Puppy classes
Our incredible puppy life skills classes start again this Saturday!!
🤩Off lead play
🤩On lead walking
🤩All basic training
🤩Socialising with other pups
🤩Help and support
🤩Real life environment at our 4 acre training centre!
🤩full hour training sessions
6week courses for pups from 10-20 weeks old at 2pm and 20 and over weeks 1pm
£108 for 6 weeks please message the page or contact our admin team on 07729 113313 to book
Places are limited and must be pre booked to attend
Dog bite prevention
⚠️Easiest way to be bitten by a dog?? “He’s wagging his tail so he’s friendly” ⚠️
Here’s Archie who we assessed recently - he is dog reactive and dog aggressive as you can see! But… watch his tail!
Wagging, oh it’s certainly wagging!!!! But he ain’t being friendly!!! He does NOT want to say hello to Daffers he wants to attack her!
Wagging tails that are fast, erratic, manic, stiff and/or high is a red flag…. But it is nearly always misinterpreted as friendly!! Despite all the other huge red flags, humans seem to want to look past all the other body language and vocal expressions to just see the tail moving and connecting that to him being friendly!
And this is what gets you, your child or your dog bitten by a dog!
Daphne doesn’t wanna go anywhere near him she is heading towards the gate to go back to the van actually!!
⚠️Please show your children this video!! It would prevent a huge number of bites! ⚠️
Frog & Brock
Dogs are one of the most sociable animals on the planet and seeing them play and have such an amazing time just being dogs is wonderful!
Obviously all dogs have different levels of social skills like humans! Some are introverts and keep their circle small whilst some are extroverts and love to play with most dogs!!
Frog likes to play like a steam roller and fortunately so does her best mate Brock - Meaning their play is rough and hilarious!
If your dog is a highly social extrovert and you don’t allow them to have some fun and interaction with dogs you will find this leads to a huge build up of frustration which in turn creates behavioural issues!!
Our aggression assessments determine why your dog is being reactive or showing aggression and my therapy dogs help us assess if they are social or anti social which means you get a much deeper understanding of exactly what your dog needs!
🐸Amazing to have my Frog back on top form only 5 weeks after her successful cancer operation!
Bad body language
The 2 biggest mistakes with canine body language…
1) Hackles up always means your dog is being aggressive
2) Wagging their tail always means your dog is happy
It’s like saying - she’s crying so she must be sad - well actually she may be crying laughing or crying with joy!
So it’s important to look at other factors that give away little clues…
Frog 🐸is showing her Mohawk off here 😆 otherwise known as hackles (not heckles that’s what people do at a Peter Kay show 😆)
But she’s not angry or aggressive at all - she’s just finished a rather enthusiastic play with her bestie Xena the Rottweiler which was very exciting!
You can see the distinct dark line all the way down her back! But you can also see she’s wiggly and relaxed and she has a wee and wanders around with soft gait and a Neutral low wafty tail so those things will tell you that her hackles are raised due to being excited or aroused rather than aggressive or defensive! It’s really key to look at the whole body for the full story!!
I’ll do a post showing different tail wags tomorrow!
Bruno ❤️
❤️❤️Love is in the air and what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than a little update on my foster dog Bruno ❤️🥰
This was him shadowing me round dog park less than 24 hours after he arrived!
What a little heart throb ladies ❤️he sure made himself at home!
Broooono 😆
😳Well that escalated quickly 😳This is Bruno the Rottweiler 🙄 😆He came for an assessment today for a wonderful charity who are rehoming him! He was found on the streets of Ireland and brought to England where he was placed in a home that hasn’t worked out for him.
He’s around 12 months old and is an absolute sweetheart!!
So anyway - he’s staying here 😆 Bruno is officially fostered by Team Impackt ❤️
I was moaning last year that it’s hard to foster dogs as some rescues put lots of restrictions on placing dogs which I know is required and necessary in some cases. Restrictions like No children and other no dogs and working full time - some charities don’t assess each case on its merits, meaning we were often turned down unbelievably!
Since we lost pompom there’s a large space left in our home and in our hearts so it’s lovely to have the opportunity to give this pup the best chance possible!!
He jumps up and mouths, he has been walked on a harness (which is now burning on the fire) he has been walked on lead for 2 months with no Socialsing or off lead play, his legs are a little weak, he’s not crate trained, he needs some general obedience and manners and of course like all juveniles lots of boundaries and discipline! He’s in the right place!
So welcome Bruno!!! Enjoy following his progress with us ❤️
Warning ⚠️
⚠️this video comes with a noise warning 😆 it contains Dachshunds so probably watch it with the sound down!
Do you know what rank your dog is? Where were they born to be in a pack..Sometimes it’s really easy to spot! Watch the pink and red harnessed dogs in the video (yes I did get rid of the harnesses 😆😆😆🤢) see how their behaviour is VERY different to the 2 dogs who stay back and don’t get involved!
For context- this is a pack of 4 dachshunds and this was the initial test with dogs to see what each dog was doing!
Red and pink harness dogs are coming forward tails up and curled over and shouting, patrolling, running around and trying to scare Turbo and Jessie away!
They are protector enforcer rank in the pack. The fun police as we call them! Funnily enough Turbo & Jessie are also that rank… so why don’t they act the same in this situation? Because they’re balanced and very confident and experienced around other dogs whereas the davhsunds aren’t!
Turbo & Jessie don’t feel the need to scare dogs away as they know they have the skills to interact and enjoy being sociable with other dogs- they have learnt these skills through experiences of being off lead and playing with dogs.
So protector enforcers are noisy, high alert, hyper vigilant, intelligent, quick learners,and want to keep order- they’re the ones who come to the front, the ones where if you choose a pup and say “it’s the first one that came straight to us” is normally this rank!!
They need a strong assertive and fair leader or they become anxious and nervous with the responsibility of controlling the safety of the pack!!
Reinforcement
Your dog chooses what is rewarding - it’s your job to guess 😆😆
Jessie finds a packet of sausage and Mash Wagg treats are the highest value treat she could possibly imagine!
Higher than cheeze, sausage and chicken!!!! She will do anything for them despite being in my opinion low value as they are dry and not high meat content! But it’s not up to me it’s clearly something Jessie loves!!
Try different snacks to see what makes your dog tick!!
It might not even be food it could be a ball, a game, a toy so it’s really important to try lots of things till you find their favourite!!
What is your dog’s favourite treat? What makes them really pay attention and listen to you?
Nervous dogs!
You need to watch this if you’ve got a nervous dog & you’ve been told to avoid anything that may upset them, make them nervous or anxious! Avoid and distract, throw treats and reassure them, harness them and tell them they’re ok! Don’t let them go over threshold!
Because the issue with that is - if you never expose them to anything in life their threshold will never improve! So I do the exact opposite- exposure is therapy!!!
Case in point Phoebe the Egyptian rescue who in the first 2 clips on the video has her first proper interactions with dogs after becoming very reactive - she was a timid shy nervous pup and would cringe or bark/growl if within 3metres of a dog.
So what did I do?
Introduced her to some super balanced dogs - well sort of 😆😆Evil Edna in her Acorn hat to be precise 😆 I mean if that doesn’t scare you nothing will!!
The next clips are lesson 2 yep all within 2 sessions of exposure therapy will other dogs!! Look at the difference! A little bit of man-up and a lot of tough love for her owner as you can hear from me 🤦♀️😆and she is trotting about with dogs which her owners never thought they would see! She’s now attending our neutrality course and a whole new world has opened up to her!
You know, when we stop treating apex predators like they’re made of finest bone china that’s when they start to live 🥰🥰
Exceptions
And of course there are the exceptions to the rules!
You can choose a breed on certain physical attributes and the breeds’s characteristics and still get a wild card!!
Look at my boy Turbo!!!
A pug! Known to be..
Fat, lazy, unfit, untrainable, stubborn and strong minded.
But my boy is like the Italian stallion among pugs!! He’s got the drive of a German shepherd and the body of a Ferrari! He’s muscular and lean, he loves agility and will run for hours! He wants to work every day, needs to be busy and working!
You meet Dachshunds that don’t bark - Cockerpoos that don’t resource guard (not many 😆) chihuahuas that don’t try and take your face off and Labradors who aren’t that bothered about food!!
So that makes choosing a puppy to be the correct fit for your home even more difficult 😆😆
Let’s see who has got an exception dog!!! ⬇️
Male vs Female
At what point do you consider gender when choosing a puppy??
Well immediately for me for a few reasons - mainly to fit into the existing pack…opposite gender is always more compatible.
But also with some breeds there is a significant size difference between the genders!
Here is bullmastiff Jack (15 months old so not fully grown) and my wonderFrog this morning!
Look at the massive size difference and that’s without Jack being fully mature!
Frog at her best is about 50kg but the males of the breed often hit around 70kg!!
So with a giant breed I wouldn’t want a male!
But when I’m looking at the medium sized Standard poodles, Labradors, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers etc I would prefer a male to help with the stature and presence!!
I only have one male in my pack at the moment and 3 females. So a male would be a great addition this year. But I would need to ensure he wouldn’t be a clash with my protector enforcer rank that Turbo the pug holds as whatever breed I do get will be bigger than him which could cause serious conflict!!!
All these considerations to build a solid pack!!!!!
NB - male bullmastiffs drool a hecken of a lot more than females 😆
Back to work
She’s back with a sassy ass and some extra spice 😆😆😆
Frog working with Ted the Viszla this morning - his before and after video will be on the page soon!!
Nationally renowned aggression specialist & Approved Reactive Dog Expert. Reality Based training!
