AWE Canine - Awe & Wonder Experience for dogs

19/08/2025

🎉 PROGRESS BEING MADE - SEPARATION STRUGGLES 🎉

💖 When Sasha arrived with us at 11 months old, we had a little bit of a back story with regards to Sasha not liking being left alone ❤️‍🩹 She had chewed up her home and the garden. She would be barking and howling all day 💔 She had been left on her own in the kitchen for 10 - 12 hours a day and then crated in the kitchen alone overnight 💔 For any dog this would be traumatic, for a puppy - devastating, and clearly it had a detrimental affect on Sasha as we would find out 💔

Sasha arrived in season, itching, and desperate not to be left alone. We managed her season making her as comfortable as possible, began to deal with itching with vet advice and didn't leave her alone until I felt I could begin some 'separation anxiety training’ which would be nearly 2 months 💔

Sasha is the longest pup to be able to comfortably be left alone that I've had, and even 8 months later, we tread very carefully so as not to undo where we are ❤️‍🩹 Her breed alone determines she was meant to live amongst other animals and be devoted to her humans, so to be left alone isn't in her genes, and then add in the trauma of being left for such a length of time, at such a young age and have barely 4ish hours a day interaction with her humans - my heart breaks to even consider what she felt 💔. Being left may always be a sensitive area for her, but we will continue to build her confidence and go at her pace 💖

It was nearly 3 months before I could even leave the room and go for a shower and we have built it up from there. We tread very carefully with leaving her and she can now be left for 3 hours 🎉💖

We have cameras to monitor her when we are out and she is very settled when we view them 🎉💖. Her preference to sleep is on the cold, hard, porcelain tiles in the middle of the kitchen even though she has access to various beds and rugs, apparently it's a Pyr thing 🤷🏻‍♀️💖

Today I returned home and having watched her a few times, very settled on the camera, I returned to see 3 fire engines on our street!!!! 😳 After the initial panic it wasn't my home, (everybody in the said house was safe) I viewed the cameras, and amidst all the noise of the goings on just a few doors down from us, and people passing, here is our little girl, nicely resting after being left for 2.5 hours 🎉💖

If your dog struggles with being left alone and you would like some support, please get in touch 💝

18/08/2025

🎉 PROGRESS BEING MADE ALL THE TIME 🎉

💖 Meet Sasha 💖. Now 18 months old. Arrived with us in January after a tough 11 months for her 💔

Sasha is a LGD. Her mammy was Mioritic and as she looks Great Pyrenees, and has lots of those traits, we are going with that for now hahahaha 💖

Sasha came with zero ‘training’, poor socialisation and frightened of everything, pulled like a train on the lead and would lunge and growl at anyone passing by. There are lots and lots of other things we've needed to work on, but these are two that can be clearly evidenced of how far she's come 🎉💖

When Sasha arrived, we weren't keeping her 😬, we don't live on a farm sadly so not the ideal home for the breed of dog she is. We only took her in as it was an urgent owner surrender and because we have experience of this breed. However, no rescues had the space to take a LGD let alone one with the complexities that Sasha came with. So here she is to stay 💖

As her genetics define her alongside her learning experience, we have gone super slow with Sasha and spent time bonding and building confidence which in turn has helped her when outdoors. She is wary of people (most likely always will be as genetics very strong in this area), both genetics and experience at play. She LOVES other dogs, and would pull, lunge, bark at them when she first arrived 😩

To say Sasha has come on a treat, totally doesn't do justice to how much she has caught up, given the best environment we could give her and the learning experiences 🎉💖 We have a long way to go ☺️. The life we live isn't the life a Great Pyrenees was bred for, but we have what we have and we make the very best of it 🥰

Here is a quick snippet of Sasha NOT lunging and pulling towards a male walking up the steps, with his hood up and NOT reacting to noise in the street 🎉 She has learned that the environment 'pays' and she gets rewarded for making great choices. This was in July, Sasha is now on the longline at the side with hardly any tension on the lead and able to listen and respond beautifully 🎉💖

I'm here to help anyone who needs support with any kind of reactivity or if you want to learn how to bond and connect with your dog so you all get to live your best lives 🐾💖

18/08/2025

It's been a while ☺️

I haven't gone anywhere, been here the whole time, just not great on social media 😬

In the background I have been a busy bee with our little girl Sasha helping her to settle in after a traumatic start for her alongside some training of all things dogs 😍

Here she is socialising in our local park. She is coming on such a treat. 💖

I plan to share some of her progress over the next few days and weeks. If anyone needs support with their dog, please get in touch as I have Sasha at a point now that I can take on a couple more cases.

🐾💖

14/03/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Pu18Tv9mG/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Not posted for a while 😬 (hopeless at social media 🙄) but I couldn’t pass by this without sharing this.

This is very much my heart for our dogs, to educate humans what all dogs need, long after puppyhood too 🐾❤️

I made this fuelled on oxytocin whilst handrearing a Twig 😂 we expect so much of puppies and take them away from everything they know and expect them to fit in our world with minimal fuss. In reality, we should be striving to understand and meet their needs as actually it’s not that difficult if you have the right mindset ❤️

18/12/2024

These are my best days 🥰

Beautiful slow sniffy walk (for the most part 😉🤣) today around Seven Acres 🐾🐾🐾

01/10/2024

🐾❤️‍🩹 had such a great time at the recent Dog First Aid training course and met some lovely people too. Highly recommend the course for everyone who has dogs ❤️‍🩹🐾

https://www.facebook.com/dfacheshire

01/10/2024

🐾❤️‍🩹 Great time learning all things Dog First Aid 🐾❤️‍🩹

https://www.facebook.com/dfacheshire

15/09/2024

💝 Let’s build trust first before all the ‘stuff’ 💝

When I would like someone, especially a member of my family, (be that human or animal), to do something, a task or suchlike, I ‘ask’ …….”could you ……can you……..would you like to……”.

If I need to repeat myself or resort to changing my tone and/or my volume to be ‘authoritative’ and ‘controlling’, then I am no longer asking, I am ‘commanding’ them 😔. They then have no choice. This ruins relationships and doesn’t build confident beings 😔

If I’m needing to ‘command’ and ‘control’ then I’m just not doing it. There are MANY reasons a dog doesn’t do something that we ask, they haven’t fully understood it, they are in pain, they aren’t in the mood, the environment is too tricky….etc

If they don’t want to / can’t do it ‘willingly’ first time, with encouragement and rewards, then I don’t ask a second time. To me, it’s an unfair expectation ☺️ (I will go back to the drawing board and find out what may be going on) 📖 🤔

I’m not fussed for a sit or a down or a wait from my dog, I want them to have fun and trust me that I will advocate for their every need in order that they feel safe and that they have choice. The other stuff will come for sure, but the trust HAS to come first ☺️

I want others to understand how important it is that any species, be that human or animal, should NEVER be controlled, and behaviours suppressed in order that they conform to what we ‘want’. 😔. I don’t want anyone to do anything because I MADE them. My thrill comes in teaching and having a dog enjoy everything I’m doing with them 🐾🥰

One phrase I use regularly in my teaching is “can you…..?” “Can you sit?” “Can you lie down?” It changes HOW we ask, ensuring that it’s a mutual agreement. If the dog ‘can’t’ in that moment, then I change things to help them and go back to where I believe they confidently could and move onwards from there, orrrrr we just move on, I’m not a dictator expecting my dog to do everything I ask, but…….I do get my thinking cap on and work out why they couldn’t do what I asked if I believe it’s something they’ve been confident to do previously 🐾❤️

I want to help families have THE BEST life with their dogs having fun and learning ‘stuff’ with the dog being at the centre of where they are going on that journey and going at their pace 🐾 ❤️

If you are struggling with your dog, please get in touch, I want to help 🐾❤️

If you’d like to understand what your dog is communicating, please get in touch, I’d love to educate you 🐾❤️

Enjoy your dogs, they are the best fun 🐾❤️

04/09/2024

🐾 Meet Jack 🐾

Jack came to me in March as his family had been struggling with some reactivity outdoors to other ‘off lead friendly’ dogs and some sensitivities indoors too ❤️

They needed someone to walk Jack whilst they work, but it needed to be a solo walk as Jack did not like to be near other dogs. ❤️

I agreed I would do some solo training walks with Jack and to help the family understand what was going on for him 🐾🥰

We planned our next few weeks and how I could support them with Jack with some understanding of what he was struggling with. Due to Jack being misunderstood with his communications, because….. who knew that dogs can clearly communicate????!!!! if only we knew what they were saying???!!!! I certainly didn’t know until the last 5 years that dog’s have beautiful body language and can clearly communicate, so my goal is to help families understand their dogs so everyone lives harmoniously. 🥰

There was another incident of sensitivity around the home sadly within the first couple of weeks still and at one point the family weren’t sure if they could meet Jack’s needs and were considering finding another home for Jack where he would feel much happier. ❤️‍🩹

I always support families where I can, in whatever decision they choose to make, and whilst I did this and even offered to find Jack another home without judgement, I also encouraged them that with some further understanding on their part of what Jack was communicating and also continuing the confidence building for Jack, the areas of sensitivity should reduce but would take time and they agreed to give more time 🥰

Having lived with a super sensitive dog myself I have every compassion for families who experience this ❤️‍🩹

Fast forward to September 2024 🥰

Now we see Jack growing in confidence 🐾❤️. Walking more loosely on the lead 🐾❤️ Having ‘mostly’ positive interactions where dogs come up to him and we continue to ‘bank’ those positive ones and work on reducing negative ones 🐾❤️ No incidents in the home following some guidance to support Jack where he needs it 🐾❤️ And a much happier and more relaxed family and Jack gets to stay in the most wonderful home that I think is absolutely perfect for him to live his best life 🥰

27/07/2024

💝 Could not agree more 💝

08/07/2024

The reason all this ‘dog stuff’ started 💝