Doggy Delight

26/08/2023

I regret to inform you all that Doggy Delight training is no longer running due to other commitments but would like to thank all my past customers and their wonderful doggies!

11/08/2022

🙌

10/06/2022

Unfortunately doggy delight will not be taking on any new clients for the time being due to exciting new opportunities. I want to thank all my customers for allowing me to work with their beautiful pooches 🥰

28/04/2022

Apologies to anyone attempting to contact my phone number. Unfortunately I am without a phone for the time being but am looking to rectify this issue promptly. If anybody would like to contact me please feel free to send my a message on Facebook or my email.

Apologies for the inconvenience.
Doggy Delight x

23/02/2022

One of the perks of my job is getting to meet so many gorgeous dogs and puppies. Today I had the pleasure of meeting 4 month old Roland and his lovely owner to cover puppy basics. I was very impressed with how much work Roland's owner has already put into his training and I have no doubts he will grow into a lovely well rounded adult. Great job today 👏

20/02/2022

This is not my post but a fantastic explanation as to how allowing your dog to run and play with random dogs is infact counter productive and could actually be damaging your dogs mental health.

YOUR DOG MAY NEED FRIENDS, BUT NOT RANDOM INTERACTIONS

You probably know that dogs are social animals. For dogs, social engagement is an extremely powerful motivator and will often be prioritised over food and sleep. The benefit of social behaviour for dogs is well supported by research, intraspecies play has been indicated to support with motor development, social development, and seems to make them feel happy (Sommerville et al., 2017). We also know that dogs that have been isolated from the mother and siblings at an earlier age are more likely to display social deficits, and similarly, pups taken from their mum too early are at greater risk of behavioural problems in the future (Dietz et al., 2018).

So given these benefits, you might assume we should be aiming for as many social interactions as possible. Sadly, things are not quite so simple. It has also been identified that dogs that visiting the dog park resulted in an increase of the stress hormone cortisol for most dogs (Carrier et al., 2014). Similarly, dogs showing hunched or low posture while at the dog park were more likely to show increased cortisol levels (Carrier et al., 2014). Even more concerningly, 98% of the dogs examined showed at least one stress related behaviour while at the park.

This is not such good news as it indicates that many dogs are not having the best time while at the park, which really defeats the purpose of going. It also means, interacting with lots of unknown dogs every day is actually quite a stressful experience. While being able to manage in a trickier social situation is an important skill, we cannot count this as pleasure time or enrichment. Increased cortisol levels are also associated with an increase in amygdala activity (the fear centre in the brain), which means dogs may also be more reactive whilst cortisol levels return to baseline (van Stegeren et al., 2007).

What is normal social interaction for the dog?

If we turn to studies of free ranging dogs, we can see that dogs are often observed to live within social groups which will share resources and territory (Font, 1987), sometimes forage socially (Majumder et al., 2013), and often choose to sleep in close proximity to each other (Bódizs et al., 2020). Dogs outside of social groups tend to avoid each other, and when they do interact, these interactions are commonly agonistic (Pal, 1998).

This means while dogs enjoy social interaction, this is primarily amongst their own social group. It can involve play, but also calmer activities such as foraging and sleeping. There is little evidence for any benefit of social interaction with unknown dogs, and it may be stressful for them because they have evolved to expect interactions with unknown dogs to be agonistic.

This raises questions about the sort of social interaction we provide for our dogs. If we want to meet our dogs’ social needs from an evolutionary perspective, we need to think about how to set up regular friendships for dogs to enable them to form social groups. This may be in the form of multiple dogs in the same household, or a dog from another household that your dog sees regularly.

The content of time spent together is also important. Social time should not just be based on play, but also encourage social sleep, foraging, grooming, and exploring. All of these are hard to achieve with unknown dogs met on walks. However, having a regular friend means dogs can spend time sharing a territory and exploring new locations together.

We also know social time with regular companions can have a great effect on improving dogs’ confidence. Cimarelli et al. (2021) found that dogs with stronger affiliations were more confident when faced with stressors, this is known as social buffering. This was an effect found in dogs that had been in stable social groups, which again indicates the quality of relationships is key to the social buffering effect.

Finally, remember this does not apply to all dogs. Some dogs are not social. This might be due to bad experiences in the past, a lack of socialisation opportunities, or just preference. It is fine for dogs to choose not to be social. There are lots of other great ways you can enrich your dog’s life.

But if you do have a social dog, make sure they have a regular companion. Local Facebook groups can be a great place to start. Interactions need to be set up appropriately and body language needs to be monitored to ensure the dogs are safe and enjoying themselves (a dog trainer can help with this). And once you have found your dog a friend, make sure you keep it up as the long-term benefits are incredible.

Full references available on our website. https://animalbehaviourkent.co.uk/our-blog/f/your-dog-may-need-friends-but-not-random-interactions

18/02/2022

With such strong winds we recommend its best to skip the walks today. You can do enrichment to keep your best buddy entertained. If you type in canine enrichment on Facebook it will come up with a fantastic group with plenty of an enrichment ideas to keep your dogs happy. Stay safe everyone 🙏

06/02/2022

A follow up puppy consultation with Willow and her lovely owner today :) willows going through the classic puppy biting stage. With todays tips hopefully there will be some improvement whilst waiting for her to pass this classic puppy stage.

15/01/2022

Just some training fun with my own two. I can't believe aris now 6 months! What are you all working on at the moment with your dogs? What do you and your dogs do for fun?

Let us know in the comments 🐾

23/12/2021

Merry Christmas to everyone from Doggy Delight. I hope you all have an enjoyable, relaxing Christmas.

Love Zoe, Milo and Ari 🥰

16/12/2021

A list of toxic Christmas foods and things to keep away from your pooch over the festive period:

M acadamia nuts, all nuts, mincepies,mistletoe
E xcess fat from meats
R aw or cooked onion or garlic or mushrooms
R aisins or grapes
Y east, your medicine, your presents

C hocolate, candy, caffeine, Cooked bones
H olly, plants like poinsettia and pine needles
R ich foods with high sugar content
I vy, icing, insectisides
S ugar, salt, sweets, spoilt food
T obacco, tree decorations, tinsel
M ouldy food
A lcohol
S tones in fruit

03/12/2021

🎄 COVER PHOTO COMPETITION 🎄

It's that time again!

Post the most christmassy photo you have of your beautiful doggos. Vote for your favourites and the photo with the most votes will be our latest cover star 🌟

27/11/2021

Today I had a puppy consultation with the gorgeous Digby and his owner. Digby is a very timid puppy, so today we went through some techniques to help boost his confidence as well as discussing techniques to help strengthen Digbys bond with his owner. Well done to Digby and his owner for doing well in their first session 👏

24/11/2021

Another fun adventure with the coolest dog Tess 😁 where is your favourite places to walk?

Comment below with photos of your pooch in their favourite place!

19/11/2021

Had a fab time with the gorgeous Tess earlier and look forward to spending some time with her over the next two weeks while her hoomans are away 🥰

17/11/2021

Lovely to catch up with the gorgeous Echo and his owner again. Unfortunately, the recent fireworks had spooked Echo having a fairly negative impact so we did some work around building his confidence again to get him back to being happy and settled and able to get back out on walks. Great to see Echo and his owner again and I have no doubt they'll be back to enjoying their walks in no time at all :)

02/11/2021

Many of you were interested in watching Aris progression so here she is at 4 months old. I always look at training as a journey and we are at the very beginning. Needless to say I hope this can provide an inspiration of how we do not need to use force to teach our dogs the behaviours we desire. All of this has been taught through positive reinforcement using games/food and also following aris direction on what she would like to engage with on a daily basis 🥰

01/11/2021

The importance of educating children on how to behave around dogs 🐶

Ironically, today I had a discussion with someone about the increase of children getting bitten. Later on, I took my own two for a walk which was meant to be a relaxing play session for them and nothing too serious. As we calmly walked through a quiet narrow area I saw a small girl ahead so I asked both dogs to sit nicely which they obliged so that she could pass. She then ran up to my dogs, I gently said oh please don't approach one of them isn't very keen on people (referring to my timid puppy). She continued to move closer so I moved back to create space for my dogs and explained that she can bite when she's scared so it's best not to approach. She continued getting really close, by this point my puppy was over threshold and began to bark and lunge (a behaviour that had disappeared for a month). It became almost impossible to manage as the small girl had backed us into a corner. She went to reach out again. By this point I was trapped and struggling to keep my own stress levels down worried that my puppy may consider really telling her off. Now why is this situation such a big deal?

1. It could of resulted in the little girl being bitten by my puppy. OK, she's a puppy but I wouldn't want anyone to be nipped or bitten by any dog in my care.

2. This negative experience of a child continuing to push into our space could very well have now worsened my puppies anxiety which is unfortunate as she's been doing so well. It is also possible this event has the potential to influence her emotions around young children.

3. Her arousal heightened my other dogs arousal leading him to become stressed (admittedly low level but he gave clear low level signals- lip licking and whining). If he had been pushed over threshold perhaps it would change his emotions towards children (he loves people and children but my point is that events such as these can change a dogs perception on people very quickly).

As a result, I will have to spend some time now helping both dogs to decompress to overcome what may seem like such a small event due to the stress caused.

It's best to teach children not to approach strange dogs unless the owner says it's OK regardless of the age of the dog. Perhaps get them involved with training with your personal dogs as part of family fun but be mindful of strange dogs. Some dogs are frightened of other dogs or people so it's best to give space unless the other owner says it's OK.

31/10/2021

MYTH BUSTING 😁

1. You can't teach an old dog new tricks?

False- you can teach an old dog new tricks. It may take them a little longer to figure out but it is possible. If your gran can master Facebook then rover can learn to lay down on command 😉

2. My dog knows what they did wrong they looked guilty!

False- dogs don't experience guilt! Dogs live in the moment what you're witnessing is a response to your emotions.

3. Dogs grieve the loss of a loved one.

True- just like humans Dogs can grieve just like we do. If you are interested, there was a famous case of a dog who waited for his owner at the train station after his owner died. His name was Hachi and he was very famous in Japan. There's also a fantastic film about him with Richard gere playing his owner.

4. A dog is always happy if their tail is wagging.

False- Ever heard someone say I don't know why a dog growled at their dog because the dog was wagging his tail. The reason why is not all tail wags are happy, some can indicate arousal and fear so it's important to never assume fidos wagging his tail as he's happy.

5. My dog won't listen to me unless I show him I'm boss.

False- There is no reason to bully any dog. Its been proven that dogs respond a lot better to positive reinforcement as opposed to punishment. In fact, police dogs, sniffer dogs, guide dogs etc. are trained using reward based methods such as games. Cesar millans methods have been glorified however, his harsh corrections are now proving detrimental. He's currently in a lawsuit after his dog killed Queen Latifahs dog and mauled a girl. There's also several cases of dogs he's worked with biting him due to his actions.

https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/cw/animal-watch/22536-lawsuit-cesar-millan-s-pit-bull-kills-queen-latifah-s-dog-in-training-and-mauls-girl

Hope this has been insightful for you all. Happy weekend ❤

17/10/2021

Training isn't a straight forward journey and even professionals have off days so remember to be kind to yourself. Dogs live in the moment so try not to stress when something doesn't go quite to plan. Try to move past and reflect on what you could do differently if the situation arises again when you're in calm. It's important to try and keep a positive frame of mind. Mistakes happen and that's ok its how you deal with them. For example, at the moment I'm practising manners with milo and ari are together. Both are brilliant on their own but it's bringing it together where we have our work cut out. Milo has a history of resource guarding and although has massively improved I've learnt that with fresh food he stills needs alot of work which means I can't use that high value resource when they are together. He also had his first recall slip up in almost a year, I managed to get him back fairly quickly but instead of getting flustered I heavily rewarded him for returning. So what have I learnt from this experience? That whilst he is learning to respond in aris presence that I need to work them together in lower distraction areas and as aris heel work vanishes in milos presence I need to spend more time working on our lead walking together in quieter less distracting settings. Training is a journey, its has its ups and downs, persistence does pay off but most importantly don't forget to be kind to yourselves.

Happy Sunday everyone 🐶

15/10/2021

A doctors opinion on what dogs do for us. Make sure to give your doggos plenty of pets 🥰

12/10/2021

Just thought I'd share a sneaky fun mini session I did with our friends dog when I got the opportunity to take her out 🥰