Pet Gundogs Yorkshire

23/12/2023

SuCCCCess has four C’s! Cooperation, Compromise, Coordination and Consistency!

Paddy (with his signature look) and his human have worked beautifully on this over the last few months.

COOPERATION: When working with dogs that have decided to go ‘self-employed’, we need to understand why they do so, offer them suitable alternatives of what they’re telling us they love to do, and work with instead of against them and their genetics.
COMPROMISE: Sometimes alternative outlets aren’t always possible and we have to pick our battles, a very common one being ‘just give me a little bit of engagement here, then you can sniff that hedge, because I know that that’s what you really want to do’!
COORDINATION: This is mainly for the humans, whose hands and legs need to be doing the right things at the right times… reward delivery and not getting tangled up in a long line are an art in themselves!
CONSISTENCY: Dogs don’t do things that we consider ‘naughty’ on purpose, they do them because they think they’re doing the right thing based on the reinforcement history behind them. The more they practice something - good or ‘bad’ - the better they’ll get at it! So the more consistent you can be in rewarding the right thing, the more they’re likely to do it - happy dog happy owner!

14/05/2023

What’s better than a very handsome boy with a Primula beard!? This very friendly boy struggled to ignore other dogs, but with hard work from him and his hoomans (and a little bit of Primula!), walks are now so much more relaxed and enjoyable 🐶

05/01/2023

I'm a little late in posting our New Year's message because this was a very hard one to write. In late 2022, we lost our golden retriever Jaya - the smiliest and happiest girl, leader of the super trio, and the local street hoover. She was driving force behind my passion for working with dogs. She inspired me to be a better trainer, to question the old and outdated training methods we were told to use all those years ago.
Jaya will continue to be with me in 2023, as I continue to learn and keep up to date with training, and continue to help clients build relationships based on trust with their dogs.
Hoping everyone had a lovely Christmas, and Happy New Year everybody 🐾

18/12/2022

Welcome to these two absolutely beautiful 12 week old sisters, from working parents 🐶
Having one puppy is hard enough, let alone two. Here to support the pups and their humans, they’ll be set up for success from the very beginning. From crate and settle training to understanding spaniel genetics, we’re setting off with the best paw forward! 🐾

27/11/2022

Dotty is a fiery and sassy little lady, and knows exactly what she wants. Left to her own devices, she'd be a little hunting machine as that hunt drive isn't going anywhere - we're fighting genetics here.
But, we need to keep everyone (even those squirrels!) safe, and in order to do that we need to build up a solid human-dog relationship. Get involved, get muddy, and reward all those great choices your dog makes, no matter how small they are!🔥

31/10/2022

Remember puppy Bailey? He’s going through something many a spaniel owner has gone through: losing his head in woodlands 🌲

In this environment, a treat or toy doesn’t really do it for Bailey. One method doesn’t work for every dog, and we’ve been working on a training plan that incorporates Bailey’s biggest reward (sniffing!) to ensure we’re meeting his needs and him and his mum are able to enjoy going on sniffing adventures together 🐾

23/07/2022

Sweet Elsie came in for some loose lead help 🦮 Safe to say her and her humans did super well to help solidfy the foundations of loose lead training (even if they did appear to be walking around like drunks!), as relationship and engagement is fundamental!

04/07/2022

The lovely Dotty recently came in for engagement and recall because, as wonderfully independent as our spaniels can be, this sometimes gets them in tricky situations when they decide they don't need us slow humans! Instead of stopping her hunting and doing her own thing, we got mum involved and it became a team effort and adventure 💪🐾💪🐾

28/05/2022

Meet superstar Riva 🤩 this lovely little lady and her dedicated mum came for some support on how to make their walks a bit less stressful! Through understanding, fun and - if you've got a high drive spaniel you'll understand this last point very well - compromise, we started simple engagement games and fun exercises to honour her genetics 🧬🐾

15/05/2022

At 1 year old, Ralph and Barney were two big, very giddy, Goldador brothers who still needed to see a lot of the world. At yesterday's session, Barney lay down for the first time at the park, happily watching the cricket. This morning, I received this second photo of the boys enjoying a coffee in town. A monumental achievement and all down to their mum's extraordinary hard work, which involved, quite simply, sitting down, watching the world go by and taking it all in!

10/04/2022

Remy has one of the most dedicated hoomans I've ever worked with and their relationship is based entirely on trust. He's completely overstimulated by the environment, but they've both put such a huge amount of work in... from teaching a 'drop' when he'd guard objects to learning that it's okay to pause and have a sit down on a walk. The progress has been slow, but it's finally starting to show. Honoured to work with this pair 🐾🐾

23/03/2022

What's better than a Spinone Italiano x Springer! 😍
The lovely Cora has been in training for wildlife chasing and loose lead. Working with her genetics instead of against them, her dad has worked so hard making sure she's being rewarded for making great choices! 🐾

27/02/2022

This👇👇👇
In my loose lead sessions, I bang on about making sure the dog is being rewarded for choosing to be in our bubble. Often when we're lead walking, the dog has very little choice in the situation and it becomes frustrating for them (especially spaniels!!) 🦮🦮

There is often a misconception when you discuss giving dogs choices.

It can, for some, conjure up images of dogs getting to do as they please through undesirable behaviours like pulling on the lead or attention seeking.

Choices doesn't mean allowing undesirable behaviours to be allowed or rewarded.

Choices allows a sentient animal to feel it has some options and control over their own lives.

Many undesirable behaviours can actually be influenced or caused by lack of choices.

Where they sleep, where they walk, what pace they walk at, how long the stop and sniff that tree for.

We control so much of our dogs lives, when they leave the house, when and what they eat, even in some cases when they can go toilet.

Give them so control back, be their voice!!

19/02/2022

Some smiling faces from our recent loose lead, engagement, settling and puppy clients! 🐶

10/02/2022

A lovely review from Mylo’s humans. Mylo was bouncing off the walls and was struggling to settle down in the house, so we worked on calming games and ensuring he was getting enough sleep by making his den the best place to be! 😴🐾

02/02/2022

Someone recently phoned me and asked for 'The Spaniel Lady'. That's me! I do specialise in mad spaniels, but also work with a lot of labradors and gundog cross breeds. The thing most of them all have in common though is needing engagement and realising that their humans are on the walk with them! Have a look at a few of the wonderful dogs that have had some training over the last few weeks 🐾🐾

07/01/2022

‼️ Announcing a new 121 Loose Lead programme!‼️
Does your dog take you for a walk? Are you struggling to get your dog to even notice you're on the walk with them?
This programme includes three separate hours which begin with focus and engagement, building up to having that perfect loose lead!
Douglas' owner was having unenjoyable lead walks as Douglas was struggling with loose lead and focus, so came for a session this week to get some help. If you think you and your dog could benefit from this new bespoke progamme, please get in touch!
Find out more info on the website: https://www.petgundogsyorkshire.com/book-online

03/01/2022

Fluffball Ziggy’s parents needed some advice on how to manage their new multi dog household, making sure older boy Marley got his own puppy-free time, and beginning engament games on Ziggy’s walks.
Ziggy is a cockerpoo and he’s definitely got strong spaniel traits (sniffing!!) so we ensured he was given an outlet for these genetics! 🐶 🐾