Dog Nerd Training

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Dog Nerd Training

Dog Nerd Training is a small West Sussex dog training business run by Emily Talmadge CTDI PDT.

At Dog Nerd Training we want to inspire our clients to truly learn about their dogs and how to help them succeed throughout their life, and we aim to be with them every step of the way. Our small business model allows for the 1-2-1 attention and ongoing assistance our clients need in order to succeed long term. Making our service a true partnership between the client and myself. I, Emily, am a ful

ly qualified dog trainer, puppy training specialist, and certified trick dog instructor (CTDI) with 5+ years of experience in the industry. I am also well known for my educational dog training graphics, which I use to proudly spread up-to-date training information across the web. When training I use science-based, force-free training methods alongside games-based training. I also focus on good habit-building for both dog and owner using worldwide recognised habit-building methods, this allows owners to keep motivated with their training so they can get long-term results they need. My focus and hope for my clients is that they will gain a true love of learning about their dogs and through their time with us they too will also begin to call themselves a 'Dog Nerd'.

11/07/2025

Resource guarding can be a big struggle for a lot of owners, and is something that needs to be taken seriously as it does create a bite risk for anyone around the dog. However, like lots of areas in dog training, there is conflicting information online about how this behaviour should be worked through, with some schools of thought suggesting messing with the dog's food in order to gain compliance. 😓

So what does the science actually say??

Well, a 2017 study into resource guarding found that messing with a dog's food bowl actually created an increase in resource guarding behaviour, rather than the decrease that dominance based training states, and it was adding food TO the dog's bowl rather than removing it which created a decrease in the behaviour.

Why does this work? 🤔

Let's imagine you are eating your dinner and someone comes out of the blue and takes it away. You would quite rightly be quite annoyed, and if this started happening on a regular basis, once you saw this person approach when you had your dinner you would put steps in to stop them taking it. Perhaps putting your arms around it, holding it closer, yelling at them to go away, or putting your body between them and it. However, if this same person turned up and offered you your favourite food in return for what you currently had you would start to have a different emotional response to their approach. Every time they turned up you would get excited, associating them with bringing positive options for you rather than loosing the one option you had. This is exactly what it is like for our dogs! They do not know the logic and reasoning why we may want to remove something from them, just that we are, and so will naturally learn to defend objects should this become a regular occurrence. But if we are adding something positive to their experience, they will start to feel happy and safe in our presence instead.

So, if your dog is showing signs of resource guarding I would always recommend to contact a qualified trainer to show you the safest and most effective way to work on the struggle for your individual case. But what the science shows is messing with your dogs food is certainly not the answer. 🐶

You can find the study quoted in the graphic here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167587717301253

10/07/2025

Due to the heat, classes tonight at Coolham have been cancelled for the safety of the dogs. Emails have been sent to those effected 🥵

09/07/2025

Busy start to the week, with a variety of unique characters, before the weather started getting hot again!!! 🌤️ 🐾

If you are interested in booking any future 1-2-1 sessions you can contact me at: [email protected]

07/07/2025

I am excited to be volunteering at Storrington Library (West Sussex Libraries) this summer to help with the Summer Reading Challenge!! 🤩

Work can be quieter around the summer months with people on their holibobs and the heat, so what better time to help out in the community for something I am passionate about - reading!!

Those of you who have followed this page from the start of Dog Nerd Training, and before, know I love recommending and reviewing dog training books to help inspire further learning from clients and dog lovers alike.

And why not start them early? The Summer Reading Challenge is specifically for getting children reading over the summer holidays. If they read 6 library books (and/or complete the other fun challenges) over the summer they can earn stickers, medals, cress seeds to grow and a summer reading challenge certificate ✨

I took part in the summer reading challenge when I was little, and I still even have the certificate, so I think this is a really fun way to encourage kids to keep reading even when outside of school.

So if you are interested in getting your child involved, you can pop into Storrington Library or your local library from July 12th and sign them up. You may even see me! 📚

06/07/2025

Both our puppy class and our all ages class went over their basic cues of ‘sit’, ‘down’ and ‘stand’ this week (leveling up for the older class as needed) along with plenty of other skills! 🐶 ✨

If you are interested in booking any of our future classes you can contact me at:[email protected]

04/07/2025

What is reward placement and why is it important? 🤔 🧀

One of the ways we can help tweak training to be more effective is to think about reward placement or position. So when training for a certain behaviour where is it we are looking to build value, as that is where we will want the reward to be. If our placement is off, we may not actually be rewarding what we wanted to!

For example, if you are working on heelwork but your dog is a jumper, and has a tendency to jump upwards to get the treat in your hand rather than walking nicely next to you, you can change the reward placement from being given directly from your hand to instead to being dropped on the floor by the dog. This means the value is now lower down on the floor, so instead of jumping up to get the reward we will be focused downwards to get the next one.

Similarly, if you have a dog that is very downwards focused on walks you may want to encourage more upwards focus. So teaching them to catch treats and associating looking up with where the value will be may be better choice!

Another tip for heelwork positioning specifically is to try and reward from the hand that is on the same side as your dog so they stay in that position. If we lean across our body to reward them, our dog will start to walk further and further across us in order to get closer to where the value of the reward is (the other hand).

Some other examples of reward placement would be…

🐾 Putting food on the mat rather than giving it directly to the dog for boundary or place training. So the value is in the mat not you.

🐾 Throwing food away from yourself or visitors if your dog has a tendency to jump up at people on arrival home. So they learn to stay further away in order to get the rewards.

🐾 If a dog gets excited when visitors come over, have the owners reward the dog for being calm when someone new comes over, rather than the new person themselves, so there is less value in the visitor making them less exciting.

🐾 If teaching your dog to drop an item in a specific place, such as over a basket, reward above the basket in the position they need to be when they drop the item. This means they will make sure their head is in that position when they drop the item, rather than turning towards you to drop and missing the basket.

What are some ways you have used reward positioning to improve your training?

02/07/2025

I have been truly spoilt this week with such adorable pups and dogs for my 1-2-1 sessions! 🥰 🐾

(All appointments were organised to be out of the unsafe heat!)

If you are interested in booking any future 1-2-1 sessions you can contact me at: [email protected]

30/06/2025

Dog Nerd Training has now been running 3 whole years!! 😮 🎉

Wow has that time flown by. I can't believe how many wonderful doggies I have had the pleasure to meet and work with in all that time. I have learnt so much from working with you all, and I hope those who have worked with me have learnt a little something too. Every day, and dog, offers something new and different and I only hope that I have risen to the challenges this past 3 years have given me. But I certainly wouldn't have been able to do it without everyone's support. Either through reviews and recommendations (which is crucial for a small business like mine) donating to our charity drives to help other dogs and owners, and most importantly putting the work in and showing up for your dogs!

I hope you all enjoy my short slideshow of some of the dogs I have had the privilege of working with this year, there are so many I didn't include as we would have been here all day if I had, but do keep an eye out in case your dog is featured 😁

Woofs and love to you all from your friendly neighbourhood Dog Nerd ✌🏻 💕

29/06/2025

I am excited to welcome our brand new recruits for our Thursday puppy and all-ages classes!! 🤩

I am very much looking forward to seeing how everyone progresses over the next 6-weeks.

If you are interested in booking any of our future classes you can contact me at: [email protected]

27/06/2025

E-fences, do they actually keep your dog safe? It actually turns out not so much. 😬

People often turn to electronic collars, and electronic fences, as the seemingly top-tier method of keeping their dog within a certain confined space. However, a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, found that they are actually significantly less effective than the bog standard fence types including privacy fences and see-through fences. In fact the dogs confined with an electronic fence were almost twice as likely to escape (44%) than those using the other fence types (23.3%).

This is also not the only issue with using an electronic fence/ e-fence to keep your dog confined compared to the more traditional fence types, such as...

❎ It doesn't prevent dangers entering, which could put you and your dog at risk.
Even if the fence was able to keep your dog in, it doesn't stop other creatures, or people, entering the space that could either hurt your dog or even try to steal them. A privacy fence, or other fence type, would not only deter a dog from leaving but unwanted visitors from coming in too.

❎ If the dog does get out, they may not be able to get back in.
Sometimes dogs are hit with such strong adrenaline it will surpass the pain of the e-collar shock, this could be due to fear, prey drive or something else. This could leave them free outside the confinement area where they could get hurt, or become exhausted, and then not be in the same state of adrenaline in order to get in again, leaving them vulnerable and stuck outside the confinement area.

❎ It can create unexpected or unintended negative associations if the dog gets shocked whilst watching something near the fence line.
Dogs like to watch things, we all know dogs who sit at the window all day to have a nosey at what is going on in the neighbourhood. If your dog is watching at the fence line, and see something interesting, such as another dog or person, they may inadvertently move forward enough to receive a shock. They may now associate whatever they were watching with this negative consequence, which could lead to fear or even aggression if they encounter the same or similar visual later on.

So E-fences are not only not as effective as they are often perceived to be, but they also carry their own specific risks on top of that as well. So if you wish to keep your dog safe, I would recommend to always aim for a suitable physical fence, rather than relying on an e-collar. 👍

You can find the study quoted in the graphic here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28117644/

25/06/2025

Just a couple of pictures of this cutie for a 1-2-1 session as it has been too hot for doggies recently! But isn’t he gorgeous? 😍💕

If you are interested in booking any 1-2-1 sessions in cooler weather you can contact me at: [email protected]

23/06/2025

A really lovely review I was lucky enough to receive here on Facebook just last week! 😍

I do really try and make the effort to pace what we do in each session, classes, or 1-2-1's, so clients have the time to work on each step before I next see them. Building things up gradually is a big part of success, through not getting overwhelmed and also making sure the dog understands and is doing the basic skills without skipping ahead and making mistakes. 🐶✨

Address

Storrington

Telephone

+447890034391

Website

http://www.dognerdtraining.co.uk/

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