Planet Dog Training & Behaviour, Brighton and Hove (2025)

03/04/2025

In the phrase ‘dog training’, the dog is typically understood to be the one being trained. But what if we adjust our ears, and our understanding, to allow that phrase to also encompass the possibility that it is also the dog doing the training?

Why on earth would we do this? Because it opens us up to the understanding that training is a partnership, that it is not only the dog who needs to learn something when we engage in dog training but that we, too, have a great deal to learn ourselves.

We need to learn how to communicate clearly with our dogs, not just verbally but also physically: to learn how movements of our own faces and bodies and hands might be conveying information to them that we don’t intend (or how to move our own faces and bodies and hands in ways that can communicate what we do wish to say). We need to learn how to listen to our dogs: how to read canine body language so that we know what our dogs are communicating to us, to learn what they need to feel happy and safe and content in their lives.

Training should be a partnership, a way to develop our relationship with our dogs in ways that improve life for us both. It should be a way to increase our bond, to learn more about one another, and to enhance both species’ feelings of trust. If you would like to learn more about how to build that all-important bond with your dog, then get in touch with Planet Dog today.

07/02/2025

Take time to stop on your walks sometimes, let your dog spend time just taking in their environment, sniffing the air and watching the world go by: this can be a very valuable part of meeting their needs.

Whilst running and chasing and playing are important aspects of our dogs' lives, these are all things which increase adrenaline levels. If this is all that your dog is doing whilst out on a walk, then it is no surprise that they might then find it difficult to settle once they are home again.

A study on street dogs in India found that they did not choose to engage in fast-paced, high intensity activities like chasing: they spent far more time just mooching about, hanging out with other humans and/or dogs, and slowly exploring their world. This is a lesson we would do well to learn with our own dogs.

Whilst physical exercise is obviously important for our dogs, so too is giving them time to engage meaningfully with their environment when they are out and about in the world.

Dogs need to be given time to slow down. They need to be given time to sniff. To absorb their environment. A walk should stimulate your dog’s mind as well as their body.

In the right place and at the right time, taking some time to stop and take the world in can give a nervous dog the time they need to feel comfortable in that world (and if your dog needs support in this area, then Planet Dog can help!). But all dogs can benefit from having things slowed down for them when they’re out on their walk sometimes.

So why not give it a try? You may even find that it is something that could benefit you, too.

22/01/2025

There are lots of different ways that you can help your dog to live a happy life. Today’s focus is going to be on walks. Scroll through to read about all the different things that you can do to ensure that your dog enjoys their walks and gets the most out of them.

Remember: our dogs’ walks should, wherever possible, be for them. They spend so much time fitting in with our lives, but they deserve to have their needs met: ensuring that their walks are enjoyable for them is just one way of doing this. Linked to that, and to the issue of choice, it’s also ok if your dog doesn’t fancy a walk at any point for any reason. There are plenty of things that you can do at home to entertain them instead. If you need help with this then Planet Dog can help!

Learn to understand and to listen to your dog - these are small things that will have big consequences for you both.

18/01/2025

Providing opportunities for mental stimulation throughout your dog’s day is a vital component of ensuring that you are being a responsible dog guardian and are meeting your friend’s needs.

There are lots of ways that you can provide such opportunities for your dog, including sensory investigation of various types, training games, scentwork, puzzle solving, and interactive games.

Even if you don’t have enough time to provide such activities for your dog on a given day, there are still plenty of activities that you can prepare for them and which they can enjoy and get satisfaction from without you.

Earlier posts have highlighted the benefits of snuffle mats, puzzle boxes, lickimats, long-lasting chews, and toys such as the Bob-a-Lot. These are all things which you can prepare in advance for your dog and offer to them throughout their day, even at times when you don’t have time to be directly interacting with them yourself (although activities such as these should always be supervised, and you should always ensure that your dog has access to plenty of water, too).

There are so many different ways that you can ensure that you are meeting your dog’s mental as well as physical needs. If you need help with this, or any other issue, then Planet Dog can help.

24/12/2024

Wishing all my clients - past, present, and future! - a very merry Christmas and all good wishes for a happy and healthy 2025.

08/12/2024

Training FOR the moment not IN the moment is a very good maxim for any behaviours that you are trying to teach your dog.

If you would like them to walk with a loose lead rather than pulling in excitement to their favourite park, for example, then you need to teach them the skills of loose lead walking in a non-exciting environment first. Trying to introduce this skill in the very place where the behaviour is most challenging for you both is setting everybody up to fail.

Would you like your dog to wait patiently on a mat when people come to the door? Then you need to train the necessary skills at times when no-one is at the door first. Trying to introduce that new behaviour at the time when the dog is likely to find it most difficult is not the best way to set anyone up for success.

Training is not just about how to teach a given skill. It is also about:

* understanding how context may affect learning;
* understanding your individual dog and knowing what they might need in order to be able to succeed;
* knowing what motivates them;
* appreciating what they might find challenging and why;
* being able to read their body language so that you can understand what they are communicating to you, and being willing and able to respond to that;
* focusing on what you are communicating to them, not just by your words but by their volume and pace and tone, and by your own body language, too.

Learning what both you and your dog need in order to succeed can take time, but it is well worth the effort: the rewards will be felt by you, by your dog, and in your relationship with one another. If you need help with any of this, then Planet Dog would be delighted to help.

04/12/2024

Beautiful words from Mary Oliver's fantastic poem, 'Little Dog's Rhapsody in the Night'. If you love dogs and you love poetry, then you might well enjoy her collection "Dog Songs".

03/12/2024

It is easy to feel that you don’t have time to train your dog, either to teach them something new or to practise learned behaviours with them. But short sessions of engagement with your dog are beneficial for you both.

Short sessions of training keep your dog mentally active, and they can help them to learn and solidify behaviours that will be helpful to you both in your lives together. They also serve as bonding opportunities.

You will be surprised how much progress you can make with teaching your dog a new skill or practising an already learnt behaviour if you make space for just a few repetitions of it throughout your day.

Rehearse some eye contact exercises, walking beside you, or trick training as you wait for the kettle to boil.

Run through some behaviours like sit, stand, and down before setting off on your walk together in order to remind your dog how much fun it can be to engage with you.

At the end of your walk why not practise husbandry behaviours like wiping paws or clipping nails, helping your dog to learn to feel comfortable with these procedures? (And if you need help with how to go about this, then Planet Dog can help!)

Spending time hanging out with your dog and working on exercises that are fun - and useful - for you both is much easier to fit into your day than it might feel, it’s just about working out where you have those windows of opportunity and thinking about how you might best use them.

Be sure to use positive reinforcement training and learn how to read your dog’s body language so that you can ensure that the experience is always pleasurable for both of you.

If you need help learning how best to engage with your dog and how to teach them the skills that they need in their life with you, then please get in touch with Planet Dog.

28/11/2024

Reframing something enables you to look at it and experience it in a different way, which can be helpful in finding new ways to address it.

What might this mean in relation to your dog?

Maybe a reactive dog does not need “fixing”.

It is obviously important to help your dog to feel safe in their world. It is obviously important for them to learn strategies that will help them to cope with situations that they find challenging for whatever reason. It is also vital that we, as our dogs’ guardians, understand the reason for their behaviour, since this is an important part of knowing how best to address it.

But a reactive dog is not a broken dog and therefore does not need to be “fixed”. They need understanding and support, and to be given ways to reframe their own ways of seeing the world. It may help to remember that they are not giving you a hard time; they are having a hard time.

Dogs are sentient, feeling beings all having their own experience of being alive and being in the world. Having invited them into our lives we owe it to them to help to support them in whatever way we can, and that begins by trying to see things from their perspective.

If you need help with this or any other issue, then contact Planet Dog today.

27/11/2024

Reframing something enables you to look at it and experience it in a different way, which can be helpful in finding new ways to address it.

What might this mean in relation to your dog?

Maybe your dog is not “attention-seeking”. Perhaps they are trying to tell you that they have an unmet need: they may be hungry, or need the toilet, or need some mental or physical stimulation. Or perhaps all their needs have been met and they are just struggling to know how to settle when it’s time to chill out together - this is a skill that some dogs need help to develop, and perhaps the behaviour that you are seeing as “attention-seeking” is actually them asking for help in being shown how to learn that skill.

If you would like help learning how to better understand your dog and helping them to learn specific skills that will help you to live more harmoniously together, then Planet Dog can help.

26/11/2024

Reframing something enables you to look at it and experience it in a different way, which can be helpful in finding new ways to address it.

What might this mean in relation to your dog?

Maybe your dog isn’t “being difficult”. Perhaps they are finding some aspect of their life challenging in some way and are looking for support and guidance in how to navigate it. Try to think about what they might need in order to help them to be able to offer a different behaviour.

For example, does your dog constantly stop moving on their walk with you? Rather than thinking that they are being “difficult” or “stubborn” when they do this, think about what might be preventing them from wanting to continue: perhaps they are tired, or scared, or in pain. Perhaps they have simply become overwhelmed with the environment and need a moment to process their surroundings. Try to think about what your dog is experiencing in that moment and how you can alter things in order to help them to feel more comfortable.

If you are struggling to understand your dog’s behaviour, then please get in touch with Planet Dog.

22/11/2024

(Just reposting this given the windy weather that's forecast for the next few days!)

Does your dog behave differently when it’s windy? If you consider how much of a dog’s world is filtered through their amazing sense of smell, it is only to be expected that the world might seem very different to them on super windy days. Scents (and sounds) will swirl about on the cascading air currents, meaning that a) there are a lot more of those scents and sounds reaching your dog, and b) it’s a lot more challenging for them to work out which direction they are coming from.

There are way more distractions in the environment on windy days: this means that it may be more difficult for your dog to pay as much attention to you as they usually do. For dogs who can be worried by things in their environment, it means that there are seemingly way more of those things to be worried about and it’s more difficult to anticipate where they might be coming from, too; this could exacerbate their fear and unease, meaning that they may be quicker to react negatively to things that they might usually be able to cope with.

So if your dog is acting differently on days like today, when the wind is whipping through the trees and creating a lot more noise, movement, and scent distraction than usual, take a moment to try to understand how the world must seem to them and give them the time and space that they may need to cope with this strange, new turn of events.

Planet Dog Training & Behaviour

03/04/2025

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