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 😀

18/04/2023

Our wonderful owners and their dogs just finished their 9 week foundation course! 👏🏼⭐️

Over the last 9 weeks owners learnt how to:
🐾 Teach their dog to walk beside them on a loose lead
🐾 Train recall and to recall away from competing distractions
🐾 How to help get their dogs comfortable with handling for vet visits, grooming, daily health checks
🐾 How to teach their dog to sit, lay down and stay
🐾 Interactive play and how to engage and build their relationship with their dog and much more!

Well done to everyone that came! Keep up the hard work, you’re doing fantastic 🙌🏼

22/02/2023

Seeing Spots 🔍

This young Dalmatian is true to his typical breed traits - being playful, energetic & very friendly. Part of his first session involved coaching his owner through building her relationship with him and learning how to support him & give him guidance, as he learns and grows. These things are a key piece in helping shape your young dog and your relationship together.

As owners, our dogs are relying on us to keep them safe. It is our responsibility to give our puppies the right guidance and direction, to support them in living safely with us and others. It’s always worth considering what behaviours you would like to see from your puppy, when it is an adult dog and begin teaching and reinforcing these behaviours from the day you bring your puppy home. Our dogs are dependent on us to teach them how to behave safely and appropriately in our human world, after all - we did bring them into our homes. Investing time into your young dogs training can really help make a big difference!

27/01/2023

Sundays puppy who beautifully demonstrated the importance of relaxing and getting that much needed rest!

Puppy consultations are created to help guide you through the early stages of raising your puppy, help you learn how to put things in place to support them as they grow and how to get started on those essential training basics. We covered a mixture of crate training, toilet training, diet, the multiple areas of socialisation and the balance of getting it right, mouthing/chewing, relationship building, as well as beginning to teach the concept of recall, leave and a little bit of lead work to introduce the heel position. Puppies will struggle to hold attention for longer periods of time but keeping training short and sweet can make all the difference. Puppies are like a sponge at this age and can pick things up very quickly!

12/01/2023

Another new course will be starting in February!

🐾 Our courses run for 9 weeks - so you receive a total of 9 hours of training

🐾 We cover a variety of different life/foundation skills such recall, leave & stay. These are taught with a focus on relationship building and optimising reward based training.

🐾 Class size is kept small, to ensure individual support & feedback. (We also use an indoor hall for those dark & rainy evenings)

💫 Please get in touch to request a place - spaces do go very fast!

11/01/2023

Wednesdays beautiful puppy! 😍

She was a bit of a nipper when she got excited, so todays session involved discussing how to help her get enough sleep and rest time, keeping novelty in toys & chews, building a relationship and learning some impulse control. She’s a real character and I’m excited to watch her develop!

20/12/2022

This beautiful, young dog is a mix of 3 different breeds. Can you guess which ones? 🤔

18/12/2022

Working through fears 🕷

Although this may not look like much, this is a huge amount of progress in 1 day for this sensitive, young dog already. On meeting him, I watched him shake when he was only standing (and with distance) away from the car, but the very prospect of getting into the car on its own was very overwhelming and put a lot of pressure on him. As soon as the door opened he would want to pull and rush away. He was particularly worried and concerned, and definitely wasn’t going to forget it all and jump in for a treat.

When working with anxiety, I like to focus on helping change the dogs emotions and association with whatever the scary thing or situation is. If we didn’t do this, there is a good chance the dog would never learn to overcome his fear. Breaking this down into small manageable steps, putting him just outside of his comfort zone and creating a new, pleasant association in this space, helps build trust and a positive connection with whatever the thing is. Training can and does take time, and moving forwards gradually, without rushing really can make all the difference. He is already doing so well & I look forward to hearing more on his progression 🚗😊

16/12/2022

Lovely Luca 😍

When I first met Luca, he was showing some undesirable behaviours, which was making life quite difficult & stressful, for both him and his owners. His biggest challenge being his resource guarding, which was both dangerous and unpredictable.

There is no dispute that dog training requires hard work & commitment. Whilst I can show you what to do & support you through the process, it is the owners job to make the relevant changes & put in the work. I’m happy to report his owners are absolutely smashing it so far! 👏🏼

His owners have worked very hard at changing his scavenging, stealing & biting and he is now learning how to look to them for guidance and answers. I don’t think he could have more caring and supportive owners if he tried! I’m looking forward to catching up with them in a few weeks time in the New Year!

13/12/2022

Just a few of the lovely puppies from Mondays classes! This week we looked at the importance of getting your puppy comfortable being handled, worked on teaching the beginnings of leave & some recalls from distractions. 🐾

02/11/2022

We have one rare space available on our evening foundation course in Biggin Hill, starting on Monday 14th November.

We cover a range of life skills and general obedience, teaching you how to teach and raise your dog in a small, friendly, group setting!

If you’d like the space, please get in touch 🌟