1066 Pets and People - Behaviour & Training

29/08/2024

🐾⭐️ GIVEAWAY TIME ⭐️🐾

To celebrate Puppy Week here at Tug-E-Nuff, we're giving away an exclusive Phenomenal Play Bundle!

Here's what's included in this fantastic bundle 👇

🧡 1 x PickPocket Caterpillar & 3 Pouch Set from PickPocket Pickpocket Foragers

https://pickpocketforagers.com/products/pickpocket-caterpillar-pouch-offer

🩵 1 x Signed copy of The Perfect Puppy by renowned author and puppy expert Gwen Bailey

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/perfect-puppy-the-no-1-bestseller-fully-revised-and-updated-gwen-bailey/7604418?ean=9781788404662

🩷 1 x Phenomenal Puppy Playtime Gift Box which includes: The Faux Fur Squeaky Bungee Chaser, The Pocket Fauxtastic, The Clam, Complete Guide To Tug and The Clam Play and Training guide.

https://www.tug-e-nuff.co.uk/products/puppy-play-bundle?variant=45668704944302

Sounds amazing, right? 🙌

To enter all you have to do is - head over to our Instagram account and join in!

Here is the link to the giveaway post: https://www.instagram.com/p/C_ONvu7orcn/?img_index=1

GOOD LUCK! 🤞

Giveaway ends: 1st September 2024.

This giveaway is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Meta.

Pickpocket Foragers 🧡
Puppy School 🧡

28/08/2024

28/08/2024

Dog Training Group Classes starting on Saturday 14th September in Hawkhurst, Kent:
🐾 9.30 am - Puppy Training Course
🐾 10.45 am - Dogs over 6 months of age
🐾 12o/c - 1 to 1 Behaviour/Training Session
Please get in touch for further information:
[email protected]

26/08/2024

Happy International Dog Day! 🐶

To all the dogs who fill our lives with unconditional love, wagging tails, and endless cuddles!

Today, let's give an extra belly rub or an extra special walk with lots to sniff, to our best mates and remember the joy they bring us every day.

21/08/2024

🐾 This makes so much difference to how our dog's feel during the grooming process, there are a lot of stressors in the salon and Woody's Holistic Grooming are setting the dogs up for a positive experience as much as possible. 💕

14/08/2024

It can be easy to dismiss a subtle change in behaviour when our dogs could benefit from physiotherapy with their aches and pains. 🐾

Would you know if your dog was in pain?

13/08/2024

🐾 Dog training classes coming up in September in Bexhill on Friday afternoons:

08/08/2024

If you are going to Freedom Fields in Battle, you can't get down London Road, A2100 to Robertsbridge to access them. You need to come in from Johns Cross roundabout from the A21, the fields are open. The roadworks will be running throughout August.

07/08/2024

A lovely image of your doggo, photoshoots available. 🐾

Would you like a fun photoshoot with your pup?

I'm offering 5 complimentary sessions in my studio in Battle. The session will include one complimentary downloadable image.
The sessions will take place on Saturday the 10th starting at 9am.

PM if you'd like to book your slot.

02/08/2024

Come and join in the fun with the Pet Remedy Summer of Love Virtual pet Festival. Great prizes, talks by pet experts, vouchers and so much more

27/07/2024

Exciting News! 🥳

'Exceptional Pet Pros need brilliant websites!'

Yappily creator Rosie Robinson from WUF Design will be teaming up with our friends over at the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors - APBC for an insightful webinar.

Rosie will be sharing her expertise on web design and SEO😎

Event Details: 8pm-9:30pm BST Time
Wednesday 7th August 2024

Follow the link below for more details👇
https://www.apbc.org.uk/event/

11/07/2024

UK Sniffer Dogs course on Wednesday evenings in Battle, have some fun outside with your dog during the Summer.
🐾 Suitable for all dogs that enjoy sniffing!
Next group starting on Weds. 31st July at 7pm - please get in touch for further details: [email protected]

06/07/2024

Supporting pet professionals draw a line in the sand about their ethos working with animals, allowing them to feel safe and build trust in the humans that care for them by understanding their emotional state. 🐾

Great news!

We’re excited to share that Yappily, The Ethical Dog Care Directory, is now officially trademarked!

Why?

Because trademarking Yappily validates our commitment to setting higher standards in professional dog care and tells dog guardians and caregivers we are legitimate and trustworthy.

So thank you for all of your support, we appreciate you!

Visit us at www.yappily.co.uk to learn more about us and join us in celebrating this exciting achievement!

03/07/2024

How to build a sensory garden for your dog - great enrichment for them. 🐾

22/06/2024

Training cooperative care techniques with our dogs is such a worthwhile investment to prepare them for the vets or groomers. Allowing them to learn at home at their own pace before the event can be done in short and regular practise sessions. This can be a gamechanger for how they feel during the real experience of being handled by a stranger. Especially the cockapoos and doodles that are going to need grooming on a regular basis, don't wait until their fur is matted. Get ahead of the game with consent based handling. 🐾

This week I had the absolute honour of speaking with Jim Mackie, the Animal Training and Behaviour officer at ZSL (Zoological Society of London). We spoke in depth about the methods and techniques used with the animals in captivity to help make medical treatments easier for them and reduce the need for tranquilizing.

Jim explained how they have an entire team of dedicated keepers who are all taught how to train specific behaviours such as a target, positioning and so on. These behaviours are then adapted and developed on so they can be used for either moving animals around their enclosures, for blood draws or other medical examinations and for transportation. Having a tiger walk into a transportation crate rather than having to be tranquillised is much less stressful for them and means they’re more likely to settle in their new environment.

Jim and his team train a whole variety of animals, from monkeys, raptors, birds all the way up to Elephants.

We spoke about the challenges they come up against, such as the animals being out of their natural habitat, limitations on resources etc. Things that are all relatable to the grooming environment too.

I first witnessed co-operative care during a workshop run by Chirag Patel, who is actually a good friend of Jims. He demonstrated how they had taught a cheetah to offer his body for an injection. It was at that point, I stood in awe and disbelief. If we can teach wild animals to be co-operative for care procedures, why on earth aren’t we doing the same for our domestic (and in theory much more tactile) animals?

Teaching co-operative care is easy, and for most in the zoo the behaviour can be taught in just a matter of weeks. So why is it so hard for us and our domestic dogs?

Well firstly, we are not all dog experts and training specialists. We don’t all spend every day devoting time to train our dogs (even though it only needs to be short sessions). Often we expect others to do it for us, or for our dogs to “just get used to it”. As a groomer, I usually see your dog once every 6-8 weeks sometimes more if I’m lucky. There is no way I can teach solid co-operative care techniques in such a short amount of time and it would be unfair to expect that of me.

In my personal opinion, this is why alot of groomers struggle with the idea of giving choice in the grooming environment. They don’t have the time to train co-operative care techniques, and so when they’re faced with a dog who is several matted or has overgrown nails then they have a difficult choice to make. Do they send the dog home and trust the guardian to do training with the dog first? Do they try their best to remove the matting as quickly as possible using restraints, risking their relationship with the dog? Or do they refer to the vets for sedation?

A groomers heart is in the right place, but we also know that guardians aren’t zoo keepers and are unlikely to dedicate the time and resources needed to train properly. And similarly groomers aren’t specialist trainers who can spend weeks with a single dog (at least not without charging a considerable amount). They do what they can to help the animal in the least damaging way they can.

This is not about blaming anyone. But as a nation of dog lovers, we owe it to our dogs to teach them and support them. We need to do better.

We share our lives with one of the most intelligent, inspiring animals in the world. Let’s follow ZSL’s example, and start focusing more on husbandry skills, start collaborating more with experts and start to prepare to care.

19/06/2024

Great post, we still need to respect the dog's needs and support them appropriately.

Something everyone should know👇

We should always avoid putting dogs in uncomfortable situations. Regardless of whether they're muzzled or not.

Just because a muzzle negates the risk to others, doesn’t mean that it changes the way our dogs FEEL!

It’s so important to treat your dog as you would if there was still a high risk of injury to another being because in doing so you will be more likely to keep your dog out of situations you know they’re unlikely to be able to cope with.

👉 Your dog will still be uncomfortable with dogs even if they're muzzled.

👉 With a muzzle on, your dog will still be uncomfortable at the vet.

👉 If your dog was so fearful they tried to bite your neighbour before, they still might try with a muzzle on.

A muzzle is a MANAGEMENT TOOL that keeps dogs and others safe, but a muzzle alone doesn’t create emotional change. 💕

Putting on a muzzle doesn't mean we can throw everything at our dogs that we couldn't before, just because the risk to others is lower. We help our dogs grow in confidence and feel safe, not them. We do it with good management, great, ethical training, and considering whether our dogs will enjoy our situations.

Let me know if you agree! 💗

07/06/2024

🐾 Looking forwards to judging the dog show for Little Dale Dogs in Hawkhurst tomorrow, starting at 2pm, variety of classes. Bring whatever you need to keep your dogs cool. 🐶

06/06/2024

There are so many things that we can teach our dogs proactively to help them cope with different types of handling for the vets or the groomers.
Consent based training in advance helps our dogs have a positive learning history and predictability about what is happening which reduces the fear of the unknown in the salon or surgery. 🐾

Taking a blood sample from a dog can be a challenge. While we always try to make the process as stress-free as possible, it is not always easy, particularly for nervous patients. Pet Blood Bank has some excellent advice on how to train your dog to have blood taken, including getting them used to the positions they may need to be held in and the sound of the clippers. With some at-home training, you can prepare your dog should they ever need an emergency blood test or even to eventually donate blood. You can download the advice sheets here: https://www.petbloodbankuk.org/pet-owners/dog-blood-donation/training-your-dog-for-donation.

05/06/2024

🐾 This is a confidence boosting training session where the dogs are getting used to other people whilst doing some fun activities. Both dogs are making progress and helping each other out, using these strategies at home to help them feel more comfortable with visitors. 🐕

31/05/2024

🐾 I am looking to hire a grooming salon to help pet parents with nervous, over-excited or fear aggressive dogs to transfer their dog's consent based handling skills practised at home into a real environment.

This is to create a positive experience with the location prior to having anything done. Is anybody able to help, evenings or Sundays possibly?

30/05/2024

Some focus work in town and then some fun in the park. 🐾

26/05/2024

Freedom of choice is hugely reinforcing for us and our dogs!

How important is it to you to have choice in your life? What choices have you made today? And how many times a day does your dog get to choose? Where or when he exercises, when he can go to the toilet, what he eats, where he sleeps............Why not give him some choices today & see how he reacts.
He'll always have choice with Galen Myotherapy ❤️

21/05/2024

What a great service to be able to offer people and their pets. 🐾

Introducing: Home Visits 🏡

16/05/2024

🐕 UK Sniffer Dog Bronze Course 🐕

New 6 week, outdoor course in Battle, starting on Wednesday 12th June at 7pm

🐾 A natural searching behaviour that you can use on walk
🐾 Builds confidence for dogs that are not so outgoing
🐾 Enrichment for an older dog
🐾 Can help with focus for a more excited dog
🐾 Helps with improving resource guarding issues around swapping items

Small group, room to spread out, £125, booking required

🐕 Get in touch for a chat if it's something you'd like to try with your dog: [email protected]

14/05/2024

🐾 Consent Based Handling
This little chap struggles to cope with being touched by an item in somebody's hand and is very suspicious that it is going to do him harm. Here he is learning that having a nail filed without restraint isn't so bad after all. He is free to move away if he doesn't want to take part so he learns to trust the person that he won't be forced into compliance. Choice is empowering and builds confidence.

03/05/2024

A fun afternoon in Hawkhurst with your doggo. 🐾