Remraf Pet Services : Dog Walking & Training

07/06/2025

This is a little dog in a prong collar.

The strong metal spikes go into the dog’s neck and throat skin if they move fast or pull on the lead.

In fact they are poking into the neck at all times they just hurt more if the dog makes even the slightest of decisions that the human on the other end of the lead doesn’t want.

This is a dachshund.

A small dog breed not known for overt behaviour or emotional instability. If anything, little dogs suffer with fear or anxiety issues that affect their behaviour because the world is big and tends to disregard their need for agency.

Look at the dog’s eyes. See the slight glaze? See the lack of safety, the confusion, the kind of ‘deadness’ there?

That is a nervous system response.

When a nervous system cannot escape danger or fear related responses it takes the animal (and human) into a freeze response.

The freeze response can become functional. A functional freeze means the dog moves as we want them to, plods on, keeps ‘performing’ but inside is chaos.

Their immunity is off so their body cannot fight disease. Their digestion is low so they can’t digest their food properly. Homestasis is not there. This dog - even if functional freeze without the outward signs - is suffering.

Now the ‘trainer’ here might have initially seen hesitation or discomfort when this collar went on. They might have assumed the cessation of that outward discomfort as acceptance.

The dog hasn’t accepted the collar!

THE DOG HAS GIVEN IN!

This little dog will now - even if that collar is removed - will never feel fully safe. His nervous system may never come out of freeze state. Not without specialist and educated help.

This little dog needs rescuing from this dog ‘trainer’

Because they clearly do not understand the nervous system responses that anyone at all who works with dogs should understand.

Dogs in our homes should be celebrated for their choices, taught to be optimistic, helped through life with love and respect. Their life matters to them as much as our life matters to us.

No dog needs to look like this poor little mite.

We are better than this. We can do better.

If your dog is having trouble adjusting into a human world - that’s perfectly normal!

They are not bad or broken.

Please advocate for them and don’t let them be treated this way, no matter how charismatic or persuasive a dog trainer is.

05/06/2025

I have seen so many people defend the use of choke chains and shock collars, because their dogs still show them love and affection. The fact that dog's tolerate such abusive methods, is not evidence that these methods are not extremely detrimental to welfare. It is evidence that dogs have a great capacity for unconditional love; an ability I don't think we as humans can even begin to replicate. - Holly Leake

02/06/2025

11/05/2025

We are strictly FORCE & FEAR FREE!! Which means NO collar checks, no verbal corrections and certainly NEVER any tools utilised around your dogs neck or face!!

There are still many trainers/behaviourists out there that promote themselves as force and fear free yet still use collar checks and verbal corrections …

always do your own thorough research and ask questions about how they plan to help your dog!!

No dog, animal or human being thrives when they are living under threat, when they are fearful, or when they are in pain. We work to eliminate the use, promotion and condonement of all aversive tools and methods in any situation with all dogs.

12/04/2025

07/04/2025

I am a 21st century dog….
-I'm a Malinois.
Overskilled among dogs, I excel in all disciplines and I'm always ready to work: I NEED to work.
But nowadays I get asked to chill on the couch all day everyday.

-I am an Akita Inu.
My ancestors were selected for fighting bears.
Today I get asked to be tolerant and I get scolded for my reactivity when another approaches me.

-I am a Beagle.
When I chase my prey, I raise my voice so the hunters could follow.
Today they put an electric collar on me to shut up, and you make me come back to you - no running - with a snap of your fingers.

-I am a Yorkshire Terrier.
I was a terrifying rat hunter in English mines.
Today they think I can't use my legs and they always hold me in their arms.

-I'm a Labrador Retriever.
My vision of happiness is a dive into a pond to bring back the duck he shot to my master.
Today you forget I'm a walking, running, swimming dog; as a result I'm fat, made to stay indoors, and to babysit.

-I am a Jack Russell.
I can take on a fox, a mean badger, and a rat bigger than me in his den.
Today I get scolded for my character and high energy, and forced to turn into a quiet living room dog.

-I am a Siberian Husky.
Experienced the great, wide open spaces of Northern Europe, where I could drag sleds for long distances at impressive speeds.
Today I only have the walls of the house or small garden as a horizon, and the holes I dig in the ground just to release energy and frustration, trying to stay sane.

-I am a border collie
I was made to work hours a day in partnershipwith my master, and I am an unmistakable artist of working with the herd.
Today they are mad at me because, for lack of sheep, I try to check bikes, cars, children in the house and everything in motion.
I am ...
I am a 21st century dog.

I'm pretty, I'm alert, I'm obedient, I stay in a bag...but I'm also an individual who, from centuries of training, needs to express my instincts, and I am *not* suited for the sedentary life you'd want me to lead.

Spending eight hours a day alone in the house or in the garden - with no work and no one to play or run with, seeing you for a short time in the evening when you get home, and only getting a small toilet walk will make me deeply unhappy.

I'll express it by barking all day, turning your yard into a minefield, doing my needs indoors, being unmanageable the rare times I'll find myself outside, and sometimes spending my days sunk, sad, lonely, and depressed, on my pillow.

You may think that I should be happy to be able to enjoy all this comfort while you go to work, but actually I’ll be exhausted and frustrated, because this is absolutely NOT what I'm meant to do, or what I need to be doing.
If you love me, if you've always dreamed of me, if my beautiful blue eyes or my athletic look make you want me, but you can't give me a real dog's life, a life that's really worth living according to my breed, and if you can't offer me the job that my genes are asking, DO NOT buy or adopt me!

If you like the way I look but aren't willing to accept my temperament, gifts, and traits derived from long genetic selection, and you think you can change them with only your good will, then DO NOT BUY OR ADOPT ME.

I’m a dog from the 21st century, yes, but deep inside me, the one who fought, the one who hunted, the one who pulled sleds, the one who guided and protected a herd still lives within.

So think **very** carefully before you choose your dog. And think about getting two, rather than one, so I won't be so very lonely waiting for you all day. Eight or ten hours is just a workday to you, but it's an eternity for me to be alone.

Written by *unknown*