Canine Caregivers

25/10/2023

Should I use a Kong a Lickimat or a food bowl to feed my dog?

11/10/2023

Is it Bribery? Should I Use Food When Training my Reactive Dog?

02/09/2023

We’re so excited to announce that the C.A.R.E. approach of will be the discussion piece with Andrew Hale on September 14th (UK Time)

Andrew’s work and approach is something that we have looked to and used in our own practices over the years.

His platform and community on Facebook “Dog Centred Care : The Emotional Experience of Dogs and their Caregivers” is a fantastic resource, with a seemingly never ending supply of educational content and supportive community.

We’re feeling very grateful and excited for this opportunity to share the C.A.R.E. approach and how it can help improve the lives of dogs and their people.

There’s a link in our bio to find out more about how to tune in live or watch it back afterwards.

24/07/2023

Did you know? 🤔

You can gain access to our full library of courses & webinars for as little as $10 per month?

There’s also no lock in context, so you can cancel anytime you like!

This includes our;
🐶Online Puppy School
📢 Reactivity Course
🏠 How to introduce a new dog to the home
🧘🏻‍♀️ The Five Pillars of Emotional Stability
🐕 Plus Heaps more

There’s so much value packed in and the library keeps on growing

Check out the link in our bio to sign up and learn more 🥳

04/07/2023

⚡️ Take the free challenge!! ⚡️

28 days of challenges based on the C.A.R.E. approach!!

There’s some bonus content thrown in too for everyone that steps up 🐕

Sign up with the link in bio

28/06/2023

Our Reactivity Course is included in our membership!!

Alongside over 20 other other courses, webinars and challenges!!

Head to the link in bio to learn more!!

22/05/2023

Take our new challenge to find out what it takes to be a C.A.R.E.GIVER!!

A new challenge will be issued daily for 30 days!!

Each challenge is to help you learn how you can support your dog to the best of your ability!

Head to the link in bio to learn more

26/04/2023

The link between physical and mental health and dog training:

I recently listened to a fascinating talk by an animal physiotherapist on the link between pain and behaviour. Two of the most important insights I gained from what was said were: the huge role emotional state plays in the perception of pain and the influence of stress on the development of chronic pain.
It appears that while two dogs may have the same underlying physical condition, their individual personalities and lifestyles will determine to what extent they experience discomfort from this condition and stress will play a role in how much of an obstacle the condition is likely to become to their quality of life and desire to engage in various activities long term.

Several important thoughts follow from this:
1. Dogs that are more prone to anxiety and fear seem to experience pain more severely.
2. Dogs living with ongoing stress are more likely to develop chronic pain conditions.
3. Training methods based on punishment and rooted in fear create anxious dogs and lead to chronic stress, therefore punishment-based training methods have a negative effect on physical health.
4. Dogs whose needs are fulfilled (companionship, mental stimulation, species/type-specific activities) are far less likely to experience chronic pain.
5. Teaching dogs how to use their bodies properly through body awareness exercises and teaching dogs to master physical movements through trick training, builds physical and emotional confidence, which is a powerful protection against the development of chronic pain.

I found this so interesting, because it confirms what I have seen in so many dogs that we work with. We teach a huge amount of body awareness, proprioception, core-strengthening and confidence building exercises in our classes. Many dogs train with us from puppyhood into their senior years and these dogs seem to maintain a level of fitness, flexibility and positive attitude which seems to help them to live happily with common chronic conditions such as arthritis and to slow down the mental and physical aging process. While I am not for one second saying that training is a miracle cure or preventative measure against disease or injury or should be viewed as a replacement for appropriate veterinary care and physiotherapy, it really does appear that training dogs in a way that promotes emotional and physical confidence and optimism, really has an enormous effect on their long term physical and mental well-being. And physiotherapists agree!

Proprioception and body awareness tricks can do the following:

• Strengthen muscles, including core muscles (which leads to better joint support)
• Improve flexibility, alignment, posture, balance and stability
• Keep the hindquarters activated to decrease muscle loss in older dogs
• Encourage thinking and problem solving
• Increase confidence

As trainers and behaviour practitioners, we have to be mindful of the link between emotional and physical health. As I have said so many times before, this is why our focus in training has moved away from “obedience” and towards building healthy minds, bodies and relationships.

21/03/2023

The team at are a pleasure to work with!!

Their goal is the same as ours in that we just want our dogs to live their happiest and healthiest lives.

The relationship between gut health, mental health, emotional health and ultimately… behavioural health cannot be understated.

We’ve seen so many cases now that while training training and management are important, we would not have been anywhere near as successful if we hadn’t taken a look at their gut health as well!

Lyka has been fantastic for so many dogs out there and I can honestly say this is what I feed my own dogs.

To give them a try, head to the link in my bio and get 20% off your first box

20/02/2023

There’s more than one way that C.A.R.E. can be demonstrated and Kommetjie Canine College are so often great examples ❤️

Time to share this again - this remains our goal 🐾 and the result is dogs who as well as being secure and content are also capable of amazing achievements from a learning point of view 😊

10/02/2023

ANNOUNCEMENT 📢📢

We’ve got a new membership tier 🎉

For those that just want to access the courses but bypass the community!!

Link in bio to learn more

06/02/2023

Filming our next short course today 🐕

01/02/2023

What’s your dogs daily routine?

Do you have one?

Does it work for you?

There’s no right or wrong answers, our dogs have quite a lot of flexibility in their day but with a couple of staples.

For example they’ll wake up whenever we do. Get fed twice a day morning & evening at no particular time. They go out for walks most days, not every. We’ll spend time playing or patting 95 evenings out of 100 and they go to bed in the same place 95% of the time when we go to bed.

Some dogs will need more structure, some wouldn’t even need that much.