Goin' Muttz, Gymea (2025)

04/12/2025

I always go into an assistance consult prepared with a plan… but life rolls up on a motorbike wearing a LOT of high-vis. 🍋🏍️🦺

That’s when you ditch the plan and let the real-world lesson take centre stage.

For many dogs, the postie ranks high on the “big scary things” list: a faceless, blindingly fluro figure, a noisy engine, and a sudden appearance out of nowhere. From a dog’s perspective, that’s a whole sensory overload delivered by one unexpected visitor.
Thanks to Alex from this potentially tough moment became something genuinely worthwhile. With a gentle approach and a willingness to pause, Alex unintentionally became our guest trainer - helping the dogs have a safe and positive experience. Watching them shift from hesitation to curiosity is exactly why real-world training matters.

Weird is the new normal in assistance dog training.
�We don’t avoid those unpredictable moments - we use them. They’re where dogs learn confidence, curiosity, and how to stay grounded when life gets confusing.
Training doesn’t always go to plan. And honestly, that’s the best part. The messy, unscripted bits are where true progress happens - for dogs and humans alike. 🐾🫟📮💛

30/11/2025

We’re thrilled to celebrate another incredible milestone for Jane and Hattie. 🎉🐾

After passing their PAT for the second year running, their partnership continues to inspire with its strength, dedication, and heart. ❤️✨
And this year brings something truly special: Hattie is now officially certified to fly on commercial airlines. ✈️🐶

This new capability opens the door to greater freedom, broader horizons, and more opportunities for Jane to live life without limits. 🌏💛

Here’s to a team that keeps raising the bar. 🚀

23/11/2025

One of the most fun minutes in training to date. We had one objective for Stitch: get to Mum. The challenge? A maze of poles - and two very annoying human ‘road blocks’ on the outside whose only job was to block him if he tried to go around. What Stitch had to learn was that there was a small gap between the poles that he could slip through. We wanted him to slow, think, and problem-solve his way to the solution. And watching that little moment of resilience and cleverness unfold was brilliant. 🐾🦮💡🎯🧩❤️

22/11/2025

The many treat faces of Loki 🤪🥴🤡🤣🙃

22/11/2025

Intro to Nose Work Graduates of my Sydney September starting class 🐕🎓

Congratulations to Buddy, Bodhi, Meeko, Jett and Hector 🥳🙌🎉🎊

You clever sniffers stole the show and my heart in equal measure.

This group was equally one of the most challenging (man, they kept me on my toes) and the most rewarding classes I’ve ever taught. Nose Work has a funny way of reminding us that learning isn’t a straight line - it’s more like a joyful, frustrating, surprising, imperfect, delightful, at times chaotic wiggle. Patience becomes your superpower, and suddenly the tiniest wins feel like fireworks.
And honestly… the magic is always in those small moments, the tiny breakthroughs that make you want to cheer loud enough for you to set off a chorus of happy tail wags. Celebrate those with all the joy you can muster - because they matter.

Proud of these pups, proud of their people, and so grateful for this journey. 💛🐾✨

19/11/2025

Nothing makes our hearts sing like seeing Miss Dory belly-up, wiggling like a happy little Vegemite and blissfully carefree, after giving it her all in a training session with Alana and me. 😆🐾💖🎉

17/11/2025

🐶 Meet Julie – our newest Assistance Dog in Training.

In her session with Alana, Julie gave us plenty of reasons to smile right along with her. 😄💛

Alana worked on her down behaviour, and for an assistance dog, a “down” is so much more than a down. It’s the vessel to settling in public spaces, offering calm around movement, regulating excitement, and showing she can switch gears with confidence. She practised on a variety of surfaces and handled it beautifully - grass can wait for another day as Alana wanted to keep things positive and fair to help maintain that wonderful enthusiasm she brings to her work.

This was Alana’s first session alone with Julie, without mum present. Julie had a few moments, pausing and thinking about heading back home to mum. That’s completely normal for a young dog still building confidence away from their person.
Using treat-toss games helped her get moving again with fun, though Alana was mindful not to create a “plant feet = treat toss” pattern.

🌟But the biggest win of the entire session?
As she is new to assistance training, strategic resets are vital. While they were resting, a calm bull-breed dog wandered past about 5 metres away. Julie looked over with interest and stayed relaxed. No tension. No stress signals. Just quiet, thoughtful observation.
This moment matters because when Julie was a puppy, she was quite drastically attacked by a dog of this type. Her fear reactivity is rooted in a very real experience, and she has every reason to be cautious. So seeing her sit calmly, breathing steady, watching without worry… that’s huge.

Toward the end, Julie gave a little “no food, no thank you,” showing she was getting tired and that’s okay. To prevent a pattern forming, Alana shifted focus to offered behaviours, giving Julie space to think, choose, and re-engage on her own. She did just that, which not only broadens reinforcement beyond food but also strengthens her willingness to participate and offer effort independently.

Big feelings, small steps, beautiful progress. Go, Julie. 🥳

15/11/2025

🎯 With most of my reactive dog cases, I start with cause-and-effect games.
Why? Because many reactive dogs experience the world as unpredictable - they feel things happen to them rather than because of them.

These games help shift that narrative, giving the dog more control over their world. By experimenting and seeing how their actions create outcomes, dogs start to realise that they’re not passive recipients in their environment.

They begin to experiment, predict outcomes and watch how their choices shape the world around them - that’s early scientific thinking in action!💡

And in that process, they learn something powerful: their actions matter. That understanding builds confidence, independence, and a reassuring sense of control.

🧠 Why it matters: If we skip straight to “things just happen,” many dogs feel confused or anxious, especially if they haven’t yet learned the world is safe and understandable. They’ve never built the foundation of “my actions can make good things happen.”
But when they’ve already learned, “I can make things happen; I have some control,” it’s much easier for them to tolerate the moments when things don’t go according to plan. They’re more resilient in the face of unpredictability.

In behavioural psychology, this is the shift from learned control → learned safety. The more control a dog experiences, the safer they feel - even when life throws surprises.

09/11/2025

This is Hector. Hector loves nose work. Hector has swagger. Be like Hector. 🕺🪩

03/11/2025

Join Goin’ Muttz and YoPawsAD for an evening of real talk, expert insights, and practical proven guidance - hosted by an accredited trainer and assesor (me 👋), an experienced assistance dog handler, and a vet nurse who live and breathe the human–dog bond. 💛

Let us help you navigate the assistance dog world with clarity, compassion, and confidence.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
🐾 What an Assistance Dog is - and how it differs from therapy or support dogs
🧩 Knowing when you’re ready: is now the right time for a dog or to put your dog into training?
🎯 The process of getting or training an assistance dog
🐕 How to choose the right breed & temperament for your needs
💰 Realistic costs, timelines, and what training actually looks like
🎓 Learn from an accredited assistance dog trainer - hear real experiences, discover what works (and what doesn’t), and understand how to build trust and teamwork
🌈 The challenges and rewards of the journey

+ Live Q&A - bring your questions!

🎟️ First 20 tickets get 25% off - use code GoinMuttz25 at checkout!

BOOK your spot here 👉 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1886295844649?aff=oddtdtcreator

06/10/2025

🌟 BIG NEWS ALERT - Meet Alana! 🌟

I’m beyond excited to welcome the incredible Alana to the Goin’ Muttz crew! 🐾💛

✅ Qualified & experienced trainer
🐶 Behaviour nerd
👃 Nose work superfan
💪 Fierce dog advocate
💫 All-around beautiful soul to work with

Alana brings over 4000 hours of hands-on experience working with dogs of all shapes, sizes, and stories. She also has a heart as big as her dog, Jana - a Great Dane x Bull Arab - so yeah, pretty huge.

What makes Alana special? It’s not just her skills (which she has in spades). It’s her deep love for dogs and her innate ability to help them feel safe, seen, and celebrated for exactly who they are.

You can teach knowledge. You can train skill.
But what I saw in her - that empathy, connection, warmth, deep sense of fun - that can’t be taught.
That’s what drew me to her. And that’s what I know your dogs will feel, too.

📍Alana is now training across SOUTHERN SYDNEY!
✔️ Private consultations
✔️ 1:1 nose work sessions
✔️ Nose work group classes

🤓 Fun fact: Alana started out as one of Tamika’s most passionate (and loudest 😂) students in a nose work class... and now she’s part of the fam. Full circle moment.

Now taking bookings 🗓️
We can’t wait for you (and your dog) to meet her!

05/10/2025

Glimmers are out there. Having a reactive dog is tough. It can be emotionally draining, isolating, and often overwhelming. But intentionally adding “glimmers” 🌈 to your dog’s day can make a big difference - not just for them, but for you, too.

Glimmers are those small moments of connection, safety, or calm that help balance out the more difficult ones. They remind both you and your dog that not everything is a threat - that there is joy, safety, and trust to be found in your shared world.

Here are some ways to intentionally add glimmers to a reactive dog’s day:

👃 Sniff stroll: Feed out their leash and let them lead, if they stop, you stop and continue to look at them. Let them explore without the pressure of being moved on prematurely. It’s not about distance - it’s about decompression.
There’s no pressure to “walk properly” or cover ground. Just the joy of following scent trails, gathering info, and being a dog. It’s decompressing and confidence-building.

🥓Food puzzles or scent games: Give them a choice-driven way to stay engaged, calm, and confident. Let their brain work at their pace. It makes a difference. 💛

🛏️ “Yes space” time: A comfy place where nothing is expected of them - no commands, no interactions they didn’t choose.

🤗 Consent-based affection: Invite them into contact, don’t force it. A gentle chest scratch when they lean in? That’s a glimmer.

▶️ Play with rules they understand: Tug, flirt pole, or chase with clear starts and stops can be empowering.

✏️ No-pressure training: Teaching a weird, silly or funky behaviour - just because. This training is not about the behaviour learnt, it’s about the process. It’s just for fun and not for control. It is done in a calm environment using purely positive reinforcement.

❤️ For You, Too:
Remember, you deserve glimmers too.

Goin' Muttz

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