Hello there, welcome to talking dogs. It's a real pleasure to have you with me.

I'm Graham Hall and for well over a decade I've been showing humans how to train their darling but often disobedient dogs.

I'm known as the dog father,

and you might recognise my voice from TVs, dogs behaving very badly. Now I'm bringing even more

experience, advice and opinions to you on this podcast in the hope that if you're running out

of patience for your pooch, you'll leave with a couple of new training tools to try.

Today I want to talk you through all the things that you really need to take into

consideration if you're planning on adopting a rescue dog. So do stay with me for that.

First up though, Marilyn has sent me a little voice note about some issues she's having

with her rescue dog Lexi. Hi Graham. My name's Marilyn. I'm 68 years old. I wonder if you could

advise at all, please. I adopted a Bosnian street dog rescued from kill shelter out there when she was

almost four. She's now six and a half. She was one of the most terrified dogs there and arrived here

absolutely petrified of everyone and

everything. I've given her lots of time and space to adjust and she's been gaining confidence in many

ways. She'll even sleep on my bed now and lets me fuss her and play with her there, but nowhere else in

the house. She's a lot better now, but I still haven't got her on a lead or a harness without her

either chewing through it or wriggling out of it. She's never been on a walk consequently. That seems

happy enough just being at home. I wonder whether I should try and force the issue rather than giving

her more time. She's very gentle, adorable, and I'll never give up on her, but it would be so

good to be able to get her out so that I can take her to the beach, etc., in the car. Is there

anything I should be doing that I haven't as yet? Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Marilyn, 68. You didn't need to tell me. I would never have asked to lay your age.

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