Rescue Dog to Super Dog - Episode One Review

If you aren't aware, Channel 4 started a new show last night called Rescue Dog to Super Dog. Wednesdays at 8pm and available on 4OD. The concept is quite good - take dogs from rescue centres and pair them with owners who have unique needs. This is yet another show trying to show people that rescue dogs can learn! Not long ago, Sky1 showed Dogs Might Fly, on which rescue dogs learned to fly a plane - another great idea by the man who taught dogs to drive cars, Mark Vette. These feats were really trying to show the public how smart dogs are and even rescue dogs can be taught new tricks.

Rescue Dog to Super Dog (RDSD) has two of the country's top trainers, apparently, but I've never heard of Nando Brown and Jo-Rosie Haffenden. I'm going to talk about my reaction to this program and the good and bad bits so if you haven't seen it, watch it as the following account will contain nothing but spoilers!

So episode one. It begins with a brief overview of dogs in kennels, what they hope to achieve with these dogs and they give a clever description of the skills they're going to use. Trainer Jo-Rosie explains that dogs in kennels often form a really strong bond with their new owner because of losing a previous owner. This 'hyper-attachment' can be used to their benefit because the dog will be willing to please their new owner and learn the new skills quickly. It is true, but I wouldn't want to encourage any hyper-attachment in dogs. We get called in to deal with anxiety when separated from their owners, or if someone comes to give the owner a hug - the dog becomes jealous and attacks the hugger. As I watch at this point, I hope I see some desensitising training where they teach the dog it is okay to be by themselves at times. I know being a helper-dog that it will be unlikely they would be away from their new owners, but you never know what will happen in the future. What if they get hospitalised and the dog is unable to be with them for a few hours?

So first new owner is Emily who has narcolepsy and can have muscle paralysis. The narrator says she needs a dog who will get her up in the morning, remind her to take medication and protect her when she collapses in the street. Trainer Jo-Rosie picks out a Boxer cross called Poppy and gives no clear reason for why she picked Poppy over other dogs. She says that she was a stray so has great problem-solving skills, is social despite a lack of socialisation and is intelligent. To me, she was too boisterous. She was leaping all over Jo-Rosie and she was saying, 'oh it's a breed-trait for them to want to be close to you.' If Emily had a problem of becoming paralysed for anything up to two minutes, why choose a dog that is boisterous and wants closeness when I'm sure a calmer dog could have been found?

I just need to clarify something here - I honestly believe that any dog can learn to do any task, can learn to have any behaviour trait. So a boisterous Boxer like Poppy could, in time, learn to be calm and relaxed no matter the situation. But the purpose of this show is to teach a dog to be specifically what the new owner needs from them for their condition within three months. I think Jo-Rosie has picked incorrectly for new owner, Emily's condition under the parameters of the show and the purpose of finding her an assistance dog. If she had picked a calmer dog, their workload would've been a lot less than picking a boisterous dog.

The second new owner is Alan who has tourettes. The narrator says he wants a dog to keep him company during his tic attacks - some have been severe enough to put him in hospital. He also wants help getting out of bed and remembering to take medication.

Back to Emily and Poppy. Emily goes to the rescue centre to meet Poppy and makes a lovely bond. To her credit, Poppy wasn't as crazy as I expected although you don't know what has been edited out of the show. The narrator explains how they will spend two weeks together to build a bond, then the dog will be taken to Jo-Rosie's home for 'intensive training' then returned to Emily to continue training.

This layout seems a little weird to me. Two weeks is a long time for bad habits to build and if they're left to their own devices, I imagine Emily and Poppy to be unhappy in their relationship. Dogs need time to decompress after being in a kennel environment, so I think they're using this decompression time as their social time rather than taking them straight to Jo-Rosie's house. However, that said, I would have put her straight into the trainer's hands so she can decompress and learn safely without the possibility of learning bad habits. I don't know if Emily has any experience owning a dog so it can be a shock just how much can change.

In comes Parker. A black Labrador who was brought back to the kennels for unspecified reasons. They show a tiny amount of training where Nando does erratic movements and Jo-Rosie treats Parker if he's not bothered. Parker seems great - calm, food-motivated and easy-going. Again, though, I'm doubting Jo-Rosie. Her timing with the treats is off to me. Nando is doing a random movement and it takes her a good 3-4 seconds longer than it should to recognise that Parker isn't doing anything unwanted and to treat him.

Parker and Alan meet successfully, Parker's calm nature shines through. I'm a little annoyed at the moment that it's Jo-Rosie who is always talking to the camera and giving her opinions on what's happening and I haven't been able to see much of Nando. I assume that when the dogs go to their intensive training that one trainer will take one dog so we will get to see Nando do something.

Another negative with Emily and Poppy. Emily owns rabbits. Was Poppy tested for whether she was okay with small animals? We don't know. Poppy's initial meeting of the rabbits was saying, 'what the hell are they?' She barked, jolted, and got scared, which made Emily have a collapse. Again - could this have been prevented with a better match?

It shows Jo-Rosie teaching Poppy a settle (although the way she describes it is a bit farfetched) and basic commands. When Emily collapses however, it's only through Jo-Rosie distracting or pulling Poppy away that stops her from jumping all over her. The more I see of this trainer and the union of owner and dog, the more I cringe. Even body-language-wise, Jo-Rosie intimidates Poppy when she asks her to sit.

Alan has renamed Parker to Duke. Finally we see Nando doing some work. I LOVE the way Nando thinks! When Alan was describing his 'tic explosions' where he can be stuck in a certain repeating body pattern for an unknowable amount of time, he'd like Duke to come in and help him somehow. Nando suggests teaching Duke to nuzzle his way into Alan's embrace, triggering a hug reaction in Alan. Star idea! The bond is amazing between Duke and Alan already and when Alan does some training, you can see him being remarkably happy with the progress and potential. Duke and Alan are a match made in heaven - a pity Emily didn't get a similar match.

The next thing Nando teaches Duke to do is to pull the covers off Alan when the alarm goes off in the morning. Again, done in a good way. Taught just to mouth the corner of the duvet, then build up to actually pulling the blanket off Alan.

The program moves on to their bonding weeks - and guess who is struggling with a dog with too much energy for her condition? Emily is being mugged left, right and centre with an energetic Poppy. I honestly don't know what went through Jo-Rosie's head when she saw this crazy Boxer and thought, 'she'd go great with someone who can't move around a lot and collapses around 30 times a day'. Yes, she was a stray and liked a cuddle - but it seems like no other considerations were taken into place and Emily is the one to suffer. Her condition gets worse when she is in a state of high-emotion, so feeling like she's failing her dog will set off an attack, which just exacerbates the problem.

After the adverts, it shows Nando and Jo-Rosie teaching her pitbull - do they live together? Also it shows Emily losing the plot with Poppy - predictable. Again - if Jo-Rosie had taken Poppy from the get-go then she could have had her intensive training then helped Emily learn what she'd been taught. This way, Emily is feeling like she can't continue with Poppy and, as I said, it's hurting her condition.

Unbelievable! Jo-Rosie has a video chat with Emily and says, 'I'm worried whether she is the right dog for your life.' You're the one who picked her specifically to be with this woman! I am not liking this trainer at all.

So Nando and Jo-Rosie do live together. Nando is the main trainer of Duke, it looks like. It gave ten seconds of training Duke - I feel it could have showed more of the actual training.

After a brief spill of why Alan feels better for having Duke's company, the show takes us to Jo-Rosie training Poppy. It says that she already knows two of her three tasks that Emily failed to train and again, I feel that this should have been happening from week one. It also says that Emily has had Poppy for 8 weeks, not the initial 2 weeks it said she'd have in the beginning. 8 weeks is a looong time to build bad behaviours and that is just what has happened. If Jo-Rosie could have taught Poppy all she needs to know, it would have been much easier for Emily to then take over and continue training rather than waste 8 weeks. Dogs do not generalise without a lot of training. So now, Poppy has learned that while at home with Emily, she can muck about but while with Jo-Rosie she has to behave and perform these tasks. It will take a lot of work from Emily now to make Poppy realise that the rules are the same for her whether she is with Emily or Jo-Rosie. Again - this could have been prevented!

Alan picked Duke up from Nando and they're having 3 weeks to continue training. This is far too long! We tend to see our customers once a week so they have time to do the training, but if they have any problems, we can help them before they lose motivation or end up teaching the wrong thing. Leaving it three weeks before Nando seeing Duke again is setting them up to fail! Duke may be the exception to the rule as he is calm and calmer dogs don't need as much stimulation so even if Alan only does two training sessions - Duke will be doing well I imagine. But if the same rules apply to Emily and Poppy - and I assume they will - then this is too long a time for Emily to be by herself with Poppy.

Back to Jo-Rosie training Poppy and she's doing it all wrong! She's going straight to falling down and when Poppy is mouthing and jumping all over her, she's calling her name and trying to distract her. She should have started by smaller movements and building up to falling on the floor and if Poppy gets too excited, get up and leave. Poppy gets so much reward when she's mugging that you can't expect her to stop herself without enough of a foundation.

The end of the program shows how well the dogs have completed their tasks.

Let's talk about Poppy and Emily. By the end of her training, Poppy was lying calmly by Emily's side when she 'collapsed' and was fetching her medication and waking her up in the morning. This seems like a huge achievement, but I feel that it would have happened a lot sooner if Poppy had been another dog. I don't want to belittle Poppy's accomplishment and like I said before - any dog can be taught any thing. This was to try and find the perfect match to Emily's condition and, although it worked out okay in the end, I feel that another dog would have made it a smoother ride.

Like Duke and Alan. Duke was perfectly matched with Alan and his needs. He really worked well and they both made fantastic strides. It is just a shame that Poppy was chosen for Emily.

I have also just paused the end credits to finish this last section and I see:

Additional Dog Trainers

Vicky Alhadeff

Donna Connelly

Who are these trainers and why didn't we see them? Could it be that Jo-Rosie didn't teach Poppy the settle while 'collapsing'? Could it be that she was filmed struggling and someone else trained Poppy what to do and Jo-Rosie just showed the finished product to Emily? I'd like to know where they got these 'country's best' trainers and what hoops they had to jump through to get the title. So far I am less than impressed with her, although from the little I saw of Nando I was quite happy with him.

Give the show a watch and see how you feel.