The Funky Foxhound

06/07/2025

I was lucky enough to help give this guy a fresh new start today, as a new member of the Moving Paws Always & Forever Dog Haven. They collected him yesterday, and did a great job of cutting a tonne of matting off his body upon arriving home, before his appointment with me today. 17 year old Jack has been severely neglected for some time, and had the worst matting I have ever seen on his little old paws. His skin and ears are also in terrible condition 😞 seeing his personality change as that horrible prison of coat was removed from his legs and face was such a blessing. I saw him begin to move comfortably, explore, and brighten up, even with a couple of little tail wags thrown in.
He’ll have the best possible care for a senior pooch now with Deb and her forever foster team. Moving Paws takes in predominantly senior and/or disabled small dogs, and as I’m sure you can appreciate, their vet bills are huge as a result. If you want to help little guys like Jack live the life they deserve, you can donate to MP here:
https://www.movingpaws.org.au/donate-here/

I’ve been grooming for MP since I opened my business and see just how dedicated Deb and her small team are to each of these little souls. They are lucky little kiddos ❤️

05/07/2025

Maggie had a /huge/ win recently. This girly has been coming to me for years now. She is a very sensitive dog and has also got some chronic pain and discomfort due to knee issues as well as ongoing ear and skin troubles. All of this makes for a complicated behaviour case and a dog who finds grooming very hard. I have been able to successfully maintain her coat all over with scissor work, and we have experimented with many different ways to make the process a positive one for her.
At her last appointment, for the first time in her life, Maggie was able to have a nail trim whilst conscious. All other nail trims have been achieved under anaesthetic, but this girly said “seeya later” to that idea. Using lots of positive reinforcement, trust and predictability building, and fun games, her mum and I were able to get all her front nails cut with zero distress on Maggie’s behalf. Many celebrations were had!!

Maggie’s family have been so committed to her needs over the years, driving quite a distance for her appointments. They have trusted the process and seen what a huge difference it has made in her life. From a dog who was petrified of even the presence of grooming tools, to a dog who bursts with joy when she arrives at the salon, she really is such a perfect example of how dog-led, force free, cooperative grooming can really change lives ❤️

01/07/2025

NEW VIDEO!! I am super excited to share this one with you. I had the chance to collaborate with Jose Gomes from Train me please for this voluntary nail trim tutorial – and it’s a game-changer! 🎉

Tired of the nail-trim struggle? We’re showing you how to teach your dog to file their own nails using a scratchboard – no stress, no fuss, just happy paws! 🐾

🔹 What’s in the vid?
✅ How to introduce a scratchboard (it’s dead easy!)
✅ Tips to get your dog scratchin’ like a pro
✅ Building trust and making grooming a positive experience

👉 Watch now and say goodbye to nail-trim battles!

https://youtu.be/0L9Lrv5IzrM

👍 Smash that like button, share with your mates, and tag someone who needs this hack!

26/06/2025

Well well well, if it isn’t a super exciting conference announcement!
I am thrilled to be presenting at the upcoming Association of Pet Dog Trainers Australia conference in October 🥳 my talk, “From Stress to Yes: Dog-Centered Training for Grooming-Related Behavioural Challenges”, will hopefully get people talking about and considering low-stress handling during grooming procedures. There is such an incredible array of speakers at this event, and it makes my heart so happy to have been selected amongst them to share my experience and knowledge with a room full of wonderful, talented trainers and animal care professionals. This feels like such an exciting step in my career, and I can’t wait for the delightful conference vibes as well as to be able to share my passion with many fantastic humans, some of which I’m sure will be familiar faces 😀
You can find more info on the APDT conference, which is being held here in Adelaide this year, here: https://apdt.cw3.events/ 🐾

29/05/2025

Looking for a way to entertain your dog, satisfy their brains, tire them out /and/ use up some of your recyclables?
Chaos Boxes might just be what you’re after! Let the boys show you how it’s done 🥰

Chaos Boxes: A Cheap, Fun Enrichment Idea for Your Dog

Dogs inherently are designed to scavenge for their meals. However, our pampered companions often miss out on the chance to practice this behaviour. Providing...

28/05/2025

Thank-you so much everybody for your patience during this incredibly difficult time. All your kind words, cards and beautiful gifts have made a gut-wrenching time a little more bearable. Our Queen is now home where she belongs, ready to watch over her brothers and make sure they don’t step out of line or commit any shenanigans without her permission. Our hearts are broken, but we are being comforted by the limitless love provided by Arrow and Vander 💕

I am back at work now, and slowly rebooking the dogs I’ve had to reschedule. If your appointment was moved, I’ll get back to you within the next few days ❤️

21/05/2025

I wasn’t sure if I should share this here, being my ‘professional’ page, but I know people want to know what happened to my sweet girl - and I know I am surrounded by dog lovers here. Kyah was so happy, healthy and spritely one minute, and gone the next. I’d rather explain it online because I can’t bring myself to have the conversation face-to-face; it’ll break me.
Kyah was completely her normal self Monday afternoon before I left to teach training classes. Whilst I was out, she played fetch with Arrow, chasing him around as always. She came inside and laid by the heater, her usual routine when it is on. I am so glad we put it on a few days ago.
The first sign something was wrong came when Eamonn made their dinners. She was hesitant to eat, but eventually did. I got home a little while after, and had hot chips. She rejected my offering of a hot chip, which really worried me. That’s when Eamonn mentioned she’d been funny with dinner. I noticed her ears were flat, her tail was down and she seemed lethargic. Her gums were slightly pale. She had essentially crashed in less than two hours. Alarm bells rang as she had a regurgitation episode a few days prior with her dinner, and aspiration pneumonia is a looming threat after her laryngeal tie-back surgery, so I knew I needed to take her to emergency. I had to carry her to and from the car.
At Pawprints in Blackwood, they did an ECG and found her heartbeat was racing at around 300bpm. They did an ultrasound and were very, very thorough, looking at every inch of her insides. A shadow between her liver and spleen that could be suspicious was noted. Then they scanned her heart. They found the sac around her heart was completely full of fluid, so her poor heart was battling against this to try and beat effective. They don’t know why; their best guess was that a malignant tumour had burst. It happened so, so fast. We could take her home and wait out until morning to get her into a specialist, but she would go into cardiac arrest at some point, whether that be sooner or later. The chances of seeing a specialist before her heart gave out was very low. After talking it out with the vet, I made the gut wrenching decision to not take that risk. Whilst her body was working so hard to keep her alive and she was very tired, she currently wasn’t in pain. I didn’t want her last moment to be in the agony and terror of a heart attack.
Eamonn came, he brought along a chocolate bar and a chicken schnitzel sandwich laiden with mayonnaise. I always wanted for her to eat all the junk food in the world before she went. I keep thinking of things I wish I’d asked him to bring. She loved the schnitzel and some of the buttery, mayonnaise-covered bread. The chocolate bar got a few taste tests but was ultimately rejected. We also went for a gentle wander up the street so she could p*e and crap on everything, in true Kyah style. She wanted to keep walking and sniffing forever, and God I wish I could’ve let her. Telling her she wasn’t allowed to go into OTR next door felt like I was denying her one last moment of joy. It was gut wrenching.
Kyah was blessed to have two male staff that night; she always adored men. Every time she spotted them, even from across the clinic, she would use all her strength to wag her tail. I think they fell in love with her a little bit, too.
Her passing was peaceful, surrounded by so much love. The vet staff were incredible, particularly Dr Tobi Threadgold, who was so thorough, gentle, kind, read the room beautifully, and really went out of his way to make the whole experience as minimally agonising as possible. He helped me feel confident in my decision, and I knew I could trust his judgement.
I am so devastated. I still thought we had years left. I’m sure she did, too. I regret so many things we didn’t do because I thought we still had time. I always tried my best to play tug and wrestle even when I was so exhausted and ready for bed, but I still wish I had done it more. It made her so happy, my spicy girl. I just hope she knew how deeply loved she was, and that she didn’t feel like she had missed out on much. I wish we had been given more time, even just a few days, to do some of her favourite things before she left. Just the chance to lay in the sun, belly up, for one last day would’ve been a blessing. But life is far too cruel for that.
I’m not religious, I’m not spiritual, once somebody goes, they are gone as far as I am concerned. But if there’s any way in the world that there’s somewhere we go afterwards, I sure hope there are plenty of rats to chase, tug toys to hang off of, and men to wag her tail and playbow at. Hopefully there’s a nice heater with a comfy bed that she will ultimately reject and choose to lay on the hard floor next to instead. And of course, all the snacks in the world.
We love you forever, my sassy queen. Thanks for everything ❤️

20/05/2025

Just like that, the queen of our house, my constant life companion and learning partner of 12.5 years, is gone. I don’t have the words right now to really express much of anything.

18th October 2012 - 20th May 2025 💔

Please understand I need time and space right now. I will need time off work, I don’t know how long. This was all so sudden.

Kyah, my baby girl, you were so, so loved.

01/05/2025

A few months back, I was lucky enough to be selected as a tester for a fantastic new certification program, the CARE-TC certificate designed by cooperative care extraordinaire, Deb Jones.
As far as I know, this is the first course of its kind aimed at dog trainers, and is a resource that is desperately needed, so that more trainers around the world can help clients overcome their husbandry fears, especially around veterinary and grooming procedures.
The content of this course was very helpful in adding to my cooperative care knowledge bank, and has given me new ideas to trial with my clients; some of which I’ve had great success using with my own dogs 🙂
The CARE-TC course is not yet available to the public, but will be released some time around June this year 🐾

28/04/2025

Do you know anybody welcoming a puppy into their life? Pets of Charles Sturt are offering this fantastic free seminar to help with the transition of a new pup into your home - please share it with them to help them through the challenges of puppyhood! They are also offering a variety of other free information evenings throughout the month of May. If you want accurate, useful information to make life with your dog easier and more enjoyable, check them out 🐾

📢 There's no such thing as a 'bad' puppy!

Join us this Thursday for our free seminar sharing tips and tricks to set you and your puppy up for success!

We'll cover:
🐶 Safe and appropriate socialisation
🐶 Managing mouthing
🐶 Teaching toilet training
🐶 Helping the transition into a new home
🐶 Priorities for the first few months together
🐶 Setting realistic expectations to reduce the 'Puppy Blues' - the weird cloud of exhaustion, grief and guilt that follows new puppy parents who just want the best for their pup! (link in the comments)

This is a fun information session, run by a qualified trainer - perfect for those thinking about getting a new puppy or those living with puppies now!

We're thrilled that Puppy Partners and Adelaide Veterinary Walk In Clinic will be joining us as stallholders for the evening. This is an excellent opportunity to pick their brains about puppy behaviour and health!

Bookings available 👉 https://www.eventbrite.com.au/cc/doggy-day-in-may-2025-4046643