Ruff Start Dog Training.

05/07/2025

Ok it's the Sun newspaper that great custodian of unbiased and defently not sensationalized news that promotes big
t!&s.

I'm kinda getting known for ranting about dogs in the film industry. Every time they feature a different breed, the sales of that dog rockets and the backyard breeders get in on the action.

The end result is a huge number of anxiety ridden dogs with health issues, paired with people who really shouldn't have them.
If you can't be bothered to read the article, (don't blame you).
The Neanderthal owner said they had them for their protection. Its 2025 it should be are job to protect are dogs not the other way around.

Up until we foster failed one the Belgian Mal/ shepherd was on my list of dogs I didn't want. Dogs in general can be a lot of work, these double it. Add in health and psychological issues due to breeding and you can double it again.

Wondering when BSL is going to go for them.

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy was savagely mauled by a dog in the street as his mum bravely tried to fight off the pet in front of his little sister. The fearless mum tried to get the Belgian Malinois away f…

02/07/2025

With the fourth of July approaching a lot of American trainers are putting out information on preparing your dog for fireworks.

Now's a perfect opportunity to gather information and start preparing are dogs for fireworks.

a couple of days beforehand won't cut it, several months.... Your going to be laughing.

02/07/2025

01/07/2025

Sure this was happening a couple of months ago.
follows the links to the FB page and it's dated 27th June.

Dog walkers must "be vigilant", say police and a council, after treats with fishhooks were found.

29/06/2025

Is it a 4 am rant when it's half four and you've been up since three?

I read something the other day that suggested one in 500 UK dogs are on mood stabilizing drugs. That's a crazy number. There's also more calming treats on the market than ever before.

Are we mediating are dogs into obedience? Or is it just a societal thing?

The last time I bought up this topic it created some big feelings in people.

I get it. The worlds nuts right now, after the whole return to the office thing after covid a lot of dogs spending far more time by themselves, but surely there's a better way?

Diet, proper nutrition exercise, a chance to work their minds as well as good outlets for breed specific behaviours are all proven to help do with a huge range of behaviour difficulties.

I'm not saying meds don't have their place, I'm saying if they are it should be alongside training and enrichment.

28/06/2025

Warning.
Slightly icky photos for some people.

Spent a couple of days in the kitchen at Cowleys fine foods helping prep wood pigeon. Purchased from a legitimate sauce so they're free from parasites wood pigeon is highly sustainable and a incredibly good source of protein with next to no fat. https://cowleysfinefoods.co.uk/

The bones went into a insanely big pan to boil and then simmer. After the better part of two days the bone's were removed and I know have something in the region of twenty litres of bone broth.

Bone broth I'll let you look it up, it's great for your dogs in so many ways.

Also as an experiment we also je**ed two kilos of chicken thighs for the dogs.

27/06/2025

Well my post the other day generated a few big feelings. Even got quite a emotionally charged message, but people are entitled to their opinions. As is said, opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one doesn't mean I want it shoved in my face.

My opinion. It should be are role to educate so that people are able to make informed decision.

It should also be are task as owners and trainer's to learn as much as possible about every aspect of dog training and decide what we believe is acceptable or not.

Quite a while ago I found myself working with a dog that was continually air snapping at my face.

It wasn't what I was invited there to do, but you live and learn. I ask a lot more questions now.

It was kinda scary.
Found myself using flooding. Purposely allowing stress levels to reach a point where the dog shut down emotionally.

I hated doing it.

It was also the only way I was going to be able to work with the dog in the time frame. If I could ever be bothered to take videos (clients are welcome to take them) a before and after you would have seen a very stressed dog and then one playing games with me like nose targeting.

To some it would have been an exciting video. It would also look just like one of Southend Dog Training or Lee Jones videos.

My preferred approach would have been far more boring. It would also have taken time that the dog didn't have because if they'd bitten someone.....

If I'd seen that non existing video I could easily pull it apart. Talk about the dangers of flooding on both the dogs mental and physical health. I could say about the jumping and twisting the dog was doing and the damage to their skeletal system as for the clients lead around the dogs neck. Well enough said.

The thing is at the time it was the right thing to do.

Does that make me a hypocrite?
Probably.

There's also far worse on every side of the training spectrum. Just look at the animal welfare, breeding scandal that happened in 2023.

26/06/2025

So some cheeky madam has taught Maleficent to bark out the front window at the local cats.

When this sort of thing happens you've got a couple of choices.
I'm going for a combination of the two.

Ideally I'll need to be ready to stand there watching out the window with her but who's got time for that.
So first step becomes management. Lets block out the view it's not a great one anyway. She can't see the cats she's going to get out of the habit of looking for them. The second step will begin after removing the window film.

25/06/2025

This has been brewing for awhile. Probably going to upset someone but I’m in a bad mood anyway.

It seems like everyday I see a new video on social media of a trainer rubbishing a different one, over a clash of styles. It’s confusing to the point you don’t know who or what to believe.
I can’t help but think it’s the dogs that are suffering.

With people like Zak George developing almost a cult like following and supposedly using his following to attack small business and other trainers.
We had a similar thing in the UK a couple of years back when LickiMat shared a stand at Cruffs with Southend Dog Training. The backslash lickimat got was unreal. I might not agree with what Southend does, I also don't agree with what happens at Cruffs.
That aside ,You know what? It’s fine to disagree, it's healthy. What’s not healthy is the obsession with picking apart other people’s training methods and ideology and attacking anyone whos... infact not even associated with them.
Not only is it not healthy it’s way too easy.

Heck I’ve seen a video of Zak George wrestle a dog he was “training” to the ground. WTF on what planet is that considered acceptable.

With a couple of exceptions I doubt there’s any trainer on the planet that does not strive to use positive reinforcement. However....
When my nieces were little they wanted to walk down the street holding my hand, if one of them had stepped towards the curb guess what I would have done. Yep pulled them back. It would be instinctive. Replace nieces with dogs and what happens. I’ve just applied force, and you could easily say I’ve just used punishment.
Withhold a treat or take away a toy, that’s punishment. Noone can truly claim they're entirely force free positive reinforcement training. Oh lastly if you're trainer says to use a figure 8 or gentle leader. They're designed to cause discomfort.

25/06/2025

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/24/crufts-trainer-animal-cruelty-three-dogs-die-hot-car-crates/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLI_1BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHio68nyos4OhRwjGr924NS1UHT4_DxtsgKQ1uBWVLssYM8oEh8YWcUv1omXs_aem_B2G2Y14bDccjST_VYYH1Zw

Andrew Claridge-Fleming faces jail after admitting animal cruelty

22/06/2025

I'm not into bites sports. Although I play tug and things like that which is a foundation for them, so really I should learn more before commenting.

I'm going to share a video that I think a lot of people around here need to watch.
I don't like a lot of the tools this trainer uses, some of them are banned in the UK.
I fully believe to use them effectively you need to have impeccable timing and an incredibly deep knowledge of canine psychology, I also believe if you have those two things you don't need these tools.

Opinions aside after all the paraphrase the late great sir Terry Pratchett any two trainers in an argument will have a three differences of opinion. I can't respect him for the amount of work he does with dogs that's the on their last chance.

https://www.facebook.com/RobertCabral/videos/1915055092578462/