Whenever we work on a behaviour, we’re pretty focused on what we’re reinforcing. Often so much so that it can lead to training paralysis, especially when it comes to a behaviour we may not want to reinforce. If we respond to our dogs with cues, eye contact or attention upon them displaying an undesirable behaviour …
I take it if you’re reading this, then you think you’ve done something wrong when it comes to your dog. Maybe you messed up teaching a retrieve (been there) or consider yourself one of the reasons your dog has a more serious problem behaviour such as aggression (also been there), or just straight up bought …
As a dog trainer, I feel there is too much pressure on dog trainers as a whole to have the perfect dog. When it comes to our clients, we would never worry about training something an owner who we’re working with is bothered about, especially if it weren’t a lifesaving behaviour. However, when it comes …
I wrote this post last year prior to lockdown hitting and never got around to sharing it – now that things are starting to open up once again I think it’s time that this post finally got shared! This post was inspired by listening to the fabulous “Drinking from the Toilet” podcast by Hannah Branigan …
When it comes to looking for a dog trainer it’s a bit of a minefield! In the UK, dog training and behaviour is completely unregulated. You, reading this, could create a Facebook page or a website and start taking money for training someone’s dog tomorrow. There is no need for a dog trainer to undertake …
Dogs were selectively bred for different tasks. This is how we ended up with a range of breeds available today, and that list is still growing (for better or worse)! However, is breed as important as some people or trainers make it out to be? Now, the various breed groups, as defined by the Kennel …
For a number of reasons, the dog world can be a scary place to talk about your dog’s behavioural problems. It makes us vulnerable as owners, and for a lot of dog trainers or competitive sports owners our dog’s behaviour is attached to our self-worth. This means talking about our dog’s behavioural problems can make …
There’s a growing trend in the world of dog training to offer dogs choice. This can come in so many forms, from a sniffari where your dog gets to follow their nose and they generally get to pick the route of the walk as a result of that to offering consent during grooming and veterinary …
I don’t know about others in the dog world, but I personally can find it a struggle when an entire training or behaviour modification plan (for ease of writing I’ll be referring to both under the heading of ‘training plans’) need changing. However, it’s important to realise that it’s not a failure if you have …
Today I took Pumba to the vets. At the time of writing, we were in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic which meant that the vets had put measures in place to ensure that social distancing was adhered to throughout the appointment. The appointment wasn’t for anything major, Pumba’s cytopoint injection, which occurs roughly every …