Wags at Crags

12/04/2025

12/04/2025

*** UPDATE - Only a couple of spaces left ***

🐕🎓 Puppy and Junior (7+ months) general manners and life skills. Small groups, both indoor and outdoor training (depending on weather) in the Sutton-cum-Lound Village Hall and the surrounding green. More info and booking option on the website.

✅ Classes starting Sunday 27th April in Sutton-cum-Lound Village Hall, 4 week course:

Junior 9.30am - 2 spaces left
Puppy 10.30am - 1 space left

Book your place securely on Wags at Crags website 🖱️

18/03/2025

The chemicals used in standard flea treatments are polluting waterways and having a drastic effect on wildlife like killing songbird chicks🪺.

"Research at the University of Sussex has found that pesticides used in regular flea treatments are in 98% of English rivers, often at levels far higher than those deemed safe.

Some of this is from treated dogs swimming, but much goes down the drain from households, (eg from shampooing dogs, washing bedding, stroking and washing hands) and then enters rivers, according to Dave Goulson, professor of biology at Sussex, who co-authored the study and supervised the research.

Recent research also found that 100% of blue tit🐦 and great tit nests🪹 are contaminated with pesticides💦 from pet flea treatment, as the birds collect fur from dogs and cats to insulate their nests. The study, funded by the charity Songbird Survival, found that nestling mortality is associated with higher levels of the pesticides.

[...] If spot-on products are considered the only appropriate form of treatment, you should brush your pet indoors or in a sheltered area where you can gather the hair afterwards and dispose of it in a sealed bag.

'What we don’t want is the hair blowing away and birds collecting it up as nesting material. I think a lot of us have probably thought that was kind of quite a nice thing for birds to do but clearly it really isn’t if the hair is contaminated with chemicals,' said Millineaux.

It is also important to take care of packaging material, particularly from spot-on products. 'I’ve heard horror stories of people washing out the little containers, which obviously do contaminate water,' added Millineaux.

'What we want to be doing is not washing them out but disposing them of them in something like a seal bag and following any manufacturers guidelines.'

Washing is discouraged for several days after treatments, owing to the risk of product getting into waterways. " - Guardian

13/03/2025

Congratulations Matt 🎉

10/03/2025

4 Homes - 6 Walks - 8 Dogs

Busy Mondays, I'm ready to put my feet up!

01/03/2025

09/02/2025

05/02/2025

*** MARCH PUPPY & JUNIOR CLASSES - BOOKINGS OPEN ***

Manners and life skills - loose lead walking, settle, polite greetings, Wait&Stay, recall and more. Only reward-based, force free training techniques will be used.

🖱 Bookings for classes starting 2nd March are now open on Wags at Crags website, see poster below. This will be a 6 week course on Sunday mornings.

🐶 If you are soon welcoming a puppy to your home, consider booking early to avoid disappointment. Junior classes are suitable for rescues and nervous dogs (if reactive message me first to check).

🏫 We have access to the village hall AND the surrounding field, giving us flexibility to train indoor or outdoor depending on weather.

🐩Small groups to ensure everyone gets 1-2-1 attention and can ask individual questions.

04/02/2025

It’s Tuesday so why not make it Tenner Tuesday? 👀

Today our full range of BioThane Tug Toys* are just £10 🤩 Discount is already applied too so a rep code could be added on top… 🤭

Oh and did I mention our NEW Buoy Tugs are also included in this offer?! Run don’t walk, limited numbers available 😉🌈

*Large Floaty Tugs are £12 instead and Brass Hardware is an additional £1.50

Offer ends Wednesday 5/2 at 8am 🧡

26/01/2025

Public awareness post

If you use Rover service for boarding your dog in the boarder's own home, please ask them for their licence number. The majority won't have one, because they are not licenced.

If anything goes wrong, and your pet is injured and needs emergency vet care, for example, Rover will not cover you. Rover does not check that boarders comply with local laws (this is your responsibility), however their terms clearly state that this is a requirement - as it should be.
I am not criticising anyone using Rover for dog boarding, this is entirely your decision and you might have a great sitter you trust 100%. I am just raising awareness that you won't have the cover provided by Rover (which is one of their selling points) unless the boarder is licenced by the council.

25/01/2025

UPDATE - Junior class (7+ months) has 2 spaces left, puppy class is now FULL.

🐕🎓 Puppy and Junior (7+ months) general manners and life skills. Small groups, both indoor and outdoor training (depending on weather) in the heated Sutton-cum-Lound Village Hall and the surrounding green. More info and booking option on the website (link in comments).

✅ Classes starting Sunday 2nd March in Sutton-cum-Lound Village Hall:

Junior 9.30am - 2 spaces
Puppy 10.30am - SOLD OUT

Book your place securely on Wags at Crags website 🖱️

08/01/2025

06/01/2025

First day back at work after the Christmas break, and not a bad way to start. Lovely walk through the Bevercotes Pit Nature Reserve, with some roe deer crossing the path right in front of us. Baxter was frozen on the spot and mesmerized. The deer were completely silent (to my human ear).

06/01/2025

Today, we honor the incredible life and legacy of Karen Pryor, a pioneer who transformed the world of animal training and left an indelible mark on our industry.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Karen Pryor’s groundbreaking work paved the way for trainers like myself, and countless others, to advocate for humane, effective training methods. While the fight for positive change would still continue, her visionary efforts undoubtedly accelerated the progress, bringing us to this better place much sooner than we might have otherwise achieved.

Karen Pryor was one of the first to show the world that animals don’t need to be trained with violence or fear. Her work with marine mammals in the 1960s, grounded in science and compassion, paved the way for positive reinforcement techniques that continue to shape the industry.

She didn’t just teach us how to train better; she taught us to see animals as sentient beings, deserving of respect, patience, and understanding.

Her book Don’t Shoot the Dog! remains a cornerstone in the field of behavioral psychology and animal training, introducing the world to the principles of operant conditioning and the power of positive reinforcement. The Karen Pryor Academy, founded in 2007, has trained thousands of professionals, ensuring her legacy endures in the hands of those committed to ethical training practices.

She laid the foundation for a movement that prioritizes trust, connection, and kindness. The positive changes we see in the industry today, our collective rejection of outdated, punitive methods, are a direct result of her fearless advocacy and unwavering belief in a better way.

Her work changed our field, but more importantly, it changed the way we connect with the animals who share our lives.

Thank you, Karen, for showing us what’s possible when science and compassion come together.

Your legacy will continue to inspire us, and we’ll strive to honor your memory by carrying your vision of compassion for animals forward. Rest in peace, and thank you for everything.

Zak George

03/01/2025

For anyone who has welcomed a new puppy into their family recently, or is about to, this is a very good read about the amount and the type of exercise puppies need (hint - it's not 5 minutes per month of thier lives).

https://www.thecanineconsultants.co.uk/post/puppy-development-exercise-myth-legend?fbclid=IwY2xjawHk5HFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcuPv95xowuXyjJGpakZqAW7Af6GHp-O_NO9iwOeY341C9cDl3da2o5KRw_aem_IZG_ZOrn8D7GRNKCgS3d3g

You'll often hear a rule of thumb, that puppies should only have 5 minutes of exercise per month of age... so an 8 week old puppy can have 10 minutes, a 12 week old can have 15 minutes and so on. Sometimes this advice will be supplied with an xray image of a very young puppy whose bones are not full...