Hormones, Noise Sensitivity & The Honest Hounds Partnership Project
There is nothing we love more than sharing member stories from the community and Beau and Anna have continued to AMAZE us with their progress. Anna dove into The Partnership Project and the results have been nothing short of incredible.
She has taken the time to kindly share her story with us and it’s such a great story of inspiration, dedication and what can happen if you find the right way to communicate with your dog.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, The Partnership Project is waiting for you but first, dive into Anna’s story (and give them a follow so you don’t miss the future updates!)
Beau, my female fox red Labrador, was a well socialised, confident puppy. We’ve had her since she was 10 weeks old & we did everything right. She was all we’ve ever dreamt of, until it all went very wrong. There is very little information online about seasons, phantom pregnancies in bitches & how it can flip your dog upside down, posts I wrote on Labrador social media groups asking for advice rarely got a response because no one had really experienced it, when I say I felt like I’d fallen down a well because it was such a lonely, emotional time, I’m not exaggerating. Beau’s hormones turned her into a wreck, the girl that was up for every single adventure, we couldn’t get out the front door because she had become terrified of everything, shaking on the doormat, tail tucked, lip licking, she had become highly noise sensitive. When I say she was nervous of loud noises, it was anything - thunder, fireworks, car doors slamming, delivery trucks, a knock at the door, strong gusts of wind, skateboards… it would trigger stack her up to the rafters meaning she would spend several evenings post bonfire night shaking expecting fireworks every time. It has been one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome, we have been through every emotion possible, blamed ourselves, thought we’d failed her, cried, felt at a loss. It actually took a really long time for us to get our head around the fact that she wasn’t giving us a hard time, she was having a hard time. It has taken over two years of trial & error, some things have worked, others have not. Some trainers have been really great, some have not.
Her confidence is now on the up thanks to undertaking weekly scent classes with an amazing local UK sniffer dogs trainer, giving her a job to do has been so valuable & scentwork helps release all those happy hormones that have been so clouded by pure cortisol. Beau is so good at it she actually won her first ever UK sniffer dogs bronze trial, something I never dreamed was possible.
I found that I was still searching for the last piece of our training puzzle, until I realised that it had actually been staring at me all along on social media. I have been following Jessie, Sean & Atlas for a long time & I knew I needed to get back to a full on reset with Beau yet I just could not work it out in my brain of how to get there, joining Honest Hounds has completed our training full circle & the support HH has given us is unmatched. has really helped give us our life back with Beau, more importantly, it’s given Beau her life back. I shout about it to anyone who’s having a tough time, it’s the easiest training we’ve ever done & one of the most effective. Building our bond back up to a point where we are Beau’s safe space is exactly where we’re headed. Beau doesn’t love loud noises & I don’t think she ever will, but now if she is spooked her recovery time is a few minutes rather than an entire day. Her bounce back seems to be getting quicker by the week & I truly believe it’s down to simply learning how to reconnect with her. For a girl who used to struggle with loose lead walking because she was on edge all the time, it’s now coming naturally because we’ve reset right back to basics. Having a nervous dog isn’t easy, it’s really bloody hard work, we’ve had a lot of setbacks & some really bad advice in the past, but with our scent work & Honest Hounds, Beau is really truly thriving. Some people would’ve given up, but I can’t imagine our life without Beau, nerves & all, I’m just so grateful that we found our people within the HH community.
Learn more about the Partnership Project on YouTube.
