Trinity
Lurcher puppy Trinity proved too much of a handful for her family, so they made the very difficult decision to hand her into our care. But it wasn’t long before Trinity got her second chance to find a new home.
Trinity was purchased at the beginning of the first lockdown in England. She was advertised as being eight weeks old, which is the youngest a pup can legally be separated from their mum. But a vet later confirmed that she was actually only six weeks of age. As well as not being ready, this also meant she was behind with her training. Both of these factors combined led to the problems that lay ahead. On top of that, she wasn’t getting on with another dog in the home.
Battling behaviour issues
As well as being very boisterous, her owners’ main concern was mouthing. This is where a dog places their mouth and teeth over your skin but without applying pressure. While it is fairly normal behaviour, it was frightening the children in the home, so Trinity was separated from them. She didn’t react well to this sudden change and appeared to become frustrated.
Unfortunately, advice from a behaviourist didn’t help. So her owners decided it was time to find her a new home – and turned to us for help.
Practice makes perfect
In the initial stages of clicker training with Trinity, a click was always followed by a reward, even if we clicked accidentally – otherwise she may have stopped seeing it as a reward. We took her for a 10 minute picnic with a difference. Each time she went off the picnic mat we didn’t give her a reward, but as soon as she touched the mat we gave her a reward. This is so she builds association with the mat and snacks.
The aim with the training was to redirect Trinity’s bouncy behaviour and teach her that relaxing and not getting up to mischief is actually a fun and exciting thing to do. Once Trinity was confidently progressing, we reduced the frequency that she got the treat after the click.
What is clicker training?
“Giving Trinity away was a heart-breaking experience, but all we want is for her to be healthy and happy.”
Second chance at happiness
While Trinity continued making strides with her training, our rehoming team searched for the perfect new owner. That moment came during filming of The Dog House, Series 2 Episode 5, where Trinity was introduced to Angela and her daughter Louise. It turned out to be a match made in heaven – especially for Louise, who is loving the new companionship in her life, after going through a tough time recently. And Trinity is keeping up with the progress she made at Woodgreen too! “She’s very clever and learning very fast,” they tell us.
