Behaviour Shaping and Training

Behaviour Shaping and Training Behaviour Shaping and Training is a dog and horse training buisness run by Bethany Nicholls covering central Scotland and beyond.

26/07/2024

So as some of you know we have a very special dog named tiffin who has severe brain damage. Because of this we have to make some allowances and changes with tiffins routine, training, etc.

One of the main things with tiffin is her behaviour is very different to a normal dog here is one example. In the video I’ve called tiffin over for a cuddle and a treat, when tiffin wants something or she is happy she champs (that could be food, scratches, to chase flash…) this has been interpreted by other dogs and people that she’s snapping as a precursor/warning to a bite so we have to be careful when and where we give tiffin treats and cuddles out and about and who is around us!

30/05/2024

Something a bit different for Joe this week and his brother Jarvis joined us!

We started with the sheep in a small area so they couldn’t move around too much which might trigger a dog to chase. We then worked into bigger and bigger spaces, I keep myself between the dogs and sheep at all times so I can step in as quickly as possible and the dogs are on long lines. We don’t use fear to keep the dogs from the sheep instead we work on them being able to focus else where.

Both boys were little stars and worked really well even with the sheep running around, keeping their focus on their handlers when asked and able to watch the sheep without chasing.

I do not encourage people to have their dogs off lead around livestock unless working, but we do sometimes come across surprise sheep and need to be able to get our dogs away from any situation 🙂

If you are interested in sheep proofing with your dogs get in touch.

This is my third session with Bertie, when I first met him he was an incredibly anxious dog who was scared of people and...
24/05/2024

This is my third session with Bertie, when I first met him he was an incredibly anxious dog who was scared of people and the outside world. Our first session he barked at me through out and ran away from me.

With the amazing work his fosterers have put in and with some help from the vets with SSRIs look what we managed today! He was actually seeking out my hand for affection, happier and able to chill out! 🤩

Any Dog'il Do Rescue

06/05/2024

People always ask if I’m mad for having springer spaniels and yet I live with this duo …

I got to spend some of my Saturday with the lovely Dolly and her fosterers! Dolly has a history of chasing other animal...
05/05/2024

I got to spend some of my Saturday with the lovely Dolly and her fosterers! Dolly has a history of chasing other animals including dogs cats and wildlife. So we put in place some protocols to try and help her relax outside and learn to disengage with other animals. She’s such a smart cookie so we also started work on mat training and careful introductions to children as the fosterers niece was coming over (also why she was wearing a muzzle).

Dolly is so clever and I have no doubt with her dedicated fosterers that she will smash it!

Dolly is available for rehoming through Any Dog'il Do Rescue

Lambing is finally over for us! So I thought it was a good time to share this post I wrote about sheep proofing your dog...
04/05/2024

Lambing is finally over for us! So I thought it was a good time to share this post I wrote about sheep proofing your dog!

Sheep proofing.

As sheep farmers we are always happy that people want to try and prevent their dogs causing livestock worrying, plus to work your dog on a shoot depending where you are you may need to work your dogs in a field with sheep, so here is my top tips.

Firstly a couple of donts. Please don’t try and start sheep proofing your dog between January and May, the sheep are either heavy in lamb or have lambs just born and are at their most vulnerable to being distressed, aborting or abandoning lambs. It’s also when farmers are at their most stressed and most likely to shout at you, get angry or potentially point a gun at your dog. Yes they do have the right to shoot your dog if it is “out of control” in their field. Out of control is a woolly term that none of us like so just don’t push it!

Next where to sheep proof, so there are some farm shops, farm attraction type places that have small flocks and are dog friendly (please check they are dog friendly). These sheep are very used to seeing dogs and the farmers allow dogs here you can get close to the fence lie with your dog with out causing to much distress.

Obviously we all walk past fields of sheep regularly you can use this if there is a very secure fence line and your dog is on a short lead. I do not recommend using un fenced foot paths that run through sheep fields as a place to train. Yes you have a right to walk through that small section of the field, but your right is to move through that field as quickly and calmly as possible with the dog ON LEAD causing no stress to the animals. This is not a training location unless you have spoken the the farmer first.

No matter where you are training if the sheep start to become distressed running around, stamping feet, panting stop and move away IMMEDIATELY no matter what time of year it is. They aren’t your live stock and you do not have the right to be causing them undue distress.

If you have a puppy start by socialising it with sheep, this does not mean running around near sheep but being in proximity to sheep whilst being calm and being able to focus back on you. Eye contact and settle are great exercises to do this with.

If you have an older dog that has never chased sheep, doesn’t have a strong chase drive, you can do similar to above with the puppies. You can also move on to the next stage which is to contact a farmer (outside lambing time!) and ask if they would kind you training near some of their sheep. If worded correctly and at the right time of year a lot of farmers won’t mind this and allow you to train near the ewes not in lamb or the older lambs. If the dog has been completely calm around sheep so far and shown no interest in them with the farmers permission start with your dog working on a long line in a adjacent field, something they are really good at and stay focused on you, for my boys that’s retrieving. For most spaniels hunting would be hard here as they are more likely to then potentially pick up a scent run and scare the sheep, a moving sheep is far more interesting to chase than a standing one! Slowly build this up, and never trust your dog around sheep, I have sheep my dogs see them daily and have worked in a flock of sheep picking up I still put mine on lead around other peoples sheep!

For dogs that have already chased sheep, this is a hard one and I suggest seeing a trainer about this. You are also going to need an understanding farmer who is willing to pen up a small number of sheep so that can not run around to much. As first you need to habituate your dog to still sheep, much less fun to chase.

Finally thank you again for trying to reduce livestock worrying and being sensible about it :)

25/04/2024

So I’ve been wiped out with some nasty infections and struggling to exercise the dogs so one of the things I do is put out a selection of different enrichment toys filled with treats and let the dogs pick which ones they want!

13/03/2024

This is the gorgeous Joe, who along with his owner have been coming to see me for a couple of months. We originally started out with teaching Joe steadiness to movement to improve him retrieving but him and his mum have discovered a real passion for hunting together and we’ve got them working as a really nice team! We’ve recently introduced a turn whistle and keeping Joe within a certain area to hunt look at him go! Well done guys

FYI - TENNIS BALLS!!!! 🎾 Below are pictures of a 3 year old dog we currently have in foster with us to help with some be...
12/03/2024

FYI - TENNIS BALLS!!!! 🎾

Below are pictures of a 3 year old dog we currently have in foster with us to help with some behaviour issues and general anxiety. As you can see in the pictures she has incredibly worn teeth, some of the worst we have ever seen and you may not realise this damage is thanks to those innocuous fuzzy balls. She is tennis ball obsessed and hours of playing catch and chewing on them has unfortunately lead to this. The fuzz is in it self is highly abrasive and wears away at the teeth but they also trap sand and grit turning them into sandpaper!

Now I’m not demonising all balls here, we use balls with our own dogs and for training, but if you are going to use balls for your dog please use the rubber ones with no fuzz like the one picture below (other brands are available but we do love kong here). You still need to give these a rinse every now and then especially after going to the beach to remove sand and grit, similarly please do the same with all over training equipment especially dummies which can also pick up the muck!

Oh and yes she is going to be fine but needs a serious dental that’s going to be 💰 and is going to lose a lot of teeth but she will adapt :)

Today I went to see Bertie from Any Dog'il Do Rescue who’s in foster care at the moment. He’s a very nervous boy but wit...
08/03/2024

Today I went to see Bertie from Any Dog'il Do Rescue who’s in foster care at the moment. He’s a very nervous boy but with a heart of gold and hopefully with a little bit of help from the vets, his fosterers and myself he’ll soon be on the right path! Looks like we tired him out in our first session though!

“Are they gundogs/working dogs? Yes, but…” This is a question I get all the time and often people are a little taken aba...
04/03/2024

“Are they gundogs/working dogs? Yes, but…”

This is a question I get all the time and often people are a little taken aback when I say they are, because they are often running around like loons with harnesses on not the typical view people have of a working dog.

Maximum days I’ve ever done in a season (so far) is 25, but my dogs are with me every day so the other 340 days of the year they are out in pubs, towns, woods, training, competitions, you name it. So for me training for that in many ways is more important, they do that more than out on shoots being beating/picking up dogs.

This week I’ve been home in east Anglia with my family, the boys have had to travel down for 8 hours (with breaks), walked around town and been out for lunch, they’ve been to my sisters house with her cat and two young boys, they’ve walked on Newmarket common and had racehorse come up behind us. They haven’t put a foot wrong and not to blow my own trumpet but that’s mainly because I have prepared them for this! So don’t just think about training your dog for a job think about every day between! :)

It’s finally warming up!!!!! Tiffins getting her first sunbathing day of the year in
26/02/2024

It’s finally warming up!!!!! Tiffins getting her first sunbathing day of the year in

So today the dogs got a run around a different part of the Avon valley, we went to the ruins of Cadzow castle and around...
25/02/2024

So today the dogs got a run around a different part of the Avon valley, we went to the ruins of Cadzow castle and around the ancient woods.

At least once a week, and out of season more than that, the dogs get a free run around where we ask nothing of them other than they come back when asked (Tiffin only gets free walks really as the “untrainable one”). They get time to sniff and explore and be dogs! We think it’s important that they get time to do what they want rather than what we ask of them.

22/02/2024

So in the good things that happened whilst I’ve been away I (finally) finished my MSc in Clinical animal behaviour and graduated from the university of Edinburgh!

I’M BACK!!!! It’s been a tough and weird couple of years but I’m finally on a position to ramp up my behaviour work and ...
21/02/2024

I’M BACK!!!!

It’s been a tough and weird couple of years but I’m finally on a position to ramp up my behaviour work and hopefully make it my full time profession! I’m so glad of all the support of clients who’ve stayed with me through the last couple of years, my friends and family and of course my dogs!

I’ll be posting updates about what’s been happening and what we have to offer over the next week so stay tuned and it’s time to get my name back out there!

Photo by the amazing Lee Live: Photographer

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So as some of you know we have a very special dog named tiffin who has severe brain damage. Because of this we have to make some allowances and changes with tiffins routine, training, etc. One of the main things with tiffin is her behaviour is very different to a normal dog here is one example. In the video I’ve called tiffin over for a cuddle and a treat, when tiffin wants something or she is happy she champs (that could be food, scratches, to chase flash…) this has been interpreted by other dogs and people that she’s snapping as a precursor/warning to a bite so we have to be careful when and where we give tiffin treats and cuddles out and about and who is around us!

Something a bit different for Joe this week and his brother Jarvis joined us! We started with the sheep in a small area so they couldn’t move around too much which might trigger a dog to chase. We then worked into bigger and bigger spaces, I keep myself between the dogs and sheep at all times so I can step in as quickly as possible and the dogs are on long lines. We don’t use fear to keep the dogs from the sheep instead we work on them being able to focus else where. Both boys were little stars and worked really well even with the sheep running around, keeping their focus on their handlers when asked and able to watch the sheep without chasing. I do not encourage people to have their dogs off lead around livestock unless working, but we do sometimes come across surprise sheep and need to be able to get our dogs away from any situation 🙂 If you are interested in sheep proofing with your dogs get in touch.

People always ask if I’m mad for having springer spaniels and yet I live with this duo …

So I’ve been wiped out with some nasty infections and struggling to exercise the dogs so one of the things I do is put out a selection of different enrichment toys filled with treats and let the dogs pick which ones they want!

This is the gorgeous Joe, who along with his owner have been coming to see me for a couple of months. We originally started out with teaching Joe steadiness to movement to improve him retrieving but him and his mum have discovered a real passion for hunting together and we’ve got them working as a really nice team! We’ve recently introduced a turn whistle and keeping Joe within a certain area to hunt look at him go! Well done guys

So in the good things that happened whilst I’ve been away I (finally) finished my MSc in Clinical animal behaviour and graduated from the university of Edinburgh!

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About me

Bethany Nicholls is a dog and horse trainer covering central Scotland and beyond. She started horse training prior to her first degree on a yard where she was first introduced to Equitation Science, through Jody Hartstone.

After completing her BSc (hons) at Lincoln University she went into veterinary diagnostics and research, continuing to expand her training interests and techniques with her own dogs.

In 2016 she moved to West Lothian and became a trainer with a local training club, and in 2018 started her, MSc in clinical animal behaviour at Edinburgh University, specialising in Canine and Equine. She has already achieved her PG Cert and is on track to gain PG Dip by 2020 and complete her MSc by 2021.

She regularly attends conferences and CPD outside of studying to continually improve her practical training knowledge and repertoire.