PACT qualified. ABTC-ATI offering private training or fun, group classes and scent work. Emotional and physical wellbeing focused.
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Some more photos from the amazing Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary.
They have 58 wolf dogs in residence over their 160 acre site- wolf dogs need a lot of space and that’s often a reason why they don’t do well in a pet home as they often escape due to their desire to roam ( and their great ability to jump, dig and problem solve!)
Here is Horton’s story- one of the many with a happy ending after a horrible start.
Statistically, 90% pet wolf dogs are euthanised by the age of 2. 😢
We loved Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary so much that we went back for a second visit.
When we were there, we were lucky enough to hear the wolf dogs howling.
We may be on holiday but we couldn’t help but sneak in a visit to Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary
What an amazing sanctuary set up to care for rescued wolfdogs and to educate the public about why these do NOT make good pets.
Beautiful animals that are cared for with respect and recognition of their needs and heritage. They live in bonded pairs or familiar groups. Some had access to parkour set ups, some to water ponds, some to toys depending upon their needs.
Just loving Canada. These signs are everywhere
Wahaaay! I love this photo and I love holidays!
☀️⛰️🛶
We are off on annual leave now until the end of August, when we are back for more doggy fun 🐾🐶
Autumn workshops already selling out and some exciting new stuff in the pipeline too.
Happy summer everyone. Take care and keep cool.
I can’t get comfy with the current mugginess and humidity. Our dogs can also struggle and benefit from choices about where to be.
Great post from The Mutty Professor
🥵 DOG CRATES & HOT WEATHER! 🥵
Last night this guy had me up twice. He’s not very good at communicating he needs to go out and does displacement behaviours like rolling upside down making a quacking noise, a weird burping noise or pacing up and down the hallway.
Despite having the fan on in the hall and access to a cold, hard floor in different areas, he was too hot!
Dogs often change their position and location multiple times across a sleep/rest period. This is especially the case for thick or double coated breeds or individuals who ‘run hot’.
Amigo and Kanita will stay in their beds in the bedroom all night but sometimes Kanita gets out of her bed to lie on the floor.
(Yes, they sleep in our bedroom! They have the choice to sleep elsewhere, but they want to sleep close as a group).
However, across the evening when we are all hanging in the lounge all three dogs are changing where they rest frequently. With the current heat, despite having a fan on, they are changing positions about 2-3 times each per hour!
One reason dogs change the location or position of where they sleep is to regulate their body temperature.
Another reason is that different sleeping positions may better support different phases of sleep.
Being able to stretch out fully promotes REM sleep- the phase of sleep where memory consolidation and recovery from stressors is at optimum!
Think how about your quality of sleep lying down vs when sat upright! Do you do the nodding dog? 😴 🛌
Taking this species-specific sleeping behaviour and the current hot weather into consideration, it’s important to consider whether your set up for where your dog sleeps is allowing them to regulate their temperature.
Whilst positioning a fan towards a dog who is crated is considerate to them over heating, dogs who aren’t crated can demonstrate a preference to move away after a duration of sitting in front of a fan. 🪭
It’s not uncommon for dogs to suddenly develop an aversion to their crates during hot weather. This may be due to heat, or even due to an increase in audible sounds at night due to open windows 🪟
My preference is that dogs have the freedom to regulate their temperature and stretch out fully by being given more than one option of where they can sleep rather than contained in an area with limited space.
A compromise to providing total free range- where your dog can access multiple sleeping spots in various locations and of various surfaces- may be a dog bed in a room behind a stargate, or a crate with an open door paired up with a large puppy pen. However, be mindful the only padded surface isn’t in a small, contained space or that a hard floor is the only alternative to a thick, cushioned bed! A nice rug or padded mat may provide an in between.
If your dog genuinely loves their crate and considers it to be their consistently comfy bed and safe place - they’ll go inside on their own accord and stay inside even when the door is left open.
Sniffing the flowers? Practising indication 😆
There are two preferred places for the houseguest to hang out
1- the river
2- under my desk
Guess I’d better keep working then 😆
When you have a friend come to stay, what a great idea to get together with another poodle cross. Then you have more fun obviously
and you can use the collective noun of an
“Oodle of doodles”
SOLD OUT
We are delighted to open our
INTRODUCTION TO SCENT DETECTION FOR PET DOGS
course that will run this September- October.
🐶 Suitable for all dogs +9 months and can be enjoyed by senior dogs too.
🐶 A wonderful way to exercise their brains.
🐶 Can help with canine confidence.
🐶 Dogs are naturally good at sniffing so learning how to work with you as a team can be incredibly rewarding for you both.
🐶 Its good fun and is easy to practise at home.
🐶 Dogs work one at a time so it can be a safe space for dogs who might otherwise not enjoy group classes.
Hope you’ve had a good Friday night.
Pongo’s has been so good, he has his ears on inside out 😆
This is an excellent post from a vet behaviourist.
We’ve experienced this and had to go through sedation in order to find the arrow shaped grass seed that had travelled into the paw.
Some good advice from Dr Amber Batson
Mind blowing two full days of learning with Paul Bunker- king of the buried hides.
Felt like 8 months of regular and committed training came together and Pongo rose to the challenge.
It was not just his regular hide, buried but rather he was searching for the changed odour profile to a profile that reflected what would actually happen to an aged, buried hide.
Thanks to K9 Behaviour Consultancy for hosting a superb two days of learning.
For my scientist clients- you are going to love this!!
How is your Sunday going so far?
These teams have had SO much fun searching for their target odour in the beautiful Albert Fields hairdressing salon.
The environment was challenging, with so many distraction odours to work through, together with furniture most of the dogs had never encountered before ( chairs and stools on wheels, stand alone hairdryers, and model heads!)
There were people and dogs walking past the front of the salon but the dogs had to keep their focus on the task in hand.
An excellent morning adding to their CV of different search environments.
We are extremely grateful to the team at Albert Fields for allowing us this special opportunity to search around their stunning salon.
Congratulations to the lovely Miss Poppy and Lynda on passing their entry ORT.
Good luck on the next stage of your adventures.
Dobbers at the ready….
Team night out at the Bingo.
We won’t mention my false call 😳
Tick time again. 🪳
This is the third this season. 🤨
This little blighter was really hard to find as it was right up on the inner leg. 🔍
It’s really worth giving your dogs a good check all over as Pongo has never scratched or displayed any behaviour that would prompt me to look in a certain area.
This is excellent value and with an experienced behaviourist
🐾 BEHAVIOUR ASSESSMENT WALKS 🐾
⏰ ONE WEEK LEFT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE INTRODUCTORY OFFER PRICE OF £67.50 (offer ends 30th June)‼️
🔴 WHO IS THIS FOR? If you are struggling with your dog on walks, this is for YOU! Maybe you don’t understand why your dog is behaving a certain way, or what to do in certain situations. Maybe you just want to understand your dog a bit better generally or want walks to be nicer, more pleasant or easier…
🔴 WHO WITH? A Level 6 Qualified Canine Behaviourist who only uses force-free, fear-free methods.
🔴 WHAT YOU GET… An hour of my time where we will walk together and then debrief afterwards. During the walk, you’ll learn about dog body language, the emotions that drive behaviour, an insight into what might be going through your dog’s mind, advice and strategies for dealing with different situations.
🔴 WHAT YOU GET AFTER… A basic report summarising my observations, assessment and any advice given. Plus recommendations for next steps, if required. Ongoing WhatsApp support.
🔴 WHERE DOES THIS TAKE PLACE? We start at your home, getting your doggo ready for their walk and then we go from there.
🔴WHY SHOULD I DO IT? To learn lots of tips and tools that are easy to implement but can make a big difference to your walks. To increase your understanding and awareness of your dog’s behaviour and needs. And to earn 10% off any follow-up training/behaviour packages you may need/want.
🔴 HOW DO I SIGN UP?? Email Emma at [email protected] to book your appointment.
Congratulations to Martina and Riga, Holly and Arlo who passed their foundation Odour Recognition Test on gun oil today.
They started their scent detection journey on clove but have transitioned to a competition odour of gun oil and a training odour of Kong.
Huge congratulations teams
What a winning Wednesday.
Workshops with the wonderful Naomi from Calm and Content Dogs followed by a long walk and a good chat!
Thanks very much for coming to play and share all your knowledge and experience with us Naomi. And for bringing my next pup. Can you put my name down for a girlie in two years please ? 💕😆
Ok I know what I’d like for my next dog
Who knows what breed this gorgeous pup is?
Cooking for a dog with pancreatitis.
Cooking for a 17 year old son
Spot the difference …..
Once again, Laura is spot on. Our dogs’ time with us is woefully short. Remember to enjoy the journey 💕
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE DESTINATION BUT THE JOURNEY
9 years ago something happened that changed my life, it changed how I work with dogs and my priorities for my own dogs. This is Elsa’s story and it would have been her birthday today ❤️
If you’re an owner of a reactive or anxious dog you probably worry about the kind of life your dog will have. You may feel like you aren’t doing enough or worry that your dog is missing out on having doggy friends, chasing their ball in the park and running offlead in the woods like ‘normal’ dogs.
Every week we meet new clients who adore their dogs, most of which are perfect at home and love their people, but who are reactive to other dogs or can’t cope in the outside world. We often hear from these lovely, kind and dedicated people that they feel like they aren’t doing enough, that they are somehow letting their dogs down as they don’t have the kind of lives they always imagined their dog would have. These dogs are generally happy in their lives with their people and their difficulties are only one aspect (normally walks), there are normally loads of positives and good bits in the rest of their lives.
Sometimes it’s about acceptance, changing our perspective of what we thought life would be like together and coming to a new realisation of what a fantastic life we can share with our reactive canine friends, perhaps just a different one than we imagined.
If our goals are to be offlead in the busy dog park and happy to play with any dog who decides to say hi or to be able to happily ignore dogs that approach and spend 5 minutes sniffing their bum inappropriately then it’s likely we’d face a long road of disappointment as these just aren’t realistic for so many dogs. If we can change those goals to leading a life together with our canine friends that we both and enjoy and finding activities we can engage in that we love doing together then we have a real chance of success.
Our canine friends lives are far too short to keep striving towards goals that may be unachievable or may only be achievable with sacrifices. The time our dogs share with us is so transient that it’s far too precious to waste. There’s so much fun to be had outside of walks- doing scent work, having a massage or an ACE freework session, visiting friends and family with your dog, that we shouldn’t let issues on walks become our sole focus. Find what your dog loves and what hidden skills they have, you may see them in a whole new light.
Of course we should train and we rehabilitate but this should always be with the goal of a better and less stressful life for both dog and human, not just to reach potentially unrealistic goals.
This isn’t just relevant to reactive dogs but also to dogs that are anxious too. I know this from personal experience as I spent (wasted) many months trying to get my (happy in every other way) but noise phobic and largely agoraphobic young Inuit, Elsa, to increase the boundaries of her small world. She had home, a couple of happy walks and our lovely farm venue that she felt comfortable with and the rest of the world was scary due to her extreme noise issue. She absolutely adored dogs, she must have had a hundred dog pals and would play happily with them for hours at her safe places but I wanted her life to be ‘more’. It seemed such a shame it was so limited, I wanted to be able to do agility in a class and take her on different walks.
I spent a great deal of time working on expanding her safe places and was moderately successful but all that ‘work’ (which was of course all reward based and done without stress) ate into the time we had to just play with pals, do scent work and have fun. I lost Elsa just after her second birthday after several months desperate fight to save her to an untreatable blood disorder. We never had the time to enjoy the ‘bigger’ and more ‘normal’ life we worked so hard for and in hindsight I wish we’d spent less time striving for it.
She taught us so much in her 26 months with us, she played hard, loved her family and friends and saw joy in the little things. She adored playbowing at beetles and doing scent work to find my childrens’ lost Lego. Her world was small and her life wasn’t ‘normal’ but she was so incredibly happy within it- she didn’t want ‘more’ she was content with the life we had.
We should love our time with our dogs, have long term goals to strive towards but also remember to ensure that we enjoy all of our time together and find the fun in our shared journey.
For Elsa 14/6/13-13/9/15
This is so spot on.
Only this morning I was having to justify why I didn’t want a large lab with zero recall clambering over my boy with his double hip dysplasia.
I’m sure the owner was embarrassed that his off lead dog had zero ( ZERO) recall and that he had missed his dog stalking mine over the 75 metre approach and that I was keeping mine busy focused on me. But he had a choice about how he behaved when I was having to pull his dog off mine.
It’s a yucky emotion to feel like you are being an arse for protecting your dog. Pongo’s hips will be painful with a large muscular dog jumping on top of him.
The owner had a choice about how to respond. It makes such a difference when the owner responds like Laura does.
I was on my normal walk today with Twig and Lucky, it’s a nice walk through a meadow by the river to a park in the middle of town. It’s busy with people and dogs (which mine love) and a mix of onlead and offlead dogs.
As I got to a narrow bit this morning, a saw a couple approaching with two dogs on extendable leads and as they saw me they shortened the leads right up and I could see that the people looked really worried about walking past me and my dogs.
I put my dogs onlead, took my dogs off the path into the undergrowth, and distracted them with food (made sure they didn’t look at the dogs) as the people walked past. If I had seen them coming sooner I would have asked them if they wanted me to move off the path. Not everyone feels comfortable to ask you to give them space but it’s normally pretty obvious when people are worried about walking past you and it’s easy to help them out.
The people and dogs walked past and thanked me for giving them space- no drama and we both went on our way.
I have no idea why they were worried about walking past me- the people may have been worried about strange dogs, their dogs may have been worried about strange dogs, the dogs may have been unwell or in pain or elderly or in season. Honestly it’s NONE of my business why they wanted space but it’s my job as a decent human being to be empathetic and respect that these people wanted some space.
I didn’t offer them advice, as it’s not my place. I’m sure we’ve all had unwanted advice over the years and most of it is awful. I bet every day they get told they ‘should let their dogs off lead’, or that ‘they were making their dogs anxious by making the lead so tight’ or that ‘they shouldn’t be walking in that place as it’s an ‘offlead’ dog place’.
I know people who’ve had reactive dogs carry on helping out other owners long after their own reactive dogs have passed away as they remember what it felt like. It costs nothing to try and make someone else’s day a bit less stressful. Even if your dog is totally fine with other dogs you can help other owners out who look stressed (and it’s none of our business why they might be stressed) by giving them space.
Laura McAuliffe, 2024 Dog Communication
Lovely post from Becki
I was inspired to write this article after seeing a post by Shay Kelly on social media a few weeks ago. Shay referred to the trauma bonds that can develop between domesticated dogs and humans who are are cruel or that use abusive training methods. His post really packed a punch, and got me thinking....
After an intense few weeks of revising and sitting an exam and submitting coursework, a much needed treat thanks to Albert Fields hair salon. 💇♀️
And a wonderful addition to my new swishy haircut is finding out that they love dogs and will let us bring our super sniffers in for some out of hours, challenging scent detection in a brand new environment
We can’t wait!!
Now off to a business lunch with So Help Me Dog to brainstorm an exciting new collaboration.
Local, self-employed ladies collaborating 💕
The joy that comes from your doggo eating the pancreatitis support breakfast 💕
Home made bone broth ( pigs’ trotters- tough gig for a vegetarian…!)
Stewed apple ginger carrot marshmallow root and chamomile
Mashed banana and Greek yoghurt
Dog food
Digestive enzymes and pre and pro biotics.
We are off to see our lovely groomer tomorrow - Claire at Woofy Washy Cabin
Whaaaat. Did you read that correctly? Yes! TOMORROW, we are off to the groomer.
So why am I blow drying the doggo today?
Good question!
He neither loves, nor hates going to the groomer.
He absolutely enjoys all of the food rewards he receives whilst there. Would he rather be somewhere else though? Yes, I’m pretty sure he would- rolling in fox poo would be his first choice!
So if I can make the grooming appointment a bit less……a bit less ‘busy’, then that reduces how long he is there and it also reduces what he has to cope with in one sitting.
He is a poodle cross with a coat like a sheep- tight, woolly curls. He has to have it clipped every 6 weeks or so. That’s a lot of times a year.
So we’ve developed a routine where I will bathe him at home the day before. I do this the way I have learnt that he prefers- wet and wash rear end first. Towel dry that section. Then do the middle section. Then finish with the head- he likes that bit the least, so that part is wet for the shortest time.
Sound complicated? Does it make it a longer process-nope, not now we’ve perfected it. He knows what’s coming and he has a stress relief licking mat stuck on the side of the bath to pass the time.
Then post bath he has time to enjoy the zoomies for as long as he wants.
When he is ready, he then has a blow out. This is on the floor, on a rug covered with a towel so it’s comfortable and it’s hands- free, so he can move away any time he chooses.
He doesn’t move away though. He will change position and he gets some food payments during this part of the process too.
Depending on his body language, I might then do a preliminary brush and clip- but this will just be the easy bits as Claire is so much better at all the tricky elbows, feet, head etc.
Breaking things down into smaller segments works well for us.
There are some great grooming tips on pages by Woody's Holistic Grooming and Taking the Grrr Out Of Grooming Dogs
Now to just avoid any fox poo between now and tomorrow 😆
Did you wake up this morning feeling invigorated and eager to get out in the fresh air?
Did you head off to work?
Are you having a lazy morning? Maybe some brunch later on?
Did you start your day with coffee? Black or white? Suger, sweetener or without? Tea? Builders, peppermint or green?
What’s the day got in store? Some sport? Some admin? Some shopping? Meeting friends? Netflix binge?
So many choices.
Us reward based trainers bang on about choices don’t we?
But they matter. They affect how you feel- about that moment, about that day, about those around you and about yourself. Are you empowered or trapped? Listened to or ignored.
Don’t get me wrong, life doesn’t allow us to do exactly what we want whenever we want. But we do have some choices, or agency, as it’s often called.
How much agency does your dog have?
Do they choose when to eat, what to eat, cold or room temperature water to drink, when to walk, how far to walk, which route to take, when to sleep and for how long, when to see their friends ( human or canine)?
The reality is that in our crazy busy human lives, most dogs don’t get much choice. So when you can, it is brilliant to be able to facilitate that!
What might this look like?
The doggo has dodgy hips so I’ve been training him to use the lift. We’ve done this gradually as it was scary at first. Now however, it’s a well like place as it means great rewards.
So today, I listened to his body language as he told me what he felt like- stairs or lift. The canine body language can be very subtle if they understand that we will listen and they don’t need to shout.
Can you spot what he does to tell me?
I’m proud of my student membership of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors - APBC
I’m working really hard to be the best trainer that I can be and part of that goal means gathering as much knowledge and understanding as I can to be able to offer the best service for the dogs and humans that choose me to support them.
Welcome to the APBC Cerys Watson of Blue Lemon Dog Training
Cerys is an ABTC accredited ATI working towards an ABT qualification with PACT and joins the APBC as a Student ABT member!
Gatehampton Road, Reading
Goring
RG80
| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 10am - 8pm |
| Thursday | 11am - 9pm |
| Friday | 9am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 9am - 1pm |
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We loved Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary so much that we went back for a second visit. When we were there, we were lucky enough to hear the wolf dogs howling.
Did you wake up this morning feeling invigorated and eager to get out in the fresh air? Did you head off to work? Are you having a lazy morning? Maybe some brunch later on? Did you start your day with coffee? Black or white? Suger, sweetener or without? Tea? Builders, peppermint or green? What’s the day got in store? Some sport? Some admin? Some shopping? Meeting friends? Netflix binge? So many choices. Us reward based trainers bang on about choices don’t we? But they matter. They affect how you feel- about that moment, about that day, about those around you and about yourself. Are you empowered or trapped? Listened to or ignored. Don’t get me wrong, life doesn’t allow us to do exactly what we want whenever we want. But we do have some choices, or agency, as it’s often called. How much agency does your dog have? Do they choose when to eat, what to eat, cold or room temperature water to drink, when to walk, how far to walk, which route to take, when to sleep and for how long, when to see their friends ( human or canine)? The reality is that in our crazy busy human lives, most dogs don’t get much choice. So when you can, it is brilliant to be able to facilitate that! What might this look like? The doggo has dodgy hips so I’ve been training him to use the lift. We’ve done this gradually as it was scary at first. Now however, it’s a well like place as it means great rewards. So today, I listened to his body language as he told me what he felt like- stairs or lift. The canine body language can be very subtle if they understand that we will listen and they don’t need to shout. Can you spot what he does to tell me?
When you’ve been playing tug and you are tired but you still want to hold on to your toy 💕 💤
’s been a full on ten days. Two weekends full of CPD and a full day midweek over in Malvern for more scent detection CPD. So the doggo and I needed to slow down today. I haven’t done this with him for a while but I’m reminded how important a skill it is when we do make the time. It might not be easy when you start this but it is worth teaching your dog to be able to just chill out in the environment There were no other people or dogs; just the birds and the campanology practise Enjoy 💕
We’ve had the absolute best day at our scent detection Christmas shindig! A naughty elf had jeopardised Fido’s Christmas but the ten teams worked to get everything back on track. Love my clients and love my job 💕
Super proud of this scent detection team. They only completed their beginner course last week and they bravely took on the challenge of an exciting new venue today. #scentdetection #scentdetectiontraining #FunWithMyDog
Scent detection training for Pongo and I today. He also discovered there can be strange things disguised on the floor!’
There is a lot of uncertainty right now around dogs and some proposed new legislation. I’m focussing on something that makes me smile and it’s this video of the doggo experiencing some deep REM sleep 💤 Enjoy
We need to consult our vet. The doggo has ongoing health issues that need vet help to manage his pain. We are lucky that we can usually meet our dog’s needs with the support of vet professionals. Seeing our beloved pet in real pain is hard. It seems timely to promote the charity VetLife. We all love our pets. We depend on our vets to help us look after our pets when they are ill or in pain. Most vet practices are now part of larger chains and the high prices don’t reflect what vets actually earn. It can be important to separate how we feel about the vet bills and how we feel about the individual vets themselves. Sadly, the veterinary profession are four times more likely than the general public to experience death by suicide. That’s a horrible statistic. VetLife provides emotional and financial support to the veterinary profession. These two vet professionals are walking 100km in one go to raise funds for VetLife. We wish them lots of luck. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sophie-white48
Taking one for the team!! When the wind on the beach is silly numbers per hour, that’s not pleasant for this doggo- sand in eyes, ears, up the nose and in the mouth. A potential canine health hazard. The doggo can’t don sunglasses and a hat to protect himself and he is much lower to the ground, so closer to the swirling loose sand. So he and I are watching the ladies tennis final instead. Wimbledon has opted for the roof over head and so have we! Happy holidays 💕🐾💕🐾💕🐾
Scent detection clients- how happy do these sounds make me?!! VOLUME UP!!
When you are doing a simple food search in a pub garden and your dog suddenly leaves the food search to literally follow his nose!! Do you trust your dog? He clearly indicated. I marked and rewarded as I trusted him- his body language signals all told me he was indicating. I then asked those in the know and guess what- someone with access to that locked door goes shooting. Shooting = gun oil = an odour my dog is trained to find! Dogs are amazing!! PS I was recording the food search for my current group of scent detection beginners and had no idea I’d strike gold!! 😆😆😆
Coping with construction traffic. A house on our road has been demolished and a new one is being built. It has been extremely loud with lots of unfamiliar bangs and crashes in the near distance and out of the ordinary neighbourhood noises. This can be really discombobulating for our dogs whose sense of hearing is far more sensitive than ours. Pongo’s default reaction when he is in the garden and he hears these noises is to bark- a totally natural and instinctive response -this is how dogs communicate. And this communication can lead to a spiral where the other four dogs ( sometimes six with visiting dogs) in the immediate vicinity also bark. For the non-dog owning neighbours this has the potential to be VERY annoying. So I need to find a way to help him to BE in his own garden without reacting to all of the alien and loud noises. Ta-dah!! The jaws and paws enrichment activity! You can see how he stops to consider the noises on several occasions BUT he chooses to ignore them and go back to something more rewarding instead. I’m sure my neighbours think I’m mad with all the shredded cardboard in the garden but instead of just expecting him to cope with a major change to his familiar environment ( sounds and smells), I’m providing him with a support system to allow him to begin to adjust. It’s not the dog’s fault they react to things in our crazy human world!!
Time to break out the cheese!! Some socialisation to peacock as an unexpected training opportunity at the garden centre today!!! Always learning how to live in this crazy human world!!
Resilience and coping with change. Changes. We rarely know when they are incoming. Humans can talk about changes: what they mean; how long they will last; why they are happening. Dogs are not able to have the same conversations. The doggo recently had a nasty wound on his paw. He didn’t know how, or why, or whether this was forever. Instinct told him to lick it, incessantly. He needed to wear a bandage and a boot whilst it healed. A boot felt totally weird to him. Alien. Ouchy. He wanted it off. Relationships and trust. This is a time when relationships and trust really become evident. He trusted me to go with it with this weird appendage because we have worked on a mutual relationship of listening and responding. Aren’t those kind of relationships the best ones in the human world also? Dogs are predominantly non-verbal when they communicate, so we need to learn to listen and understand their communications. We can then help them with change. Watching out for, and reacting to your dog’s non- verbal communications is one of the best things you can do for your friend. #friendship #dialogue #understandyourdog #dogsofinstaworld
Saturday breakfast! How long does it take for your dog to enjoy their breakfast? Is enjoy even the right word? Here is Pongo enjoying his today. And he does enjoy it because we have built up to this level- we started at a really easy level, so that he would not get frustrated or find it too hard. He genuinely loves this method of delivery. He has to use his fine motor skills - aka coordinate his jaws and paws! And his food lasts 15 minutes instead of 15 seconds. This is not an advert. I genuinely love and regularly use the Toppl from Westpaws.
🐾 SLOW DOWN 😁🐾 I’m guilty of over committing and cramming far too much into the day. Anyone else?!! Yup, thought so!! And I can be guilty of rushing my dog’s walk too. Maybe I am chasing the last of the winter daylight. Maybe it’s a quick stroll before my next client. But the further and faster we walk our dogs, guess what- in many cases, the fitter and faster they become ( bit like any human on an exercise ‘get fit’ programme!) Sniffing can be immensely rewarding for our dogs- it’s how they SEE their world. In the beginning, they might not have the skills to concentrate and engage in a SLOW sniff of their environment. Maybe we begin by encouraging them to sniff for food. Rex has been practising scent work for nearly a year now. It has been one of the best things I have ever done for, AND with, him. Now he can just slow down and explore his environment without any food bribes. This is great for his mental well-being. Calm and happy. Of course, we still get fast and giddy, but which of us is one dimensional?!!
A lovely graduate of Blue Lemon Dog Training Puppy Beginner course using her brain and her fine motor skills to great effect. Beautifully calming and rewarding behaviour. How cute is she?
