Impeccable Behaviour

24/12/2024

To all my lovely clients, past and present. I hope you have an amazing, relaxing time with your furry doggies and cats 🐶🐱
Thank you for advocating for your precious little ones.

Happy Christmas to you all and have a wonderful New Year.

Lots of love, wags and woofs

Penny, George & Alan
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🌲🎄🌲🎄🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲

21/12/2024

🎅🏻It’s the festive season and what this means will be different for everyone. Often it will involve the arrival of lots of people, or visits to family who you and your dog may not have seen in a while. For your dogs, Christmas often means a change in routine and when they are put in situations with lots of unfamiliar people, for a long duration, this results in a lack of predictability and safety and the possibility of distance creating behaviours, such as growling and snapping. 🌲🎄🎅🏻🎁🎊❄️🧸🥁☃️

For dogs who are anxious with people it is generally better not to put them into a situation where they may become stressed. Having guests means you will be distracted, serving drinks and preparing food etc and visitors will find it very hard to follow instructions such as ‘don’t touch the dog’, especially when little ‘Bertie’ is a cute, fluffy looking ball of love. ❌🚫

Take the pressure off your dog by ensuring they have a safe space, with options of different comfy beds, access to water, food in enrichment toys and snuffling activities, chews and stuffed Kongs, regular toilet breaks/walks and ensure you set some time aside to sit with them in their safe space periodically. Practice having your dog in the space multiple times before people are due to visit, or ensure they are happy and comfortable in that location.
🛏️💧💦🐕‍🦺🏔️🧸⏰

Good management using baby gates and room dividers can also work well, if your dog is really not happy to be separated from you. This allows them to feel included but will keep people separate. 🚧🥅

For some dogs visiting a kennel, or dog boarder may be a better option, if they really struggle with visitors to the house. 🚙🏘️

However, depending on your dog’s sensitivities to people, you could consider meeting visitors, or family out on a walk. Having your dog walk parallel to people allows them to gain information about them in a safe and non-intrusive way, allowing them to adjust to them entering the house more easily. 🏞️⛰️

If your dog usually sits on the sofa, having visitors come and sit in that location can increase anxiety in your dog, as they cannot access their safe space. Offer a very comfy alternative close to where you will be sitting, so your dog is happy to choose this alternative option. You can offer food rewards for sitting on their bed, if they are happy to have treats around people. 🏡🛋️

Try to maintain your dog’s routine as much as possible, so that things happen when they expect them to, such as eating, walking, playtime etc. Predictability brings confidence to a dog, so maintaining routine will help with this. Particularly when visiting other people, where the situation is completely unfamiliar. 🛎️⏳⏰

Not only will good management and preparation help your dog to feel happy and safe during the festivities but it will also reduce the risk of your dog ingesting foods which are toxic to them, such as Mince Pies and Christmas cake. This is the time of year when dogs most often have to visit the vets for eating poisonous foods, or Christmas decorations! 🍇🧅🎂🫘

So have a happy and safe Christmas, may it be peaceful and joyful for furry and non-furry companions alike. 🐕🦮🎄🌲

Penny x

Www.impeccablebehaviour.co.uk

17/12/2024

This is the lovely Milo (Schnauzer on the left) and his sister Ziva.
🐶🐶

🐕When I first met Milo he was hyper- vigilant on walks, constantly scanning the environment for potential danger. If he saw a dog at over 30 metres, his body would stiffen up and he would bark and pull as they approached. His caregivers were unable to walk him from their home as he would also bark at some people and other dogs, when they were passing the house. Both Milo and Ziva also suffered with separation anxiety.

🐕Milo was very conflicted. He was anxious but also frustrated, wanting to approach but feeling a little unsure at the same time.
Like us, we can feel multiple emotions at the same time and these are constantly changing, as the environment changes around us. This often presents itself as barking and lunging, which is further exacerbated by the tightening of the lead.

🐕Firstly we looked at addressing Milo’s issues on walks, then his very committed caregivers joined my separation anxiety programme afterwards. Initially, I looked at introducing some choice based enrichment at home to help empty Milo’s ‘emotional sink’. In addition, I added scent work activites which help to lower heart rate and blood pressure in arousing situations. 🦮Then it was important to focus on lead technique to ensure Milo could calmly watch dogs at a distance, with a loose lead. This then enabled us to approach other dogs calmly when Milo was ready.

🐕Once distance to other dogs could be reduced, we began the separation programme for Milo and Ziva, teaching them to feel safe about being left at home without humans. Amazing commitment from Gary and Yvonne, as having two dogs with separation issues means twice the work, as they need to be taught the concepts individually first, then together!🙌

🐕Milo has come on in leaps and bounds due to the amazing commitment of his caregivers. He has not only been to a doggy photoshoot but both him and Ziva went on a trip to London on the train. 📷🚄
They have also been able to leave both dogs home alone for up to 3-4 hours, whilst watching them on a camera to ensure they were happy, which is a huge achievement. 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇👏

13/12/2024

This is the lovely Vera🐕, who previously had some very ‘big emotions’ towards other dogs on walks. She had generalised anxiety and looked sad a lot of the time. Due to stress she was also redirecting aggression onto her canine sister.

First and foremost when treating any behaviour issue we need to look at the possibility of underlying medical issues. Vera has elbow dysplasia so together with her vets and physio, we ensured she was on the right pain relief. Anti-anxiety medication was also given, to aid Vera with learning new behaviours.

Then we addressed all the factors in Vera’s life which caused her stress, eliminating them one by one. Chronic stress will decrease a dog’s capability to deal with anything they find challenging and often result in big emotional outbursts.

On lead-walks we ensured that Vera could feel safe, with good management and risk assessment, keeping distance from dogs and other people. Vera’s lovely caregiver Licia worked really hard on learning how to use the lead to create connectivity, maintaining a loose lead so Vera felt like she could choose what she wanted to do in situations which previously caused her stress.

When I first took vera to the park, she was shut down. She just stood still, with her ears back and didn’t want to engage with anything. This most recent, film (although my filming leaves a lot to be desired 😬), shows Vera calmly watching a dog walk past. Once she was ready, she chose to engage with Licia and return to her for cuddles. A dog had also approached her and she was calm and happy to do her own thing.

We will now focus on generalising Vera’s behaviour with dogs, to other locations. Ensuring she can feel safe in different, unpredictable, environments. I have no doubt Licia will continue to help Vera move from strength to strength 🙌🙌🙌🙌🐕🥰

07/12/2024

Isn’t this often the true story 😆

05/11/2024

Think of behaviour like a painting and emotions as all of the paints. Any behaviour such as barking, or jumping up, is made of up of a mixture of paints, to create the colours. When trying to understand a behaviour, we need to look really hard to see what colours, or emotions layer the behaviour we see before us. Only then can we truly begin to understand and improve the relationship with our dogs and help them with any issues they may be having.


Colorful dog-paint by numbers
www.impeccablebehaviour.co.uk

13/09/2024

My dog is officially broken … 😂

12/08/2024

Sometimes in life, you don’t know if you’re coming, or you’re going….
Sometimes you’re both.
😂

16/07/2024

12/07/2024

Great evening giving a seminar on dog behaviour at The Village Animal Hospital, for some of their clients. Wine and nibbles and lots of chat about the emotional lives of dogs. Just about everyone managed to stay awake so I will take that as a win
👍😜

20/06/2024

When your cat is lucky enough to have his own bedroom. 🙄😂😻
Which box to choose..? 🤔

08/03/2024

Well last night was eventful! My dog George decided that he didn’t want a badger walking around his garden at midnight and would go and tell him what for, which he did….. I was in bed and woke up to shouting,fur flying and ensuing chaos, which has prompted this post.

Trying to break up a fight between a badger and a dog is much the same as the prospect of breaking up a dog-to-dog fight, there is a risk of injury to the human involved. Obviously prevention is the main aim here but in situations where the unfortunate may arise, then safety is key.

It would be tempting to try and grab a dogs collar to separate them but this is never a good idea as it can trigger redirected aggression onto you. As per the infographic I opted for ‘prying apart’ as I needed to stay as far away from the ‘bitey ends’ of both parties as possible. I slung a lead around George’s rear end and we used a chair to pry the badger off.

Fortunately George has superficial wounds and the badger ran off, so it ended far better than it could have, thank god. The info below from Linda Michael’s may be useful as a guide if a similar situation arises for anyone else.

Penny Ashby
Impeccable Behaviour

03/03/2024

Purely for the purpose of ‘socialisation’ and ‘habituation’ of course 😜
Snuffle mat and relaxation mat for George and well earned beer for me. 👏

25/02/2024

I’m so happy to have been accepted as a new member of the APBC 👩‍🎓☺️

23/02/2024

I am often asked “how do I stop my dog barking”, or “how do I stop my dog growling at other dogs” etc but of course it isn’t as simple as a one sentence answer. There are so many factors which influence your dogs behaviour; such as experience in utero and post-partum, the development/fear periods,adolescence, temperament, positive and negative exposure/experience and pain.

If we try to put a sticking plaster over the problem and stop the dog barking using methods such as shouting, or anti-bark collars, not only is this aversive but it is not taking into consideration any of the factors which may be influencing the issue.

This is why it is so important to have the dog assessed to work out the underlying emotion driving the behaviour and to work with your vet to identify any possible physiological cause.

There is always a reason for behaviour, it serves a purpose, therefore we have to understand what is motivating it, to be able to change it.

Many people are going through a difficult time at the moment but everyone should be able to access the help they need for the dogs they care so much about. I am offering payment plans for all behavioural programmes, to help spread the costs and make it achievable for all. Feel free to contact me to discuss and begin your dogs journey.
Penny 🐕

Www.impeccablebehaviour.co.uk

19/12/2023

If you are in any doubt about whether your dog is of ‘type’, it is better to apply for exemption rather than face difficulties later on. ‘Type’ is so ridiculous and vague which is why it is really important to keep all our gorgeous Bully’s safe.