Blue
Dalmatian — King's Cross | Loose Lead Walking
Beautiful Blue
One of my first ever clients
Blue was one of my first ever clients. A beautiful teenage Dalmatian with a distinctive Bowie-esque blue eye.
I was so excited. I loved One Hundred and One Dalmatians as a child and always loved how it combined the Romance of London with the Romance of dogs.
It's the story of 101 coddled, naive puppies and how they can't handle the demands of the fashion industry. No payment, no regard for their mental health and they have to be literally killed for their skin. Still better than when I worked for MaxMara.
The puppies are kidnapped outside London; beyond even the Elizabeth Line. Thankfully their middle class parents rescue them and buy them a place to live in Zone 1. Phewf.
101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
The first person to ever book me
More importantly, Blue's owner was the first person to ever book me via my website. (My website being one of the most life-force sucking parts of my 'just quickly becoming a dog trainer lol' journey.) Seeing that 'You got a new booking!' notification warmed the cockles of this new small business owner's heart. Blue will be forever lodged in my memory because of it.
A Dalmatian's Disney-fied fame is a bit of a curse
But a Dalmatian's Disney-fied fame is a bit of a curse.
If you like being stopped constantly as you walk through London with the canine equivalent of Taylor Swift, then sure — get a Dalmatian. But when you're trying to train, it's less ideal.
Just as you're making slow and steady progress on loose lead walking, a group of tourists descends.
'Ohmigod I LOVE 101 Dalmatians!!' they squeal. 'Ohmigod, his blue eye!! Just like David Bowie!!'
I told them we were training and rolled my eyes at their deeply facile reaction to a Dalmatian. Not admitting, of course, that mine was exactly the same.
How big and strong Dalmatians actually are
Dalmatian accompanying an early fireman
Not commonly shown in TV and film: how big and strong Dalmatians actually are.
They originated in Croatia and were historically used in the fire service — running ahead of engines to clear pedestrians — and before that, guarding the wealthy from highway robbery.
Today's Dalmatians have inherited that work ethic entirely. They will pull you with the same life-saving urgency but nowadays it's towards a discarded box of Chicken Cottage. Sometimes fox poo if you're lucky!
This is high risk if, like Blue's owner, you are fairly small and surrounded by Lime bikes being ridden at various levels of inebriation. This leads to a lot of people shouting at their Dalmatian — only leading to increasing levels of stress for both human and dog.
Whenever I see a dog told off for something it was deliberately bred to do, I always think of Roy Keane saying: 'but dat's 'is job!!'
Me when I see a Dalmatian pulling
Personality and breed history
Training Blue, or any dog, has to start with getting to know both their individual personality and their breed history.
We need to work around, or with, a dog's hard-wired instincts. Instincts that we, as a species, deliberately programmed into them. We need to understand what motivates a dog and work with that, rather than forcing them into punishing behaviours that don't suit them.
After all we wouldn't make humans who evolved running across vast stretches of land, hunting and fighting, work in dull, repetitive, meaningless jobs hunched over a laptop, would we?
It was a pleasure working with Blue. I wish him all the best with his London walks and reducing his inclination to pull ahead.
Although in 101 Dalmatians, it's the Dalmatians pulling the leads that leads to the humans 'pulling'. So maybe some behaviours are still worth having, just in case.
The Romance of London the Romance of dogs