Affinity Dog Training & Behaviour

29/12/2023

I have been honoured to work with so many dogs this year and this is just a small handful of them. A huge thank you to all my clients! Wishing you all a happy new year ⭐️

15/11/2023

I’ve had a lot of puppy posts recently but we do all ages & breeds! Here is (almost) 7 year old Jac, a Welsh terrier. Can you guess what one of his problems may be?

02/11/2023

It’s not long until our Christmas Fayre 🎅🏻🎄Please join us for this festive shopping event.

This is a great opportunity to grab some bargain presents in time for Christmas.

02/11/2023

We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services.

01/11/2023

The ban on XL Bully dogs will begin from 31st December 2023. The measurements linked below is the listed definition of an XL Bully 'type' and it is vague. Owners of any breed that could potentially be classed under this definition need to work now, to ensure their dog will stay safe and be compliant under the new legislation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-definition-of-an-xl-bully-dog

09/10/2023

Is your puppy ready for ‘that?’

Could you accidentally be hindering your young dogs training? There’s no rush! Training isn’t a race, it’s a process and remember, when you are training your puppy, you are setting them up for the rest of their life. Take the time it takes to get to where you’d like to be and don’t throw them in the deep end. Taking your young puppy out with your friends and their 3 dogs charging round off-lead won’t be helpful and you could be teaching them behaviours you’d rather them not practise and become ingrained as an adult.

It can be really easy to put your puppy in situations they are not yet ready for and expect them to know how to behave. But putting your young dog in situations which can be over-exciting, over-stimulating and over-whelming, before they know and understand how to behave appropriately, can hugely hinder your training.

Take the time to teach your puppy what you want them to do. Breaking things down into small steps and gradually increasing the difficulty, with different distractions, distances and durations, can help build your puppies understanding of behaviours in different contexts.

Taking your puppy to a park full of off lead dogs and expecting them to focus on you is a big ask and won’t set your young puppy up for success in the long run. Often, putting your puppy in situations that are too difficult can allow them to practise unwanted behaviours, especially if they don’t yet know how to behave appropriately. Take the time to teach them and gradually expose them to different situations and environments slowly, so they have the best chance of getting it right!

02/10/2023

Our new young dogs on this autumns foundation course! 🍁 🐾

27/09/2023

Beautiful Ellie 😍

Training from day one! Owning a puppy like Ellie is very rewarding and exciting, but having a puppy also means putting in lots of hard work. When working with Ellie, we discussed her owners hopes for where they’d like to be able to take her in future and how they’d like her to behave. Despite being very young, we got to work straight away teaching Ellie the beginnings of some life skills and basic obedience. As dogs are learning from every interaction, we wanted to start teaching skills that will help her learn how her owners would like her to behave and how to navigate different situations. What Ellie is exposed to and taught now, can help set her up for the future so it is super important we can put in as much good stuff as we can and prevent her learning or picking up bad habits from early on.

20/09/2023

On Monday we said goodbye to these lovely owners after completing our 9 week foundation course. Every dog has progressed so much in a whole array of areas including listening skills, engagement, confidence and settling, as well as owners learning new skills to continue to build on with their young dogs. It’s been a pleasure to have all of you! I hope you continue to enjoy your training journey 🌟

13/09/2023

Thoroughly enjoying working with this young dog and her owners, supporting them in working through some problems including Ella’s excessive barking. 🥰

15/08/2023

Trust me, we know…

Yes, they tell us the truth about the home environment and what takes place outside of their training sessions.

They don't want to be labeled as the stubborn ones when they know it's their owner who has not been following through.

07/08/2023

Elvis (The King) 👑

This handsome fellow is super smart and sensitive but was also playing a little too much king of the kingdom in the home. We worked through a mixture of difficulties with his owners, from beginning to work through his lunging at traffic to his stealing and guarding items. Looking forward to hearing more about his progress 🥰

25/07/2023

It was the second week of our foundation classes for these lovely young dogs last night. We welcome all breeds and as you can see, we have a real mix of shapes and sizes! 🐶

16/07/2023

We are excited to be judging the fun dog show today! If you fancy a great day out with your dogs, pop by 🐾😊

Our Country Festival is TODAY!
We hope to see you at 11am 😀

Please remember to bring cash (including small change), as some of the stalls are unable to take card payments.

12/07/2023

On Monday we said goodbye to our lovely class after 9 weeks! Well done to everyone that attended 👏🏼🐾

We always say that dog training classes are mainly for owners, not just the dogs. Classes are a place where owners learn how to train their young dog and teach them new skills, but most of the training will need to happen in their day to day life - applying and teaching in a mixture of environments and situations. Everyone has made some fantastic progress and we finished off with some fun exercises to see how well our owners picked up how their dogs can learn!

26/06/2023

21/06/2023

Such a beautiful young dog. This lad has just hit adolescence and needed a little support in making good choices 🐻‍❄️

24/04/2023

A new set of classes started this evening and here is how one of our young dogs felt about it 😀