MUTT-MEISTER GRAEME’S ANIMAL MAGIC ‘I’ve trained 4,300 dogs ...and a fox ’
AFTER coaching thousands of unruly dogs, it was hardly surprising that Graeme Hall fancied a challenge.
But friends thought the “Dogfather” was going too fur when he took on the task of bringing a fox to heel.
He said: “I was helping a dog re-homing charity and they asked if I could help them with a fox. It had been born in the wild and then abandoned. The owners wanted to take him to fund-raising events.”
Graeme has coached more than 4,300 dogs – from a range of breeds and ages – including some with scary behavioural problems. But this job required all his cunning.
He said: “If you put a fox on a lead, they pull like crazy. You wouldn’t believe how powerful a fox is. And they’re very scared. They just want to get away from you.
“So I gave them a set of training exercises so they’d be able to take him out happily on a lead. Foxes are canines and, although they are very different from dogs, you can train them in the same way.”
But the “Mutt-meister” is more comfortable when dealing with his regular customers.
He said: “I help people understand the problems so we can fix their dog.
“I teach the owner techniques so the dog starts to see them in the right light.
“It’s about getting the mentality right. Some owners are pretty ED GLEAVE desperate because they have really badly behaved dogs.
“But I have managed some pretty amazing transformations. You really can almost create a different dog within a couple of hours.”
Graeme, 52, from Warwickshire, has been training pups for more than a decade – 70 dog years.
He said: “Just when you think you’ve seen it all you realise you haven’t. We had a 71kg Great Dane that was out of control. He would literally drag the owner over.
“So I had to get into the dog’s head and make him realise the owner is the boss.
“I had another dog that was afraid of food. He’d go for four or five days without eating and made himself ill. But we got there in the end by teaching him nothing bad would happen if he ate something.”
But Graeme has had mishaps. He said: “People often see a cute dog and think that it’s OK to stroke them. But not all dogs are friendly. If you back them into a corner they can react badly.
“A few years ago I got bitten so badly by a German shepherd I could see things moving in my hand. I ended up in hospital having an operation. I was very close to losing the full use of it.”