Aunty Lou's Animal Care

07/03/2025

Lovely walk with Jake & Belle this week as well 😍

05/03/2025

Fun in the sun today on the Kinver pack walk 🥰🐶

05/03/2025

Dear Customers, please note that I will be taking annual leave on the below dates in 2025, sorry for any inconvenience.

ANNUAL LEAVE 2025:

28th March
14th – 17th April
23rd – 27th June
8th – 12th September
22nd - 26th December

01/03/2025

24/02/2025

A bit of sun this afternoon and a happy Murphy ❤️

19/02/2025

A lovely walk with Dottie and my dogs up Walton Hill, Clent this afternoon 😊

12/02/2025

ARE YOU WORTH COMING BACK TO?

I’m often horrified when I watch people trying to get their dogs to come back to them when they call.

They call and call and get increasingly angry and frustrated as their dog keeps ignoring them.

When their dog eventually comes back, or has been chased and "captured” by the now really angry person, they get screamed at, yanked about, or punished in some way for taking so long and not listening.

Why on earth would a dog want to return to someone who does this to them!

The most common reason dogs don’t come back when we call is because it’s not a positive experience.

A new environment is generally far more rewarding, stimulating and exciting than coming back to us.
An exciting scent or seeing something to chase can all override a response to recall.

Make coming back to you well worth it by always making it a rewarding experience and keep practicing this throughout a dog’s life.

Have a little patience if it takes longer than you would like, let your dog finish what they’re doing before calling them, practice in different locations and environments and never reprimand or punish them for coming back.

There is never a guarantee of a perfect recall each and every time, but making it a rewarding experience will greatly improve the rate of success.

07/02/2025

Gorgeous pup Loki enjoying his walk 🥰

07/02/2025

Mad about the stick! Alfie ❤️

07/02/2025

I NOSE HOW YOU FEEL
One of the most incredible things about dogs is their ability to recognize and respond to our emotions, but just how do they know how we’re feeling?

They may not understand the emotion we are feeling, but their brains are wired to understand whether that emotion makes them feel safe or not.

From an evolutionary perspective; for their survival, it was and still is, important for dogs to know which humans were safe to be around and which were not.

Dogs recognize the different chemical scents we produce through our skin or breath, our facial expressions or body language and our tone of voice.

Although we’re not aware of it, we emit different scents when experiencing positive emotions compared to when we experience negative emotions. Dogs have an amazing ability to recognize these different scents.

A dog's sense of smell is incredibly powerful and far superior to ours. Dogs have +/- 300 million olfactory receptors in their nose, sometimes more depending on the breed, compared to +/- 5 to 6 million in humans. In addition to this, the part of their brain that processes scent is around 40 times bigger than ours.

Dogs also recognize our facial expressions and body language. Just like we might stay well away from or not want to interact with someone who looks really angry and be more drawn and responsive to a happy, relaxed looking person.

Tone of voice – more info on this in my previous post.

Dogs can be such a comfort to us when we need emotional support or aren’t feeling well, but some of our emotions many have a negative effect on them.

Working with or interacting with a dog when we’re feeling angry, stressed, frustrated or having a bad day is not a good idea. It’s far better to wait until we feel more relaxed and calmer.

Dogs have rich emotional lives – just as we should try to be aware of their emotions, also be aware of how our emotions may affect them.

31/01/2025

First walk with pup Loki this week 🥰

31/01/2025

SETTING THE TONE
The tone of voice we use when speaking to a dog matters!

When someone is talking to us or asking us to do something, are we more likely to respond and want to connect with them if they’re using a specific type of tone than if their tone is harsh, shouting or domineering?

The more we use positive tones of voice with our dogs, the more they will want to connect with us and be more interested in doing what we are asking.

Some examples of why tone matters –

Calling your dog to come back to you in a happy, excited, high-pitched tone is far more likely to work than using a stern, loud, angry tone. Would you want to return to someone who sounds really angry?

Yanking on a leash and shouting at a dog for reacting to another dog or situation is far less likely to work than saying “lets go this way!” in a happy tone and creating distance to where a dog feels comfortable.

Saying “Yes!” when a dog has done what you ask will increase the behaviour you’re looking for instead of yelling “No!” in an angry tone when they don’t get it right.

Although these examples are based on positive reinforcement training, a study has also shown that dogs respond and pay more attention when we speak with a higher pitch and more variation, similar to how we would talk to a baby.

Given that a dog’s emotional capability is similar to that of a young child, this all makes sense and fits together, in my opinion.

Here’s a link to the study if you’d like more information -

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05217-y

05/01/2025

I can’t believe that we have a lost another beautiful soul this week, Tilly 😢
Tilly was a special girl, that loved her walks and was always up for some fun!
She was also one of my first customers so I am completely heartbroken 💔 that she has gone.
Unfortunately she contracted Weils disease, and had been ill for a few weeks. Apparently there have been a few cases in the Kinver area recently, so please be vigilant and if your dog has high temperature, sickness/diarrhoea, lethargy please get to the vet’s asap.
Sending my love to Tilly’s family at this sad time

01/01/2025

I would like to wish all my customers a Happy New Year!
Thank you for supporting me over the last year and I look forward to 2025 🥳