Dexter is a 3 year old Rottie-x who we adopted a year ago. He’s had a rough start in life – battered over the head which left him totally blind – thrown out of a car – months in a rescue in Spain – moved to a UK rescue then adopted – spent time in a flat alone when his adopter was hospitalised with mental illness.

We’ve had dogs all of our lives but a mixture of his blindness and his history made us over-do the sympathy and neglect his training. This created a spoilt but seemingly happy dog indoors and a hell-on-legs dog outside. This resulted in us limiting his outings to private bookings at a dog park or walking along a narrow lane and hoping like mad no cars/people/animals would appear.

I contacted Mike and after conversations via phone and email a visit was arranged. Because of the distance, he arrived at lunchtime and stayed until the following lunchtime. By the end of the visit Dexter understood the basics, had been in close proximity to two dogs, walked to heel on a loose lead, ignored traffic on the busy main road, learned not to drag people out of the front door – AND he’d spent time on a busy Saturday morning outside the entrance to Tesco – to say I was nearly peeing myself is an understatement – but thanks to Mike he was a star. We now know that Dexter is capable of doing what is asked of him and we just have to practice and make sure that we ask in a way he’ll understand.

Post-visit Mike sent us the Behaviour Modification Programme which explains in detail everything that was covered during the visit, which is wonderful for someone like me whose brain can only retain so much new information at a time. If you are struggling with your dog, please forget advice from friends, watching YouTube videos etc and just arrange a visit from Mike – you really won’t be disappointed.