Paws Outdoors

05/08/2024

5 years ago ♥️

10/07/2024

5 years ago. Some memories here ❤️ filmed on the iPotato📱

05/02/2024

I am trying to reply to new enquiries, but some people are ‘unavailable to contact on Messenger’.. I’m not sure what this means, whether the accounts have been deleted or it’s just throwing a temporary wobbler, but I cannot reply to you. If you’re still waiting on a reply on here by tonight I please ask you to try again on 07889595582 thank you 😊

Video - dogs demonstrating a ‘sh*t stay’ 😜

09/12/2023

Massive thank you to everyone who attended todays walk ❤️❤️❤️❤️
We had a great turnout, lovely to see you all. Didn’t get many videos as too busy gabbing 🤣

29/11/2023

⭐️ MEET AT THE BANDSTAND! ⭐️

Christmas Jumper Dog Walk 🐾 - Saturday 9th December 11am in Barrow Park 🐶 - everyone welcome!

We had a great turnout a couple years ago for a mental health walk, I wanted to do something similar this year. You don’t need to be an existing client and there will be no charge to join, but if you’d like to make a small donation it will be going to animal refuge Furness, a great little local charity.

A chilled out social walk where you can meet new like-minded dog owners, or simply use it as a training opportunity for your own dog. I’ll be there to offer free help and advice should you need it. Christmas jumpers not compulsory but definitely appreciated and admired 🤣

If you would be interested in attending could you please like, comment or share this post. I hate to ask but it’s how more people see it ❤️ even a simple emoji comment boosts the posts massively and shares it wider. Thank you and hopefully see you there 🙏 🐕

25/09/2023

Last minute spot today - I have space available this afternoon (3pm) for either a solo training walk or 121 training. Please message to book.

If you are the owner of an XL bully I am currently offering a free muzzle conditioning session to help set your dog up for success with the upcoming ban. Happy to discount block bookings of 121 training for owners of XLs who want to take training seriously 😊

17/09/2023

Info on the XL Bully ban ⬇️

02/08/2023

Last week I was lucky enough to spend a few days shadowing at Lakes Canine Academy in Kendal. If you’ve ever asked me for a trainer/behaviourist recommendation you’ll know I can’t speak highly enough of Brodie. I am incredibly grateful to her for sharing her time and knowledge with me, I had a great week and learnt so much. Luckily the weather was also kind enough to allow me to get some photos of her beautiful dogs 📸 Bane, Kuma and Roscoe 🐶

08/07/2023

Recent photos 🐾

05/06/2023

When I was working with Australian Quarantine, involved in the initial setting up of the quarantine detector dog program back in 1994, we sourced Beagles from the public. For a Beagle to be selected for training, it had to pass a suitability assessment. We assessed the dogs food drive, and its desire to ignore all other distractions, and to willingly go into unfamiliar locations and situations to retrieve high value food. For example, we would throw food under a car with the engine running. If the Beagle did not have the courage to overcome its reluctance to get the food, it failed and was not selected for further training. During this assessment phase, at least 30% of Beagles we tested failed, whether it was because there were other stronger competing motivators present, or the desire to eat wasn't strong enough for the dog to overcome its reluctance to go into unfamiliar places or situations. So what does this tell you? Food is not always the strongest motivator for dogs. There are always competing motivators to contend with, and sometimes food is not the strongest motivator for many dogs.

Now place these same dogs that failed the assessment in a distraction free, or familiar environment, of course they'd do anything for the food, as there was no competing motivators or stress to contend with.

The positive only or force free advocates will inform you that their methods do work, because government departments training detection dogs use positive reinforcement when training dogs, so that proves it. However, what they will conveniently leave out, is the high percentage of dogs that actually fail to even start the training in the first place.

Also, genetic predatory behaviour is the strongest drive for many dogs. Even for those with extremely high food drive. A dog that is triggered to chase a rodent, cat, livestock, etc, could careless if you were holding a large juicy steak. Predatory behaviour wins hands down.

The point of this post, is to state, that training dogs with food is not 100% effective, even for dogs with extremely high food drive. You will rarely hear the positive reinforcement or force free trainers discuss, or raise the subject of competitive motivators, and proofing training in high distraction locations or situations. Or it will be, "well make sure you don't train your dog around distractions that the dog considers higher value than the food".

They also used to use the training of marine mammals in captivity, such as Orcas, as a justification that positive only training works. That is until they got caught out, for the following reasons:

- They are kept in a totally sterile environment, void of any physical or mental stimulation, unless training

- Their feeding routine always included training. They had to always work for their food

- Regularly during performances the mammals would refuse to do as they were told, and would even do their own routines.

- There are numerous cases of Orcas, playing with their trainers, by throwing them around the pool, or holding them underwater. Quite a few trainers were even severly injured or killed by the Orcas.

The truth needs to get out there, and its great to see that so many trainers are now speaking out and standing up to the rubbish propagated by these emotive extremists. For years, the majority remained silent, allowing the minority (emotive extremists) to be the loudest voice, with little opposition. Believing that only a very small minority would even take them seriously, as many of their claims were so ridiculous. Hence they ended up gaining a very large following, all due to feeding on peoples emotions. The truth didn't matter. However, their narrative is now beginning to fall apart.

We never started this fight, we were quite happy to just train dogs and assist dog owners with their dogs obedience and behaviour. They attacked us on many fronts (Me included). Many became emotionally unstable in their attacks, going to dog trainers pages and writing bad reviews. Spreading unfounded rumours. Making claims that were totally fictitious, and all to push a totally emotional ideology. Now so many are finally fighting back. However, it never had to come to this.

But sadly it took the banning of tools to finally wake many up, and to start fighting back. I doubt many saw the banning of training tools even becoming a possibility. How wrong they/we were.

However, as I stated above, I feel now a large majority of dog owners (and the numbers are growing fast) are seeing this for what it really is, and are not falling for all their fictious claims anymore. The tide is turning.

24/05/2023

Spaces available soon for both group walks and solo training walks 🐾 please message to get started. T&C’s apply for weekly group spots.

There is a post with more info and FAQ pinned to the top of the page.

Solo walks are ideal for giving puppies the best start with their training and socialisation, or for dogs with issues, such as reactivity or general lack of training, or if you struggle to find other dogs or places to safely socialise your dog. I can provide stooge dogs for your dog to safely work around and gain confidence. All breeds and most issues accepted.

Things I need from you to begin-
🐶 bit of info about your dog (age, s*x, breed, current level of training)
🐶 where abouts you live
🐶 what days you are after

To avoid wasting eachothers time, on first contact I will send you my payment terms and conditions (for group walks). If you’re happy with them then we can go ahead and get started.

Group walks £14
Solos £30

20/05/2023

17/05/2023

25/04/2023

We need to talk about rehoming dogs. I realize I will stir up some … conversations with this.
But there's a stigma associated with rehoming that we have to change.
Ideally, everyone researches breeds and gets exactly the dog that fits their family.
And that dog does pretty well and everyone manages to get along, circumstances don’t change too much and all live (reasonably) happy ever after.
I would estimate that far more than 95% of my dog training students are in this situation.
In some cases however - things don’t go so well.
Perhaps the dog’s breed and personality are a poor match with the owner (I have seen dog and owner teams that were definitely not cut out for each other).
Or maybe, there is already a pet in the household and they really do not get along at all with the dog, no matter how much training and management is put into place.
Or circumstances change - jobs are lost, someone gets seriously sick, and there are just not enough time, money and other resources to make things work.
I have seen many families in exactly these situations. Situations in which *responsibly rehoming* the dog would make everybody happier.
But it’s not done out of fear of the stigma around rehoming.
I want to be very clear:
If your dog doesn’t behave the way you want, you should train them (don’t bring them to the shelter).
If your dog chases the cat, you should put up baby gates and - also - train them (don’t bring them to the shelter).
If you move to a different city, take your dog with you (don’t bring them to the shelter).
There are irresponsible pet owners who do not invest the care, time, effort, finances and love into their dog that they should and simply give them away instead. That's not okay.
But I know that those people will probably not read this post anyway ;)
I also am in no way saying that rehoming should be the first - or second - or even third solution for any issue that pops up.
But there’s a difference between having an “issue” and living in a situation that’s a profound daily challenge for everyone.
Many years ago a close friend rehomed one of her dogs because the setup was a BIG daily challenge for everyone (not going into details here - trust me). While I didn’t say so, deep down I initially judged the decision.
But then, in the following weeks, I saw what an improvement it was for *everyone involved*.
My friend and their spouse were much happier. The dogs that lived in their household were much happier. And the dog that was rehomed was actually happier than I had ever seen her.
In the years that followed, I have witnessed many other cases where the same was true.
If you are ever in a situation where you feel like *responsible* rehoming is the one option that would increase your and your dog’s happiness: Consider it.
And if others judge you for it, write to us. We’ll have an open ear.

07/04/2023

06/04/2023

Yesterday I saw a video from a well-known trainer on social media that discussed how there is no such thing as “too much exercise” for dogs. This discussion was accompanied by b roll of dogs fetching balls in a variety of places.
I don’t usually get involved in trainer arguments but I need to say something about this.
There ABSOLUTELY is such a thing as too much high-arousal exercise. And you probably don’t want to find out for yourself what happens next.
Activities that tend to *physically* wear dogs out the fastest are also the ones that create the highest excitement levels. Fetching balls. Playing frisbee. Racing around at the dog park. Chasing water from the garden hose. Running next to a bike.
All of these are physical exercise, but they also create intense arousal states. And if you put your dog into high-arousal states repeatedly you better know how to train around this, too.
I have a lot of students who fell into this trap. They got a high-energy dog (a GSD, a herding breed mix of some sort, a retriever etc.).
They figured out that the fastest way to make the dog physically really tired (the tongue-hanging-to-the-floor-kind-of-tired) was by playing chuck-it for half an hour. Or by taking the dog to the dog park every day for a wild romp.
The dog started to crave these arousal states (as programmed in their DNA).
But at the same time, no impulse control training happened. So now we have a dog who knows the fun of adrenaline and who seeks it, without having been taught to listen and regulate when in a state of high excitement.
This dog will start to show other problems. They might get frustrated to the point of redirecting when they cannot access fun immediately. They might be vocalizing or unable to settle and then I get messages that say “My dog just cannot be normal in public”.
If your dog gets to enjoy a high-arousal activity every time they leave the house, they will start to expect (and eventually demand) a high-arousal activity every time.
And this is not fun.
Your dog needs a balance of high-arousal and low-arousal activities. Furthermore, the more high-arousal activities your dog has, the more you have to balance these with impulse control training. It’s not fair to make our dogs crazy without teaching them the skills to un-crazy ;)
“Exercise” can have four quadrants:
- Low-arousal, not physically demanding (sniff walks)
- Low-arousal, physically demanding (hiking)
- High-arousal, not physically demanding (excited waiting while another dog works)
- High-arousal, physically demanding (fetching)

Make sure you are aware which type of exercise you are providing for your dog, and try to reach a balance that works for your dog.
If you are unhappy with your dog’s arousal level or impulse control in daily life, look at whether this is amplified by the type of exercise you are providing.

06/04/2023

Have the poison line number saved ready in your phone. I’ve had a dog with a suspected snake bite years ago. It happens!

Day 6

Pet First Aid Awareness Month

Snake Bites

Adder numbers and sightings are definately on the increase and therefore Adder bites are common all over the UK.

Adders tend to be active from March to July/August and occupy areas where there is a change in vegetation for example: Woodland/grassland, Bracken/moorland.

Snake venom causes necrosis of the flesh so if you suspect your dog has been bitten the instructions are to immobilise the dog. Small dogs, carry them and larger dogs pop on a lead and walk slowly to your car and off to your Vets quickly for treatment.

There is a risk of Anaphylaxis.

You must prepare for these events, especially if you are in a highly populated Adder area by checking which Vets in the area carry Anti Venom.
So ring your Vets and see if they carry Anti venom and indeed if that is their treatment protocol.

06/04/2023

Do not give dogs Ibuprofen.

👤 By Heather Koehn: "Worst case of jaundice I’ve ever seen. Ibuprofen toxicity. The dog got into a fight with the other dog and the owner gave one dose of 600mg ibuprofen about 5 days prior to presentation at my clinic. The owner elected humane euthanasia."