Dog Trainer James

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Tunbridge Wells
Dog Trainer James

Dog Trainer & Behaviourist, based in Tunbridge Wells.
(7)

28/09/2024

It’s not about perfection.

It’s about progress.

What you do every day, the small victories;

- The reduced recovery time
- The lower intensity reactions
- The first time they ignore a trigger
- The bad day that felt like the exemption
- Taking food on a walk
- The increased sniffing on walks
- When they start playing with you outside the house
- Making friends with their trigger…

It’s the same as any long term goal, focus on progress and enjoy the process.

As you’ll see from the video ‘perfection’ doesn’t exist…😅🤣

Well I’m sure other people won’t consider that perfect, but actually I think my babies are perfect.

Even when they create chaos 😃

20/09/2024

Ever been told to ignore your dog when you get home to avoid making them anxious? 🤔

Doesn’t quite add up, does it? If I’m anxious about being alone, a warm greeting when someone returns wouldn’t make that worse.

The anxiety is in the leaving, not the greeting.

Plus, imagine ignoring a social animal when you walk through the door! That could actually fuel anxiety!

So, be happy to see your dog—life’s too short not to! It won’t negatively impact their behaviour, except maybe a bit of jumping up, but hey, we take that too seriously anyway. 🐾

09/09/2024

Reactive dog? You might just need this…⬇️

I saw a post the other day from a ‘canine professional’ stating that allowing dogs to opt out of difficult situations, doesn’t create resilience; the inference being we shouldn’t allow it and dogs should ‘face their fears’.

Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely not advocating avoidance, but allowing dogs to opt out, to retreat, and to take a break can be game changing in building their confidence around their triggers.

In this case this young rescue GSD initially found lots about the world overwhelming.

So when we took her places she would bark, sometimes at people, almost always at dogs.

She would often tell us she needed a break by pulling us towards her car; somewhere she regarded as a safe space.

So we facilitated this request and allowed her to opt out for brief moments of time. This grew her confidence and made her more comfortable in facing her triggers; because the knowledge that she could opt out, made opting in more likely.

Enabling a ‘no’ increased the likelihood of a ‘yes’.

It’s pretty simple really, control and a feeling of safety are paramount to all living beings. Providing it will be a game changer.

Forcing dogs to ‘face their fears’ is not a valid approach to genuine behaviour change.

29/08/2024

The world of dog training is often very confusing. Dog trainers use ALOT of terminology that might not make sense to the everyday dog guardian.

And then we also get together for these ‘chats’ which claim to go ‘beyond methods’… Probably best I say no more than I personally don’t see the point; nobody is changing their mind and these chats don’t directly benefit the people we are meant to be supporting - the every day dog guardian.

So to help you lot out, I’ll simplify it for you.

Dog trainers fall into 1 of 2 camps;

1. Will use discomfort, pain, fear, force and deprivation to train your dog.
2. Doesn’t need to do use those things.

It’s that simple.

So when you choose your dog trainer, that’s the choice you need to make.

One thing that you should know however, is that discomfort, pain, fear, force and deprivation are never required or needed to train a dog. No breed, no behavior, no scenario.

That includes aggression, predation and German Shepherds.

24/08/2024

Got knots in your leads and long lines?

Get those knots out, or replace those lines.

Knots are where lines break, and when lines break bad stuff happens.

Don’t risk it!

30/07/2024

Ok, sorry, it’s not quite that simple 😅

Recipes can be a useful tool…if you’ve got the right ingredients…

The problem with prescriptive, cookie cutter training plans, is that they assume the ingredients available are all the same.

And all dogs are different; they all have different genetics, learning histories, environments, motivations, things that they find reinforcing.

And appreciating those things are crucial when you’re looking to understand a dogs behaviour, and to effect behaviour change.

That’s why I love training using reinforcement based methods.

As I don’t supress behaviour, I get to look at the behaviours the dogs is choosing, identify those bits of behaviour I want to reinforce and concoct a recipe based on the ingredients I’ve got available.

So my tip for you, is when your dog is displaying behaviour you’d rather they didn’t, become observant and look for the stuff you want and like and work on shaping and building on those things.

If you’d like some support for your dog, that is based specifically on you and your dog, comment below, drop me a DM or book a free consultation call via my website.

25/07/2024

Stop touching your dog 🛑

They might not actually like it 😳

I see a lot of dogs who are subjected to human contact. And I see a lot of dogs who don’t like it? and are subtly trying to communicate that to us.

So here’s a way to test how your dog feels about you touching them ⬇️

If they approach you, and choose to come into your space, touch them somewhere other than their head for a few seconds.

Then stop, and see what they do 👀

If they walk away, let them and leave them alone.

If they don’t, and if they make it very clear that they’d like you to continue, repeat that cycle; touch for a few seconds, stop and gauge their response 🧡

It’s a lovely way to build trust with your dog and to open a pathway of communication. So many dogs tolerate our touch, find out if they actually enjoy it 🐕

18/07/2024

The best advice I’ve got about my adolescent dog…⬇️

Huge credit goes to for this one…

Mac and I had got into a bit of a relationship rut.

After living with a (once) reactive dog (Kiya) for so long, I was so keen to focus on Mac’s behaviour around other dogs that I had become too fixated on it.

For those that don’t know when he sees a dog he wines a lot and wants to desperately to go and say hello. Like REALLY desperately.

Whether this comes from his 5 months in kennels to start his life, or it’s just his age (or both!) it was something I ideally would want to change ASAP.

Also, because of his exempt status and therefore a life on lead and muzzled, the rest of the world isn’t exactly desperate to help me facilitate some quick ‘hellos’ and as a result, both of our frustration was growing…

So I spoke to Kit for some perspective and they gave me the best best advice ever;

‘Stop focussing on being his trainer, and be his best mate’.

Which I guess is another way of saying ‘put your relationship first’.

Which I know, and will tell all of my clients, but training your own dogs…that’s not as straight forward 🙃

So think about your life with your dog, and the things you might hit be struggling with; are you focussing on them too much? Is that focus detrimental to your relationship?

If so, focus on being your dogs best mate. The rest will fall into place much more easily.

Thank you Kit 🧡

07/07/2024

If so, you’re going to want to read this as it might not go the way your expect…⬇️

I want to say first that this is 100% NOT a post bashing vets or the vetinary world.

They have a very difficult job and it’s for all of us - guardian, behaviourists, vets, vet physios and so on - to work as a team together for the benefit of the dog.

Luna is a queen. Luna barks at noises outside her house. A lot.

Luna is very lucky to live with the best humans I know and when they contacted me one of the first things we started working on was making sure Luna wasn’t in any pain.

That was a very difficult process, which it often is as diagnosing pain in dogs is incredibly difficult.

Luna’s journey looked a bit like this;

- Behaviour of barking in the house = I got involved…
- ⁠A vet physio assessed video of Lunas gait and noticed some things.
- ⁠Vet didn’t think there was pain but agreed to trial of anti inflammatory drugs which didn’t agree with Lunas stomach.
- ⁠We then moved to paracetamol which showed a reduction in barking which Lunas humans could evidence as they tracked it (data is important!)
- ⁠Vet still didn’t agree there was pain but agreed to x-rays.
- ⁠Vet didn’t see anything significant on x-rays,
but noted some abnormalities.
- ⁠Second opinion sought which agreed x-rays showed signs that would cause pain…
- Change in drug support = HUGE behaviour change

So I guess the moral(s) of the story are;
- behaviour outside the range of what is typical is often an indication of pain.
- Pain is bloody hard to find and to prove the existence of in our dogs.
- Have pet insurance.
- Work with someone who understands the impacts of pain on behaviour.
- Don’t just look at behaviour through one lense.
- Behaviour is information and happens for a reason.
- Your dog very well might be in pain, despite what some deeply underqualified bro will tell you on social media

29/06/2024

I don’t use these tools because they don’t align with my training methodology or ethics. However in this video I wanted to present as factual as possible a representation of what this tool is and how it works.

In order for a tool like this to effectively alter behaviour the learner must find its application appropriately aversive, so that they seek to avoid its application in future.

That avoidance is what changes the dogs behaviour.

I also wanted to address some of the myths that are perpetuated in order to justify the use of this tool. Dogs biting each other to correct unwanted behaviour is a very rare occurrence, especially with mothers and their pups. But ultimately we do not need to attempt to communicate with dogs like dogs as we are not dogs and dogs know that.

Dog guardians on the whole are doing their best for their dogs, so I am not shaming you if you use one of these; maybe a professional has told you it was the only way, maybe you read some advice online.

I work with a lot of clients who have been told that a prong collar (that’s how I have this one btw) is the only way to modify their dogs behaviour, but that is simply not true. So if that resonates, and perhaps using it makes you feel uncomfortable, then reach out and I can help you find an alternative way forward.

Other professionals on the other hand should be doing better, and should be honest with their clients about how this tool works, the potential fall out of its use, and how it certainly isn’t the only way forward. If that individual doesn’t know of another way to proceed then they should refer the case on to someone that does.

Thank you for reading, please follow for more dog training tips and education.

25/06/2024

So as a guardian to a dog who used to bark, growl and lunge at every dog she saw, I know what it’s like to go live with that.

It’s then sometimes made harder by being told to avoid reactions; and to be completely honest, I used to say that to people.

However through the process of my own personal and professional development I’ve been lucky enough to learn from some amazing people who have made me think differently.

I’ve also worked on my own reactivity; reactive dog guardians become reactive to their dogs triggers, and that wasn’t helping the situation. Her reactivity wasn’t my fault, and your dogs isn’t yours, but when she reacts I’m always there so I must play a part.

In working on myself I decided to stop worrying about her reacting. We are often telling outselves to let dogs be dogs; the behaviours she was displaying might not be socially acceptable to some, but they weren’t technically abnormal dog behaviours.

So in not worrying I was able to relax; I was able to change my behaviour and therefore my feelings about the situation, and to put her in situations I may have previously avoided.

And the result; she doesn’t bark, growl and lunge at dogs anymore.

Now its absolutely not as simple as just shoving your dog in front of their trigger (don’t do that 😅) so I’d strongly advise you get a certified, qualified professional to guide you through it, but just avoiding or working constantly in your dogs comfort zone is unlikely to facilitate the behaviour changes you’re hoping for.

Reactions are not the end of the world. They are valuable information that we can learn from and use that to help our dogs.

21/06/2024

Hold your dog accountable for their behaviour.

Does that make any sense at all?

If dogs aren’t able to comprehend morals - right and wrong does not apply to dogs - then how can we do that?

And, if we’re holding them accountable then surely they must know exactly how to behave in every scenario, and actively choose not to do that…right?

The concept how holding dogs ‘accountable’ in my opinion is just an excuse to treat dogs like crap in the name of training them.

The truth is, if a dog makes a ‘mistake’ it is never their fault. It is always ours because every single situation our dogs are in is one we have decided to put them in. Therefore it is always our responsibility to ensure that they have the requisite skills to handle that situation.

In the video the dog appears not to know how to greet people and maybe also dogs.

Is that their fault? No it absolutely is not. It’s their guardians or the trainers.

When the dog makes a ‘mistake’ here, the ‘trainer’ corrects the dog with a grot, and calls the dog a prick. All because nobody has taught the dog WHAT TO DO, and clearly allowed the unwanted behaviour to be rehearsed and reinforced.

So I will leave you to decide who the prick is in this particular scenario.

But it ain’t the dog.

18/06/2024

It means the world to me to improve the lives of dogs. Starting with my own, then my clients’ dogs; that’s always been my goal.

Last week, I received a message that really got me 💜

To think that this page can help dogs I’ve never even met is simply amazing 🙃

Thank you all for following, sharing, and liking my content - it means so much.

A special thanks to for sharing his story and trusting my advice to help his beautiful girl. Hearing from you is incredibly motivating and reinforces why I continue to do this work. Thank you, mate.

You lot are the best. Keep loving your dogs, ignore the noise, and you’ll be just fine.

09/06/2024

Does your dog need more boundaries?

A quick scroll through social media dog trainers will have you thinking that your dogs reactivity is all down to a lack of boundaries.

It’s often said that reactivity, aggression and other behaviour issues are down to a lack of boundaries.

What they’re saying is, if your dog isn’t on your bed or on the sofa, that they’re less likely to be reactive.

I’d like you to think about that for a second. Does that actually sound logical; last night my dog was in my bed so today they want to kill next doors dog?

Sounds pretty dumb right? That’s because it is.

But that doesn’t mean that boundaries aren’t sometimes necessary.

Especially with younger dogs, I think implementing boundaries based on how they’re behaving, the environment and what behaviour you want to see rehearsed is absolutely fine and actually very very sensible.

So if you’re finding yourself in situations where your dog is doing things you’d rather that they didn’t, could you implement a boundary to prevent that;

- On lead
- Longline
- Baby gate
- Shut door
- Change the environment

And so on.

Prevention is better than cure after all.

Address

Tunbridge
Tunbridge Wells
TN1

Website

https://www.dogtrainerjames.com/

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Videos

🚶‍♂️ The Most Common Lead Walking Mistake I See… Is this you? 👇 🐾 Your dog walks ahead, hits the end of the lead. ⏸️ You stop… ⏳ You wait for the tension to ease, or for them to come back to you. 🍬 You might give them a treat when they come back ➡️ Then you walk off… only for them to pull ahead and hit the lead again… and again… and again… Sound familiar? The issue here is you’re accidentally creating a behaviour loop—one that includes the very thing you’re trying to avoid: pulling on the lead. By stopping and starting like this, you’re not reinforcing what you actually want – a dog that walks calmly by your side or at least without pulling or lead tension. So, let’s focus on what you do want to reinforce: relaxed, tension-free walking! 🙌 If you need help with this, comment below, drop me a DM, a WhatsApp or book a call in via my website as loose lead walking is something I think we should all strive for with our dogs. #dogtrainer #dogtrainingtips #LooseLeadWalking #stopdogpulling #DogBehaviour

Don’t make this mistake with your reactive dog…

It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress. What you do every day, the small victories; - The reduced recovery time - The lower intensity reactions - The first time they ignore a trigger - The bad day that felt like the exemption - Taking food on a walk - The increased sniffing on walks - When they start playing with you outside the house - Making friends with their trigger… It’s the same as any long term goal, focus on progress and enjoy the process. As you’ll see from the video ‘perfection’ doesn’t exist…😅🤣 Well I’m sure other people won’t consider that perfect, but actually I think my babies are perfect. Even when they create chaos 😃 #dogtraining #dogtrainer #dogtrainingtips #reactivedogs

Ever been told to ignore your dog when you get home to avoid making them anxious? 🤔 Doesn’t quite add up, does it? If I’m anxious about being alone, a warm greeting when someone returns wouldn’t make that worse. The anxiety is in the leaving, not the greeting. Plus, imagine ignoring a social animal when you walk through the door! That could actually fuel anxiety! So, be happy to see your dog—life’s too short not to! It won’t negatively impact their behaviour, except maybe a bit of jumping up, but hey, we take that too seriously anyway. 🐾 #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips #dogbehaviour

How do you control a strong dog? When you have a dog who is powerful - and even the smaller ones can be - it can be difficult to control them at times. Especially in moments where they’re really excited or over stimulated. People tend to respond to these moments by yanking dogs around. Don’t do that. Mostly because nobody likes a yanker, but also because you won’t actually effect anything by doing that other than making your dog think you’re a…yanker. Instead if you need more control in difficult circumstances, slow your movement, and therefore also your dogs, take the tension and do this with your legs. Your legs and core are much stronger than your arms. These moments are usually things you have to ‘get through’ and getting through them without ending up on your ass is a bonus. It’s unlikely under such high levels of arousal your dog will be learning much, so just get them out of there and regroup - you can learn from it - and go again next time. And before some smart ass questions my dogs recall; recall from something as exciting and novel as a deer, takes ALOT of training. I don’t compromise the welfare of my dog to train them with quick fixes and also long lines are very effective bro. Oh and also this particular dog has to always be on lead so recall hasn’t been a priority. Emotional regulation had been though, and look at how well he shakes this off 👏🏻🧡 #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips

Reactive dog? You might just need this…⬇️ I saw a post the other day from a ‘canine professional’ stating that allowing dogs to opt out of difficult situations, doesn’t create resilience; the inference being we shouldn’t allow it and dogs should ‘face their fears’. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely not advocating avoidance, but allowing dogs to opt out, to retreat, and to take a break can be game changing in building their confidence around their triggers. In this case this young rescue GSD initially found lots about the world overwhelming. So when we took her places she would bark, sometimes at people, almost always at dogs. She would often tell us she needed a break by pulling us towards her car; somewhere she regarded as a safe space. So we facilitated this request and allowed her to opt out for brief moments of time. This grew her confidence and made her more comfortable in facing her triggers; because the knowledge that she could opt out, made opting in more likely. Enabling a ‘no’ increased the likelihood of a ‘yes’. It’s pretty simple really, control and a feeling of safety are paramount to all living beings. Providing it will be a game changer. Forcing dogs to ‘face their fears’ is not a valid approach to genuine behaviour change. #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips

There are 2 types of dog trainer.

The world of dog training is often very confusing. Dog trainers use ALOT of terminology that might not make sense to the everyday dog guardian. And then we also get together for these ‘chats’ which claim to go ‘beyond methods’… Probably best I say no more than I personally don’t see the point; nobody is changing their mind and these chats don’t directly benefit the people we are meant to be supporting - the every day dog guardian. So to help you lot out, I’ll simplify it for you. Dog trainers fall into 1 of 2 camps; 1. Will use discomfort, pain, fear, force and deprivation to train your dog. 2. Doesn’t need to do use those things. It’s that simple. So when you choose your dog trainer, that’s the choice you need to make. One thing that you should know however, is that discomfort, pain, fear, force and deprivation are never required or needed to train a dog. No breed, no behavior, no scenario. That includes aggression, predation and German Shepherds. #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips

Got knots in your leads and long lines? Get those knots out, or replace those lines. Knots are where lines break, and when lines break bad stuff happens. Don’t risk it! #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips

The recipe for success in your dog training ⬇️

Ok, sorry, it’s not quite that simple 😅 Recipes can be a useful tool…if you’ve got the right ingredients… The problem with prescriptive, cookie cutter training plans, is that they assume the ingredients available are all the same. And all dogs are different; they all have different genetics, learning histories, environments, motivations, things that they find reinforcing. And appreciating those things are crucial when you’re looking to understand a dogs behaviour, and to effect behaviour change. That’s why I love training using reinforcement based methods. As I don’t supress behaviour, I get to look at the behaviours the dogs is choosing, identify those bits of behaviour I want to reinforce and concoct a recipe based on the ingredients I’ve got available. So my tip for you, is when your dog is displaying behaviour you’d rather they didn’t, become observant and look for the stuff you want and like and work on shaping and building on those things. If you’d like some support for your dog, that is based specifically on you and your dog, comment below, drop me a DM or book a free consultation call via my website. #dogtraining #dogtrainer #dogtrainingtips

Stop touching your dog 🛑 They might not actually like it 😳 I see a lot of dogs who are subjected to human contact. And I see a lot of dogs who don’t like it? and are subtly trying to communicate that to us. So here’s a way to test how your dog feels about you touching them ⬇️ If they approach you, and choose to come into your space, touch them somewhere other than their head for a few seconds. Then stop, and see what they do 👀 If they walk away, let them and leave them alone. If they don’t, and if they make it very clear that they’d like you to continue, repeat that cycle; touch for a few seconds, stop and gauge their response 🧡 It’s a lovely way to build trust with your dog and to open a pathway of communication. So many dogs tolerate our touch, find out if they actually enjoy it 🐕 #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips

When should you contact a dog trainer? I think it’s hard to know when it’s time to contact someone, about your dogs behaviour. There is definitely a human urge to ‘see if it goes away’ or ‘hope that things just get better’ This is very rarely the case though. If you’d like to work with me, I offer a free 15 minute consultation call which you can book at a time convenient to you, via my website. Someone did this last week, and we actually didn’t need to start working together. The reason for that was that the behaviour their dog exhibited, was very specific; based on the circumstances and the dogs age, we agreed that it was likely to be a one-off. But at least that person did reach out and speak to someone - and they have my contact details for future if that behaviour does start to generalise. If you have a dog whose behaviour you’re concerned about, reach out to someone for support. Reach out to someone who is qualified, verified and certified by an independent organisation and who takes their professional development seriously; that way you know that you’re speaking to someone who will be giving you best practice advice. Don’t just sit back and hope your dog’s unwanted behaviour goes away. That is very unlikely. It doesn’t have to be me you contact, but you are not alone - there is a lot of good quality help available out there 🐕💜 #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips #dogtrainer