Tiny Paws Outdoors

11/12/2025

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10/12/2025

🎄 12 days of Christmas 🎄

Day 9/10 - game carrier

To be in with a chance of winning

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Good luck 🎄🤍

06/12/2025

On the 12th day of Christmas south country leads gave to me …

A 8mm slip lead

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Good luck everyone 🎄

05/12/2025

02/12/2025

BORN THIS WAY?
Do we automatically expect certain breeds to behave in a certain way because of their genetics?

Why is a dog the way they are? Are they just born this way?

Genetics certainly play a part, but genetics are not always a reliable predicter of behaviour.

Genetics may provide us with insight as to what could be expected, but it’s so much more than just that.

Genetics, environment, life experiences and individuality all play a role in shaping a dog’s behaviour.

Just like us, dogs are unique individuals, each with their own personalities, emotions, likes and dislikes, sociability, preferences or different health issues. These often change throughout life.

Just as we learn and change through our life experiences, so do dogs. Negative or positive experiences, trauma, stress, learnt habits, training methods, trust, feeling safe and secure, predictability and stability are all part of how these types of experiences affect behaviour.

Many dogs live in environments that are not compatible with what they were selectively bred to do.

People bred dogs to do certain jobs like guarding, herding, hunting, pointing, scenting, tracking or companionship.

When dogs that were bred for specific jobs, find themselves “unemployed” and have no outlet for what they were originally bred to do, this often leads to pent up frustration and behaviour problems.

Conflict between the environment and a dog’s genetics are an increasingly common reason for behaviour problems.

Yes, a dog may have just been “born this way”, but always look at the whole picture to understand the why of behaviour.

Genetics, environment, individuality and experiences – they all matter.

02/12/2025

🎄12 days of Christmas - day 2 🎄

Keyring tick remover (in photo)

To be in with a chance of winning you must

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Good luck, winner will be announced tonight 💝

27/11/2025

Better late than never, a few clips from our Halloween fun, dogs all did so well as first time indoors. Well done ladies 👏

26/11/2025

26/11/2025

THE CHOICE TO CHOOSE
WHY DOGS SHOULD BE ALLOWED CHOICE

Imagine every little detail of your life is controlled - what and when you eat, where you sleep, when you’re allowed inside or outside, when you’re allowed to go for a walk and if you’re allowed to stop and sniff, who you’re allowed or forced to interact with, what activities you’re allowed to participate in, when you’re given attention, where you’re allowed to be touched etc.

This would create stress and anxiety, a feeling of helplessness, apathy, a lack of confidence and many other negative emotions. The same is true for dogs.

Dogs live in a world where just about everything is controlled by us.

Allowing choice, no matter how simple or small that choice may be, provides so many benefits.

The context and parameters in which we allow choice is obviously important.

Safety, boundaries, environmental factors, other people or animals always need to be taken into account.

A very long time ago, when my daughter was little, she would flat-out refuse to put on the set of clothes I had picked out for her.

Tantrums and stubbornness would often make us late for wherever we were going. This problem was solved by laying out 3 different sets of clothes and allowing her to choose which set she was going to wear.

These were still within my parameters and were still my choice, but by doing this I had allowed her a choice and the problem was solved, without harsh discipline or emotional fall out.

Dogs that are allowed some control over their environment and how they respond to situations are more confident, more emotionally balanced, more resilient, better able to cope with stressful situations, less anxious, less stressed and generally have fewer behaviour problems.

Look for simple, safe ways to provide more choice for your dog.

Improve their wellbeing and quality of life in a world that seeks to dominate and control.

25/11/2025

A little Black Friday treat from us to you
15% off everything - if you’ve been eyeing up a little something for a while now’s the time
Offer ends 30th November 2025

20/11/2025

DISTANCE ASSISTANCE

It’s not easy having a reactive dog. As much as we may feel frustrated, restricted, angry or even ashamed or embarrassed, our reactive dogs are also experiencing a range of negative emotions when they react to something that triggers them.
Reactive dogs have a nervous system issue not a training issue.

This nervous system reaction is usually caused by anxiety, fear, feeling threatened, frustrated or may even be pain related.

These emotions cause high levels of stress and stress prevents both us and our dogs from being able to process information, think clearly or learn a different, more acceptable way of reacting to whatever triggers us.

This is why creating enough distance is so important.

I’m really scared of snakes and even struggle to look at them. The only thing I want to do is run and create as much distance as possible.

If someone was restraining me, forcing me to sit and look at the snake while trying to feed me my favourite chocolate, telling me there was nothing to worry about or trying to educate me about the reptile, it would do nothing to alleviate my fear and would only increase my stress levels.

Doing this at a sufficient distance, where I felt safe would be far more effective and my stress levels would be much lower. In time, with patience and practice, I may even be able to get much closer to the snake without having a negative reaction.

The same principle applies to reactive dogs. Creating sufficient distance where they can see the trigger but still feel safe and don’t react is the best way of helping them to cope with their feelings.

Some dogs, or people, may never be able to decrease that distance and that’s also okay.

We need to accept our dogs for the unique individual they are, keep working on the things we can improve and change and accept the things we can’t.