’s first sign of growing insecurity, switched to a calm silent posture, deadened the hand movement abruptly and waited to retract her hand once Ella had relaxed, the bite would not have happened. In the absence of excitement/fear or movement from the prey, there is nothing to chase, things become mundane, and therefore nothing to bite for a dog. Both Ella and Simba were excited fearful dogs who reacted to their explosive cocktail of excitement and fear, by forced biting, the only way they learnt to cope to stop the problem.

The first and pressing need then was to make both caregivers calm and confident around the dogs. To understand how dogs measure humans to be calm and confident, let’s take a quick detour of the dog’s world. Look outside your house at the pack of stray dogs in your colony. Among this pack, you will note the dogs who bark and lunge at the raddi waala, Rohit bhaiya speeding away on his new tashan waali bike, Ashok uncle’s Lab… basically everything that lives and breaths. These are the scared, insecure dogs. Their menacing bark and hurried short chase of their much surprised target is more of an act. Try stopping calmly at one place and holding your ground to their fake chase and you will likely find them suddenly void of the will to chase and they will scuttle away under the car. The insecure fearful dog is spooked of everything and is also likely to bite out of fear (not from aggression) if touched at inappropriate time when its brain is both excited and fearful. Now look around for the leader. This is the one who is calm and quiet at most times and doesn’t get spooked by above situations. It can be a female (not necessarily male), young (not necessarily adult), small in size (not necessarily the biggest) and may not approach you (not out of fear, but a dog leader is used to other dogs approach it, rather than it walking to follower dogs in its pack). Dogs instinctively sense calm confident energy of a dog in its pack, realise that dog as their best bet to lead them in any unforeseen event and follow its lead. The pack respects its leader, even yields any item in their mouth to it and of course never bite it. The leader dog in turn assumes the tough and self-less task of looking after all aspects of well being of the pack.

If we expect our dog to `listen’ to us, we need to foremost be the calm and confident leader to it. A 60 kg Rottweiler will readily ignore the stern `no’ command in a booming voice from the brawny Dilli ka bhai but will sense and instinctively follow the calm confident energy of a frail teenage girl who leads the dog without verbal commands. Watch a slightly built college student Punya confidently walk two hefty adult dogs (Golden Retriever and Beagle-Lab) together with ease using a thin leash. The calm and confident human leader would not need to use verbal commands but only his/her calm and confident energy for the dog to follow or listen. This is the same approach that a dog leader of the pack uses in its daily life. When was the last time you saw the dog pack leader use a verbal command or bark to ask the others to follow it? You would have rather noted that it decides when to get up and move a certain direction and others do the same without it `asking’ the pack.

So, the first thing that I asked both Anshul and Ankita was to borrow lessons from the dog pack leader and adopt them to replicate how it communicates with its pack and sets expectations for the pack to follow. I worked with them to ditch the verbal mode of communication with their dogs and rather embrace a calm and confident demeanour when interacting with them. Everything that they wanted their dogs to follow was done with Anshul and Ankita’s calm and confident energy without using treats or verbal commands, and of course without physical force. Unlike us, dogs do not correlate the use of force with the action that we are trying to impress upon them. So, it defeats the purpose of the exercise. Again, when was the last time you saw the dog pack leader use physical force to snatch the food tidbit from the follower’s mouth? You may have rather noted a determined look from the leader to the follower with the follower dropping the food to the ground. The communication here is singularly non-verbal. For Anshul and Ankita, their transition to a calm and confident leader to their dogs took time by engaging them in multiple exercises described below with their dogs.

2. A daily structured routine with right exercise promotes a calm and balanced dog

Do you recall that in COVID, how frustrated we were cooped up all the time daily inside the house inspite of taking multiple `walks’ from room to room or on terrace and talking to the same set of family members? In our daily and un-ending house arrest, were we not acutely frustrated and did we not metaphorically `bite’ at everybody in the house that we talked to? How can one then reasonably expect a calm and balanced dog if we don’t fulfil its daily primary need to walk outside and socialise with other dogs and people. In all of the dog biting/aggression cases that I have worked on, the common thread was that a daily walk outside  the dog’s territory was absent or rare in almost all cases. These frustrated dogs having being deprived by their caregivers of their primary need of physical exercise outside  the dog’s territory and socialisation with other dogs, were unfortunately primed to develop many unwanted behaviour issues, albeit at no fault of their own. Biting/aggression of both humans and other dogs and undue excitement were routinely reported by their caregivers in these cases.

Upon quizzing the caregivers of Ella and Simba on the walk routine, I noted unsurprisingly that neither dogs went on daily walks and certainly not with their caregivers but with the helpers. It is not uncommon for me to note in many cases that the dog `listens’ to the staff helper but not the caregiver who has never walked it. But, I feed it and shower it with tons of affection and my dog loves me more than anybody, often says the caregiver, when I point this out. Unlike humans, in dog’s psyche, love and respect are distinct. It is the latter which is the prime motivator for the dog to listen to a person. The person who walks the dog daily earns its  leadership and respect and the dog `listens’ to that person. How can it not be, if the dog sees its caregiver easily negotiate a pack of charging strays with calm confidence? In our daily life, we tend to hold the tiny hand of our small kid on walks. Sure, we are looking out for the kid’s safety and laying the foundation for a trusting relationship while doing this, but in doing so we are also leading the kid on the walk and thus seeding the concept of our leadership in the child’s life from an early age. Similarly, in dog’s world, it regards the person who walks them daily as the central leading figure in it’s life.

All dogs need at least a daily walk, with certain breeds warranting additional exercise to drain their physical energy. The small size of the dog obviating the need to walk the dog outside is a common myth, all dogs irrespective of their size need a daily walk. A daily walk outside a dog’s territory is the primary means for the release of un-spent physical energy of a dog, the absence of which frustrates a dog and forces a dog to use the opportunities presented in the house to release this un-spent energy with excitement and unruly behaviour. Letting a dog roam on the terrace or in the house lawn is not defined as a walk and certainly not a surrogate for draining the physical energy of the dog. First, the caregiver is building zero leadership with the dog by not walking it under his/her charge on leash. Second, the mental experience for the dog strolling on a terrace or lawn is frustratingly similar to a fish taking 500 rounds  back and forth inside the walls of a fish tank. Also, recall the COVID analogy discussed earlier with you frustratingly taking multiple `walks’ inside the house. The natural environment for a dog to walk and physically drain its energy is the local park where it also gets mental satiety by smelling the grass, soil and meeting with other dogs. Finally, a dog being taken out for 5-10 minutes for potty breaks during the day also do not qualify as `walks’. We do not consider our washroom breaks as walks, do we?

Now, a walk with your dog in proper form (dog walking besides you with a relaxed leash) is an essential skillset to master and is one of the primary testament to your leadership with the dog. The dog walk looks deceptively unassuming, but is in fact a complex task, involving simultaneous dominance of multiple elements of the walk. The caregiver needs to ensure the dog to walk beside his/her knee, maintain a loose leash, and negotiate other dogs and people, both with varying personalities of excitement and fear. So, I worked with Anshul and Ankita on the quality of the walk and its daily frequency. Before training, on day 1, I noted that the dogs dictated their leadership position by exiting the house first and in front of the caregivers at start of the walk, and retained this `front’ position all along the walk. The leash was taut from pulling the caregiver at the back, a classic sign of  dog’s leadership. This taut leash position with the dog in front also leads to many observed problems. The dog straining on the leash, with the caregiver in follower position, exiting the lift or approaching a person or another dog is a recipe for a mishap. Imagine someone holding your wrist and pulling on your arm. The strain on your arm would mimic the tension that the dog  feels from the taut leash. The dog has to release this tension from the leash and the bite upon contact with a person or dog is the easiest, quickest and the only avenue available to the dog to release this tension. You may have noted the dog to immediately relax after the bite with this release of its suffered tension. Upon return home, I similarly noted that both dogs entered first before the caregivers and in an excited state. The excited dog brain then unfortunately continues to maintain this mindset inside the house. So, the immediate change I put in place was to put both caregivers in physical leadership position with their dogs on walks. Both learnt to lead the dogs out of the front door, maintaining their leadership position at every barrier (lift, building exit,  exit of colony gate, entrance to the park etc). Both caregivers maintained this leadership position throughout the walk, with the dog walking by the caregiver and importantly, with a relaxed leash. This leadership posture of caregivers was maintained before entrance to the main door of the house upon return from the walk, with a calm dog brain entering besides the caregiver. A daily walk frequency of at least two in morning and evening was prescribed (three was hinted at and hoped for by me) with at least one if not all walks non-negotiably done by the caregiver.

Before training, in a bid to calm the barking or excited dog, the dogs used to get a vigorous rub from the caregivers. But,  this act actually connects the reward of human touch to their unwanted behaviour in dog’s psyche, thus reinforcing the unwanted behaviour. Oh, yeah human, gimme more affection when I am acting up, say Ella and Simba. In the training, the caregivers learnt to prevent rather than manage the dog to be excited in the house. If the dog did get excited, the caregivers were able to quickly stop the excitement by making the dog sit before the excitement escalated by using calm energy with assertive touch (not rewarding pat) and without any `sit’ command. This then quickly became the working mantra, to preventeither dog to be excited or fearful when paired with a calm and confident caregiver. The prevention is easier to negotiate as the dog’s brain at this stage is still at 1 on a scale of 0 to 10, as opposed to the common scenario of managing the situation when the dog’s brain is off the scale at 12. Anshul also used to play ball with Ella in the house. Playing inside house with the dog is a common mistake. The house then represents a source of excitement for the dog and the dog learns to sustain this excitement in the house with unruly behaviour. Both caregivers restricted playing with ball or frisbee outside the house in the park.  In short order, the house then signified 3 things for both dogs- to sleep, eat calmly and get affection only whenthey were calm, reinforcing the association of their calmness with getting the rewarding pat from the caregivers.

Next, I tackled the dreaded pain point of Ella and Simba’s  improper behaviour upon guest entry in the house. On doorbell ring, both typically rushed to the door barking and jumping excitedly on the hapless guest. Both Anshul and Ankita mastered the guest exercise. Now, upon doorbell sound, both caregivers were able to prevent a bark from their dogs and themselves walked to the main door to calmly usher in the guest to the sofa, all the while the dogs remaining glued to their assigned place. Only once the guest was seated, both caregivers got the dogs to meet with the guests calmly under their guidance. Any sudden jump to the lap of the unsuspecting guest was quickly cut short by both caregivers before the dog further became excited. Both caregivers also did multiple mock guest sessions,  suitably instructing the guests on their responsibility with the right way to enter the house and appropriately interact with the dogs- when, where and how to touch them.

I noted the spirits of both caregivers lift up some with this progress. Now, they were able to walk the dogs calmly besides them and also manage them around guests. The dogs in either city  were on their part very much bemused, sensing a sudden welcome change in the energy of their caregivers with both caregivers taking a leadership role on walks and with the guests. The puzzlement of dogs quickly changed to equal measure of happiness, for the first time not being forced to assume the leadership role, and they duly relaxed on walks and with the guests. So, I built on this with the caregivers. Next, I showed them how to own the food bowl. They practised the proper way to present the food bowl to the dogs and also being able to take it away without the dogs reacting with any aggression. This was especially important for Anshul as one of Ella’s bite had involved food. This was another exercise in which both dogs recognised their caregivers taking charge, layering on the growing leadership of caregivers. 

Both dogs had separation anxiety. Ella diligently followed Anshul from room to room, Simba similarly shadowed Ankita everywhere. This is an unhealthy obsession for dog’s psyche. The constant psychological umbilical cord attachment of the dog to the caregiver may be casually dismissed as affection but represents the large problem of dog’s insecurity of being left alone for even short periods of time. This problem magnifies when the caregivers exit the house or leave the dog at boarding with agonising howls from the dog. We daily exercise clear expectations with each other to respect our separate time but promptly fail to do the same with our dogs. I showed both Anshul and Ankita how to build the confidence of their dogs by being in another room out of sight with the dogs lying calmly in their assigned spot. The idea is to increase the time for separation in 30 seconds increments until the caregiver is able to exit the house and stay out for at least 5 minutes, with the dog staying inside the house at the designated spot calmly. Both caregivers did some rounds of this exercise, although they soon lost interest. Tackling dog’s separation anxiety is admittedly not the coolest exercise to work on for a caregiver, is quite a tough challenge to master, and requires appreciable patience and persistence from the caregiver with many repetitions. So, it is understandably not everybody’s cup of tea. But its dividends in addressing a dog’s insecurity inside the house are rich and yet another opportunity to build leadership with your dog. Watch both Amey/Mansi  and Punya crush this challenge of separation anxiety with their dogs.

3. A well socialised dog is a calm and balanced dog

First, letting one dog in your house to meet the other dog in same house or with brother’s dog is not dog socialisation (loop back to the thought of you meeting same set of family members in your house during COVID). Dogs need to socialise with other dogs outside in the park or on walks. Both Ella and Simba had severe dog-dog aggression with much barking, growling and lunging at other dogs. Simba had also bitten and injured the ear of one of the cows in Ankita’s cow shed. 

To address their dog-dog aggression, I started by taking the dogs on walks without the caregiver. The plan was to imprint on them the right behaviour around other dogs and then to bring in the caregivers to transfer this skillset to them. Now, dogs (breed or strays) dislike two types of energiesin other dogs and humans – excited or fearful. Ella and Simba had both energies, an explosive cocktail. Before training, on walks, they used to approach other dogs to meet with undue excitement and insecurity, the latter were in turn forced to manage the situation by first growling (warning) at Ella and Simba, when they saw the caregivers to not take charge of their dogs’ inappropriate energies. With much barking and lunging at the strays from Ella and Simba, the other dogs were then forced to sometimes `ask’ them to settle down if previous warning with growl failed to quiet their ill behaviour. This is the time when dogs (breed or strays) come from behind a wildly barking and moving dog and briefly grab the rear of the dog and then immediately release it (both Ella and Simba had this unfortunate experience from other dogs before training). This is not an actual bite from the policing dog but a physical attempt to settle down the excited or nervous dog. We do the same action to settle down a person who comes storming at us while chatting excitedly or loudly with a quick tap on their shoulder. We say `Hey, settle down mate, and perhaps then we can talk, yeah?’ 

So, I started to tackle dog-dog aggression for Ella and Simba by preventing them to bark, growl or lunge immediately upon their eye contact with another dog. This was repeated with multiple pack of dogs until they learnt to  tolerate other dogs and either pass by them without reacting or to sit besides them calmly. `Nothing bad is actually happening, it was all  my unfounded fear, so I might just relax and sit with them’, think Ella and Simba, seated next to the dogs. This was the first milestone in tackling Ella and Simba’s dog-dog aggression. I then built on this by meeting them with the other dogs, first with the muzzle (for the other dog’s safety and more so for my own safety in case the dog caregiver takes a whack at me for a potential bite to his/her dog from Ella or Simba) and later without the muzzle.  In choosing an appropriate dog-caregiver pair to request to meet Ella or Simba,  I was especially mindful of the position of the dog (breed didn’t matter) with respect to the caregiver, the state of the leash (relaxed or taut) and overall energy of the caregiver (calm and confident). The selections were only handful but fruitful. It took many meetings, but both dogs learnt to submit their backs for other dogs to sniff at without growling or moving about. This second milestone was reached quicker with Simba than Ella. Next, Ella and Simba reached third  milestone and learnt to allow face-to-face sniffs from other dogs and also sniffed at them in return without aggression. Calm dog-dog handshakes (or doggie noseshakes!) went all around and soon became daily happenings. Both dogs seemed to relax and enjoy these new found social interactions. Finally, the face-to-face meetings were done without the muzzle and without incident. The dogs were now ready for the caregivers to replicate their dogs’  meetings with other dogs. First, both caregivers  learnt to spot the right caregiver-dog pair to approach and request to meet with their dogs. Then, with my guidance, the caregivers went through the same series of milestones with their dog-dog aggression exercises, and were finally able to lead their dogs in face-to-face meetings with other dogs. Not all of caregivers (or my) meetings with other dogs went well or were perfect. The caregivers first meetings were understandably tentative, with the dogs instinctively sensing their caregiver’s tense energy without looking up at them and reacted with a mild growl at times at the other dog. But with some encouragement, the caregivers saw that nothing bad was  actually happening in meeting with most dogs, so they relaxed. Their dogs sensed this change in their caregivers, re-calibrated and themselves relaxed in the dog meetings. The calm and confident caregivers became proficient to make their dogs submit their backs to be sniffed at by other dogs and to have successful face-to-face meetings without muzzle with other dogs. Ankita is quite the Super Girl and led Simba to meet the cows in her cow shed face-to-face without muzzle and without an incident. The success of these exercises skyrocketed both caregiver’s confidence in their own abilities to manage their dogs around other dogs and animals. But importantly, this success also made the two dogs to upgrade the leadership of their caregivers  to top tier status. Which dog wouldn’t if they saw their caregiver cooly manage 5-6 barking and lunging strays, or to lead a social meeting with another dog which was earlier a considerable pain point for the dog?

Ella and Simba are rehabilitated for the remaining biting/aggression triggers

The new found top tier leadership status of the caregivers for their dogs helped them to win over the remaining hurdles inside the house, especially with the `dangerous’ exercises with their dogs. On my first try for putting the muzzle on Ella inside her  territory, she communicated her discomfort by turning her body away to the side and twitching her upper lip repeatedly with slightly bared teeth but nonetheless allowed me to put the muzzle. From that day, everyday, the first thing I did on my successive visits was to muzzle her until she accepted this without much protest. Anshul on his part was muzzling her from childhood, so this was not much of a task for him. He and Mahamaya (Anshul’s sister-in-law) though were challenged by Ella in the form of growling or potential bite when they removed her from the bed. This was addressed and was suitably resolved with Mahamaya being able to safely remove Ella from the bed. 

The bite to me from Ella was expected. Ella guarded her resources- bit people when the bone was pulled from her mouth or an item was picked from near her. Ideally, i would have liked to work with Ella on this issue outside her territory and with her among my relatively balanced pack of stray dogs living outside my home in the colony. But, unfortunately, i don’t have a fenced space to manage the dogs. The options that i weighed before this exercise were either to leave this issue unaddressed or to go ahead  with the knowledge of an oncoming potential bite. I went ahead. Ella bit me when I tried to get the bone from her mouth. I want to emphasise that the bite from Ella was not her fault and of my own making. As one may note in the video, she gave clear and multiple warnings preceding the bite, but was forced to bite my offending hand as a last resort when I didn’t acknowledge her repeated warnings and persisted to wrest the bone from her mouth. After the bite and with 4 minutes of attention to my hand, I continued for some more time to engage her and to impress upon her the right behaviour expected from this exercise. Next day, after a brand new me sufficiently vaccinated, I repeated the resource guarding exercise with Ella with an alternative approach. This time, she was accommodating and allowed me to pick the chew bone from her. As with the muzzle exercise, I repeated the resource guarding exercise with Ella daily over next 5 days, each time Ella yielding the bone to me. Anshul on his part never had a problem getting the bone from Ella (although other caregivers in the house did). So, he sailed effortlessly through this exercise. 

The final pain point for Anshul with Ella was her aggression during grooming, especially while clipping her nails. I worked with Anshul on this over several days, with Ella relaxing more and more each day to accommodate Anshul in this exercise without reacting. By the last day, it was not perfect, but Anshul had the skillset and confidence to be able to manage Ella in this activity. 

Final note

Overall, once Ella and Simba realised that their caregivers had taken charge of all situations which made them excited or fearful, they readily relaxed and rewarded their caregivers with their sweet self and good behaviour. Ella and Simba cases resolved in 12 and 6 days respectively. The difference in turnaround time was due to the time for uptake of skillset by their caregivers (you may likely take just a few days to learn to play drums, I will surely take months) but also due to the intrinsic nature of the dog. Although both dogs had same severe behaviour issues, I noted that Simba, the Pitbull, switched much earlier towards good behaviour than Ella. This though was what I expected because in my experience, breeds such as Pitbull, Bully, Rottweiler, German Shepherd etc are naturally calm and confident dogs. They are forced to take charge in the absence of a equally paired calm and confident caregiver. But, once clear instructions for good behaviour are communicated to them in the right way, they revert to their natural calmness very fast.

I hope that this case study has highlighted  that the majority of the training has to be done for the caregiver, and not for the dog. The few reasons for failure in dog rehabilitation are if the training is centred largely on the dog but not the caregiver, the caregiver does not diligently practise the homework exercises from the training, or discontinues to exercise their leadership with the dog daily by not following the lessons from the training (similar to the need to routinely practise with the musical instrument one has learnt to play). This case study also focuses a sharp spotlight on the  3 aforementioned pillars that serve as the foundation for a dog’s calm and balanced behaviour – calm and confident caregiver, daily adequate exercise for the dog, and daily socialisation with other dogs and people. We also noted how the absence or deficiency of any of these essential elements in a dog’s daily life led to a dog’s abnormal behaviour. But, this case study is living proof of two problematic dogs reverting to their natural calm and balanced self once these 3 pillars for dog’s good behaviour are restored by their caregivers. At the end of training, it is very heart warming  for Anshul to come to the realisation and comment in the video that the dog is never at fault, but that it is the caregiver that has to step up to provide the proper foundation for a dog’s good behaviour. Kudos to you Anshul! Ella is in the best hands. And so is Simba with Ankita, the Super Girl!