Step by Steph Dog Training & Walking

21/11/2024

Equafleeces galore!

19/11/2024

"BRACE!!!!!"

If you're a dog walker or owner of a multi dog household you'll know 😂

09/11/2024

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Obi and Bella's humans on their beautiful wedding at the Coed-y-Mwstwr Hotel.

These two were exemplary wedding guests and greeted everyone so politely and gently. Their fancy harnesses were finished off with a dicky bow for Obi matching the groom and groomsmen's ties and a ribbon for Bella who matched the bridesmaids dresses. They attracted so much attention (rightfully so!).

First they started off the day with a Starbucks pup cup, followed by a gentle lead walk to stretch their legs. Then we were back at the venue to greet guests and to pose for photos. They thought I was utterly ridiculous bouncing and waving behind the wedding photographer but they humoured us and smashed it.
Next they headed to Dogz Unleashed Freedom Fields with their friend Ruby for a well deserved run to finish off the day. They did not stop playing and zooming. I was tired watching them 😴

It's safe to say they've had just as much fun as the bride and groom today. I've had such a blast with them. See you soon Bella and Obi! 🥰

💍💒 👰🤵

03/11/2024

Happy Birthday Peggy!
See you tomorrow our whacky girl.

24/10/2024

Thursday feels.
Ross, Luna, Tilly & Seren toddled down to the stream for a splash.

Ross, Gus, Nixie & Flick had a blast in the woods and to my horror caught a squirrel 🙈

Nyx, Cub, Tuska & Poppy had an all girls adventure across the fields.

Finally Bailey & Cub took a different route on their usual walk and rediscovered the area. 😍

15/10/2024

Molly, Nyx, Peggy, Teddy & Lilly headed to the beach to blow away the cobwebs 🏖️

Ross & Bailey had crazy 🏀 games and field zooms.

Ross, Luna, Tilly, Rudi, Seren, Buddy & Teddy ventured up the mountain where Teddy chatted up the Goldie sisters 😎 💅

And finally Ross, Nixie, Mabel, Ruby, Bobby & Luna demonstrated that they all had blue Smarties for lunch 🏃🌪️

15/10/2024

DOG INSURANCE

Not sure if anyone is shopping for doggy insurance but I've got a link for Many Pets which gives you a £30 Amazon gift card if you sign up before 3rd of November. It goes down to £20 after.

Link below:

Get £30 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card when you buy your first policy with ManyPets.

15/10/2024

Guess today's "snak"
😂

14/10/2024

♥️

06/10/2024

Happy Birthday little Molly Moo for yesterday. Her human is a long time school friend so I had the honour of attending her birthday party. Both humans and dogs were fed to the brim with lots of yummy culinary delights and everyone left super sleepy and fit to burst 😂🎉
Big Hugs Moo!

05/10/2024

We missed a Lila birthday while we were on holiday!
A belated Happy Birthday to our mud snorkelling Lila. She's been with us practically since day 1 and it's been a pleasure watching her grow and be her crazy and unapologetic self. Big Hugs special girl.

03/10/2024

A boopalicious day

02/10/2024

The morning gang showing off their best doggy paddles.

02/10/2024

Carnage. But well behaved carnage 😂

01/10/2024

Luna picking the last of the blackberries 🙂

30/09/2024

There's nothing that can jolt you out of holiday mode than a mad Monday with these feral buggers 😜🫨

18/09/2024

The Venn Diagram of Behaviour Modification

This is something I’ve been meaning to post about for a while and I talk of often in my consultations with clients. The Venn Diagram of Behaviour Modification.

It is a fairly simple concept and one used widely by many behaviourists and trainers but it’s worth showing that simple concept so that you can apply it to your own dog and their issues.

There are three main categories in the Venn Diagram you can see, but the important thing to remember is that if you don’t do ALL of them then your attempts at behaviour modification WILL fail. This possibly sounds a dramatic but in my ten years of experience, those that have slow or failed progress have not carefully followed all three circles of the diagram.

Health:
Did you know that 80% of behaviour cases seen by trainers nationally have some sort of health issue contributing to the behaviour issue? I’ve posted many examples before but in ALL of the cases I’ve worked with where a health issue has been found, behaviour SIGNIFICANTLY improved post medical treatment. Some to the point of no longer requiring any training.

Management:
Here comes the sticky one that I find a lot of people skip past and as a result, have failures in their progress. Management is boring and it sucks. It’s not sexy and not instagrammable and not fun. It’s having a long line on your dog. It’s avoiding busy areas for a period of time. It’s using babygates and crates in the home. It’s all those things that make you feel like you’re avoiding the problem. The purpose of management is to stop your dog rehearsing whatever the behaviour is you’re trying to stop. For example a long line to stop a bird chaser. A muzzle to stop biting. The list goes on. What is practiced is repeated and you definitely don’t want your dog practicing the very thing you’re seeking to stop.

Training:
This is the bit everyone gets excited about. The one that they think comes first and is the most important. Whatever the issue is that you’re facing I see clients week in week out that day one want to FIX THE PROBLEM NOW. This is arguably the tertiary thing to tackle in most behaviour cases. Once medical issues have been resolved and management is in place, THEN the training can begin.

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Case Study (abbreviated)

Young Labrador Retriever. Issues presented as charging up to people to jump up at them, often barking and giving mixed signals of seeming friendly then snapping when touched by the people.

Health: Change of diet from Bakers to a high quality fresh diet leading to less hyperactive behaviour. Vet diagnosed mild hip dysplasia and this is now alleviated with physio and hydrotherapy.
Management: long line and environmental management. Temporary removal from busy parks with people just itching to cuddle said charging Labrador. Owners learned to advocate for their dog and ask people not to touch her without their permission.
Training: recall, polite greetings with an auto break away and return to handler and lots of neutrality work done around people.

Result: Labrador is now physically and mentally comfortable and back to being off lead in busy areas without issue.

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The problem I see most weeks is that as humans, we love to cherry pick. We love to pick one thing and do that bit to get our own dopamine release of success, but for long term success and to get the ‘well trained dog’ you MUST do all three of these things. Unless you do these three things then your journey to success will be longer and more difficult.

With the Labrador we could have just done the health part, and that would have helped but not solved the issue in totality. We could have just done the management side, limiting their world and making it smaller and remaining on the long line for life. We could have done just the training part, but without the former two, the training would have failed.

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So whether you are at the start of your behaviour modification journey, or feeling stuck in the middle, or frustrated at lack of progress, I’d like you to think of this diagram. The three things together are the answer to your success. A diagram on Facebook is nowhere near as cool as a TikTok of instant results, but it’s what is needed to get you where you want to be.

Someone once told me ‘brilliant training is just the foundations done really, really well’. The lesson is, don’t skip steps. Do the boring s**t. Do the unsexy s**t. Then you can do the really cool stuff!

17/09/2024

A morning over a very busy opencast with Ross, Luna, Tilly, Seren, Ruby, Rudi & Peggy.
The buggers pushed me half in the pond and then Tilly wanted to become a duck 🦆