In the same way teachers’ kids aren’t always top of the class and police officers’ kids aren’t always the best behaved, dog trainers’ dogs aren’t always the most well-trained.
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Mind you, Averil Coe’s little six-year-old X-breed Jasper, full of hybrid vigour, comes close.
It’s only when he’s shifted out of his comfort zone Ms Coe encounters some previously unseen challenges to get him through the disruption to his well-oiled routine.
“He really has become an integral part of the business as well because he keeps chucking curve balls at me, behaviour-wise,” the DogTech behaviour specialist Ms Coe said.
“Recently I had my American niece, who I’d never met, stay, and I haven’t had anyone stay since Covid, and Jasper’s behaviour was appalling.
“She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, she wasn’t allowed to move around any bedroom, she got barked at, she got jumped on.”
Ms Coe’s boss provided a simple training protocol to apply and “it worked a treat,” Ms Coe said.
“The next weekend there was a client who had a similar issue and I could use it.”
Jasper’s mother was a Jack Russell X chihuahua, who went on an adventure over the fence one day and came home an expectant parent.
Some nine weeks later, she gave birth to a litter of very different-looking puppies, oozing with personality.
“He is such a quirky little dog,” Ms Coe said.
“I’ve had a lot of dogs over the years and I’ve loved them all, but Jasper would be the quirkiest by a country mile.”
The single fur-child has long legs like a whippet and moves quickly like one as well, so Ms Coe — and her plumber who breeds whippets — believe his father must have had the breed in him.
Ms Coe has had Jasper since he was a puppy, when she also had an ageing poodle X named Matilda, who didn’t want a bar of Jasper when he arrived, yet he gave her a new lease on life.
“She went on months beyond what everybody thought she would,” Ms Coe said.
Jasper’s favourite thing to do is go on walks, which happens to be a shared love of Ms Coe’s, who said the social time walking provided was somewhat of a saving grace during pandemic lockdowns.
“He’s really been my little adventure companion,” she said.
“Jasper mostly gets along with other dogs after a bit of leg-lifting.”
She said the pair had made some great friends in their local area along the walking paths, who all look out for each other and socialise.
“There’s the companion element to it that people who don’t have pets really tend to underestimate,” Ms Coe said.
“They (pets) just become a member of the family; that solace, that comfort, that support, that entertainment.
“Pets are often what people who are going through tough times get up for.”
Ms Coe went through a dark period in the early 2000s herself and that’s when she got two little poodle Xs named Hamish and Matilda.
“They were the reason I got up in the morning and they were the reason I got into DogTech,” she said.
“But I like people too, I really enjoy working with people.”
Ms Coe and Jasper are each other’s only housemates, so she gets all his affection to herself and vice versa.
The two have developed a regular routine in their day-to-day lives.
“We have all our little rituals,” Ms Coe said.
“After dinner I have coffee and chocolate, and he has carrot chunks; he loves his carrot chunks.
“Then we have a bit of growly-toy, where I piff the toy around the room and then it’s ‘come up for a cuddle’, but then when I need to be getting other things done, it’s time for him to go back under his blankie.
Ms Coe has no plans to introduce any more pets to her household just yet, but she said destiny often brought animals into her life for a reason, so time will tell.
“Every animal’s been a different journey, and it’s like any relationship; it’s been a blessing,” Ms Coe said.
“It’s been wonderful watching him blossom.”
Senior journalist