“Let’s have them meet on loose leashes,” I suggested to Claire. Dubhy was excited to see Pete, and his frustration at not being able to greet his friend was manifested in a display of aggression. Here was a dog that Dubhy knew from prior positive play experiences. My trainer brain immediately leaped to the obvious “restraint frustration-aggression” conclusion. Dubhy knew Pete well they had played happily together at my training center on several occasions.ĭubhy looked up as Claire and Pete entered, then went nuclear, raging and snarling at the end of his leash. I arrived early at the Knoxville location, and was sitting on the far side of the training room when fellow trainer Claire Moxim entered with her Labrador Retriever, Pete. Thus his behavior at a Tennessee trainers’ meeting some 16 months later came as a complete shock to me. His uneventful introduction to the rest of our pack sealed his fate, and Dubhy joined the Miller family. Residents said he had been roaming the area for at least six weeks a search for his owners proved fruitless.

His low-key approach to life won our hearts and earned him a permanent home after we found him running loose in a Chattanooga neighborhood in January of 2001 at the tender age of six months. He methodically solves every training challenge I give him (although I don’t expect him to break any speed records on the agility course). About 85 percent of the time, my Scottish Terrier, Dubhy (pronounced Duffy) is laid-back and phlegmatic.

Feeding frenzy 1 trainer