Outdoor Paws

24/12/2025

Cousin JJ the endlessly energetic kelpador was waaaay too fast for Guinness and Bess⚡️but everyone had fun in their own fashion, which for G mostly meant shouting! 🙉

23/12/2025

This sweetheart is one of the regulars at our local oval. She's soft and friendly and loves meeting people and dogs. Nobody would ever accuse her of being well-trained but in context that hardly matters.

Why?

Her inclinations and people's expectations align.

Mismatch there is what generates friction - between dogs and owners, and between owners themselves - and sometimes explosions.

Fixing mismatch is (I think, anyway) a big part of being a pet dog trainer.

How to fix it?

Well, that's the challenge. But start by recognizing that the dog's inclinations are only one part of the picture; owner expectations and context are the others, and we can change any or all three to get a better match, less friction, and fewer explosions...

There's my dog nerd thought for the day 🧠🤔🤓

22/12/2025

Ah, Christmas: a time for food, fun, family... and fights, not just between people but often involving the pets too. Resource guarding, stranger danger, and counter-surfing are just a few of the potential issues with dogs during holidays, and not even trainers are immune.

For example, here are Guinness and Bess locked in a vicious battle for the "best" bed. Bess solidly occupies the high ground but Guinness is recruiting human help with an imploring chin rest. I should have intervened long before the violence reached such fever-pitch.

20/12/2025

Bess really wanted to play with this lovely friendly young dog, but she's just too wobbly 🥹

I was going to write up a detailed body language breakdown but hey, I'm on holiday and lazy, so watch it yourself and look for the phases/stages the interaction goes through...

19/12/2025

Last gear clean of 2025 💦🧼🫧✨️💫

17/12/2025

Tradie-type partners get home maintenance jobs when they go on holidays, I get to dress my dogs up for my partner's 'dogs in glasses' competition in her work group chat 👓

16/12/2025

This cute beagle was running up to dogs barking its little head off, an approach Bess does not appreciate thank you very much, but it sensibly reined its s**t in while she gave it a stern sniff-pection, then raced off to find more receptive audiences 😆

14/12/2025

Guinness' post-wash sploot making him look like he's got an enormous chipmunk butt 🙈

14/12/2025

14/12/2025

Mack around dogs at the dog park. We're starting easy then gradually adding challenge as he starts to grasp the structure we're setting.

This is simple stuff, but not necessarily easy. Me doing it with Mack is fine (and if I couldn't then what am I doing charging anyone for my services?!), but the real goal is his own person doing it with him, so next step is a Helping Hand coaching session.

14/12/2025

Starting with Mackenzie. I was told he barks when the car stops, and he does, because he's picked up on an important pattern: when the magic moving box stops, the fun's about to start 🥳

Getting him out of the car already amped up is not a recipe for success.

Being aware of our patterns and the expectation, anticipation, and sometimes frustration they create, is the crucial first step in changing this sort of behaviour.

14/12/2025

Mackenzie is a lovely little dude who is friendly with people and dogs and who has done plenty of obedience training with his owners 🎓🫡

He struggles a bit with excitement and frustration when on lead though, partly because he knows just how much fun people and dogs are 🥳

So, in this session we're getting him around people and dogs and helping him learn how to be in that situation...

Here are some bits of the session, starting with one from near the end. Mackenzie does brilliantly around two spicy sausage dogs, and a GSD, *and* a flying oodle!