Every Superdog Needs a Sidekick: My Origin Story

9 Nov

My journey into dog training didn’t start as a lifelong dream; it didn’t start from a young age. It actually began as a bit of an accident, and I kind of just fell into it, partly being inspired/encouraged by a dog, an ex-girlfriend, and redundancy from a job. I’ve never told this story in full — only in parts — so this will be my first time sharing the whole thing. It may be long, but do bear with me and try to read the full story.

The first experience of dogs

This first story isn’t from my own memory, since it happened when I was a baby. It’s the story my parents told me about why — and how — we ended up getting our first family dog. It’s a short one, so it should be a quick read.
For this story, we go back to when I was tiny — young enough that I could barely walk, just taking my first steps, and still needed a buggy for walks to the local park. According to my parents, I used to be terrified of dogs sticking their heads into the buggy to sniff and say hello. They didn’t want me growing up scared of dogs, so, in their ‘parenting wisdom,’ they decided to adopt a dog from the local RSPCA centre to help me overcome my fear.
Some people might say this technique worked, some might say it worked a little too well, and others might think it was a risky move altogether — but I’ll let you decide whether it was clever or a complete gamble.

Harry the first super-dog

My story with dogs can’t start without talking about Harry. Not only was he the dog that was just mentioned, but he was in my life for 15 years. We got him when I was a year old, and he passed away a month before my 16th birthday. My earliest memory, and the story I always was told because it shows how clever I was as a 6-year-old, was also the day my sister was born, but it involves Harry.

The story begins early in the morning. A 6-year-old me wakes up and goes into my parents’ room to jump into their bed as I always did when I woke up too early, but to my shock they weren’t in their bed. The house was silent, but I thought maybe they were downstairs, so off I went to go find them. As I came down the stairs and went to the living room door, the lights were off and the curtains were drawn, but in the low light I didn’t see my parents there. I started to panic, and in that moment I thought, “I wonder if Harry is here,” so I went to the kitchen where his bed was, and to my relief there he was, laying in his bed. I started to cry and went to give him a cuddle.

After a cry, I decided to go see if my dad’s car was on the drive, so I went and opened the front door — and there was no car on the drive. Again, the panic set in. I started to think they had abandoned me, and I was trying to formulate a plan to either get help or find them. One of my plans was to go walk down the road and see if I could find someone, but I didn’t want to leave Harry behind, so I chose to climb into his bed, cuddle him, and cry.

I don’t know how long I was there for when I heard a noise outside. I ran to the front door and opened it to see my dad getting out of his car. Through my crying, I explained everything and how I thought he had left me. He explained that he had to take my mum to the hospital to give birth to my sister, and he said one of the neighbour’s kids was there to babysit me. I was confused because I didn’t see him anywhere. My dad took me inside and turned the living room light on to show a teenager fast asleep on the sofa, unaware of what had happened. To this day, I’m thankful to Harry for giving me comfort and making me feel safe, and even now if I ever need comfort or to feel safe, I go straight to a dog for a cuddle and those feelings come straight back.

Harry’s story didn’t start off great. He was only a puppy when he was found locked in a shed and underweight before he was rescued by the RSPCA. After a couple of years of being with us, he was unfortunately attacked by two dogs on a walk, and he became dog reactive after that moment — but who can blame him after that. Before that happened, my favourite story about him happened, and I loved it when my mum told this story because he never remembered what he was like before he was attacked.

My mum used to take me and Harry for a walk together — me in a buggy and Harry off lead, just walking next to the buggy. But on this day, it was the first walk without the buggy. We walked to the end of the road, and my mum stopped to talk to a neighbour. After the conversation ended, she turned around and couldn’t find Harry; in fact, she couldn’t see him anywhere. At the end of our road is a park, so she went to see if he had got bored and taken himself for a walk. But what actually happened is funnier (to me). She looked around the park — and it’s not that big of a park — and she didn’t see him, so she headed to this tiny wooded part. When she walked in there, she saw Harry sat there, unaware of the panic he had caused to this woman and her baby in a buggy that he had followed, unaware that it wasn’t me and my mum until my mum turned up and found him.

Another story that I don’t think I’ve ever told, but I always heard my parents say he was a rescue dog, and I thought that meant that before he came to live with us he used to rescue people. So when I was in the garden, I would call for help and watch Harry come running to me.

All of these stories are great and funny, but because of his reactivity my mum stopped walking him, and my dad would have to walk him super early or late at night when no one was around. He also pulled like a steam train, so he was difficult to walk, but he was the best dog to me, and nearly 20 years later I still miss him. Just writing this now puts a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Harvey the two sided dog

Harvey was a massive German Shepherd who came from the same RSPCA centre as Harry. When I say he was massive, he was taller than me when he stood on his two back legs. To start his story, I should explain why I’ve called him the two-sided dog, and that’s because he was like Jekyll and Hyde. He was highly reactive towards other dogs, but when there were no other dogs around, he was the softest dog ever, and we nicknamed him the BFG (Big Friendly Giant). He would even let my niece, as a toddler, climb on him and he wouldn’t care, but when he saw another dog he would be on his back legs barking with spit flying from his mouth.

As a family, we decided to look for another dog after a couple of months of losing Harry because one night, while laying in bed, I could swear I could hear Harry downstairs walking around and going to his water bowl. I kept this to myself for like a week and then I decided to mention it to my mum, who said she also heard the same thing, so we both decided this was the right time to start thinking about getting another dog. To bring Harvey home wasn’t easy because my mum didn’t want to adopt a German Shepherd as she had been attacked twice by one — one time being while she was pregnant with me — but because me, my dad, and my little sister had fallen in love with him, she took some time to get to know him privately. She would go down to the centre and take him for a walk by herself, and after a couple of weeks she said we could bring him home.

There’s many stories I could say about Harvey, like the first time I took him for a walk and he decided to chase some birds across the field, but I wasn’t strong enough to stop him, so I just went mud skiing while holding on for dear life to the lead. Or the time when my big sister walked him — he saw the back doors of a plumber’s van open and just pulled the lead out of her hands as he jumped in the van, sat there looking happy with himself. He refused to come out, and when the plumber came back to his van and looked in and saw Harvey, he decided he wasn’t going to try and get him out and walked off, leaving it to my sister.

The one story that I believe shows his two sides was the time a friend of mine took him for a walk, and he was shocked by how quickly and extreme the change was. My parents were on holiday, I was at work, and the friend was staying round. He had met and knew Harvey, and his family had dogs too, so he felt comfortable taking him for a short walk. I had warned him about his reactivity and said he didn’t have to, but he still did. He was so shocked that he called me straight away and told me all about it.

At the time of having Harvey, it felt to us that there was no way to help him, and dog training wasn’t as available to us as it is now to everyone, so we just lived with it. He has definitely inspired me not just to help reactive dogs and their owners, but to try and make dog training available to everyone.

Harley the tail that started my journey

Harley was a super dog. We got lucky with her and she made being a dog owner easy, but she wasn’t perfect. There was one dog in the park she hated, and we have no idea why. It could be from the time when they were young and he stole her ball, and she held that grudge till the end. She also hated men and umbrellas, plus she was super scared of fireworks, and everything we tried didn’t help her. But she was the dog that inspired me to become a dog trainer.

Harley’s story with me starts with my mum, my little sister, and I taking a trip to the same RSPCA centre that we had adopted Harry and Harvey from. We walked around and saw all the dogs. Once we were done, we decided to get the train and take a trip to Battersea — a place we had never been before and had only seen on TV. Once we got there, we walked around and met a few dogs we were interested in. We went to reception and spoke to someone who took all our details and entered them into their system, and it came up with a list of dogs that were suitable for us. (I should add they may have changed how they work, because my experience with them when getting Murray was completely different.) One of the dogs that came up was the one I was interested in. My mum was just about to ask for more details on that dog when the kennel manager, who had overheard everything, said we sounded like the right people for a litter of puppies that had just come in. So we went to go see them, and there we saw the puppies — all of them were black apart from one that was tan, and my sister loved that one. Unfortunately, that one had been reserved already, but there was another that was out on foster care that we could take home, and two weeks later we brought her home.

Now, this is a good time to mention something, and if you haven’t already noticed, all of our dogs’ names up to this point had begun with an H. This is because those were their names when we adopted them, and we decided not to change them — except Harley. Her original name was Melissa, and we all hated it, but we couldn’t decide where to start with a name. I mentioned why not stick with the H theme, and that’s where Harley came from.

Now there’s lots of stories I could say about Harley, but the main one I’m going to talk about is how she got me to start my journey into becoming a dog trainer. When we brought her home, I decided we should do things properly with her as she was a puppy and go to some dog training, as it was starting to become more available. So I found a local dog trainer and took her to those puppy classes and loved it. I loved it so much that I wanted to do more, so I booked onto the next one and loved that too. Unfortunately, at the time the trainer didn’t do anything more beyond those classes that I could do with Harley, and I couldn’t find any other dog trainers near me that did more than just puppy classes. All I could find were courses to become a dog trainer. It took me about 4 years after that to take the plunge and actually do my first course, but more about that later.

Murray: The Superdog Who Made Me His Sidekick

Murray is the first dog I’ve had myself, and while I write this he is curled up on the sofa next to me waiting to go for a walk, which is his second favourite thing — the first being food. He’s a great dog to have, even if people think he’s a handful, but as a first-time dog owner he’s been awesome even if at times it has been difficult.

Murray’s story starts the same as Harley’s, with him being at Battersea, but not the main one in London — the one in Brands Hatch. The way Murray came to me was different to Harley. I filled in a form on Battersea’s website and they rang me up offering me a dog that they thought would suit me. After that first phone call I went to the site the next day and met Murray. I took him for a walk and his nose was just stuck to the ground sniffing, which I thought was great because I wanted a dog that would have a great nose on them to do scent work with.

Now I should say, I had originally planned to adopt a young Labrador, not a young hound — but little did I know at that time I was getting a hound that had more of a drive for food than any Labrador I have met, which has made training great fun with him. That day they asked if I wanted to take him home there and then, and I kinda just froze in fear for a few seconds. Once I gathered myself again, I said I couldn’t take him today as I wasn’t set up for a dog, but I could come back the next day and get him — which is exactly what I did.

I did spend the night getting everything ready to have a dog in the house, but even with all my knowledge and experience I hadn’t fully set everything up to have a Murray in the house. It was certainly a learning experience for both of us when he came home.

As for the story I’m going to tell you about him, it is going to be a lesson about how even a professional can struggle and sometimes even they need help. When I adopted Murray they did tell me that he was still mouthy, but little did I know how bad it was, and for a dog that isn’t toy-motivated unless he’s in the mood, it was a hard one to redirect and I really had to try everything I could. At points it had me in tears and feeling like a failure. The point that made me nearly return him back to Battersea was when he basically had my whole head in his mouth.

That night I wanted to send him back, but then I wondered what life he would have if they thought a dog trainer couldn’t handle him and/or how could I help other people with their dogs if I couldn’t help myself. With those thoughts in mind, I convinced myself that sending him back wasn’t happening, so I thought, what can I do? And that’s when it dawned on me — why not mentally remove myself from the situation and think about it like I would if I was helping someone. That change of mindset changed everything, and before I knew it the mouthing had stopped.

Now you guys are probably wondering what I did, but I suppose I’ll save that for a different blog all about mouthing, so you’ll have to wait till then.

A few other things about Murray I should add is that I always say he’s backwards, and that’s because he learns the harder stuff easier than the easy stuff. For example, he learned a down before he learned a sit, and sometimes he’s too smart for his own good and over-complicates stuff because he thinks I’m asking him to do more than what I actually asked from him. He also gets very easily distracted, which can be a pain. Oh, and he likes to be heard, so you will always hear him before you see him, and his bark is very loud.

Thankfully Murray’s story is still being written and hopefully it will be a long story. He’s been in my life now for nearly 5 years, so there’s more I could tell you about him, but I think this story is a good lesson for everyone: if you’re struggling with something that you know you should be able to do, take a breather and try and approach it from a different mindset. It’s definitely a life lesson that I carry on to this day.

Evolving Through Every Lesson: My Journey Into Dog Training

As I’ve already mentioned, Harley was the dog that started my inspiration to want to learn — but what about the ex-girlfriend and the job? Well, I’m about to tell you all about that.

Not long after doing puppy classes with Harley, I met a girl who also had a dog. One day we were at a dog show, one of those local ones, and there was a dog trainer there running a “have a go” stand, and they looked like they were having so much fun. I made a comment to the girl that I would love to become a dog trainer. Her reply was, “Why don’t you do it?” After that it was never mentioned again, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So after we broke up, and with those words in my head, I went for it and did my first course with the IMDT — and I loved it. I learned so much and was hungry to learn and couldn’t wait for the next course and to learn more.

The next thing I did to learn more was to find a trainer I could shadow — and that’s what I did. Once a week I went and shadowed a trainer in the evening during one of her classes. But this wasn’t enough and I wanted to learn more. I found another trainer to shadow, and I shadowed them on the weekends. I was working a 9–5 Monday–Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday I would go and shadow the trainer. I did this for about 3 years.

In the first year I was made redundant from my job. I decided I had two choices: get a “normal” job or look to see if I could get a job working with dogs. I was lucky, and through a dog trainer I got a job working for another dog trainer in their dog walking and doggy day care. I learned a lot working there and from that trainer.

Then Covid hit! I was made redundant from the dog walking job and dog training came to a stop. I missed it, but little did I know Covid would change everything. Once we could go back to dog training, things got so busy that the trainer I was assisting started to pay me to teach my own classes, and I was doing this 5 days a week. Whilst there I also learned about scent work, and that became my new favourite thing to teach.

As the world started to get back to normal, work got slower and my hunger to learn more came back. That was when I saw a dog trainer I knew advertising for a job — a dog trainer’s assistant. I applied and got that. The original plan was that I would work for both dog trainers, but for reasons out of my control I stopped working for the first dog trainer, the one that I learned a lot from and who gave me my chance to become a dog trainer. But from day one with the new trainer, I knew there was so much more I could learn, and I learned and developed so much. I was there for about 2 years, and when I left I still had more to learn from them, but again due to reasons out of my control I had to leave.

Before I did leave there, I did pass my assessment with the IMDT, which I hadn’t been able to do before joining them.

Now I’m here, starting and building my own dog school in my home town.

The Super Dogs Initiative: Training Heroes, Not Just Pets

What is the plan for Superdogs? What do I want to bring and do? Well, there’s a few different things I want to do and to bring to clients, some I’ve already mentioned. My main goal when I realised this could be a job was to help owners so that they never have to feel like they would need to send their dogs to a rescue centre. In time this developed to incorporate making training available for everyone. This has come about due to the rise in prices for everyday life as well as the rise in prices in not just vet bills but also in dog training, making it hard for people to get access to training and making people put training as a last resort — when training is important and it can also be fun for the dog and the owners. There are plans for this in the future, so keep an eye out. Another little goal of mine is to help rescue dogs and/or try my hardest to keep dogs out of rescue centres.

Now there’s the obvious goals that you will hear other trainers say, like “helping people build bonds with their dogs” or “helping people understand their dogs.” To me these aren’t goals but should be the core foundation of dog training, and every trainer should naturally be doing those things. What I want to do is not just make training educational but also fun and possibly as addicting as I first found it. Not only is dog training my business but it’s also my hobby, and that’s what I want to bring to people: introduce them to my hobby within dog training. At the moment that’s scent work — nothing I love more than watching a dog use their nose — and who knows what else my next hobby within dog training will be, but I will definitely be trying my best to bring it to people.

But the main overall goal for me goes with my tagline: “turn your naughty dogs into super dogs.” And this could be achieved in multiple ways, whether it’s helping people with their difficult dogs or helping people understand that their dogs are super dogs already and they have lots of superpowers that we can tap into and understand.

Insert Epic Ending Music Here – See You Next Time!

I did warn you at the start that this would be a long one, and hopefully the next one won’t be as long, but because this one took me far too long to write and edit, I’m not sure how often these will be released. I’ll try and get them on some sort of schedule in the near future. If you do have any ideas of what topics you would like me to cover in these blogs, then let me know — or if you have any ideas on what you would like to see from me, then let me know that too. I love hearing other people’s feedback, ideas, and inspiration, so don’t hesitate to drop me an email.

Thank you for reading!
Jamie

Jamie Temple