Cornerstone Canine Training

19/09/2024

A lot less than you may think...

If you have heard something like the below over the years with your dog, you are not alone.

🐶'If your dog is under 15kg they must be walked once a day and if they are over 15kg they must be walked twice a day'.🐶

In real life - how practical is this? Yet so many owners feel the pressure to walk their dogs every single day - irrelevant of the circumstances.

🧡Give yourself permission to stay home and feel good about your decision...💚

You may find any given day could fall into one of these scenarios -
❌Too cold with Icy roads and pavements
❌Too hot
❌Your dog has had a traumatic experience with a full bucket and a walk will be too stressful for them
❌The mornings and evenings are dark with no street lighting
❌You or your dog are feeling poorly.

How about where your dog is currently with their training. So for now staying at home where they are safe and you have more control over what they are exposed to can be a massive benefit to you both.
❌Your dog reacts badly towards other dogs
❌Your dog pulls and could injure themselves, you or others
❌Your walks are stressful for you both
❌Your dog is rehearsing too many undesirable behaviours out walking.

✨The skills for great walks are built at home. ✨

So what can you do instead?

The reality is that your dog wants to spend time with you. Playing games at home will be far more beneficial for them if they have struggles out walking - I also have fitness specific games for you to ensure they are getting good exercise.

❤Be an advocate for your dog.✨🐶

How about dogs that are happy out walking and take it all in their stride? The best thing you can do is have no routine with your walks (time/location/distance) - this will be like gold to you if you find yourself suddenly unable to go for a walk on any given day.

🤒Wake up feeling poorly - having a dog getting frustrated that they have not had a walk is something you want to avoid.

✨If your dog is used to having a walk every day, then they will expect a walk every day.✨

Send me a DM to find out more - you are in the right place. 🧡🐶

03/09/2024

Choosing your tribe can be the key to your success.✨🥇😍

If you have a dog with some struggles and you are wanting to support them the best way you can, one area to be mindful of is who they and you spend time with. 🐶

You may have a dog who gets over excited on walks, which then spills over into the rest of their day (a bit like a child coming home bouncing off the walls after a party🥳). And if you regularly meet up with another dog who is just as excitable, then asking your dog for calmness is a little bit like running up a sand dune - it is hard work. 🏃‍♀️

Your dog will also be feeling quite conflicted. Their brain will be so used to having excitable play when they see their friend - they have rehearsed these behaviours a fair few times. Yet the humans are asking for calmness. 🙉😵‍💫

How about who you chat with or walk with? Are they supportive of your training? You want to feel like those around you are your cheerleaders - they want you and your dog to succeed. .🏆🥇

If you come away from time with them feeling drained or questioning yourself and your training, then maybe they are having too much of a negative impact on you. 💔When you have a dog with struggles, doing everything you can to look after yourself is so important. ❤️

Seeing our dogs progress can be so uplifting, let yourself be carried by those good days and moments. On the days that are a little tougher, having a good tribe will help carry you through.

Our dogs are so intuitive✨ If you are feeling fabulous from interactions with others, the dogs know - it can impact them so much. 🐶

Be intentional over who you spend time with - you want to feel inspired, heard and above all, at peace with being your authentic self.

Be proud of the achievements you are making with your dog. And choose your tribe so that you and your dog are both smiling. ✨❤️🐶

29/08/2024

🐶Skills For Life Dog Training Class🐶
Ellesborough Parish Hall, Butlers Cross, HP17 0XA.
Starting Monday 9th September - 21st October.
6pm-7pm dogs over 15kg/1yr +
7:15pm-8:15pm dogs under 15kg/1yr+

🐶Are you seeing behaviours with your dog that you would love to change and unsure how?
🐶If you want clarity and someone to show you the right direction to go in, then I am here to help you.
🐶Understanding the reasons behind your dog's behaviours is the key to helping them transform their behaviours.🐶😍🤩

Are you an owner who:
🌟Has an open, fun & flexible approach to life?
💡Is eager to seek solutions & learn new training skills?
❤️Wants to understand your dog's emotions & behaviours?
✅Wants to help your dog with their struggles?

These classes are kept small with a maximum of 4 dogs, enabling me to work closely with you and your dog to achieve your goals. We focus on having fun, with specific games for you to play at home with the confidence to continue growing your dog's training journey.

You will also receive ongoing support through a private Facebook group.

7 weeks £160.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review from a previous Skills For Life student.
"This training has been so helpful, giving us a whole approach and Strategy to address our 3 year old dog's seemingly ingrained behaviours. Natalie has a passion and natural empathy for dogs, is skilled in training strategies and enthusiastic. You get much more than just classes with follow up support and advice. Excellent dog training"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I would love to have you join us.
Book your space
https://cornerstonecaninetraining.co.uk/services/

19/08/2024

If anyone else is working through allergies with a dog, it can be challenging can’t it? I think the hardest part for me is not physically being able to ask Bobby about it. Also him not understanding that certain things make him poorly - he would still eat them in a flash if he could.

I have a gluten intolerance so know how awful I feel if I have eaten something that disagrees with me.

If anyone is going through similar with their dog, I would love to chat more with you.

16/08/2024

❤️This is truly life saving. I have been with a dog at WHVC while he was donating blood and the process is so straight forward for calm dogs.
For me, the biggest reassurance was seeing repeat visits being just as much fun for the dogs - play time afterwards was always just as important as the job at hand.
The team are incredible at supporting the dogs, with their welfare being an absolute top priority.
Your dog could be another dog’s life saver. ❤️

🐾🆘We're looking to update our in-house list of canine blood donors and we need your help! We sometimes need to administer life saving blood donations to dogs who have suffered acute blood loss (from surgery or trauma) or are suffering from blood cell disorders. Having a list of willing donors will help speed up the blood administration process if couriered blood from the Pet Blood Bank is just too long to wait.

👀If your dog is:

✅Happy and relaxed when coming to the vets
✅Fit and healthy
✅Between one and eight years old
✅Weigh more than 25kg
✅Have a good temperament
✅Have never travelled outside of the UK and Ireland
✅Vaccinated or have an annual titre test after the first year booster*
✅Not on any medication

They could be a donor!

Please consider putting them forward.

If you can help or would like to find out more please email RVN Lou.

📧 [email protected]

Thank you!

14/08/2024

I know many of you will be able to relate to this story, whether it's through your own experiences or hearing about someone else's. It's a tale that resonates with every dog owner who has ever faced the challenge of understanding their dog's behaviour.

It all began innocently enough. Toby, a loyal and loving dog, started grumbling and growling whenever a delivery arrived at the door. At first, it seemed like a harmless quirk, something they could manage with a 'shhh'.

As the months went by, Toby's unease grew. What started as a low grumble at the door soon extended to visitors entering the home. His owners, wanting to do the very best for Toby, would tell him to go to his bed as soon as he began grumbling.

As the situation escalated, they began shutting him in the kitchen whenever visitors came by. They hoped this would ease his anxiety and spare their guests from his increasingly anxious behaviour.

They could hear his distress behind the kitchen door with scratching, whining, and the occasional desperate bark. Every now and then, they'd approach the door and tell him to be quiet. And for a brief moment, it would work.

Then came the day that changed everything. A close family member, someone who knew Toby well and had always been a friend to him, came to visit.

This time, they decided to let Toby stay in the living room, thinking the familiar face would keep him calm. At first, things seemed to be going better than they expected. Toby was mostly quiet, however grumbled quietly each time the visitor shifted in their chair.

In an attempt to soothe Toby further, the visitor reached out to give him a gentle stroke. And in a split second, everything changed.

For the first time in his life, Toby bit someone - a person he knew and loved.

His owners were devastated. How had it come to this? They were at a complete loss, struggling with guilt, confusion, and fear for Toby's future. What had they done wrong? What could they possibly do now?

When I work with owners like Toby's, my first priority is to help them understand that their dog isn't being naughty or bad.

Toby was still their good boy.

He was struggling with his emotions, and after coping for as long as he could, he finally reached a breaking point. The bite wasn't an act of aggression - it was an emotional outburst, a cry for help.

The key to helping dogs like Toby isn't to punish the behaviour, but to understand the emotions behind it. For Toby, we needed to address the anxiety he was feeling when visitors come into the home. Only then could we help him feel more secure and change how he chose to respond.

If you're facing a similar situation with your dog, it's time to go back to the beginning. Let's look at how they're thinking and feeling about the situation. Once we can change their emotional response, their behaviour will follow naturally - and you'll have a happy, relaxed dog once more.

13/08/2024

🐶Skills For Life Dog Training Class🐶
Ellesborough Parish Hall
Starting Monday 9th September - 21st October.

🐶Are you seeing behaviours with your dog that you want to change?
🐶If you want clarity and someone to show you the right direction to go in, then I am here to help you.
🐶Understanding the reasons behind your dog's behaviours is the key to helping them transform their behaviours.🐶😍🤩

These classes are kept small with a maximum of 4 dogs, which enables me to work closely with each owner and their dog. We focus on having fun, with easy games for all the family to play at home to continue growing your dog's training journey.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review from a previous Skills For Life student.
"This training has been so helpful, giving us a whole approach and Strategy to address our 3 year old dogs' seemingly ingrained behaviours. Natalie has a passion and natural empathy for dogs, is skilled in training strategies and enthusiastic. You get much more than just classes with follow up support and advice. Excellent dog training"

To book your space please call or send me a message.🐶🤩

13/08/2024

Sleep is one of the fundamental necessities to life - for us and our dogs.💤

How do we feel when we are over tired? We struggle to focus, cohesively engage fully in life around us and at times behave in a way that truly reflects us.

When sleep deprived, do you hear yourself saying to others something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry, that came out wrong - I’m tired.’?

When you are around young children that are over tired, what do you see?

Quite often they experience feelings of irritability, they can be fussy, extra clingy and even hyper-active.

Our dogs can experience the same feelings. If they are over tired and unable to switch off and truly rest due to having an overflowing stress bucket, then you may see behaviours such as mouthing, whining, zoomies, barking, destruction around the home and hu***ng to name a few.

Sleep also helps our bodies to heal, something that is just as important for dogs.

So if you have an over tired dog, what can you do?

✨Inspire Calmness. ✨

Hang on - not take them for a long walk to tire them out? It can be easy to think a walk is the best solution to stop all of these undesired behaviours, when in fact a walk could make them so much worse - they will get more stimulated.

Think about an over tired child being given a bag of sugary sweets.😜🙉

Recognising the cause behind these behaviours may be from tiredness can be a total game changer.💡😍🐶

You can give yourself permission to ease off on walks.💫💡

For most dogs, going for walks is incredibly stimulating - all adding to their stress bucket (through either good or bad stress).

They may see other dogs that they want to play with, or bark and lunge at. A game of fetch with their favourite ball will take their excitement to the next level. They may see a cat, bike or car that they want to chase or feel worried by children whizzing past on scooters.🤯

If you are recognising these traits in your own dog and know your dog is getting less than 12-16 hours of sleep a day, reach out to me and I will show you how inspiring calmness is going to be yours and your dog’s new best friend.

08/08/2024

If your dog is struggling with their behaviour, taking them for more walks will stimulate them even more, which I know you want to avoid.😩

There are so many parts of a walk that are unpredictable and out of your control.

An off lead dog could charge up to your dog, emergency vehicles could whizz past and so many other experiences you would rather avoid. All of these can lead to your dog getting even more excited or worried.

When a dog spends time feeling either over excited or worried, they will struggle to make good behaviour choices. 😩

Attempting to tire your dog out with walks to improve their behaviour, will do the opposite, you will see their behaviour deteriorate even more.

So what can you do to help your dog? 🤩🐶

Focus 💯 on building calmness at home, where you have more say in what your dog is exposed to.✅

You will be helping your dog to be in a better head space for behaviour improvement.🤩😎😴

🤩🥰🐶You can give yourself permission to stop walking your dog for now.💯💡

Playing specific games at home that build the skills your dog needs, will get you long lasting results much faster.

If you would love to see how you can help your dog, send me a message and we can have a chat.

02/08/2024

Feeling inspired this morning from reading The Source by Dr Tara Swart.

Journaling my thoughts and wanting to share as helping me with my own challenges.💫❤️

This photo was taken at Lands End and I often wonder if Bobby found the views as inspiring I did.

Have a fabulous weekend with your dogs.

31/07/2024

If you have ever been curious about the supplements I use for Bobby, there is currently 20% off site wide. They also sell the amazing squeezy tubes and lick mats.

https://a-ok9.com/?ref=-3fjFxtpKc94

I love them for Bobby, he is currently on the Flexi K9 for his joints, Plaque for his teeth (amazing at also eliminating bad breath) and Bug K9 as I wanted to stop using chemical flea, tick and worm treatments on Bobby.

You can also subscribe (which is what I do) to get further savings on your repeat purchases.

If you are like me and love researching with reviews, there are loads to have a look through.

If you have any questions, let me know as I love talking about these supplements.

Maximise the mental and physical wellness of your dog.

27/07/2024

Have you met the fabulous Lucie yet?

As part of her Duke of Edinburgh award, Lucie started volunteering with me in our group training classes and has asked if she can carry on - I of course have said a very big YES.

I love her calm, intuitive and fun nature around the dogs and their owners - she constantly inspires me.

25/07/2024

Have you heard the saying that focusing on 20% leads to 80% results? 🤩🤩

It can feel so overwhelming at times when wanting to work out where to start with helping your dog through any struggles they may have, I have been there and it is challenging. 😩🙈

By identifying some specific key areas 💫 in your dog’s life and focusing on improving those areas, rather than attempting to focus on everything, you will find that you achieve so much more.

I also like to flip the saying around, by focusing on 80% and spreading yourself too thin, you only achieve 20% results.💡💡

When training dogs using concept training, the magic starts to really unfold as your dog begins to make better choices in many different environments and situations. 😍🐶😍

Think of it like a spider diagram, you have the concept in the middle and coming off of this you have many different struggles. So rather than focusing on each individual one, you find that your dog has improved on multiple struggles by working on one concept.

I can help you bring this all together. 💫🤩

Send me a dm and let’s chat through your dog’s struggles and work out where the 20% focus needs to go to get you the 80% results you and your dog need. ❤️

22/07/2024

Choosing your tribe can be the key to your success.✨🥇😍

If you have a dog with some struggles and you are wanting to support them the best way you can, one area to be mindful of is who you both spend time with.🐶🙋

You may have a dog who gets over excited on walks, which then spills over into the rest of their day (a bit like a child coming home bouncing off the walls after a party🥳). And if you regularly meet up with another dog who is just as excitable, then asking your dog for calmness is a little bit like running up a sand dune - it is hard work. 🏃‍♀️

Your dog will also be feeling quite conflicted. Their brain will be so used to having excitable play when they see their friend - they have rehearsed these behaviours a fair few times. Yet the humans are asking for calmness. 🙉😵‍💫

How about who you chat with or walk with? Are they supportive of your training? You want to feel like those around you are your cheerleaders - do they want you and your dog to succeed?🏆🥇

If you come away from time with them feeling drained or questioning yourself and your training, then maybe they are having too much of a negative impact on you. 💔When you have a dog with struggles, doing everything you can to look after yourself is so important. ❤️

Seeing our dogs progress can be so uplifting, let yourself be carried by those good days and moments. On the days that are a little tougher, having a good tribe will help carry you through. 🥰

Our dogs are so intuitive✨ If you are feeling fabulous from interactions with others, the dogs know - it can impact them so much. 🐶

Be intentional over who you spend time with - you want to feel inspired, heard and above all, at peace with being your authentic self.

🤩And remember you are the five people you spend the most time with. This goes for your dog as well.

Be proud of the achievements you are making with your dog. And choose your tribe so that you and your dog are both smiling. ✨❤️🐶

19/07/2024

Yes, any dog is trainable, even the ones that literally bounce off the four walls, the ceiling and occasionally the floor.🐶😜

One of my favourite sayings by Oscar Wilde comes to mind, 'I can resist anything except temptation'. For me this mostly revolves around dark chocolate.🍫

For your dog though, there could potentially be an almost limitless list of temptations. Do you have the dog of dreams until 'that moment'? 🙈🐿️🐈🐏⚽️🍦

If you are half laughing and half shaking your head at the thought, then there is hope. Together we can absolutely help your dog be the dog you see glimmers of, even when you feel you are in an untrainable moment.

All dogs have a drive. They are extremely efficient creatures and will not want to waste time getting from where they are to where they see the highest value. That squirrel that just ran up the tree? 🐿️ In your dogs eyes, they can absolutely run up that tree to get the squirrel.

This is maybe not ideal in our eyes though. We want to help your dog see you as the best part of their life, even when they suddenly see an incredibly tempting temptation out of the corner of their eye.🐱🐑🐇🐿

How about your dog, have you had moments where you thought, ‘this dog is untrainable’?

16/07/2024

Without understanding disengagement, your dog will struggle to change the undesirable behaviours you are seeing from them, such as barking, chasing, counter surfing and so many others.

We want our dogs engaged on us and disengaged from distractions.

Yesterday I was chatting with an owner whose dog has discovered the 'joys' of rolling in some rather undesirable 💩❌🙈. Can you feel her pain?

With distractions like this, we need our dogs to see us as the best party in town.💃🥇

The world can be so distracting for our dogs (and us) can't it? For me I will totally disengage from the world if I see a book shop. 👀

So if you know you have a dog who struggles to disengage from a distraction, what can you do to help them?

Play Games. 💡

This is one of the many disengagement games you can play with your dog -

🐶Throw one piece of food away from you and let your dog go and get it.
🐶As soon as they turn to come back to you, say an excited 'yes' and start walking away in the opposite direction with your dog running to catch up with you.
🐶As they get to you, carry on walking and feed them multiple pieces of food.

So what is this teaching the dogs? Their brain🧠 starts to understand that when they disengage from something and choose to come back to us, it is so much more fun. 🤩🥳

The more you play this game, see how much faster your dog starts to ping back to you.

One top tip I always give my clients when they are wanting to inspire disengagement, is to remember to 'Train for the situation, rather than in the situation'. Let's give our dogs as many easy wins as we can.

Playing this game at home with minimal distractions, helps your dog's brain start to love disengagement. 😍

In real life you could find yourself near a fence with sheep on the other side, where previously your dog would have struggled to disengage from watching the sheep❌🆘. Now you find your dog may look at them and their brain automatically clicks that if they come back to you, they have even more fun with you and before you know it the sheep are a distant memory. 😍🤩

12/07/2024

Can I ask you a question? How does your body react the moment you feel like someone is nagging you?😤 Do you sense your body tense up? Do you take a sharp intake of breath? Do you want to turn away from them and saunter (or sprint) off in the opposite direction?🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

Have you ever wondered if this could be the source of some of your dog's behaviours?

When I am mentoring owners to train their dogs, one of the key areas we work on, is to inspire the dogs to make great choices.✨

How do we do this? We play games where we encourage the dogs to go away from us and as soon as they turn back to us, we let them know they have made an amazing choice. 🤩💃 In our dogs eyes, we have become even more of a 🦸‍♂️ human.

The joy and speed at which owners see their dogs ping back to them is very special.😍🤩

Your dog is starting to see that coming back to you is far more fun than what is in the environment (even the neighbour's cat that is ‘deliberately’ tormenting them).🐱😹

When your dog feels inspired and makes the choice to come back to you, they feel like 'superdog'🦸‍♂️🐶 and will do it time and time again.

If you have found yourself in the situation where you are desperately attempting to get your dog to pay attention to you and you feel like you are nagging your dog - your dog will be feeling this as well.💡

We want our dogs to bounce back to us with a big smile on their faces, rather than begrudgingly make their way back to us because we have nagged them. 😞😤

Next time your dog chooses to turn around and come back to you, have a little play with them - let them know they have made an amazing choice and they are your 'Superdog'. 🦸‍♂️🐶

10/07/2024

How we finish this sentence can either leave us feeling fabulous or rather negative about ourselves and our dogs.

Some 'feel good' positive phrases you may be using could be -

😍My dog is... learning to cope better with the world...beautiful...so sweet...gentle...so much fun...amazing with dogs and people...fab on walks...the ultimate dream dog...🤩🐶

When we use such positive phrases about our dogs, the impact these words can have on how we feel is phenomenal.

We find ourselves standing taller, smiling, feeling calm and most importantly for me, reacting better in potentially stressful situations.💡🧠

Positivity breeds positivity - and our dogs pick up on this. They are so intuitive. ❤️🦉

Or maybe you find yourself using the labels of reactive or naughty?

If we have the mindset our dogs are naughty/bad/difficult then that is pretty much the behaviours they will be showing. We may say these labels out loud to others or internally to ourselves, both can leave us feeling negative about our dogs and our abilities as their owners.

Without realising it, our mind will be looking out for these behaviours to prove we are right, even if our dogs wrap amazing behaviours around a few moments of not so great behaviour choices - we focus on the naughtiness.

What we focus on we get. 🤩

Next time you hear yourself saying, 'My dog is...' focus on keeping your words positive. You and your dog will be a lot happier - trust me. ❤️

On a side note, another label that is often used from dog owners is, 'my dog is a rescue'. This label can quite often be used to excuse behaviour struggles and it often leaves us feeling negative about the situation.

How about putting this label in the past.

Your dog is learning new skills to cope better with the world.

They are now your dog, in a loving home with people who care about their needs and are supporting them every way they can. ❤️

I would love to hear how you are going to be finishing this sentence going forward if you have found yourself using negative words in the past. 🐶🐾🤩

09/07/2024

What is the first thought that comes to you when you hear the word, ‘recall’? 🐶

Do you literally have visions of your dog disappearing off into the distance or do you shudder at the idea of letting your dog off lead? 🏃🏃🏃😭

If this is you, then training with us is your answer. ❤🐶

Rather than simply learn a behaviour for a recall, this gorgeous girl from our recall class had loads of fun playing games.🐶💡😍

As the humans in the room, we were witness to what was really happening.✨💡😍

The dogs were starting the journey to seeing the world around them in a new light.

And most importantly, realising that as their human, we are far more fun than any distraction that they used to love going off to investigate (or chase). 🐿️🐏🐈🐶🧍‍♂️🍦

When training with us, we build the foundations needed so that when enjoying some off lead freedom, your dog's natural choice is to want to hang out with you.

Happy dog ❤ Happy walk ❤ Happy life.

03/07/2024

Maybe this describes you (or someone you know) - you like other people and at the same time like them even more when they give you space. 😍

Do you prefer sitting in a quiet pub chatting with a few friends or visiting a noisy theme park with EVERYTHING possible going on?🎢🎠🎡

Our dogs can be the same. 🐶

You may have training under way to help your dog with their reactivity - what happens next though? Do they go from being reactive to wanting to bounce around with other dogs?

Being in tune with your dog's personality is key to determining what they would prefer their interactions with other dogs to look like.✨🐶

Our expectations can sometimes get carried away with the pure elation that our dog can see another dog across the road and now remain calm. We may have the dream for our dog to want to go and play with other dog's in the park - is this what our dog would want?

Your dog may be happy to be in the presence of other dogs. What could have your dog smiling even more is if they are with dogs where they are all calm, content and mostly ignoring each other. 😍🤩🐶🐶

Being selective 🐶✅ over which dogs your dog interacts with can be so important to protect them from either becoming reactive or going backwards in their training.

In these situations, being your dog's advocate plays dividends in keeping your dog (and you) in a good head space when around other dogs.

How about your dog, do they prefer having their own space when near other dogs or playing with the other dogs?

17/06/2024

This beautiful boy was known as 'Shep'. He was gifted with a very wise head, and in a way that only he knew, he was always several steps ahead of any human.

So many lessons were taught from this wise old man - inspiring me to want to learn more.

I read this quote by Maya Angelou many years ago, its sentiment staying with me.

As I journey through this chapter of my life, training owners and their dogs, my eyes have been completely awakened to a new way.

Aligning with something I craved and knew was there, I just needed to find the what, the when and the how.

The hours upon hours of studying over the last couple of years (with the anticipation of so many to come - I will forever more be learning), have led me to meet some of the most incredible owners and their dogs.

Their stories all so individual and inspiring and amplifying my drive to do for them what they all deserve.

When we open our minds to new beginnings, new happenings and new learnings, the magic is there for us all to see.