CAM K9 Services

03/01/2025

Please read below, this dog needs a very special home.

03/01/2025

Stephanie from Ridge Mobile Nail Trims came by again today to do my dogs nails. I am so pleased to have found her. She really is the best and my dogs love her.
Please reach out to her and treat your dog to the luxury of Stephanie coming to your home!

02/28/2025

Today I delivered this cake I made, to my vet's office. Aberdeen Veterinary Hospital . I have been with them for ten years and I have always appreciated them. My vet is Ken Gummeson and I have referred many of my clients to him. Now I am leaving I will be on the hunt for a new vet and I am as lucky. Thank you Aberdeen for your excellent care!

02/26/2025

For Kamloops and surrounding areas...

Convenient, compassionate training for you and your dogs.

02/20/2025

Just wanted to thank Tameeka Mwanthi at K'9 Designz for taking care of Jack today and alerting me to a possible medical problem. All booked in at the vet tomorrow because of this. Groomers are so much more than people that bathe and cut hair for your pets.
Another lovely lady there is Julia, I haven't seen her in years but I know she would take care of your pet too..

02/19/2025

I am sharing this, simply because it saves me writing it all out myself. Lol.
However, this is a great piece on " what is socialization and exposure" for young puppies and adolescent puppies. Even if you you think you have done all the correct socialization or made mistakes with it and now seeing lack of coping skills in your older puppy, it isn't too late to help your pup gain confidence, just DONT keep exposing them to toxic pressures.

**** SOCIALISATION - HOW EASY IS IT TO GET RIGHT? ****

When you get a puppy you’ll likely have heard or have it on your mind that you need to socialise your puppy. And that’s great. It’s one of the most important things to do with any pup.

Over the last few years we’ve raised a load of foster puppies. I think there have been 11 in total. We’ve had them as young as still needing to be on a bottle and we’ve had some until they are almost a year old. We’ve raised them similarly using the same principles but we’ve had to tweak a few things for each one.

Socialisation is about exposing puppies to different environments, people, places, animals and situations that they are likely going to have to cope with when they get older. It’s not necessarily about teaching them to say hello to lots of different people and other dogs. This will depend on the individual dog.

Puppies will come pre-wired to behave a certain way and they will also come pre-wired in terms of their confidence, tendency to show fear, and how well they recover in situations. This basically means, it’s not all down to how you raise a puppy to determine how well they behave and cope as they get older. This is why there is a high failure rate within the working dog world. Not all dogs that have been bred for a specific job end up being able to do that job for numerous reasons and it doesn’t matter how much training or socialisation that has been done. If the dog is not cut out for it then it just wasn’t meant to be.

This is why good breeding practices are so important, and the breed really does matter. You don’t see any dog trainers going for chow chows, bull dogs, or great danes to compete in a sport with. There’s a reason why so many dog trainers want a malinois nowadays.

Dog training is full of nuances. I’ve read a few dog training books that have a list of all the things we need to expose our pups to by a certain age which is a great idea in theory. However, dog training is full of nuances and we need to learn when we can push our puppies and when we can’t. Socialisation should be about desensitising and habituating them not sensitising them.

If we have a pup that is on the more timid side, and we keep exposing them to things they aren’t coping well with, we may end up making them more sensitive as opposed to getting them used to things. We often see this happen during adolescence. Well meaning owners who really have tried to get it right and socialise their pups end up seeing a ‘relaxed’ or ‘calm’ puppy hit adolescence and then start expressing themselves in all those places they felt overwhelmed in when they were a pup.

We want to create resilient dogs. We want our dogs to be able to recover quickly when they get a sudden fright. But to do this we have to make sure we don’t overwhelm them to the point they can’t cope. We want our pups to experience tolerable stress. We don’t want to over expose them to the point they experience toxic stress. Tolerable stress is something they can tolerate or are able to remove themselves from. Toxic stress is where they cannot tolerate something or have the option to get themselves away from something for a prolonged period of time.

Socialising a puppy isn’t always easy. Especially if you get a rescue pup that hasn’t had the best start. If you go to a good breeder and get a typically social breed like a labrador it will likely be a much easier and nicer experience. You could get away with making a lot more mistakes usually because a well bred dog is a much more resilient dog because of consideration of genetics with the sire and the dam.

Ask any dog trainer when they would like you to get in touch with them for training and they’ll likely tell you when you think you don’t need it. Meaning, if we can help you train a dog BEFORE the problems arise it will be better for everyone involved. If you wait for a problem to arise then you could be working for a long time to resolve the problem or if you want a quick-fix, you’ll likely get told to do some pretty rough things to your dog in the name of training only for the problem to resurface at a later date.

So if you’ve got this far and have a pup or are thinking of getting one, please get in touch with a trainer now. Don’t wait for things to go wrong. Socialisation is not easy. Having someone to guide you through this stage can be infinitely helpful.

If you’d like help from us, visit www.thinkdog.nz or get in touch about my adolescent dog programme

02/17/2025

This is something I recommend to all my clients or non clients with adolescent puppies, or if you have young puppies, because they all go through adolescence.

🐶 𝗜𝗻-𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗺𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽𝘀: 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗴𝘀!
Learning Exchange Workshop
Date: Saturday, March 15
Time: 10 am - noon
General admission: $20
FREE for PACTA BC members
Limited seating—grab your ticket now! 👉 www.pactabc.ca/events

Not a member yet? Join PACTA BC to attend this and other events for free!

Brightly coloured graphic with an outdoor photo young Rottweiler, mouth open, appearing happy, with a mountain in the background. Text box below: Learning Exchange Workshop. Bring your questions, experiences, and strategies to share as we explore the world of the adolescent dog!
Below the text is a photo of two older puppies on harnesses and leashes, with curved bodies, sniffing each other. One is a Dalmatian and the other is a small, shaggy, soft-coated pup. The bottom of the poster has PACTA BC's logo and website address.

02/16/2025

Can anyone help with donations for this worthy small "rescue" group? She is literally a "one man/family show" and doesn't take in many dogs, but even one or two is a lot when funds and food get low. Based in Kamloops. Please contact them directly.

My little rescue is struggling a bit right now. We have 4 spays to take care of - ranging from 400-700 each. Then there is the vaccinations and microchips. Running low on food donations. Then yesterday our washer s**t the bed. Having puppies and getting dogs to trust humans and learning how to live inside a home means A LOT of heavy laundry. Dolly took to peeing on my bed until we got her house trained which meant washing a king comforter almost daily. The towels, blankets, and dog beds - it was just too much for our little unit. I managed to find a second hand, commercial set to pick up on Wednesday but that's another $650.
If anyone has any food donations or would even be willing to donate financially it would really go a loooong ways for us.
Please feel free to reach out on here or email:

[email protected]

02/12/2025

This is a not the easiest post for me, and I am so sad to announce that I will be leaving the Kamloops area on March 8th. We have tried so hard to find a home with our four dogs..we were initially looking to buy but Kamloops is just out of our price range when on it's own land. If we went to Clearwater it is much more affordable, but the drive as you can appreciate, is not a nice one, so would not serve Kamloops anyway. Rentals in Kamloops, as so many of you know, are not only expensive but not really dog friendly or if they are, four dogs always intimidates people...no matter how well trained they are!
An opportunity has arisen in Ryder lake ( Chilliwack) on 11 acres, our dogs will love it and us too. Although sad to be leaving this area so soon, we are also looking forward to seeing friends, family and yes, clients too, that are in the Fraser Valley.
I will always continue to support my clients here, if they wish to continue on line, over the phone, zoom etc..however, my sister Kathy from My Positive Dog has graciously agreed to take on my existing clients ( all have been notified). If you are reading this and are looking for a great positive trainer, she would be my first choice for sure. ( not just because she is my sister, but because she is really really good at her job, as her own clients will attest to).

Thank you so much for your support, your continued support, past, present and future clients. I will still be updating this page as I have always done, no matter where I am. I always enjoy your comments and look forward to them still when I move. I will miss Kamloops and all the great friends and other trainers I have had the good fortune to work with. All the best, Chris.

02/10/2025

Great opportunity for the right person.

Ok people I am taking a big leap into the dark here knowing that “good people know good people”. I am in search of two unique people/things:

1) I have a beautiful fully furnished one bedroom/suite cabin at Harmony Farm with laundry, utilities, wifi and parking that I have decided to rent to the ‘right’ person (single space).

The ‘right’ person loves peaceful country living and loves animals. Non Smoker, non addict (of anything). Clean, respectful, no house pets (horse considered-endless trails, arena, roundpen), financially secure. $1000 p/mo plus damage deposit

2) Part Time Farm help. (This could be the same person). Hours could be about 40hrs a month helping walk/feed dogs, feed horses, sheep, farm maintenance (harrowing, mowing, snow plowing, weedeating, gardening, fencing, etc) and vacation caretaking on occasion.

Looking for someone that loves animals and outdoor work year round either together with me or working independently.

This could be the same person that wants a beautiful farm life to live here and work part time or come and go for part time work, as needed.

I will be particular! If you know of someone that might be my person for Harmony Farm please have them contact me by email ([email protected]) describing themselves and their interest. Thank you in advance!

02/09/2025

I know this has been seen many times, but if this was my dog I would not be able to keep a straight face and I would live it so much. Turn the sound up because the woman laughing is hilarious!

02/06/2025

Remmi

02/02/2025

Big shout out to Ridge Mobile Nail Trims Stephanie. Second time she has trimmed my four dogs nails and they love her. I cannot recommend her enough! She gets down on the floor with them, has yummy treats and takes the time she needs. Thank you!

01/18/2025

This is so true...please read..

01/17/2025

I am pleased to announce that I am a professional Member of PACTA (https://www.pactabc.ca/about). Professional Animal Care and Training Association of BC.
This is BC based and is a group of like minded people furthering the education and welfare of animals..not just dogs.. We have a group in Kamloops and they often put on workshops and discussions for everyone to attend.
Please take a look at what we do and if you feel this is for you, there are many ways to become involved..
Photo of Paddy (JRT Puppy)and Rhisc ( Border Collie), just because these are past dogs from years ago...