- Me age 15 with Jake my Best friend
Hi my name is Nikki Brown I am the Canine Angel and better known as the The UK’S dog Whisperer
My journey into dog psychology started 20 years ago when I first became a dog owner to a little stray dog called Jake.
I was only 15 at the time and even though I loved my little dog I didn’t really know what being a dog owner all was about. Jake was very well behaved at home but would totally disobey me whilst out the walks. I often had other dog owners shouting at me telling me that I didn’t know how to control my dog and walking became a bit of a night mare.
One night whilst out on the walk Jake ran off and got hit by a car, He suffered with massive internal bleeding and died the next day in the vets. My world turned upside down that day and I was totally devastated and vowed I would never own another dog again. I felt so guilty at not being there to save my dog from this terrible event.
Years later, my love and passion for dogs was just as strong. I wanted to get another dog but felt fearful that I didn’t know what to do as a dog owner so in July 2000, I started a course to study Dog psychology. I wanted to learn where I had gone wrong as a dog owner and learn what to do right next time I got one. I felt that it was my duty as a responsible dog owner to learn the language of this species so I could communicate with it and gain its trust and respect.
During my study, I started to volunteer down the local dog homes where I could gain valuable hands on experience with dogs that were traumatised and needed help. My journey took me onto volunteering in other animal sanctuaries around the world including NZ and America.
In Sept 2004, I stumbled across Best friend’s animal sanctuary in Angel Canyon in Utah USA. Here I met many wonderful people and animals all of which taught me some of the most valuable lessons I now know. It was here that my journey really began to take shape. I realised that what I was learning needed to be told to the world as there are many other dog owners out there that were unwittingly giving their dogs the wrong information and signals leading to much confusion and misbehaviours.
On realising I would be dealing with the dog owners I felt I needed to learn Human psychology as well and enrolled at evening class as soon as I got back to the UK.
I finished my studies in both human and dog psychology and became qualified in both fields.
I started practising with friends and family dogs that needed help and soon realised that the new techniques I was using were getting immediate and long lasting results.
In august 2008 I decided to quit my full time job as a national account manger and set up my own business which I named Canine Angel. Named after the amazing place Angel Canyon which had touched my heart in so many ways.
So how does Canine Angel help others?
I help families that are at their wits end with their dogs behaviour. Often the dog is ruling the lives of these families and they can’t do simple things like leave the house for too long, take their dogs outside for a walk or even take them on holiday with them. For years now dog owners have taken their dogs to dog training classes where they learn the basics in dog ownership but it has left them still with a lot of unanswered questions. This has resulted in dog owners just having to put up with their dogs behaviours or changing their lives around just to cope with them.
In today’s ever increasing stressful world, I found that the dogs were getting the brunt of their owner’s frustrations and not only were the relationships between the families breaking down but so too, were those relationships with their best friend, their dogs.
I help dog owner’s removes their fears and negative feelings surrounding the dogs and regain their confidence again. I teach the owners to be “great positive pack leaders” to their dogs so the dogs start respecting their owners rather than fearing them. Once a dog respects you as the leader he or she will do anything within reason that you ask of it.
It’s the same if you have a boss in company that everyone fears… he doesn’t have his team’s respect and doesn’t get the best out of them, resulting in low company morale, poor sales and service performance.
If you have a boss that shows calm assertiveness along with understanding, fairness and respect then you will ultimately respect him more and want to do a good job for him resulting in high company morale, high sales and service and ultimately more profit performance.
I often find that dog owners that have lost the command or respect role with their dogs often have other issues with respect from their spouses, boss, work colleagues or friends. When I teach the dog owners to start to show respect and understanding to their dogs not only does it transform their relationships and behaviours with their dogs but it overspills into every other area of their lives too and I help people to build solid trustful and respectful relationships with each other.
A dog’s role within the family is to follow its leaders and help its pack… it is not its job to lead. Dogs only know two things “Am I the leader or am I the follower?”
If the dog’s leaders are showing weak energy or negative energy such as fear, worry guilt anger or sadness then the dog will instinctively try and take on the leadership role to compensate for its leaders lack of leadership skills.
So to correct a dog’s behaviour we have to start by correcting ours.
It’s the simple rule that dogs will reflect back at us, whatever it is we are projecting at it. So say if we show a fear of taking our dog for a walk, then our energy becomes weak and the dog takes charge. Then when we try and give our dog a command to come back to heel it will disobey you as it thinks it is the leader and will want to make all the decisions. We then become frustrated and our energy weakens more and so the dog feels it need to take charge even more and so the circle continues.
We first have to accept it’s our job to be the leader of the pack; often people get a dog in order to protect them, their house or family. A dog is no more intelligent than a 2 year old child and we would never think of giving our 2 year old children any responsibility to look after the families well being. Lets face it the child would start misbehaving through stress at not being able to do this job we expect of them and the same rule applies for our dogs. They simply are not up to this job role and become stressed and anxious if we give it to them. Dogs are there to help their family or pack survive but not to lead them.
It is our responsibility to look after our dogs and in order to do that properly it is our responsibility to learn their language so we can communicate with them and fulfil their needs too. A healthy relationship is based on both parties needs being met fully so it is important we look at fulfilling the dogs needs as well as our own. We need to remove our negative feelings and associations around our dogs and show them that we trust and respect them. We need to replace or fears with confidence and start practising calm assertive energy around them and each other at all times.
Fear is negative and will only ever take you to a dark place. Trust is the opposite to fear and if we start to trust ourselves and each other more then more positive feelings would emerge from within us and we would grown in confidence which ultimately leads to more happy feelings.
I did go on to own another dog, she is by my side today, Annie is her name. She is a retired racing greyhound, she was called Ann Champ on the track and was indeed a very good racer in her days, winning all her races and earning her trainer alot of money. Annie accquired an ankle injury and her racing days were over, she was handed over to the Retired Greyhound Trust and spent over 18months in kennels. She was re- homed twice but returned to the trust when she bit both sets of new owners through her being afraid.
Annie then got a label as an aggresive dog and found it impossible to get a new home. It looked as if her days were numbered until one morning when the greyhound trust received my email saying that I was a dog psychologist who was looking to foster and rehabilitate their worst case dog. I asked for a dog that couldn’t find a home becuase it had special needs.
Annies life changed that day… so did mine. I could at last put into practise everything I had learnt to become a great pack leader and change a dogs behaviour because I could change mine.
Annie is still with me.. we have a very strong bond now.. I have taught her not be be scared or afraid and not to use aggression as her first line of defense. She is a completely different dog these days and has grown in confidence by having a great pack leader to show her the way. She has never bitten me and trusts and respects me, as I do her. Remember, what you show a dog you will get back in return.
I have made the decision to give Annie her forever living home with me. She taught me how to be the best pack leader in the world and I thank both her and Little Jake for the lessons that they have taught me. I am a much more confident and calm person these days, I have to be. I am the UKs dog whisperer!
I often get asked.. “Aren’t you scared of theses aggressive dogs you have to go and work with?”.. My answer is “No, fear only ever takes you to dark places and the dogs need to see that I do not fear them in order for them to respect and trust me. Knowing what I know after a lifetime of studying this species I know how to communicate with them in thier language and know how to really understand the mind of a dog. “
Me and Annie happily ever after...
If you would like to find out how to become “A Great Pack Leader” to your dog or indeed to your family or company then call on Nikki Brown The UK’s dog whisperer aka The Canine Angel and start to remove your fears and replace them with calm assertiveness, confidence and happiness.
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