Bondi Behaviourist

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Bondi Behaviourist is a Sydney based dog behavioural and training company working across a wide range of dog behaviourial and training issues

Miss Athena is a beautiful girl I’ve been working with lately. When we first met she had told the world loudly how overw...
17/04/2025

Miss Athena is a beautiful girl I’ve been working with lately.

When we first met she had told the world loudly how overwhelmed she was and so at the start of our program we had to take things slow.

Making her world small and simple while focussing on communication helped her nervous system calm down and her relationship with her human grow.

That’s when we started to gradually grow her world back up again, slowly introducing new things, people and dogs as we go.

07/04/2025

This isn’t for all dogs, but for the dogs that are constantly rushing, pushy and making you feel like you’re chasing after them
 practice using access to what it is they want as their reward.

04/04/2025

Be mindful when you make contact with your dog where you’re at emotionally, it will have an impact one way or another

How many adult, herding breed dogs (collies, kelpies, cattle dogs, shepherds etc) do you see in dog parks that aren’t hy...
20/02/2025

How many adult, herding breed dogs (collies, kelpies, cattle dogs, shepherds etc) do you see in dog parks that aren’t hyper fixated on something but behaving in a socially appropriate way?

Answer - Not many!

Those unicorns do exist but they’re outliers and anomalies. They are not the norm!

Herding dogs typically thrive in predictable environments because they love having their ducks in a row.

Dog parks are typically (not always) highly dynamic environments with lots of variables and unpredictability

They’re often just not the right place for your herding dog to have a good time.

If they’re rounding other dogs up, that’s them saying ‘this is out of control - i’ll sort this out’. But other dogs typically hate being herded themselves.

If they’re focussed on a toy/ball/frisbee etc then they’re basically saying “everything around me is too much but I can block that out if I focus on controlling the movement of this ball”

Do your herding dog a favour and take them to places that aren’t over stimulating, meet their needs to herd and for clarity and predictably and expose them to social situations that aren’t chaos to see your dogs social skills develop and their overall wellbeing improve

Knowing how much structure your dog needs can be tricky because it’s not a simple one size fits all answer. Some dogs th...
18/02/2025

Knowing how much structure your dog needs can be tricky because it’s not a simple one size fits all answer.

Some dogs thrive with more guidance and management of their environment

Some dogs thrive with management but push back on too much guidance

Some dogs need lots of agency and control

But all dogs need different amounts according to different situations

It means that we have to be aware, listen to them, be flexible and to provide what they need when they need it

Barking
 something I get asked to help A LOT!!Little Snoop here was barking a lot, so we got to work in helping everyone...
16/02/2025

Barking
 something I get asked to help A LOT!!

Little Snoop here was barking a lot, so we got to work in helping everyone involved.

The most important things to consider with barking are:

👉 That some barking is normal
👉 That some breeds are more prone to barking
👉 Barking can happen for different reasons

So with Snoop being a dashing, we expect some barking. But his was excessive in that it was happening when there was nothing external happening to set him off, when there was something happening to set him off he couldn’t recover very well and there was an air of desperation and frustration in his barking.

So, we broke different scenarios down separately because we can’t treat all barks the same way.

We met frustration needs to help reduce barking out of frustration.

We developed communication skills and his ability to practice self soothing independently to reduce barking that felt demanding.

We put things into his life that helped his emotional regulation to help him come down from barking events quicker.

He’s still going to have a few barks, that’s normal, but far fewer of these barks will arise because of stress or frustration, his family can communicate better with him if it happens and he has better recovery skills.

When your dog holds on to their toy after you’ve been playing they may be using it to bring their arousal levels down an...
12/02/2025

When your dog holds on to their toy after you’ve been playing they may be using it to bring their arousal levels down and regulate their nervous system

So many people I see get annoyed that their dog won’t bring their toy back when playing and yeah sometimes the dog makes a game of ‘keep away’

But before you get frustrated or hurry the dog to give you it back so you can throw it again try leaving them to decompress with it for a while and see what it does

It can help relieve stress, it can improve their responsiveness to cues and most important its meeting their current need at the time

Little Ray is getting help with leash pulling & reactivity towards dogsWe found he was pulling and reacting out of frust...
11/02/2025

Little Ray is getting help with leash pulling & reactivity towards dogs

We found he was pulling and reacting out of frustration

So more restraint and micromanagement would make it worse

We found appropriate places to give him more freedom of movement on his walks with a long leash helped him regulate his emotions and is now more responsive

As a result we can communicate with him more, he’s becoming more and more responsive and we’re able to teach him appropriate behaviours

I’m helping Chino settle into his new home.After months of going from home to home he’s finally found his people.Now we’...
10/02/2025

I’m helping Chino settle into his new home.

After months of going from home to home he’s finally found his people.

Now we’re working on helping him integrate, feel safe and build social skills.

Wish us luck ❀

Meet Willow She’s a beautiful Portuguese water dog that since she moved house has gradually her stress levels have been ...
04/02/2025

Meet Willow

She’s a beautiful Portuguese water dog that since she moved house has gradually her stress levels have been gradually building.

It crept up mostly unnoticed until one day she had a big reaction towards another dog across the street which until then was out of character.

When we got talking we discovered that since the move there were quite a few small but important factors that were adding up over time.

Her sleep was now constantly disrupted, she was alert to the neighbours movements multiple times a day, she wasn’t getting the same off leash freedoms & her street walks were now on crowded and narrow streets.

Over time this can and does add up, so before we really work specifically on her reactivity we need to ensure her fundamental needs are really being met.

If we jump the gun and start over exposing her to her biggest stressor (dogs when she’s on leash) before addressing the underlying factors we are not likely to see great results and even if we do see improvements they’re likely to not be consistent or ongoing.

30/01/2025

The more consistent we are, the more we communicate our boundaries, the general rules and are disciplined in doing so, the less we will resort to punishment. They’re essential parts of raising and caring for any individual in life. Supporting, rewarding, allowing life rewards to happen and praising our dogs as they live in the framework and environment we have exposed them to.

30/01/2025

Remember this!! When your dog sees someone, another dog or is going into a situation they want one thing before and above anything else. Information. The underlying motivation is to determine whether or not they are safe. How they behave and what they want after this information is received is dependant on the information they receive. Their expectations, prior learning, mood, well being, state of arousal, environment and of course the individual they are receiving information from (and more) are all affecting how effectively our dogs can receive and process any information at any given time.

Meet Lenny 🐕Lenny doesn’t love dogs up in his personal space His first choice is to be nice but awkward. He dances aroun...
21/01/2025

Meet Lenny 🐕

Lenny doesn’t love dogs up in his personal space

His first choice is to be nice but awkward.

He dances around, he play bows and tries to hump but this isn’t because he’s excited. He’s conflicted and uncomfortable.

But if pushed he has communicated he wants space and distance with growls and teeth. This is his last resort and his only intention is to relieve the pressure he’s feeling.

When calm (thinking and not just reacting) he chooses to go around dogs rather than up to them.

When we met him he was far more impulsive and found himself in situations he didn’t like all too often. Resulting in too many negative outcomes.

In today’s session we were able to navigate the busy path on the Bondi - Bronte walk
 he nailed it!!

Our next session we’ll be putting focus on handling skills in the moments he does inevitably come nose to nose with another dog.

The goal will be to build his owners handling skills and confidence so that when out in the real world he has the tools to then in turn, build Lenny’s confidence and social skills.

20/01/2025

Would you rather have
a) A super obedient dog that is really “well trained” Or B) A dog that is really comfortable in their own skin, feels safe and is really “well behaved” as a result of this They’re not necessarily mutually exclusive, but if you had to pick one..: what would you pick?

Bad news!!If your dog is doing the same thing consistently then they’re getting better at it.They’re literally practicin...
16/01/2025

Bad news!!

If your dog is doing the same thing consistently then they’re getting better at it.

They’re literally practicing it and whatever they practice
 they get better at,

So the likelihood of them just “growing out of it” without some degree of intervention is vital

So don’t sit and hope it just gets better, take action and start implementing a plan that addresses the original need that the behaviour is meeting and training new behaviours and activities to replace it

16/01/2025

Finding the right training approach for your dog can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re dealing with complex behaviors like aggression or reactivity but even for what might seem like common behaviours you will find a range of answers online that all seem to contradict one another. For dog own...

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Bondi Behaviourist is a Sydney based team, working with dog behaviour and training working across a wide range of dog behaviourial issues with in home consultations, training courses, puppy schools and walk and training options.