Sally Tarpey Canine Behaviourist

27/04/2025

https://gofund.me/4f3c4340

Thank you for all the support with Collie Corner, these are the recipients.
Back, left to right, Jess & Stewie.
Front, left to right, Ollie & Fox.
Jess, Ollie & Fox were in a busy council kennel with over 80 other dogs.
Collies are super sensitive, this was no place for them & they were all struggling.
Stewie, was destined to go there when they had a spare kennel.
They all have their quirks -
Fox has been the most traumatised, unable to cope with the kennels & the outside world, people & traffic, after several months of decompression periods, structured training & a routine, she's now fantastic.
Jess is scared of men, her previous male owner used to kick her out on the street repeatedly, she was shutting down horribly in kennels, sitting with her head hung low.
She really is the most lovely little dog, although she is finding her feet & sometimes tries to demonstrate the collie nip, training to stop this is going well & it should be resolved soon, this isn't a behaviour issue, this is a breed trait.
Ollie is just a happy content lad, even though he went into the busy kennels at 10 weeks of age when his then owner couldn't cope and the breeder wouldn't have him back.
Stewie, thankfully didn't go into the kennel system, I dread to think how he would have coped.
His owners hadn't noticed he was visually impaired, virtually blind & his testicles hadn't descended, a blind collie in a busy, noisy kennel that can't see, absolute disaster for him & doesn't bear thinking about.
These are just a small number of the thousands out there in rescue centres & sale sites.
These four have been lucky, I accept they may come with issues & I will work with them,not against them to resolve them.
I'd love to help more.
Please continue to support us, if you know any rich old men with a liking for middle aged women with an army of dogs, feel free to introduce us 🤣.

Thank you 🙏

26/04/2025

This is one of the many reactive Shepherd type breeds I've worked with, dog reactive, high prey drive and lunging at moving traffic.
I'm walking him for a few days while his dad's on holiday, we were out today & he saw all of the triggers that would have previously caused a reaction, he didn't bat an eyelid, just walked along, focused and engaging with me.
This has been done without the use of any aversives - so, no tools, such as shocks, prongs or chokes or heavy hands.
If I can do this, why can't others ?

25/04/2025

Behaviour consultation with this little girl recently, although her behaviour has settled, her owners still wanted to go through the consultation process to identify the cause/s & see what could be done to help future episodes.
I've identified some fear based anxiety &
her hormones impact massively on her behaviour so we discussed neutering, the owners can discuss this further with their vet.
Thank you to vets in Kidderminster for the referral.

24/04/2025

Behaviour consultation with this little one today, she's ten months old, full of anxiety, over arousal, & appears to have a very strong working drive, resulting in biting and nipping, grabbing shoes when you walk and hanging off sleeves.
She's also come into season so is raging with hormones.
Her previous home sold her on with not much information, so very little is known about her background.
I'll start with a clean slate & work with the pup in front of me, go back to basics with training & start afresh, teach her some calmer behaviours & introduce some behaviour modification work to move her and her mom forward slowly.

22/04/2025

1:1 training walk with this lovely lad today, he walked nicely ( with some practice ) & walked past triggers while focusing back onto me.
He's a typical collie and lives for his ball, it's all about the ball !

18/04/2025

Behaviour consultation with this little man recently, he's been only six months old and underwent two major abdominal surgeries, he's on the road to recovery now but has lots of typical collie traits, the main one being around traffic.
He's a cracking little dog, just needs to go back to basics and some desensitisation work moving forward.

17/04/2025

Even the calmest of dogs can bite if they're put in a situation they can't cope with, body language isn't read or they have an undiagnosed illness or injury, this is why I insist on a vet check before I come to see your dog, to rule out a medical cause.

It's up to us, as owners, to read, learn about and understand our dogs body language so we can prevent situations escalating into a bite.

16/04/2025

Please share for Ross, he deserves a home after three years in kennels, based in Worcestershire.

15/04/2025

It's important to keep up to date with CPD ( continuous professional development ).
This one about neutering was particularly interesting, especially as neutering can sometimes make a behaviour worse.
Thank you to the local veterinary rep for the heads up on this one.

12/04/2025

Thank you to for sending this boy over to me.
He had to go in as an emergency apt recently due to a reaction to a sting, because he was so stressed & overwhelmed with it all it was a difficult consultation for him & the vet team.
He got the treatment he needed & now we're starting him off with muzzle training & cooperative care, he did fantastically well with his first session, back next week while his owner keeps practicing what we did in the meantime.

11/04/2025

I had a helper the other day in the form of Jen from Ellse K9 Coaching who wanted to know more about the behaviour side of stuff.
If you ever watched Police Interceptors she was on there with her Police Dog, Quantum, he's now retired and lives at home with Jen and her other dog.
She got to do some training with the dogs at , I got her to watch some video footage from a complex behaviour assessment a few days before & we generally talked dog.
Hopefully catch up with her again soon for some training .

10/04/2025

A blue Doberman & a ( CRD ) Chinese Red Dog were happily living together, then hormones kicked in & it kicked off between them.
One dog is anxious so surgical castration isn't the answer at this point, the owner thought one of them may have to be rehomed but we had a chat about the Suprelorin implant, this is an injectable implant that slowly lowers testosterone, her vet agreed & the bond they once had is starting to return.
I've introduced confidence building work and engagement into their routines & will be back soon to see how they're doing soon.
Stunning dogs with a committed owner, the CRD is just gorgeous 😍.

09/04/2025

This boys pain trial came to an end the middle of last week, once he finished the medication his behaviour began to regress, I saw him Monday & he was visibly anxious, uncomfortable and overwhelmed.
I've updated the vet & he's back on a lower dose of the medication for a period, because of the origin of pain ( neuropathic ), it's not easy to resolve, so medication may be a long term requirement for him, which is sad in such a young dog, however, the alternative is that he's grumpy, snappy & anxious without it.
We'll reassess him again at the end of this pain trial, but this shows the importance of veterinary examination & support when working with a behaviour case.
He was back on track this morning and worked fantastically doing his scent detection.

07/04/2025

We've finally got some sun ☀️ but with that we have some higher temperatures creeping in this week.
I won't work a dog when it's warm, so any afternoon sessions this week may be postponed / moved to earlier times so it's cool for the dogs.
Welfare is always paramount & won't be compromised.
Pic of Stewie with some of his Scentwork kit from Sandie’s Scent School .

04/04/2025

This is a loud, shouty UK based 'trainer'.
This is totally unacceptable, the physical wounds will hopefully heal, the emotional and behavioural wounds will take much longer.
This is why there is no place for aversives, such as shocks and prongs in training.
The neck area is full of delicate structures, the damage this has caused is unbelievable & totally unnecessary.
The sooner the training and behaviour industry is regulated the better.
Most people in the dog industry know who this is, let's hope they face prosecution for causing unnecessary suffering.

What on earth are we doing? How can training a dog ever end up looking like this?

03/04/2025

I met this beautiful six month old Viz recently, I'd gone with the intention of doing a training session but it soon became apparent that this was more of a behavioural issue which is more complex & needs more time to establish the underlying cause/s.
I gave her owners some work to start off with & I'll be back soon to do a full consultation with them.