My ex Spanish stray rescue dog: Amigo!
As an ex-stray dog from Malaga in Spain, Amigo has got applying pressure and personal space invasion down to a T!
I imagine he was very good at getting given scraps of food from tourists eating outside as he is so persistent with the most unwavering stare! 😂
“FFS! I give up!! Just take the whole paella 🥘 “
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I have to admit we were both a little taken aback by some of his body language and tendancy for invading space (often more so than this!) when he first arrived.
He can be very serious looking and stiff in the neck and face when demanding things (attention, his dinner, his afternoon chew etc!).
But we’ve now learned to read his individual traits, recognising when he’s uncomfortable and when he’s trying to make us uncomfortable (enough so that we give in!) 😂.
He often looks and behaves like a right solum Eeyore in the house and in contrast- on walks he hoons around with a massive grin on his face!
He’s quite the character!
💕 TRAINING WITH MY DOGS 💕
☀️ BLUE SKIES & DOG TRAINING FUN 🐕
I’ve been so busy with cases that I’ve not really given my guys individual training sessions in my field for a few weeks. We’ve done individual village walks and snippets of training when they’re all in my field together, but this doesn’t really allow us to fully flex!
We always do husbandry and physio inside a few times a week!
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With a blue sky and an intentionally less busy week in terms of seeing clients, it was nice to get in my field and give the boys some training time apart!
We are all a little rusty- mostly me! 😆
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At 13 years old Kanita doesn’t do much training anymore. She participates in her own way….on her platform, trotting over her poles, asking for treat searches and knocking the camera over 😂
God knows how the butt on my clean-on- today leggings got mucky! 🤷♀️
How many different behaviours can you count in this video?
Lead grabbing, jumping, mouthing and mounting (humping)
The adolescent brain goes through structural changes that affects the regulation of emotions and arousal. This makes dogs (and other species!) vulnerable to ‘overflow’ behaviour.
When arousal levels or emotional responses escalate in dogs, they can tip over into challenging behaviours, such as mounting, lead ragging, mouthing and jumping.
These behaviours are often self rewarding in nature as well as tricky to deal with! Especially out on walks where removing yourself from the situation isn’t possible.
They can be stressful, painful and embarrassing and this can easily lead to us respond in a way that elevates the dog’s stress further - such as by moving too quickly or verbally correcting them.
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Staying calm, saying less, talking in a slow and gentle way, moving slowly and trying to avoid telling your dog off can help calm things down and stop the behaviour in the moment - without damaging your relationship, as well as reducing the risk of the behaviour intensifying.
Considering what triggered the behaviour will help you avoid it in the future.
😱 “BUT WHERE’S THE SLIP LEAD?!!!” #labradormix #goldenretrievermix #looseleadwalking #positivereinforcementdogtrainer #dogtrainer #dogbehaviourist #clinicalanimalbehaviourist
Teaching your dog to be calm when passing sheep
🐑 Teaching dogs to be calm around or when passing sheep 🐑
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If you like long, detailed training videos- this one is for you!
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❌ Whilst avoiding sheep is sensible if the option is there, sometimes it isn’t!
Without careful exposure to livestock, you and your dog are completely unprepared for the times you can’t go back the way you came or when a different isn’t available.
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🐢 Take your time! What may feel like ages really isn’t that long. If you push through or past too quickly and your dog goes well over threshold, not only does that increase the risk of you loosing control, but the next time you try you will have more work to do trying to keep your dog calm! Which will take longer.
The first walk/approach in this video took about 8-10 minutes per dog. Second walk/approach took a couple of minutes, mostly due to that being the duration it takes to walk that far!
The tortoise and the hare!
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🐑 Give the sheep time to move away. Some sheep can be resistant to moving, I’ve met some who are very reluctant to move before. I find talking to them while approaching slowly and pausing to give them time to think through their options helps them move on without trotting or running.
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🐕 Keep your dog as calm and responsive as possible. Loose lead walking, sniffing, lower arousal and overall disinterest (especially when closer to the sheep) will help keep the sheep calm. Calm sheep are less interesting, and less likely to trigger chase!
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👀 Here you’ll see me balance initial information gathering with prompting disengagement. A dog is going to find something easier to ignore if they have had time to figure out what the hell it is first!
You can see how less interested my dogs are on walk two. This is because they were allowed to gather information at a distance the first time round.
As living beings significantly outnumbering the dog- sheep can actually be quite scary for some dogs! Especially if they stare or respond defensively (st
How I switch off on the weekends #ultramarathontraining #longdistancerunner #mountains #dogbehaviourist
DOG BODY LANGUAGE 🐕
AMIGO: “I think you should leave” 🤣
This little dog has approached us before. They’re after my treats (they don’t get any!).
Historically she has come over and then growled at the dogs once as they have got too close while she has sniffed for residue treats on the floor. The treats were given for a recall, but I now try not get food out (or instead I treat to mouth) when she’s in view - as on that one occasion it motivated her to cross the distance.
You can see my two boys stand and face the dog as she deviates well off course, clearly heading over to us. Whilst their stance is alert, their body muscle tone is not too tense and they look away briefly. They’re signalling they are very aware of her approach and ready respond, but they do not intend to start trouble.
If I recalled my dogs, all that would do is draw that dog in closer and possibly faster, as it’s safer to approach when another dog turns their back.
I’m not going to put my dogs in a position of motivational conflict by asking them to ignore a dog who is very clearly going to come into our space. So, I let them communicate and by doing so, the little dog is forced to negotiate entering their space. Slowing down, putting a bend in their body and widening the span of their tail movement to reduce the tension caused by their direct approach.
You can see the little dog has piloerection (hair standing up) and this is often the case with this individual. I believe it’s because she is conflicted, not being here to socialise but having to do so in order to try and meet her primary goal (getting closer to food).
Mohawk has a brief interaction and then Amigo takes over as the dog makes a break for me.
Amigo is a nose to nose greeter, but here he blocks her way a little and sustains his position - signalling she is unwelcome. She sits with hunched shoulders (making herself small) to diffuse tension, averting her gaze and angling her head away a little. This is to signal she means no
Now that’s a speedy release 🦡💨😂 #dogtraining #dogtrainer #dogbehaviourist #clinicalanimalbehaviourist #dogtraineruk #bluebordercollie #bordercollie #spanishrescuedog #streetdogs #MultiDogHousehold
Recorded a week or so ago I thought I’d share my observations and thoughts with regards to criticisms on social media.
I used to spend a lot of time criticising others. I then turned that looking glass back on myself and it changed my behaviour with regards to how often I comment on other people’s content and how I communicated my opinions. Instead I decided to spend more of the time I allocate to social media focusing my own content.
I’m by no means perfect, but I’m less frustrated for making these changed. Applying improved self awareness in this context has helped me feel like I’m a more tolerant and kinder person (although I still maintain a firm stance on my ethics).
When offering opinions on the content of others …..
✅ Are you paying careful attention to all aspects of that post? Did you allocate your full attention to the video and read the text? Ensuring that you haven’t missed something that may actually alter your immediate reaction, even if only by a little!
✅ Are you delving into that person’s content, beyond that one video, to get a broader idea of their work?
✅ Are you communicating in a way that intends to hurt? Are you communicating in a way that elevates your status over that person?
Or are you genuinely interested in having a constructive conversation and respectfully offering your opinion based on your specific observations?
✅ Are you watching that video solely through your lens? Whether that’s dog sports, obedience, having a preference for certain equipment, expecting complete handler focus, or 100% neutrality?
Is your immediate reaction based on you expecting everyone to do things exactly as you do things?
Or are you looking at the details that should, in my opinion, matter the most- the dog’s body language (their experience!).
✅ Are you showcasing your idea of what is the better alternative within the context you’re criticising?
✅ Are you only showcasing the good stuff, giving a false repre
🦌PREVENTING PREDATORY BEHAVIOUR (OR RUNNING OFF TO DOGS/PEOPLE ETC!) 🐕💨
👀 Here’s a video showing how proactive I need to be when walking my dogs.
🦌 In this context, it’s to prevent predatory chasing or looking for prey.
But I would be ready to apply the same level of proaction around dogs, people etc.
As demonstrated- the more vigilant and aroused your dog is, the more proactive you need to be.
The more mooching and sniffing your dog does, the less likely they will react impulsively and run over to anything of interest.
🥎 When I use toys on walks, it’s usually as a randomly reward for recall, which increases their motivation and reliability to recall off predatory chasing!
If I do use toys, I always help my dogs’ arousal levels simmer down before moving closer to dogs, people, wildlife rich areas etc.
This is because I recognise that the use of the toy has just primed my dogs to react more quickly and intensely to movement. They need time to lower their arousal - which will likely reduce sensitivity to movement and increase response time. This then creates a bigger window for intervention, such as a recall!
The alternative is an increased and/or extended use of toys and/or creating hyper focus on toys. I personally find that exhausting to maintain and would much rather see dogs interacting with their environment.
Talk about being over dressed for the occasion….
If you want a job done, do it yourself!
Mohawk pushed the ball across the pond whilst doing an over enthusiastic retrieve. He’s not really grasped the concept of “find it” whilst swimming- even with the floating ball!
Amigo took matters into his own paws before I had a chance to undress him! 😆🤷♀️
🧥Bye bye yellow coat 🧥
It’s time to say farewell to Molly’s trusty yellow dog coat!
We don’t want other dog owners to feel anxious when their dog approaches or when Molly approaches them!
Instead I’ve suggested they get a ‘DO NOT STROKE’ coat because Molly understandably doesn’t want to be stroked by unfamiliar people and would have something loud to say about it.
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I met team Molly a year ago. She’s a Romanian rescue and she was highly reactive to dogs, bikes, people, children and also had a very high prey drive! She was scared of the car, fearful of street walks too and reacted at visitors- so her family felt isolated.
She was very conflicted in her motivations towards dogs, wanting to approach (so getting easily frustrated when she couldn’t) but also feeling quite anxious at times.
I spotted her social potential and we gradually built on that.
A lot of work has been done across the year, with team member Hayley chipping in to help. Sessions started to taper out as she turned a corner 4-5 months ago.
The first milestone was when we managed to get her on regular walks locally and via the car. Then things gradually started to fall in place.
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This was her sign off session. She was so nonchalant about bikes I actually forgot they were once a trigger, so I forgot to film when any of the 3-4 bikes cycled past!
Her remaining triggers are dogs that many dogs may struggle with, such as the occasional Husky or Shepherd coming in 'hot' (no offense Husky and GSD folk!) and occasionally when unfamiliar men talk to her or her family on walks. She is also very sensibly managed carefully around children on walks.
All the other issues are pretty much resolved or require a little management along with the inevitable awareness that simply comes with being a considerate and sensible dog guardian.
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Kelly and Tom have been so dedicated to Molly, who really wasn’t an easy dog at all. Kelly’s own words were: “you assessed her personality and worked with that! You weren
Clinical Animal Behaviourist & Dog Trainer (MSc CAB, APBC CAB, CCAB, ABTC ATI & CAB) supported by an awesome team of qualified professionals.
