If you’ve been tuning in to Alan Titchmarsh’s Underdog to Superdog, you may have seen that Your Dog magazine was part of one of the incredible dogs' stories. If you haven’t seen it, then you really need to check the series out on catch up!
The show saw gorgeous Freddie go from being a pet poodle to canine supermodel. The story culminated in Freddie and his family visiting the Your Dog offices at Warners Group Publications, in Bourne, to meet the team and take part in his first-ever professional photoshoot. He was then the star on the cover of our April 2024 issue.
I caught up with his owner, Gabby Rothman, from Broadstairs in Kent, who has been most involved with Freddie throughout his training and handled him during the photoshoot. I began by congratulating Gabby on Freddie's achievements and asked her to tell me what it was like being part of the television show.
“Freddie was two and a half years old, and as he is a mixture of two different colours he is known as a Parti Poodle. We have had him since he was a puppy and he is our first family dog,” said Gabby. “I live with my mum, Patricia, and dad, John, and we all love Freddie to bits, but I guess he is probably most attached to me, as I do so much with him.
Extraordinary Challenges
“This adventure all began when my mum saw an ad for a new Channel 5 dog training show on Facebook, which was being hosted by presenter and dog lover, Alan Titchmarsh. It was described as a touching yet funny series that would follow a group of dogs as they underwent professional training to complete some extraordinary challenges that would
give them the chance to shine. She showed the ad to me and my dad 27 and we were both very interested in applying, as we thought it sounded a lot of fun for the whole family to do, and Freddie would enjoy learning new skills.
“Although we had taken Freddie to puppy classes when he was younger, which he enjoyed, we hadn’t gone to any training classes since then. At one point, we did go to see a dog behaviourist, as Freddie went through a stage of being a bit dog reactive and we wanted to get to the bottom of this and find out how we could help him. We worked on the things that we were taught by the behaviourist, and he improved a lot, but he has also grown up and matured, so I think it was a bit of stage he was going through to be honest. Luckily, he is absolutely lovely with people.
“Freddie is a real character and loves to play, although he’s always a bit cautious and reserved when he first meets people. He will stand still and let new people pet him, but he
won’t engage with them much or be particularly affectionate. That all changes the second time he meets them, as he will remember them, and be much more affectionate. It’s the same when people come to our house – he’s always very happy and excited to see them. I think Freddie thinks that visitors are part of the family, so he really likes them! Apart from the postman of course…
“To our delight, we were accepted on to the show, although we didn’t really know what we would be doing or what our ultimate challenge would be. We were paired up with professional dog trainer, Lucy Heath, from The Trickstars, who is lovely and has done lots of TV and film work and performs all over the country with her own dancing dogs.
“Filming started in the October, and we probably had about five days of filming spread across a couple of months. Lucy was so good with Freddie, who was quite nervous when he first met her, but she understood him perfectly and, of course, he got lots of treats every time he trained, so he soon relaxed and started having a lot of fun.
“Our training sessions involved teaching Freddie lots of tricks, but his ultimate challenge turned out to be modelling as a cover star for Your Dog magazine. To do this, he had to learn some basics like how to sit and stay focused for longer periods. He also learned to do things like lift his front paws up, go into a beg, and jump up towards the camera. Having that sit and stay nailed was very important, though, and he can do it perfectly now.
“I’ve absolutely loved working with Freddie on this project, although it was quite a commitment, and the days were long. We had to travel for five hours to get to the training venue, and, of course, there were lots of new people on set and new sights and sounds for him to contend with, but he did well, and seemed to enjoy himself. On the day of the shoot, Freddie was fantastic, although I don’t think he performed at his best as the drive to get there was so long, and he hadn’t had his usual three to four hours of walks that day! In the circumstances, though, he performed brilliantly, and the pictures look amazing. I’m so proud
of him.
“I think what we enjoyed most was spending so much time together as a family and working
on Freddie’s tricks at home. It’s just been a lot of fun, and of course all the things that Freddie learned to prepare him for the photoshoot have been incredibly useful in everyday life as well. It’s definitely been a great experience and we are so happy that we’ve done it and very proud of Freddie”
“It’s been a great experience, and we are very proud of Freddie”
Trainer Viewpoint
Lucy Heath, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, is the professional dog trainer who was assigned the task of preparing Freddie for his role as a professional canine model.
“I do quite a lot of TV and film work with my own dogs, but also work on set with other people’s pet dogs,” said Lucy. “Usually, I train those dogs myself, but for this show I trained Gabby and Freddie so that she could understand the process and they could complete the
challenge together.
“When I was approached by Channel 5 to do the show, I agreed because I liked the concept of showcasing the effectiveness of positive reinforcement training. There are so many sensationalist- type training programmes on TV, which tend to go for dramatic quick fixes, using aversive, punitive methods. I always use kind, positive reinforcement training, which I know works so much better.
“Freddie and Gabby were lovely to work with. Gabby really wanted him to succeed and was committed to putting the work in, and it really paid off. Freddie is a gorgeous dog, with so much character and, although he hadn’t done any training since he was a puppy, he remembered a lot. This demonstrates how valuable positive reinforcement training methods are, as the dogs find training enjoyable and what they learn stays with them.
“We began by doing lots of work on basic things with Freddie like sit and stay at a distance and learning to ignore distractions. We then worked on some tricks like beg, paw work and bow etc.
“I taught Gabby how to do clicker training, and we also used a bait stick which is a long, extendable stick that you can put a treat on to help direct eye contact while standing nowhere near the dog. This is incredibly useful for TV and film work, and, of course, for Freddie’s role modelling as the cover star of Your Dog magazine. The trick is to find a reward that really motivates the dog in training, whether that is food, or a particular toy – although it needs to be something that doesn’t send them so ‘over the top’ that they can’t concentrate. We discovered that using a ball was not a good idea in training as Freddie loved it so much, he had a hard time focusing on anything else!
“Filming the show and working with Freddie was a great experience and I think the pictures from the shoot are amazing. I’m very proud of Freddie and Gabby for everything they have achieved and can’t wait to see what else they do in the future.”
Watch the show!
Alan Titchmarsh’s Underdog to Superdog season one has been aired on Channel 5. You can find all the episodes, including episode one which features Freddie, on My5.
Visit channel5.com/show/alan-titchmarsh-s-underdog-to-superdog