Pooch Pals Australia

07/11/2025

Great to see dogs working in innovative ways. I hope their needs are well considered in hot days (heatstroke and paw pad burning issues are very real challenges for dogs in the middle of the day between 10am and 5pm)

23/09/2025

We lost a beloved client today, one favourite Pooch Pal to ticks.

Please ensure you check your dog after each walk, use a Tick Preventative and clear low hanging branches and bushy areas, tall grass etc, as much as possible in your garden and yard area.

Please note the information in the link below, but also, buy a wart gun or tick freezing gun and please, always freeze the tick before removal. Ticks inject most of their poison upon removal, this goes for human treatment also.

If you suspect your dog, cat or pet is suffering from tick poisoning, you need to get help now. After hours? We're the tick paralysis experts.

07/08/2025

Scent detection games are brilliant for a multitude of reasons! This is a great way to redirect and desensitise this dog, away from his reactive behaviour towards the vacuum. If you would like 1:1 in home support just like this, get in touch. I also offer Zoom sessions for people outside the Northern Rivers region.

31/07/2025

Excellent tips here for observing body language. A wagging tail is not always a friendly and happy sign either, it depends on tail and body position/body language and posture.

A general rule of thumb is to never introduce dogs in their home territory where possible, and if you are introducing them at a park or beach, ensure you have a very strong recall capacity with your dog.

Practice this every day by calling your dog to you multiple times a day, and rewarding. Do NOT just wait until it is time to leave the dog park, to call your dog back. Call them back several times, and release back to play. Otherwise to them: recall at the park = leaving the fun.

If you observe a stiff dog, yell out, distract and run AWAY from the encounter, this will often distract enough to extract your dog from the interaction.

Follow, share and get in touch for more Positive Reinforcement Dog Training and Behaviour Tips

"All good ☺️Neither dog are growling"
Hang on.
Dogs can and do growl in play.
It can be completely normal.

"So how can I tell"?
It can be tricky to tell the difference between healthy play and those interactions that are something else entirely.
There are some areas we can look at to help us decipher.

➡️Immediate posture changes/rigidity/stillness

Some dogs pause, go still..... then explode with loose and wiggly movements. That’s often play.
The problematic kind of rigidness is different. It can linger for longer.
Even when the other dog is showing everyway they can "all's good here"
That stillness and posture is "tight".
It can come with hard stares, leaning or standing over.
Stiff body posture from either dog.....even the one on the ground.
That’s not play

➡️When high energy switches to frantic

Chasing and being chased.
Some dogs love this.
There can be an energy change with chasing that we need to watch for though.
It can turn.
It can become far more frantic and direct.

If one dog is always the chaser, and when they catch the other.....the tone changes, the body language tightens, the movements escalate and it stops looking mutual...that’s when caution is needed.

We don't want to stop dogs playing....but we do need to recognise when it is no longer fun for all dogs involved.