Being selected as a trainer for a programme on television is always an honour, yet you know it's always going to be time intensive it's a bit like going on the worlds biggest Rollercoaster, ofter presenting you with emotions you didn't know you had. It has its real high points and often real low points. Yet most who do it, despite what they go through would do it all over again.
In this instance the programme was a brand new reality TV show for BBC 2, called 'The Underdog Show', and what a pleasure it was to work with the celebrity chosen for me. All the dogs where supplied by the Dogs Trust at Uxbridge.< namespace="" prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xml="true">
My Celebrity was Mishal Husain a BBC Newsreader, what a delight I had in getting to know her. Together we selected our dog under the watchful eye of the camera’s and Robson was to become our boy. Robson was a Lurcher type dog, possibly some Husky in him, he was approximately 2 years old and was found running loose in the streets of Glasgow. He was a very friendly dog, but very excitable and can be quite a dominant boy, who was looking for a strong leader as his owner.
As is normal when working in television, things happen very quickly. Once selection had happened it was straight to work. The following is a brief diary of our weeks on 'The Underdog Show', if you didn't manage to catch it on Tele, check out it's home page on the BBC's website, there are some highlights of the programme. www.bbc.co.uk/underdogshow
Week One: Robson took to the training like a duck to water, he was hungry to learn. This put Mishal and Robson at the top of the leader board in the competition.
A word about Mishal: Mishal does not own a dog and had no real dog skills, but her eagerness to learn and do things right made for a great combination, I could not have wished for a celeb more dedicated to the cause, even when things got tense at times.
Week Two: Robson continued to grow and show his potential even at this early stage in the game as a potential obedience, agility or heelwork to music dog. However he was a dominant boy and a very head strung dog, challenging Mishal at various steps along the way. This did not deter them, as Robson and Mishal held onto their top spot for a second week running. The pressure was on and we had quickly become the ones to catch.
Week Three: The pressure unfortunately took it’s toll, Mishal was struggling to keep Robson on board. It was clear to Mishal and I that Robson was learning the exercises quicker than Mishal. A bit complacency had set in because of his success, causing training to take a turn for the worse. Robson took the opportunity to secure his role as top dog in his relationship with Mishal, leading to a break down down in their communication as he refused to listen to her.
Training sessions became a bit fraught as Robson stated his case very clearly that Mishal was not his leader, by refusing to do virtually everything she asked him to do, from something as simple as a sit, or by looking to me for his commands. I had taken as much of a hands off approach as I possibly could to make training and bonding easier for them both. This breakdown was to prove detrimental to their performance, sending them slipping down the leader board on the judges points. However despite the judges marking them and criticising them harshly, the judges saw fit to save them when it came to the trial.
Week Four: Things did not improve and yet again our points where not good. The courses where getting harder and harder and Mishal and Robson appeared to be growing further and further apart.
What was very clear from watching the program back, was Mishal in her desperation had slipped into using very weak hand signals and multiple commands, Robson was confused and unwilling to listen to what she had to say.
Moral was very low, Mishal was fed up and had real doubts about continuing, as things felt a bit hopeless. This was a very frustrating time, how do you compete and go forward when things are feeling this bad? It is very hard to not transmit these feeling to the dog which would only make matters worse. In a moment of weakness I too had my doubts in my ability to mend this relationship in time. Yet again the judges saw fit to save us, which put us through to the semi final.
I knew this was it for us and somehow I had to lift the moral and get Mishal back in the driving seat. I had to try to mend what had gone wrong in the relationship between Mishal and Robson.
Mishal and I had a good long chat and agreed that having been given a second chance by the judges the least we could do was go out of the competition having made them not regret saving us. So how was I going to achieve this?
I went home and sat round, family included and together we bated ideas back and forward. I had decided to introduce Clicker training. We had not used clicker as I was told at the beginning of the programme, that they would prefer I didn’t use clicker as they had enough clicker trainers and wanted various methods. However having lost a clicker trainer from the competition I decided there was room for one more clicker trainer. Time not being on our side, I decided that to avoid mistakes, Mishal would learn to clicker train me before being allowed to use it on Robson.
I would become her dog, I decided to help her concentrate I'd go one better and hire a dog suit, this would hopefully lighten the mood and put the fun back into our sessions.
One dog suit later and a couple of hours of fun re-training Mishal, I saw a glimmer of hope that we where heading in the right direction. Within 4hours it was clear that the relationship that was once strong was on its way back this time with Mishal at the top.
Week Five: The week flew in as the Semi Final was in sight. I knew Mishal and Robson had an honest chance at making it to the final. The course was a real tricky one with many new opponents to it. Shape recognition, a see- saw, food refusal (our moment of truth) and much, much more. The course got of to a tricky start, but Mishal worked hard and got Robson back on track giving her an excellent round with very good marks. The second part of the program was a heelwork round which included distraction alley consisting of cuddly toys and a table packed with irresistible food. Robson was the only dog to complete the task with touching the food on both rounds. His score became the highest in the whole contest taking him 10 points above dog no 2. This was amazing and we both couldn't have been happier that we had shown our skills to put us back at the top.
We were delighted that all the weeks hard work had payed off. Definitely a quality of work worthy of any potential finalist, or so you’d think, but it wasn’t to be. We where sent home on public vote. We where delighted that we had came out so far ahead on the leader board, however I wasn't prepared for was the repsonse from the public with messages in texts, emails and phone calls from people shocked and confused about what they saw as an injustice of the programme.
People had become confused as to what the programme was meant to be about. They thought it was about the best trained dog and handler, but clearly this was no longer the case. However despite all that, what a great show for drawing attention to the plight of rescue dogs, and on the whole, to positive dog training methods.
It was a great time despite all the hard work and tears. The people, celebs and the crew where a delight to work with and most importantly, many dogs received homes as a result of the show, which was the main point of it all, there where certainly no 'Underdogs' in this show.
Robson is now in a wonderful new home in Northampton, check out his blog to read all about him. http://dogrobson.blogspot.co.uk