Juvo Animal Behaviour

16/12/2024

Utterly fantastic book! Cannot believe it’s only £3 in the Works. Thanks for the heads up Sara McIver - Training and Behaviour Thoughts! 💚

Anyone looking for an easy to read guide on dog body language, make this a must for your Christmas list!!!! Currently in The Works for £3. Perfect little stocking filler!!! 🥰❤️

16/12/2024

Creating a safe space for your animals can be so beneficial for everyone when our routines and environments change and our homes suddenly become full of people, noise, smells and festivities.

Think about creating one now so it is ready and your animals are used to it when you need it.

12/12/2024

Meet Nuala 💚 I’ve been working with Nuala and her family over the last few weeks on their Life Skills for Puppies private course.

While she’s been learning all the foundations, she’s also been developing her confidence and has really come out of her shell. Her family have been very patient and understanding which has allowed her to blossom into a much more confident and resilient little pup 💚

11/12/2024

Feeling festive… Largely due to the endless viruses my children keep bringing home to share with everyone! Hope you are all feeling better than us! ☺️

01/12/2024

😔

*** WARNING*** We have been made aware that a mixture of dry dog food, acorns and mushrooms have been left in Ostlers Woods today, pictured below. Please DO NOT let your dogs eat any of this mixture. If your dog has eaten any of this in Ostlers Woods please call the surgery on 01526 268060.

07/11/2024

This is very disappointing! I have mentioned on here a few times that I often operate from a private secure paddock at TFM. This is with prior arrangement and agreement with Nikki - when she is happy for me to use it and it has not already been booked for chicken rehoming or for use by her own dogs.

If anyone knows anybody who thinks it is for public use, please share this with them to communicate that it is private land. Thank you.

I can't quite believe I'm having to post but sadly here we go 🙁
POLITE REQUEST - DOG PADDOCK AND DOG FOULING

Meet Saffie, she's my Serbian rescue dog. The TFM dog paddock was created for her use as she's VERY reactive and it allows her off lead exercise whilst she's with me at work. Weighing 27kg, she's not easy to control when she's in full flow especially when I have my other two with a combined weight of almost 50kg. As a result, this paddock is NOT for general use and never has been. Sadly, it seems both customers and Joe Public are using it whether they shop here or not. Yes, just randomly parking here and using it has just happened 😞 The paddock is now padlocked. We also use this space for chicken rehoming and last time we had to stop a customer coming to use it whilst we had chickens in there.

There are dog paddock facilities in the area you can hire. Please use them if you want to give your dog off lead freedom in a safe space.

A member of the team has also witnessed someone (again, not shopping with us) repeatedly allowing their dog to defecate on our grass frontage and not pick up. We work hard for our premises to look smart and it saddens me that people think this is ok. 😞 This area is covered by our CCTV and any future reports of this behaviour will be presented to the dog warden to action.

Thank you for your consideration to my very old rescue girl and to our premises. Nikki

Update - customers are more than welcome to exercise on lead dogs around our car park area before visiting the shop. Leave full poo bags outside and inform staff. We will happily dispose of them for you.

04/11/2024

Meet Rumsey 💚 who is looking very soggy here after her follow-up session in the paddock last week.

Rumsey has been working on feeling more relaxed and comfortable on her walks and when seeing other dogs. We’re only a few weeks in, but she showed us some real progress in her follow-up even though we’re taking it very gently, and we were really proud of her.

Special praise to her owner for being sensitive to her needs and moving at Rumsey’s pace with our plan 👏🏻

*In case you were wondering, the white box on her collar is her GPS tracker (just in case). We do not use shock or spray collars at Juvo. Not now, not ever.

31/10/2024

Already hearing them tonight at 4pm!!!!!

29/10/2024

15/10/2024

🐴✨ More Horses Monday: Recognising the Signs of Stress in Horses ✨🐴

Understanding your horse's stress signals is key to maintaining their well-being. Horses express stress in various ways, and recognising these signs early can help prevent health and behavioural issues.

According to the British Horse Society (BHS), stress in horses may present through the following behaviours and changes:

🐴 Personality change – If your usually friendly horse suddenly appears grumpy, stress may be the cause.

🐴 Unexplained weight loss – Stress can impact appetite and digestion, leading to weight loss without any obvious cause.

🐴 Stereotypical behaviours – Actions like box walking, wind sucking, or crib biting can be signs of stress or boredom.

🐴Yawning – A horse yawning may be relaxed, but repetitive yawning in stressful situations like isolation can be a warning sign.

🐴Tooth grinding – Grinding their teeth can indicate anxiety or discomfort.

🐴Licking and chewing – While normal in some contexts (e.g., anticipating food), licking and chewing in stressful situations, like being left alone, can be a coping mechanism.

🐴Apathy – A stressed horse might show a lack of interest or apathy in activities they usually enjoy.

🐴Facial tension – Look for tightness around the muzzle and facial muscles, a subtle sign of anxiety.

Identifying these behaviours early and understanding their context is essential to keeping horses happy and healthy. If you're unsure, speak to your vet and seek referral to a FABC clinician for advice. 💙

For more detailed information, check out the British Horse Society's guide here: https://bit.ly/4889Qr6

15/10/2024

With Diwali and Bonfire Night only a couple of weeks away, now is the time to get your animals prepared if they struggle with the fireworks 🎆

I’ll share my other info post later, but today, think about speaking with your vet to see if they recommend any suitable calming aids. This will allow time to try them out well in advance in case you need to switch to something different.

Look out on social media or ask around for details of planned firework events. Note down which dates and times they are due to start so you can be prepared for them. Do keep in mind that there may still be unpredictable fireworks going off on different days.

Make sure that contact details on microchips are up to date, and replace ID tags if your contact details have changed. If your animals bolt, people will need to reach you.

More to come later, but make these your top priorities this week.

08/10/2024

On Sunday I had an incredible time at DogX 2024 hosted by PACT

Learning, networking, and being reassured that the ways I work are still up to date and best practice. I also got to catch up with some lovely friends and colleagues that I haven’t seen for ages, and meet some people in person that I haven’t yet had the chance to ☺️

Our speakers were:

Linda Michaels
Ryan Dillon
Tamsin Durston

Steph Rousseau
Simone Mueller

and they were all brilliant. What a fab day 🤓💚

07/10/2024

What is CPD and why is it important?

Continuing professional development (CPD) is the process of continued learning in order to maintain and improve on your knowledge and skills. Examples of this are through courses, attending conferences, webinars, and reading.

This is important in most industries, but is particularly important when it is based on science. Our knowledge and understanding of animal behaviour and welfare is evolving all the time. It is essential to be aware of things we need to update, stop, add in, or rethink in order to provide the best possible help and ensure everyone’s welfare is our top priority.

CPD is a requirement to maintain accreditations and memberships and while it dips into our working hours and we usually have to pay for it, I always enjoy my CPD and always learn something new 🤓 📖

16/08/2024

Meet Lewy 💚 This gorgeous little guy has been working with me while navigating through puppyhood. His family are all about adventure and taking him with them, while also meeting his needs and being careful not to overwhelm him. He has already been introduced to loads of different experiences and even different countries!

Socialisation needs to be done carefully. It is about gentle and positive exposure to lots of different things that your puppy may encounter in their life - BUT… they need to feel comfortable and happy or relaxed about it (or you run the risk of creating fear around those things instead).

Lewy’s family like travelling and it will be part of his life forever, so we talked about how we could introduce it carefully at a young age to set him up to love it and feel confident about it.

We now have a little explorer on our hands 🐾 Huge praise for Lewy’s family who have been careful to meet his needs from day one and now have an adventure buddy 💚

15/08/2024

🙌🏻

25/07/2024

Huge congratulations to Abi and Mable who graduated from their Life Skills for Puppies course last weekend 🎓 💚 🐾

We covered all the foundations to give her the best start in life and added things to Abi’s toolkit to refer back to as Mable gets older.

Abi was really good at watching Mable and getting her timing spot on to help Mable learn.

Well done guys! 🥳

23/07/2024

Puppy services 🐶 (more to follow soon ☺️)

11/05/2024

Happy graduation day to Melissa and little Luna 💚

Luna has just completed her private Life Skills for Puppies course and she absolutely smashed it!

We started with 4 sessions at her home and then finished off today in our private paddock. This allowed us to test some of the skills she has been learning over the course in a more distracting environment. She was fab!

Very well done to Melissa for taking everything on board over the last five weeks and putting it all into practice. She has been a fantastic advocate for Luna and I’m really proud of her.

Well done girls!! 💚