Through the Dog's Eyes - Training and Behaviour

17/09/2025

You may often hear the term "Y shape design" in the dog world. 🐾

It refers to the way the front of the harness fits on your dog’s chest, shaped like a "Y," which helps allow for a more natural range of movement. 🥰

A "Y shape" design like the PerfectFit Harness gives your dog full freedom to move comfortably while walking, running, or exploring.

A great feature for all dogs, but this is especially important for puppies. 😍

Growing curiosity and a tornado approach to the world, as well as developing bodies, ensuring your pup's harness is a soft, non-restrictive harness that supports healthy movement and natural bone development is a must! 🫶

When did your dog get their first PerfectFit? 💛

12/09/2025

😋 Delicious 😋

🐶 We got this little haul earlier in the week from as we're delighted to announce that we have been accepted as one of their JR verified partners.

🐕 We'll be giving out samples of various treats during classes so dogs can see what their favourites are, along with a 20% voucher off first order. What a scoop!

🐶 We use ourselves particularly as one of the TTDE dogs has a rather sensitive tummy, so treats have to be very carefully selected and trusted to ensure there are no flare ups.

ℹ️ If you're coming along to our classes or having 121's then make sure you have some samples from us.

11/09/2025

🐕Now that the kids are back to school, it's time to think about the dogs. We have new courses starting later this month with some spaces still available. We are delighted to include our new venue in Burntwood on Monday evenings🐕

Sorry, our Sunday morning classes in Stonnall are now fully-booked, but we have availability on the following days:

🐶Monday evenings in Burntwood
🐶Friday evenings in Aldridge

👍Training with Through the Dog's Eyes means you’ll get all the support you need and you'll be safe in the knowledge that our award winning classes are the perfect start for your training journey!

🐕 Spaces are already starting to fill up so please visit our website to choose the right class for you and book on:-

Through the Dogs Eyes https://share.google/cdp5WULMeIxm2ZtRo

Why choose us:-

📌Classes are taught by a qualified behaviourist AND a qualified IMDT trainer so you have lots of support on hand and don't have to worry about being left behind or trying to attract the trainers attention for help and support.

📌Small class numbers.

📌Fantastic value at just £108. You can book online and we offer payment plans.

📌Opportunity to attend advanced classes on graduation.

📌Friendly and non-judgmental

📌Family members welcome

📌Access to private events

📱Want to know a bit more? Call/text/Whats App on 07572 910367 OR 07894 446993

Puppy & dog training classes based in Aldridge/Stonnall area. 121 Training and behaviour support provided in the wider area. Kind, effective, reward-based training delivered by experienced and qualified professionals

10/09/2025

🐶 EXPECTATIONS - The Oxford Dictionary meaning 'a strong belief that something will happen or be the case' , 'a belief that someone will or should achieve something'

😶We have these about ourselves, other people and certainly about our dogs, but are they realistic?

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Humans are generally a social species but we accept that we wont get on with everyone. However, we don't always apply the same logic to our dogs and often fail to see why they just don't get on with all dogs.

🐕Here at TTDE HQ, we've had a wide range of dogs that encompass all levels of the sociability scale below. We often use the term 'reactive' but it doesn't mean that a dog dislikes all dogs in all occasions and circumstances, there are so many nuances.

❌ Can we make a dog in the 'dog aggressive' camp become a dog who sits happily in the 'dog social' camp - absolutely not because that's completely unrealistic but we can, with work, time and effort help many dogs become more tolerant of other dogs and that's realistic.

There are so many levels to the label "reactive dog" that I think we need to be mindful of when placing expectations on our dogs to change.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who gets so excited by seeing dogs on the street he barks as he gets closer to say hello. Once in the interaction his social skills are perfect.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who is under confident and has learnt to bark to keep dogs away but when exposure has showed him they're not so scary, the reactivity goes away.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who is quiet with other dogs around and relatively unbothered, but just doesn't like bigger dogs/boisterous dogs/puppies in his face.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who assumes every interaction will be negative and defensively reacts when within a metre circle of the dog.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who feels incredibly deep complicated feelings around dogs and is both wholly unprepared for interactions in terms of coarse social skills AND is visually over stimulated by their presence.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who can meet any dog of any shape or size but not in his own village.

🐾 There's a "reactive dog" who can interact with dogs as long as there's no food pouch involved.

There is such a wide variety of dogs under the umbrella "reactive dog" I think we see Joe Bloggs' journey with their reactive dog over there and get confused why ours is not the same journey. Why haven't we got the same outcome? Why is it taking longer for us? Why do we need to go much slower? Etc etc etc.

There's something I like to say: if you've met one reactive dog then you've met one reactive dog. No two cases of reactivity are the same and comparisons are wholly unhelpful.

I'm really sorry to break it to you but it simply is not the case that a good behaviourist will be able to create a friendly dog out of a reactive dog, guaranteed. Some of my cases end that way for sure. A lot of my reactive dog cases end up under us for dog walking in groups. And it's endlessly rewarding.

But so is helping those who still need space from other stranger dogs but no longer totally lose their heads in the vicinity of one.

So is helping those who will never like puppies and big boisterous labs, but can now meet & greet other small friendlies on the street.

So is helping those who now have set friends in the family where play dates can be arranged.

And so on.

Yes it makes for a great story when reactivity is completely "resolved" but all that means is the roots were different to others. Remember that the majority of adult dogs are dog tolerant/dog selective. Only the minor are truly dog social, but we often have that as our goal posts. We must always be realistic in our expectations 🐾💜

08/09/2025

🥈 Many congratulations on passing the Kennel Club Good Citizens Silver award test yesterday.

👏 A huge well done to:-

🐶 Jordan with Ripley
🐶 Holly with Ollie
🐶 Coco with Morris

🐕 We know there has been some hard work going on behind the scenes.

07/09/2025

🐶 We had a fabulous day yesterday at Whittington Craft & Country Fair, the sun came out and it was a fun filled day.

🐕 We took our adult dog display team and we were also joined by 6 young puppies who have attended our classes. Everyone did so well and we were really proud of everyone. The puppies showcased what they'd been learning in classes so far and the adult dog team demonstrated lots of useful life skills that are applicable in most dogs day to day lives.

😶 There were plenty of distractions such as loud noises from the PA system, music and engines plus strong smells from food, animals and steam engines, but every dog coped so well.

🐾🐾 We had lots of fun in Temptation Alley with some super fast times. The winner was Paddy in a super fast 1.3 seconds! Paddy had his prize delivered later that day.

🤗 That's it now for our displays although we'll be busy planning for next year.

If you have an event planned for next year and are considering having a dog display team then please get in touch.

04/09/2025

2 years ago today we brought this little girl into our home. Her name is Ruby and she is a German Shepherd. She is the great niece of our late class demo dog Holly, who we tragically lost earlier this year.

Holly was a steady, very trainable dog who was absolutely bombproof in most situations. She was the sort of dog that you could take anywhere and do anything with. She experienced a lot of dogs barking and lunging at her over the years and she never reacted back. She was a fantastic teacher dog, all in all she was a shepherd extrordinaire! 🐕‍🦺

It would be easy to assume that Ruby, as a relative of Holly's and from the same breeder with the same upbringing, would become very much like Holly, but this could not be further from the truth.

Ruby is a sweet, sweet girl who just loves a snuggle. She will frequently jump into laps for some attention, she just wants to be close to you. But Ruby is not a confident dog at all. She is cautious about new things and gets worried quite easily. Whilst she finds great joy in simple things, she does not have Holly's optimistic outlook on life in general, and likes to keep within her comfort zone. Her response to things that worry her has, in the past, been to lunge and bark at them. When she hit adolescence this behaviour was particularly prominent, and she would frequently lunge at people and other dogs, putting on a display that would make her look quite aggressive if you didn't know any better.

Thankfully, Ruby has caring owners who understood why she was behaving in this way and wanted to help her to feel happier and safer on walks. We knew that she just needed time and space to work things out, and she needed to learn a new way of responding when she was unsure.

After lots of work, Ruby has gone from being a dog that we could not walk along streets (because if she saw a dog then she struggled to cope) to a dog who can now manage street walks with ease, has visited cafes and even recently attended an open day at our new venue, where there were lots of people around wanting to fuss her.

We still have lots to work on with Ruby, but we are proud of how far she has come. She is an absolute joy to be around and it is nice that we have been able to start taking her to more places now.

Happy gotcha day Ruby 🐶🦴

01/09/2025

🐶 No, this isn't a Teddy bear, it's Miyo the toy poodle who smashed her therapy dog assessment earlier today.

🤗 We've known Miyo for a couple of years because she initially attended our puppy classes, then after graduating, continued with her training in our Super Stars class which inevitably helped in the assessment today.

💜 There's going to be one lucky care home or school that will have the pleasure of her company in the future.

-managed 👊

31/08/2025

Looking for a fun day out on Saturday?

🐶We will be at Whittington Craft & Country Fair with our puppy display team alongside our main display events team. We'll be showcasing the kinds of life skills that are useful for all pet dogs.

🐾 Come along and say Hi and have a chat with us about any issues you are experiencing with your dog.

🐕 Want to test your dogs recall skills in our temptation alley? Fastest time wins a prize. Good fun for everyone.

30/08/2025

🐶 We spent a very pleasant morning when we met up with Amit from , a fellow IMDT dog trainer for a spot of networking.

🐕 Like many of us, Amit was drawn to understand more about dogs following his journey with his own Spanish rescue dog, who was completely shut down when he rescued him.

🙌 Networking is a fantastic way of swapping stories, thoughts, and methods as well as building relationships with other trainers with the same ethos, learning from each other, filling in gaps of knowledge, and sharing success stories.

👍 We are looking forward to building our relationship with Amit and sharing shadowing opportunities.