The Pawer of Love dog training

30/06/2025

If you don't listen to your dog, they will likely escalate their behaviour. It can take days or weeks depending on the dog. Some dog can go from flight to fight response in the same situation.

Your dog will communicate through vocalization and body language. If you don't listen to the more subtle, low level signals-head turn, panting when not hot, looking or moving away- their nervous system says that their behaviour is not working, let's try something else.

The fight response kicks in. Snapping, lunging, grabbing, biting.

This is when we listen and look surprised where this behaviour came from.

It came from the dog whispering that they are not comfortable in a situation but nobody paid attention. They often need to shout before we listen.

Listen to their whisper so that your dog doesn't have to shout.

25/06/2025

22/06/2025

If you don't want your dog to do a behaviour, don't let them practice it and teach an alternative behaviour. No shouting, correcting or using aversives are needed. Just understanding and training 🙂

21/06/2025

My dog has a perfect recall but turns a deaf ear around rabbits and squirrels. Why?

To give you the answer I have to talk about the brain a tiny bit. Nothing sciencey stuff. Just plain English.

The brain is divided into different parts and every behaviour has a system in the brain. Systems like fear, play or seeking.

When your dog chases and hunts things, they use the predatory system. When the predatory system is activated, your dog can't hear you because the part of the brain that is dedicated to listening and thinking is not prioritized.

Your dog is not being stubborn or ignoring you. They have a really heightened focus driven behaviour. You and your voice are not on their radar.

The more your dog practices chasing, the more permanent the behaviour will become.

Do you want to trust your dog even around little furry things?

Let's talk.

18/06/2025

Management is not training.

It can be part of the training, but if you only manage your dog's behaviour

1. You'll have to do it for the rest of their life

2. At some point it will fail and you can't control your dog's behaviour.

What do you want your dog to do?

Have a clear idea in mind. Teach your dog the desired behaviour and don't let them practice the undesired one.

Need help getting there?

Let's talk.

16/06/2025

None of these animals should be put in this situation.

The kitten had an unnecessary negative experience with the dog and the cat and the dog were put in a stressful situation that could have been avoided.

Instead of videoing this, I'd have stepped in when the kitten was approaching the dog to avoid this conflict.

Beautiful avoidance behaviour from the dog BTW.

13/06/2025

Does your dog sometimes lunge 'out of the blue'?

11/06/2025

What I love, apart from working with people with overreactive dogs, is teaching people how to teach their dog a reliable recall.

I've lost count but I have taught 100+ people to teach their dog a reliable recall. This will give them peace of mind and freedom to the dog. Win win.

A common mistake to make is to start recall training in a situation which is very difficult for the dog.

Think about it as a child going through the education system. They start with nursery then primary, secondary school etc. If they started in secondary school, they would fail.

Build up your dog's education the same way. Start easy and as they learn, make it more and more difficult.

Some tips to help you out.

1. Do some lead work.

Seemingly it has nothing to do with recall but it does. People often let the dog off lead in the park and they only call them back at the end of the walk and put the dog on lead.

Recall= end of the walk/fun

This is a sure way to ruin their recall. Call your dog if they are at that level, reward, put them on the lead sometimes for a short time and let them be free again.

2. If you teach them to touch their hand, you will get a recall as a bonus because they have to go to you to target your hand.

3. Find out what motivates your dog to work for you. Is it chicken, a toy or praise and touch?

In the video you can see that Wiggles loves a fuss and she is happy to work for it. Never had to use food.

4. Teach your dog to be happy when you handle the collar.

Think about it. In an emergency what are you going to grab on the dog and at the end of the walk what are you going to reach for?

If they shy away when you reach for the collar, that can end up in a catch me if you can game.

5. Location, location, location

Teach them what you expect from them in many different situations.

6. How is your bond with your dog? If your dog has no relationship with someone, they don't have a reason to go back to them.

Do you need help with recall training?

Let's talk.

10/06/2025

Help! My dog sometimes doesn't take food outside.

If your dog normally happily takes the treats you give him, look at the situations where he refuses them.

I'd imagine the dog is in a situation where he is stressed. When dogs (and humans too) are stressed their brain and body are knocked out of homeostasis.

When they are stressed, the thinking, learning part of the brain is switched off and the primitive nervous system called the flight or fight nervous system is turned on. Their main purpose is to survive the stressful situation.

The heart rate and respiratory rate increases. It's not a time to eat so the saliva production is shut down and the blood is sent to the extremities to get ready to fight, flight or freeze.

That's why you can have the juiciest stake in front of your dog, he won't eat it.

After a stress response your dog needs to rest to help the body to regenerate energy. It's perfectly fine if you skip the walks the following day and give your dog a day off with lots of enrichment and rest.

Regardless if you have a 'good dog' or an overreactive dog, get them out of the stressful situation as fast as you can.

You know your dog. If you think he was pushed way over his threshold, go home and give him some time away from the big wide world.

07/06/2025

Which one applies to you?

1. How can I 'fix' my dog's behaviour and nip it in the bud?

Or

2. How can I help my dog to learn an alternative behaviour to the one I don't like?

The first kind of thinking goes down on the path of controlling and punishing the behaviour.

The second is focusing on having a conversation and connection with the dog.

Humans and dogs thrive on connections but will have more stress and a more fragile bond if we choose correction.

Which one will you choose with your dog?

05/06/2025

What NOT to do with your overreactive dog

1. Exposing them to their fears at a distance where they can't cope with them.

If they are too close to the trigger, they will practice the behaviour you want to change. You won't achieve anything.

2. Not taking care of yourself and your emotional well-being.

You might feel anxious about going for walks or frustrated by your dog's behaviour.

Having an overreactive dog can be emotionally challenging. Remind yourself that you're doing the best you can and your dog"'s behaviour will improve if you follow a good training plan.

3. Constantly controlling the dog's behaviour instead of teaching them the behaviour you want to see.

Hiding behind cars is a good way of preventing the dog to react to the trigger. However, the dog won't learn anything unless you teach them an alternative behaviour.

4. Do not punish your dog.

Punishment can increase anxiety and can worsen overreactivity.

Do you need to talk to somebody who understands your situation and can help to change your lives?

Let's talk.

04/06/2025

You probably noticed when I am talking to people with a 'reactive' dog that I call them 'overreactive dogs'. It's not the best description but I want to use a word everyone understands and describes the behaviour as simply as possible.

However, 'reactivity' is not a personality trait. 'Reactive' behaviour happens in specific situations and not all the time.

If you describe your dog's behaviour with 'when' and verbs, adjectives, I think you would feel better because you are not talking about it as a constant behaviour.

Try saying: ' When my dog sees a dog, he will shout at them with the hackles up.'

Or: ' When my puppy sees other people, he jumps up and down quickly and pulls towards them''

When I started doing this with my dog, I felt much better.

Try it and see how you feel.