Happy National Cat Day to honour my beautiful boys, who have been absolute champions over the past few months with so many changes in our environment and lives. I would be lost without them. 🐱 hoping they won't break this toy, we are trying out all the modes to see what they like. 😻
The best thing about grooming is it all of the dogs I meet do different things which make me laugh and melt my heart. Little Max is too adorable 🥰
I've accepted that I'm looking quite tired in this video and you will most likely see more of me looking like this. Which is why I haven't been posting as often as I should. But I wanted to share with you what my fur babies do every time I have finished with a groom. They take it in turns, his brother was out exploring at the time, so it was Batcat's turn 😁.
One of the gems that I had the pleasure to witness whilst training. Sammy (with owner) is a very sweet dog. We were looking for distractions so we could practice recall, when I captured this beautiful interaction.
Sammy was sniffing the ground before this gorgeous Cocker spaniel approached, watch how the dog responds to the calming signal (Sniffing) by sitting down (another calming signal) and then as they get closer to each other they curve their bodies slightly and sniff each other's back ends.
The body language is calm, the tails are wagging, but this is a very calm interaction, you do hear me say that it's beautiful, because it is. We had one dog off lead, the other was on the lead, the Spaniel approached at a lovely pace, and was patient, it whole interaction was a brilliant display of doggy etiquette and respect. They had a lovely conversation through their body language, they listened and responded to each other, neither party forced themselves on the other.
Both dogs have amazing manners and interactions like these lead to calm and confident dogs, who as you can see wanted to play, as the Spaniel runs to return to the owner who was calling, Sammy wants to follow.
You will hear the Spaniel's owner whistle a few times to call the dog back to him, but the spaniel was more interested in Sammy, Dogs are like that, we need to make ourselves the most attractive thing in the area, we need to be the party that our dog wants to go to. We caught up shortly after and they were able to play which was their Reward. Both dogs made my day. This is what I teach to aim for.
Head on approaches are seen as confrontational, they are intimidating and can lead to a dog going into survival mode of Flight or Fight. On the next encounter with another the dog can become fearful and reactive, as they remember their experiences, good and bad.
Did you know?
That we offer a Dog walking service? Walking in generally has a lot of health benefits, it's a great form of exercise, now add a 4 legged friend to the mix and you can have some amazing fun with a great companion.
We may know that Dog walking provides an outlet for Dogs to release some energy and their bodily functions but it also gives them enrichment to explore, take in new information, be exposed to new things.
We work with a range of different age groups, health conditions and behaviours, we adapt the walks to make it more enjoyable for the individual. 😊🐶
