Jackie Pritchard Dog Training

11/23/2025

🐾❤️

In 2024, researchers at ELTE University in Hungary uncovered something powerful about rescue dogs — something many adopters have felt in their hearts but never had scientific proof for.

Dogs who grow up with trauma, abandonment, or life on the streets form deeper emotional bonds with their new owners than dogs who never experienced hardship.

The study looked at former street dogs now living in loving homes. Researchers found that these dogs:
• show stronger emotional dependency
• are more sensitive to their owner’s presence
• rely more heavily on human comfort during stress
• form attachment patterns similar to children who finally find safety after instability

In simple terms, dogs who were once alone cling harder to the people who saved them.

It is not weakness.
It is gratitude shaped by survival.

Rescue dogs learn early that the world can be cold and unpredictable. So when they finally find someone who feeds them, shelters them, touches them gently, and stays… they give every piece of loyalty they have.

Their bond is not just affection. It is trust rebuilt from scratch.
It is love learned the hard way, and therefore given more fiercely.

If you have a rescue dog, you already know this feeling.
The way they watch you.
The way they follow you from room to room.
The way they rest their head on you like they are anchoring themselves to something safe.

Science finally confirms it:
Rescue dogs do not just love.
They love differently — deeper, stronger, and with the full heart of an animal who remembers what life was like before you.

11/22/2025

It’s all about relationship…through the highs and the lows. It’s important to learn to embrace both.

Relationships are not linear. They breathe. They stretch. They wobble. They evolve.

We often talk about relationships — with our dogs, our students, our partners — as if they’re built only through the “good moments.” The tidy sessions. The breakthroughs. The wins that look great on camera and feel even better in our chest.

But the truth is: the highs don’t create the relationship. They simply reflect the foundation you’ve already built.

The real work — the real connection — is formed in the lows.

When everything is smooth, it’s easy to be patient. It’s easy to be kind. It’s easy to feel like the relationship is solid.

But who are you when the dog shuts down?
Who are you when a student hits a wall and doubts themselves?
Who are you when your own motivation dips or life feels like pressure from every angle?

These are the moments that test your identity inside the relationship. And more importantly, they’re the moments that shape the identity of the relationship itself.

Because lows aren’t failures. They are information. They are invitations. They are the places where trust is either strengthened or weakened.

And honestly — it’s a privilege to experience the full spectrum of a relationship. To walk beside dogs who bring you both joy and challenge. To coach students who trust you enough to show you their strength and their vulnerability. To love people who gift you their whole selves, not just the polished parts. The fullness of relationship — the high peaks and the gritty lows — is where life feels the most real. Don’t shy away from it. Don’t try to tidy it. Embrace it. It’s a gift not everyone gets to experience.

The low moments ask you to slow down rather than push harder. To listen rather than correct. To support rather than judge. To hold space instead of filling it with pressure. To choose compassion over convenience.

Anyone can celebrate the highs. But it takes awareness, humility, and commitment to show up fully during the challenges — especially in dog training, where emotions run high on both ends of the lead.

A dog who struggles, a student who feels lost, a human who is overwhelmed… these moments don’t ruin relationships. They deepen them — if you stay present.

Every high gives confidence. Every low gives clarity. Both are essential.

And the more we embrace this ebb and flow, the more resilient, honest, and connected our relationships become. In dog training. In coaching. In partnership. In life.

Show up in the highs.
Show up in the lows.
Show up as the same person in both — steady, grounded, and compassionate. That’s where unshakeable relationships live.

11/20/2025

Brilliant ❤️

11/19/2025

"How on earth could I justify using force on a dog whose only crime was not knowing how to be right?" 🐾❤️

Many years ago, while attempting to demonstrate some no-pulling techniques in a seminar, I was utterly exasperated by a young Labrador.

Clancy had leaped up and head punched me very hard not once but twice, making me see stars and really hurting my nose. Clancy was not malicious or intending harm, he was just an exuberant adolescent who had been taught that leaping around was acceptable. Not being physically sensitive himself, it was doubtful that it dawned on the dog that a head butt was very painful to a human.

I had been patient, kind, vaguely successful but by the second slam to my face, my patience began to shred. I began to think, “One good correction might get through this dog’s thick skull.” I surprised myself by thinking that, but then I further shocked myself (and some of the audience) when I asked the handler explicitly for permission to use a physical correction on her dog.

She agreed, trusting me as a trainer to do right by her dog.

In that moment when she trustingly agreed to let me use force on her dog, I found something in myself that surprised me further: a little voice that challenged me to push myself further, to help this dog without force.

Read more of this article at:
➡ https://suzanneclothier.com/article/i-had-to/

11/19/2025

DISTANCE ASSISTANCE

It’s not easy having a reactive dog. As much as we may feel frustrated, restricted, angry or even ashamed or embarrassed, our reactive dogs are also experiencing a range of negative emotions when they react to something that triggers them.
Reactive dogs have a nervous system issue not a training issue.

This nervous system reaction is usually caused by anxiety, fear, feeling threatened, frustrated or may even be pain related.

These emotions cause high levels of stress and stress prevents both us and our dogs from being able to process information, think clearly or learn a different, more acceptable way of reacting to whatever triggers us.

This is why creating enough distance is so important.

I’m really scared of snakes and even struggle to look at them. The only thing I want to do is run and create as much distance as possible.

If someone was restraining me, forcing me to sit and look at the snake while trying to feed me my favourite chocolate, telling me there was nothing to worry about or trying to educate me about the reptile, it would do nothing to alleviate my fear and would only increase my stress levels.

Doing this at a sufficient distance, where I felt safe would be far more effective and my stress levels would be much lower. In time, with patience and practice, I may even be able to get much closer to the snake without having a negative reaction.

The same principle applies to reactive dogs. Creating sufficient distance where they can see the trigger but still feel safe and don’t react is the best way of helping them to cope with their feelings.

Some dogs, or people, may never be able to decrease that distance and that’s also okay.

We need to accept our dogs for the unique individual they are, keep working on the things we can improve and change and accept the things we can’t.

11/18/2025

This is long overdue.
I stand firmly with Jo Middleton.

** Important Message from our Director, Jo Middleton **

Today I’m heading to the House of Lords for something that feels genuinely historic for canine welfare ... the official launch of the Innate Health Assessment (IHA) Tool.

For as long as I can remember I have advocated to end the cruelty that humans have inflicted up dogs through breeding for aesthetics.

To be blunt, we have bred suffering into generations of animals who never asked for it.

Flat faces.
Spines that don't flex.
Bulging eyes.
Compromised breathing.
Painful skin, joints, and neurological issues.

All because, somewhere along the line, how dogs looked and our human egos became more important than welfare.

But today marks the beginning of a shift.

The IHA Tool, brain child of the All Parliamnetary Group for Animal Welfare, is launching.

This 10 point assessment is built from 15 years of RVC research and supported across the veterinary and welfare sectors. It gives everyone, including breeders and prospective guardians, a simple, accessible way to assess what healthy, innate conformation truly looks like.

And I’m incredibly proud that International Institute For Canine Ethics, Canine Principles and The International School for Canine Psychology and Behaviour - ISCP are supporters of this work amongst many others like our Canine Principles partners the BSAVA, RVC, the Kennel Club, Dogs Trust, Blue Cross, Battersea, Wood Green, Hope Rescue and many others ❤️.

Education and compassionate positive action at this level are truly powerful.

This tool empowers ordinary people to make extraordinary change.
It removes the guesswork.
It removes the excuses.
And, if used widely, it will save countless dogs from a lifetime of preventable suffering.

Today isn’t about blame.
It’s about progress.
It’s about choosing better for the dogs of tomorrow and giving people the knowledge to do so.

I completely get that many might look at this with scepticism and think, "people won’t use it." I know that not everyone will. But this is a MASSIVE leap of progress. And every guardian or breeder who does use the tool is one step closer to preventing a lifetime of suffering for a dog.

A breeding revolution has officially begun.

And I’m beyond excited to be standing in the room where it starts.

Link in the comments to for more info 👇👇👇

11/17/2025

As a dog trainer and dog training coach, this post is spot on! Teaching dogs and teaching children are in many ways quite similar. Kids and dogs have the same needs; social, physical, emotional and developmental.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if instead of saying “my dog is misbehaving or being stubborn”, we reframed it to say “my dog is struggling and I need to find out how I can help support him or her better”.

I often joke that raising a dog is a lot like raising a child—except my daughter has yet to destroy an entire roll of toilet paper for fun, and none of my dogs have ever demanded a rainbow-inspired birthday party… yet. But if you’ve ever watched a toddler and a puppy side-by-side, the similarities are uncanny. Both have zero impulse control, and both genuinely believe that anything in the environment is a potential invitation for exploration, adventure, or mild chaos—especially if you look away for half a second.

And here’s the thing: most of us would never dream of raising our children the way many people unintentionally raise their dogs. Let me explain.

When my daughter was two, imagine me handing her a multi-pack of permanent markers and saying, “Sweetie, you’re smart. I trust you. Don’t draw on anything important.” Then turning around to make a cup of tea. Thirty seconds later, she would have created a mural that Banksy himself would applaud—on the living room wall. Would my reaction have been: “She’s so stubborn!” “She’s over-aroused!” “She has a predisposition to artistic defiance!” Of course not. She was a child. Children need guidance, boundaries, and supervision (and ideally, washable markers).

And somewhere around this stage—whether with the child or the puppy—comes one of the biggest misunderstandings people have: the idea that the puppy actually “knows” something. People say, “But he knows sit,” or “She knows this at home,” but what they really mean is the puppy can do it when nothing else is going on. The second you add the real world—leaves blowing, birds flapping, kids laughing, smells wafting in from six miles away—the environment becomes the most fascinating thing on the planet. In the early stages, the environment will always win. Every. Single. Time. That’s not the puppy being naughty or stubborn—it’s simply nature. Our job is to help them navigate distractions, guide them through chaos, and gradually become the most interesting and safe place for them to anchor themselves. Without that support, the world becomes one giant, irresistible playground they are absolutely not equipped to handle on their own.

Fast forward to my daughter being older—if I gave her unrestricted access to desserts, let her stay up as late as she wanted, go out with friends whenever she felt like it, and make all her own decisions at a young age, we all know what would happen. Questionable judgment. Meltdowns. Sugar-fuelled chaos. A total disregard for structure. And we’d all agree that the issue wouldn’t be her personality… it would be my parenting approach.

Yet this is exactly what happens with dogs all the time. People bring home an adorable puppy with fluff, charm, and the cognitive ability of a damp sponge, and then give them free access to the entire house, let them rehearse chasing the cat “just once” (which turns into twice… and then twenty times), allow them to greet every stranger like an enthusiastic debt collector, expect them to magically “know better,” and then act surprised when the dog begins to make poor choices—daily, enthusiastically, and with full commitment. Suddenly the labels start flying: “He’s reactive.” “She’s over-aroused.” “He’s stubborn.” “She’s got no impulse control.”

But the reality is far simpler and far less dramatic: the dog is responding exactly how any young creature would respond—with the information, experiences, and freedoms they’ve been given.

Puppyhood is childhood, just with more fur. If a child grows up with intentional structure, healthy boundaries, and appropriate experiences, they develop into a confident, capable human. If instead they grow up with overwhelming freedom, chaotic environments, and zero guidance… well, the journey gets bumpy. Dogs are no different.

Before we label a dog as “difficult,” we should ask ourselves: What experiences have we exposed them to? What environments have we allowed them to rehearse behaviour in? Have we set them up to succeed? Have we actually taught them the skills to make good choices—or just hoped they’d somehow figure it out?

Dogs don’t magically absorb correct behaviour through osmosis. They’re not born understanding polite greetings, impulse control, or the nuanced art of “perhaps don’t launch yourself at the elderly neighbour holding shopping bags.” They learn from us—just as our children do. When we raise our dogs with the same intentionality we use to raise our children, we create dogs who are confident instead of chaotic, thoughtful instead of accidental, and able to navigate the world calmly rather than being overwhelmed. And we become owners who can confidently say, “Yes, my dog is brilliant,” instead of, “He’s just a bit… erm… enthusiastic… sorry… he’s friendly, I promise!”

Thoughtful upbringing leads to thoughtful behaviour—every single time. Puppyhood is not something to merely “survive.” It’s something to curate. Because when we invest in those early moments, we’re not just teaching our dog how to behave… we’re shaping who they’ll become. And trust me—wall art is a lot easier to avoid when you don’t hand the puppy the metaphorical permanent markers in the first place.

So tell me—what do you do to intentionally raise your puppy to be a great adult dog?