Stay Positive - Dog Behaviour and Training

01/01/2025

Happy new year everyone! 🐾

Having recently welcomed my daughter to the world, I've been spending the most recent months working on
- loose lead walking and spacial awareness around the pram
- visitor protocol, including barking at the door and keeping all four paws on the ground
- desensitising to crying and changes to sleep routines

If you would like to improve your dogs behaviour inside or outside the home, then drop me a message! Spaces for January are filling up for 121 behavioural consultations with a few spaces left.

17/10/2024

A video I helped with pet plan on how enrichment feeding your pets can be low cost, but have massive benefits busting border, offering problem solving opportunities which can help lower frustration and is 'free exersise!'

10/09/2024

Excited to watch the newest series of The Dog House!!

Anyone else tuning in? 📺

You occasionally see this face on it 👀 🤣

We're back! A brand new series of 'The Dog House' starts on Sunday 15 September at 8pm on Channel 4.

How excited are you? 🐶🏠

22/06/2024

It's official, Chia is now the newest member of our household 🐾

She's a rescue, around 2 years old and clearly has been used for breeding of multiple litters of puppies. She came in as stray, so didn't know much else about her before hand, but I feel privileged to have such a loving and gentle girl.

Feels great to be a dog owner again and coming home to this face every day.

Any guesses on her breed type? 🐶

28/05/2024

Rocky was one of the softest gentle giants I've ever worked with.

People often underestimate that dogs are able to feel a range of emotional states, including grief and depression.

Depression doesn't always present itself like it did with Rocky, who was sadly not eating and losing weight.

It's important to know there's a whole range of behaviours that can suggest your dogs mental well being is affected such as barking to other dogs, reactive to sounds in the home, obsessive behaviours, over excitability/mouthing and lack of impulse control.

This is why my approach will always be to look at every part of your dogs life from medical, age, diet, sleep, amount physical/mental stimulation, overall mood, stressors and outlets for natural behaviours. We can then work together to understand the root causes behind the behaviour.

12/05/2024

Tonight 'The Dog House' has been nominated for another BAFTA! 🏆

It's an amazing experience being a part of the show as a dog handler right from the very beginning. Fingers crossed!!🤞

29/03/2024

In this clip for the channels 4s The Dog House you'll see me briefly working on Brookes reactivity to other dogs.

German shepherds do have a reputation for being a 'gobby breed' and through selective breeding humans have specifically breed German shepherds that bark, as this makes them excellent guard dogs. However, as a result, barking becomes a default behaviour when they feel frustrated, scared, excited unsure or over stimulated.

Not all dog reactive dogs are aggressive!

Brookes underlying emotion behind her barking was actually frustration. She was desperate to get to dogs to say hello, but being on lead prevented this causing her to feel frustrated. Her coping mechanism for this was... You guessed it barking.

If you have a reactive dog then get in touch, and I can help you understand what's causing their reactivity and arm you with skills and knowledge to support them.

With Brooke we practiced desensitizing her to other dogs at a distance she could cope at, and was able to successfully re-home with another dog!

15/03/2024

Ollie was a typical busy spaniel! They are bred to help hunters find and retrieve game, which is why they find it rewarding chasing tennis balls and carrying things in their mouth.

A typical owner might try to use endless toy games to tire Ollie out. What that can actually create is a highly adrenalised dog, with the fitness of an athlete!

This is why it's really important to work a dog's brain and provide outlets for what he is breed to do. Some ideas area
- blind retrieves instead of fetch (using his nose, not his eyes to find toys)
- scatter feeding (throwing his dinner in the garden to work his brain) instead of bowl feeding
- opportunities to chew (a highly rewarding but tiring behaviour)
- find it games inside the home - suitable for all weather!

If you want help understanding the individual needs of your dog and to help 'calm' them down drop me a message!

14/03/2024

If you missed the dog house tonight, you can watch the newest episode on catch up. Keep an eye out for me as one of the dog handlers! 👀

Currently have bookings available for this month and start of April. Drop me a message for any and all support you need for your dog 😁

Calling all dog-lovers 📣: Your favourite show ‘The Dog House’ is back on screens tonight! Tune in at 8pm on Channel 4 to see more lives being changed by the perfect match at Woodgreen. 🐶🏠

04/03/2024

A video I worked on with Pet Plan about the importance of enrichment and activity feeding and it's benefits!