Emily Birch Canine Consultancy

30/01/2025

I cannot say how much it means to know that you've made a difference to an owner and their dogs lives. It why I love what I do and why i'm passionate about helping people. I do love the collies - they're a real outlier in my opinion compared to other dogs. Nothing quite has the brain of a Border Collie!

Thank you Eleanor for sending me this testimonial and the photos of the beautiful boy!

17/01/2025

Have I mentioned I quite like my wee spanner? Zipper also finds her good fun and they play endlessly. Juno on the other hand… she still wonders when she is leaving 😂

05/01/2025

It's a really complex area - but, the thing to remember is that there is more variation within breed than between breed. So we must try hard not to stereotype. We have bred in traits the we are more likely to see, but that doesn't mean that we will. However, researching before getting a dog and doing the homework will help ensure you don't stumble into problems. And being honest with yourself about what you really want. I adore Border Collies (I mean I have two!) but they need work, sheep - or equivalent work- and a long countryside walk just won't cut it for them. So if you're not wanting to spend time every day giving them outlets for their needs, then a collie probably isn't for you. I say this with my two collies being as different as chalk and cheese but we should assume the hardest and then if you get an 'easier' individual you can thank your lucky stars!

What breeds do you have? What behaviours do you see that you were expecting? Anything you weren't expecting?

I always remind myself of a friends working line Malinois who was SO laid back she never worked him and he just enjoyed pootling about and relaxing! Now that wasn't expected!

20/12/2024

Happy Christmas to all of you marvellous lot! I hope you have a wonderful time doing things that make you happy. We've had a busy year - not least starting a new business alongside my consultancy work and parenting the smalls! But I wouldn't have it any other way :) I will be 'out of the office' from the 20th of December to the 6th of January!

19/12/2024

I send all my behaviour cases who need support with grooming to this lovely lady. I do feel groomers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If you want a groomer who does co operative care and will listen to your dog - then do check out Woodys :)

The reality of consent based grooming

There’s a real lack of consent based groomers, and the ones who do take the leap often end up giving up soon after.

But why is this? What stops more groomers working this way?

Firstly, there’s the cost involved. Regardless of the methods you use, being a groomer is expensive. Training, equipment, rent, products, treats - the list goes on and on.

Pricing. This is a big one. Consent based groomers, especially those who choose to take on behavioural cases can only groom so many dogs in a day. It’s not just the time the dog is in the salon but the work behind the scenes too. Writing reports, researching ways to help each individual dog, networking with other professionals. It has to be financially viable and so they’re often more expensive than a traditional salon in order to make ends meet.

Hand in hand with pricing is timings. We have no idea how long it will take a dog to be comfortable being groomed, we can give a rough estimate based on previous experience but each dog is individual and it wouldn’t be fair to put a set time line in place. Because of this, it can be hard to plan financially and logistically. You may end up with hectic periods followed by very quiet ones.

Expectations. The grooming industry has been around for hundreds of years and the expectation has always been that you took your dog to a groomer who would bath, dry and style their coat ready for you to collect. What consent based groomers are trying to do is put more of a focus on the dogs emotional welfare as well as physical. For that reason, they can’t always guarantee a “finished” groom. Whilst some guardians are completely on board with this, many are still stuck in the mindset that the dog should just accept what’s happening and the groomer simply needs to get on with it. It’s often this reason that guardians don’t want to pay the more expensive prices as they don’t quite understand what the end goal is.

Awareness - on the other hand, for majority of guardians they simply have no idea that this is an option for their dog. Due to the lack of consent based groomers, most guardians whose dogs are struggling being groomed will reach out to a behaviourist, which although is definitely the right approach, a lot of behaviourists don’t know what happens in a grooming salon so it can be hard for them to support - especially if the groomer is unwilling to follow the training plan that’s been put in place!

It takes its toll on your body even more so than traditional grooming, and so unless you’re willing to offer training and education it’s unlikely to be a long term career. You can of course prolong the duration by taking regular breaks, investing in a good physio and doing core strength exercises such as yoga or Pilates.

The heartbreaking thing is, some of the most incredible and passionate consent based groomers have hung up their scissors for one if not all of the above reasons.

It’s not an easy profession, it’s often met with negative comments that we simply don’t know how to manage dogs or that we’re just inexperienced. You have to be mentally strong as well as physically.

And yet, there are some of us still desperately fighting to be heard. Why? Because the reward of earning a dog’s trust and knowing you are putting their needs above all else is second to none.

I am proud to be a consent based groomer, and although yes it is extremely challenging and there’s been many a time I’ve considered walking away, I’m here to stay, for as long as I’m needed.

If you are interested in becoming a consent based groomer, even in just a small way to begin with then please don’t hesitate to get in touch and I will do my very best to support you ❤️🐾

13/12/2024

Keeping you and your pets safer this Christmas! Christmas is a time when you're dog is most at risk of biting you - so lets help keep those numbers down by safeguarding our dogs during this period!

09/12/2024

The compensatory sit position - I'm not talking about the odd occasion when they may sit like this, i'm talking about dogs who consistently either rock onto one of other hip, or tip back on to their bottoms. They may also lay with their legs straight out in front of them (although NB that laying down rocked onto one or other hip is normal). If you are ever worried and you've been told its normal, you are always welcome to get a second opinion. We've started to normalise this stuff and I feel we're living in a world of chronically painful dogs :( Searching for images for this slide show illustrated just how normalised atypical sits are!

01/12/2024

I’m not very good at self promotion (imposters syndrome and all that!) so here is some of the feedback from people I’ve worked with 😊 if you’d like to work with me, do get in touch and we can chat about what the problem is and how I can help!

29/11/2024

Here’s the science behind dogs in clothes 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B1kW43foR/?mibextid=WC7FNe

24/11/2024

With an endlessly wet and windy weekend we’ve been pretty reliant on other ways to prevent boredom!

17/11/2024

My first ever night away with the smalls since becoming a mum! Saturday saw a walk with before meeting for some proper gundog work (which I loved!). Sunday Mavey did a retrieve workshop and was brilliant as ever! She is now one very tired pupper! I love seeing her with her family and I have had the nicest little weekend in the most wonderful company 😊

25/10/2024

As dogs become more self assured and confident they're tolerance can shift also - as well as for many other reasons too of course! Dogs often like proximity, but they don't always like touch. I think we need to start shifting the narrative that we need to tell our children exactly what they can and can't do, into a more open discussion on what they're dog is telling and what they think their dog might like so that they're part of the conversation. I think we can very easily and quickly damage otherwise lovely relationships if we're too harsh. For me it's all about management for example - Youngest child goes to lay his head on the puppy, I see she politely says 'no thanks, i don't want your face that close'. I ask the three year old something totally unrelated which shifts his attention and he stops. If he goes back to hug her again, I will call the puppy away and give her a really high value chew in her pen area. Later we will have a chat about the ways Mavey might say she loves something and how she might say she doesn't like something. I don't say 'earlier she didn't like the hug' as this brings in shame but instead I will start helping him notice other times she doesn't enjoy something (unrelated to what he is doing). Yes, this is way more mentally fatiguing that just saying stop but being three he wouldn't stop and he'd want to do it even more and then everyone feels cross and upset. And i've absolutely seen it happen where children really resent (and sometimes deliberately hurt their puppy) because it causes so much tension and shouting!

22/10/2024

I surely am not the only person who has found this scene in on highly interesting. It draws on all the parallels of human character and training methods. For those who don’t know, this scene is a man and his son talking about why the son has turned out how he has. The reason being his father has abused him physically, emotionally and sexually his whole life. And here this father is defending prong collars. I find it interesting no one is talking about this more. That fundamentally the drive to want to control your dog through pain is ethically questionable. The links between animal abuse and child abuse are well established.

No human or animal deserves to live in fear.

Disclaimer: the children kill the parents - darkness never drives out darkness!

18/10/2024

The Teenage Years - they're not easy, that's for sure. But they are also fun if you embrace this new found independence and confidence as an area to perfect your training. This is just some of the stuff i've had come up with Mavis who is just 6 months - What curve balls did your teenage dog throw at you?

12/10/2024

Here is some very fascinating and interesting research about eye contact with dogs. And to boot written by brilliant friend (who makes everything understandable and interesting)

And some dogs have the same genetic mutation linked to autism in humans.

11/10/2024

I am very lucky to have a very talented Uncle who, when I ask ‘can we update my website a bit?’ makes me an entire shiny new one which is very, very lovely!

Have a look if you feel inclined!

Welcome to my website which details what I offer and how I work. I am a Clinical Animal Behaviourist living in Stroud, Gloucestershire and specialise in helping owners who are experiencing problems with their dog. I specialise in anxiety, frustration and aggression cases. I have an MSc in Clinical A...