Speak Dog

31/03/2025

It's my turn to do the next Succeed Together Q&A for our INSIDER members.

Suggestions please for a good topic for me to discuss !!

31/03/2025

Well that's Monday done, remind me to come back as one of my dogs would ya 🤣

30/03/2025

Don't miss out !!

I collaborate with many of the graduates from the The Holistic Grooming Academy as well as the Acadamy itself.

Investing is knowledge is never a waste of time or money, especially when it's discounted!

If you would like to elevate your professional grooming business where you can learn methods to help reduce stress, increase cooperation and prevent dog bites, then we have ONE space left on our first intake of 2025 🥰

This last space is part of our special promotion before access to enrol on the course goes back to its RRP of £1,499 - we don't know when or if it will be on offer again.

Along with 13 comprehensive modules jam-packed full of learning content, also included in your investment:

👉 an affiliate scheme to earn back your investment and more

👉 inclusive access to our monthly membership (worth £30/pcm)

👉 luxury student pack (UK-Mainland students)

👉 course book and workbook (International students)

👉 supportive community of like-minded groomers

👉 affiliate discounts and special offers on other products/services

👉 LIVE webinars and Q&A's with industry leaders

👉 a certification that is triple-accredited via iPET Network, UK Rural Skills and The Complementary Medical Association

Our diploma is not for the faint of heart but we do offer incredible support for those truly passionate about raising the bar of industry standards through a science-backed, ethical approach to grooming processes ⭐

What's more, we have now partnered with the British Isles Grooming Association, and founder Stephanie Zikmann has joined their committee to help push for a more advanced grooming industry 🥳

For those on tighter budgets, you may wish to secure this space via Klarna or Clearpay who are offering incredibly affordable, interest-free payment plans on our special promotion as well (roughly £150 for four months which is even more accessible than our own payment plan option) 🤩

To grab this slot before it expires at midnight on 31st March, visit the link below to find out more, and join our community of award-winning groomers today 👇:

https://courses.holisticgroomingacademy.com/courses/the-holistic-grooming-behaviour-diploma

30/03/2025

DO YOU RUN PUPPY OR DOG CLASSES?

If you are an ethical business who prioritises an animals mental and physical welfare then we might be a good fit.

Amy is not an influencer, she is however an amazing Clinical Animal Behaviourist, Puppy Tutor and all round good egg and is part of the Learning to Listen Collaboration.

All her clients attend this session as part of thier courses and classes with Amy.

Thank to Amy for this lovely review.

If you want to find out more about this simple concept and how it can benefit your clients and business please drop me an email
with IM SNIFFING OUT MORE INFO

[email protected]

30/03/2025

INFLUENCERS and FOLLOWERS

Something I'm not 🤣

What's upsetting for me is seeing some of these people with huge followings promoting equipment, services, opinions and pretending to have knowledge in a field when clearly they don't.

Use this tool and your dog will walk better, yes because the dogs works hard to avoid the discomfort.

Just feed this to your dog and thier anxiety will just drop away, really wow, who knew, amazing how we created such magic for dogs but not humans!

Use this bit of grooming equipment and your dog will magically become calm...shut down you mean.

Use this brand it's the best...no they are paying this person to say that and encourage you buy it!!!

HUGE FOLLOWINGS DONT ALWAYS MEAN ETHICAL AND HONEST.

To be clear, we all want our businesses to thrive and social media sadly plays a huge part nowadays even for a technophobe like me.

Not everyone is " bad" I know of some fab businesses who have organically grown thier business through good ethical information sharing, that's cool.

I've also seen businesses with huge followings where what they do to dogs, whilst describing how compassionate and knowledgable they are would be laughable if it wasn't so sad for the dog.

Speak Dog has over 16k followers and I am so grateful because I hope those people are here because they genuinly enjoy the content and want to make dogs lives better, learn and share good information together because that is the goal of this page.

Were human, we make mistakes, we learn, we grow but we want to make dogs lives better, not just APPEAR better.

Just remember though a big following doesn't always mean there is knowledge, compassion or a genuine desire to improve the human canine relationship.

(APOLOGIES TO DEREK FOR SHARING HIS BALLS WITH THE WORLD) 😅

29/03/2025

WE ARE SO EXCITED TO WELCOME CLARE AND HER WONDERFUL BUSINESS Raggy Rascals TO THE SPEAK DOG FAMILY.

I met Clare during my talk with The Holistic Grooming Academy, and I am so grateful we got to meet and even more grateful we now get to collaborate!!

Clare is based in Gateshead and her website is www.raggyrascals.com should you be localish and wish to look at the services she offers.

Let the good times begin 🥰

I provide quality grooming services to keep your pets healthy and happy.

29/03/2025

CALM DOWN

Arousal can impact so many aspects of our dogs and our lives.

Arousal can be due to a number of emotions, excitability, anxiety, Fear they all go in the same emotional bucket.

Lets take a dog who pulls like a train on the lead as an example.

Often people and some professionals think that it's just a training issue, if we just train the dog more it will calm down and the walking will improve.

However, if you have a dog who's emotions are fizzing, will adding more control and requests help ?

If I gave you a book to read, sat you in the middle of a motorway, how much of that book would you remember?

I want LOTS of information before I start working with a lead puller.

Breed, personality, food, walking pace, what equipment is being used, how does the dog feel about people, dogs, traffic etc. Where do they walk, does the dog have the right outlets, any health issues, how much sleep do they get, what motivates the dog, does each family member do the same thing, the list is soooooooo long.

With dogs who fizz, it can be easy to think they just need tiring out. Usually lots of walks and ball throwing starts to be implemented BUT this isn't always a good thing.

Exhaustion isn't good for a dog to regularly experience, just like it isn't for us.

Helping a dog to calm down requires investigations, implementations of skills that shows a dog how to engage in activities that helps reduce Adrenaline and arousal not corkscrew the dog up more.

It requires skills that doesn't add more arousal into the dogs arousal bucket.

I personally only want to work with these dogs on a one to one basis initially, I dont feel classes are usually a good starting environment (hard hat on) at this stage.

The right environment will facilitate success the wrong environment will make it more challenging and possibly cause the dog to fail and the human to feel even more frustrated.

I want to listen to the dog and help the guardian understand why the dog is prone to fizzing, but how to make changes that in realistic increments we can build up to using in more distracting environments over time

REMEMBER NO MAGIC WANDS!!

Calming down isn't just training a dog to be obedient, still or quiet, I see many dogs who are all those things but are desperately holding the fizz in and that must be bloody tough going, calming down is usually a process that requires both sides to be listened to and heard.

28/03/2025

Having had 13 dogs in the house, this resonates 🤣

28/03/2025

Peer Pressure

When you dislike an element or elements of your dogs behaviour it can to be frustrating.

Not knowing how to help, make life a bit easier and better can often lead to us mentioning our frustrations to family, friends and colleagues.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what you should do to " stop" the unwanted behaviour.

It can be tempting to try the various recommendations especially as people seem to be keen to give thier advice for free amd tell you what you should be doing.

I also know myself and numerous professionals have had clients who pay for professional advice but still feel pressure to stray from our plan due to peer pressure.

However, the more you try, the more confusing it often becomes for the dog. You become unclear, the dog can become more confused which leads to more guardian frustrations.

I know it can be tough but remember, peers often give what we call hit and run advice.

Do this, and it will be fixed, its easy, and not many things are that easy or simplistic and their dog is NOT your dog.

I know it's tough, but advocate for you and your dog and work with a reputable professional, stick to the plan, after all it's YOUR dog, not thiers.

27/03/2025

What a pleasure it was speaking to The Holistic Grooming Academy.

What a lovely group of human beings who clearly have huge compassion and empathy for dogs and guardians.

We've had people join the collaboration already from tonight's session.

Collaboration at its best, so exciting 🥰

Happening NOW for our students and graduates!

We are listening to Emma of Speak Dog and how our recent collaboration with them will help enhance the experience for dogs while also advancing our own ability to observe canine communication and body language 🐾

27/03/2025

WILL WE SEE YOU TONIGHT?

If you are a part of The Holistic Grooming Academy, I hope so.

I'm so excited to talk about how our collaboration can super charge yours and your clients skills through a simple, fun, and interactive concept.

See you at 7pm 🥰

25/03/2025

24/03/2025

THIS THURSDAY 7PM

I am so looking forward to talking to The Holistic Grooming Academy.

The opportunity to talk to students, graduates, businesses owners but most importantly human beings who want to make the grooming experience better for dogs is exciting.

Talking about how communication impacts our choices, and relationships between canines and guardian and guardian and professional.

I'm excited to see everyone there 🥰

23/03/2025

I remember many years ago having to ask a client to rewrite a cheque because my puppy chewed it 😅

20/03/2025

RESCHEDULED - DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

We are sadly going to reschedule tonight's talk with The Holistic Grooming Academy due to an issue my end.

Aplogies for any inconvenience but we will get a new date booked in asap and let you know.

Aplogies to those who had put time aside tonight, I hope the wait will be worth it and I will look forward to speaking to you all soon.

20/03/2025

This is a heartbreaking honest read, I'm sorry Julie Naismith, helping dogs be happy home alone and her dog was so let down.

We still have a lot of people in the industry who talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

Don't just look at the name, or just beleive the words, every interaction with a dog is a chance for us to show and prove we mean what say and it's not just words.

Consent-based care isn’t optional. It’s everything. And last week, someone I trusted chose to ignore it.

My beautiful, gentle 14-year-old Percy came home from his groomer shaking. She claims to use a force-free, stress-free approach. She does not.

Percy is deaf. He's partially blind. He's frail. And yesterday, someone I trusted to care for him with compassion chose to do the exact opposite.

I can't stop thinking about how scared he must have been.

Here's the thing about operating without force or fear - either you're doing it, or you're not. There's no middle ground. There's no "consent-based and compassionate, except when I'm annoyed or want to get the job done quickly."

We had discussed his boundaries extensively. He doesn't like his paws touched. His nails are sensitive. His muzzle and private areas are off-limits.

She knew I'd rather he come home half groomed than been forced through anything.

She KNEW all this.

And yet, for whatever reason, she did the opposite.

She shaved his entire muzzle. Shaved his private areas. Shaved his feet and clipped his nails. All the things we had explicitly agreed she would NOT do if he showed any discomfort.

To do this she would have HAD to restrain him, to force him, to subjugate him to a process that would have petrified him.

This wasn't an accident. This wasn't a miscommunication. This was a choice.

A choice to prioritize her process over my elderly dog's emotional wellbeing.

A choice to ignore his boundaries because they were inconvenient.

A choice to send a message: "Your dog's comfort doesn't actually matter to me, even though I pretend it does."

When a groomer, vet, trainer or any professional who works with dogs puts the end result above the emotional journey to get there, they are failing that dog.

Full stop.

I would rather have the scruffiest dog in town than know my boy spent even one minute feeling afraid and helpless while someone forced procedures on him.

I'm devastated that I couldn't protect him from this.

That someone who used all the right words - "low stress," "positive," "force-free" - chose to do the exact opposite the moment it became challenging.

When we talk about "consent-based care" for dogs, some people roll their eyes. "It's just a dog," they say. "Sometimes you have to just get things done."

But if you've ever looked into the eyes of a dog who trusts you completely to keep them safe... if you've ever felt the weight of that responsibility... you know.

You know that "just getting it done" isn't good enough. Not even close.

I don't care how perfect a groom looks if it came at the cost of my dog's dignity and trust.

I don't care how convenient it is to force a dog through a procedure instead of taking the time to build trust.

I don't care what anyone thinks about being "precious" with my dog's boundaries.

Because at the end of the day, I'm all Percy has. I'm his voice. I'm his advocate. And I failed him by trusting someone who used kindness as a marketing slogan rather than a genuine commitment.

To every professional working with dogs:
Words matter. Promises matter. But your actions matter most.

If you claim to be "low stress", "no fear" or "force free," but get frustrated when a dog doesn't comply, you're not what you claim to be.

If you advertise gentle handling but prioritize efficiency over emotional wellbeing, you're not what you claim to be.

If you think a result justifies trauma to get there, you're not what you claim to be.

All our dogs deserve better. They deserve practitioners who truly understand that consent isn't optional - it's everything.

You have the right to demand that of every professional in your dog's life.

Percy deserved better. And I'll spend every day making sure he never experiences anything like that again.

Because real love means respecting boundaries, even when it's inconvenient.

Real care means prioritizing emotional wellbeing over results.

Really working without fear isn't just marketing - it's a promise you keep even when no one is watching.

If the process isn’t kind, the result doesn’t matter.

19/03/2025

TOMORROW 7PM GMT

I am looking forward to talking to the students and graduates at the award winning The Holistic Grooming Academy.

I will be talking about observation over interpretations and how ditching labels and taking things back to a foundation skill with a simple framework can empower canines, guardians, professionals and thier businesses.

I look forward and appreciate the opportunity to speak to Groomers where emotional wellbeing is as much of a priority as the physical aspect.