Sally Tarpey Canine Behaviourist

26/11/2025

I cut the session short for this little man last week, he was too anxious & wasn't coping well.
I met him with his dad yesterday at a local field to do some work and he was much better, set backs are invetable, we work through them at the dogs pace.
To the people telling the owners "just make him face his fears, he'll get over it", please stop, you'll do more damage.

25/11/2025

Another of my rescue gang.
This is Stewie, he was being sent into a busy rehoming kennels because his owners had a baby & said he wasn't coping with the baby crawling, I'd have rehomed the baby myself 🙈.
Anyway, a friend & I set off to get him and here he is.
If you follow my page, you'll have seen him before, he's my blind boy.
His owners hadn't noticed he was blind until I asked them about it, having had him from a pup, I suspect he adapted quickly to their home and knew his way around using his sense of smell & touch.
My vet & I suspect his blindness is due to Collie Eye Anomaly ( CEA ).
An inherited gene defect, as a result of poor breeding, specific to Collies & Collie Cross breeds.
Their is no treatment, he shows no signs of it slowing him down, he enjoys life to the full & copes amazingly well.
Just because he's disabled, it doesn't mean he can't lead a full life, he's recently been coming out to work as a stooge dog with me & made some lovely doggy friends in the process.
His nickname is Stevie
( Stevie Wonder 😎 ).

25/11/2025

Look at the curls on these three ladies, aren't they all gorgeous.
Mum wants to be able to walk all three together safely so we'll be doing some training together over the next few weeks.
The one at the back has had a traumatic past and lacks in confidence, but she was super brave, approaching me & taking treats from my hand.
Her owners have taken their time with her and allowed her to settle without putting any pressure on her, after hearing about her past, it was lovely to see how brave she was.

23/11/2025

'Flooding' - nothing to do with the recent storms but a term used in dog training.
Associated with continued exposure to the dogs stimuli until they stop the unwanted behaviour.
They don't stop because they suddenly accept what they've been fearful of, they stop because they're emotionally & psychologically exhausted, they have no more energy to react, their body is shutting down.

This is a harsh, uneccessary approach & certainly won't help longterm.

I worked with one of my reactive clients the other day, it was apparent after twenty minutes the dog was totally overwhelmed, when I asked if anything different had been going on, the owners had had several visitors that morning. This would have been enough to overstimulate the dog, anxious dogs need structure & routine.

I brought the session to a close and advised the owner to give him some decompression time, we'll revisit the session this week.

If I see a dog, or owner, isn't coping with a session, I won't hesitate in stopping it, we can pick it up another day, their is no reason or excuse to put anyone in this situation.

22/11/2025

Another day, another rescue dog 🐾.
Fox was struggling in a busy council kennels, she'd gone in as a young stray & no one claimed her.
I suspect because of her anxiety & behaviour around moving traffic where she would bark, lunge, scream & spin hysterically.
She was so stressed in kennels she took the skin off her pads jumping up constantly & hitting a hard concrete floor, she had diarrhoea and just looked in poor condition.
Her volunteers would pop her in a wheelbarrow & take her to the paddock to stand on soft grass as she couldn't walk on hard surfaces her feet were so sore.
Cue one of my famous road trips to break her out of kennels 🙈.
She was about 4kg underweight, with a chest infection and needed medication to get her back on track.
She's high drive, too high to work with livestock, she's incredibly sensitive & super affectionate.
I worked through her issues with her & now she can walk roadside with no reactions, no attempts to herd the traffic.
She's the most anxious out of my dogs but has made massive progress and continues to do so.
A long period of decompression and lots of training has got her where she is now.
I'm confident she wouldn't have survived if she had stayed where she was, she couldn't have sustained such weight loss without becoming seriously ill.
If you meet her, she wriggles like a jelly then slide down your legs having a fuss.

21/11/2025

Catching up with the little Border Terrier today, ( the other chap is his big brother. )
He had a mixed session, more positives than negatives, the main one being in close proximity to two men working and not reacting to them, this was huge for him, we took gradual steps to get him closer to them while maintaining engagement with his mum.
Steady progress gets long lasting results, back in a couple of weeks while his humans keep practicing the homework.

21/11/2025

Back with the gorgeous Cocker this week, we're building confidence to help her separation anxiety.
She was unable to lie in her bed & settle..until yesterday, when I broke the exercise down for her & she ended up offering the behaviour naturally, no prompting, no luring, she did it herself.
Her owner managed to leave her alone for ten mins in one session this week.
This may not sound like much but they are for an anxious dog.

20/11/2025

🐾Rescue dogs 🐾
Their's a misconception that all rescue dogs are damaged, some are, some aren't.
If you know me, you know I'm a soft touch when it comes to a rescue dog.
The ones who were let down, misunderstood, ignored, the ones who often have the loveliest of temperaments if they're given the chance to show them.
This is my Jess, she arrived earlier this year, her original owners would constantly kick her out, she'd be returned by neighbours and kicked out again, until she was handed into a council kennels as a stray.
With no chip & no one looking for her, I was sent the first photo, a young collie, overwhelmed & shutting down in a stressful environment 💔.
Cue the road trip and a drive to go see her, the rest is history.
She really is the most lovely little girl, she's inoffensive and loving, not so keen on men, but her original owner was a man, good job I'm single 💁‍♀️.

Time, patience, good food & tlc, they ask for so little but give back so much.
I'll show some more of mine this week.

Let's see your rescue dogs.

19/11/2025

18/11/2025

Behaviour consultation with these two girls yesterday & it's a complex one.

Mum on the left, daughter on the right, daughter went to a new home as a pup but had to go back to the breeder after four years.
Daughter is clearly a very anxious dog based on what I was seeing yesterday & when I asked about mums pregnancy / whelping process I found out she's what's known as an 'monoamniotic twin'.

Instead of having her own amniotic sac & placenta, she was born in the sac with another pup, sharing one placenta.
These two pups were considerably smaller when born, weighing in at 104g & 145g compared to the rest of the litter who were a healthy 300g +.
The smaller one sadly didn't survive beyond a few hours.
Instead of developing as normal, they are sharing the nutrients from mum via one placenta, getting variable amounts, hence the small birth weights & being weaker.
Space in the sac is restricted, impacting on the physical development of internal organs, oxygen levels will fluctuate, stress levels will be heightened before the puppy is even born & all of these things will impact the pup once born, while also going through the normal emotional changes such as fear periods & adolesence, while going through into adulthood.

She'll always have the underlying anxiety, it's in her make up, but the aim is to build some confidence skills and teach her resilience to take the weight off her shoulders and allow her to feel more comfortable in herself.

This case is the perfect example of using a behaviourist that is appropriately qualified, experienced & has an understanding of the science behind canine emotions and behaviour.

15/11/2025

On a scale of 1 - 10 for reactivity and trying to herd traffic, this little one was at a 9 a month ago.
Second session, post consultation today and she's at a 4 !
She's happier in the house, more relaxed, more settled & wagging her tail, something she rarely did before.

How have I structured this ?

Started off with a period of decompression, where she wasn't walked as we knew it always resulted in reactions.
Introduced & increased her training, getting her to use her brain, she's a collie x kelpie so super intelligent.
Introduced her to a herding ball & a flirt pole, a perfect outlet for herding breeds to display natural behaviour traits.
Today, I've had her and mum walking past traffic with no reaction, this was massive for them both.
Session 2 of 6 & we are seeing massive progress.
Back in ten days to keep up the momentum & maybe a half day training with me at some point.
Thank you to Shepherds' Vet Centre for the referral.
*I will try and encourage mum to use a collar & harness.