BeHave with Hayley Dog Behaviour Training

26/03/2025

11/03/2025

⭐PUPPY TRAINING CLASSES ⭐

For puppies 18 weeks to 1 year old
Venue: Llantonian Hall, Llantwit Major
Duration: 4 weeks
Cost: £95
Datees: Starts 1st Tuesday of every month @ 5.30pm

⭐WHY COME ALONG?⭐
Don't delay learning about your puppy and how to teach them effectively and kindly, or it may feel like they are out of control before too long.
It may seem as though they don't need too much training when they are young, but their behaviour will change many times, especially when they hit the terrible teens!

In 4 weeks you will learn:
🐾 Recall
🐾 Ways to get them to focus on you
🐾 Dealing with jumping up
🐾 Some fun tricks
🐾 A big insight to dog behaviour, so you can better understand your furry friend!
🐾 A course booklet with tips and videos to help your training progress

Spaces are limited to 4 so get ahead of your self and book your space soon.

https://www.behavewithhayley.co.uk/classbookingform

⭐PUPPY SOCIALS⭐

1st Tuesday of every month at 7pm
For puppies up to 18 weeks.
Llantonian Hall, Llantwit Major
FREE

⭐WHY COME ALONG ⭐
It's such a great opportunity for your puppy to meet, and play with other puppies of the same age.Your puppy will get other great new experiences, all in a positive, supervised and fun environment. The social, is a very important piece of the overall socialisation jigsaw (there's so much more to it however)

Book a space for a Puppy Social at
https://www.behavewithhayley.co.uk/classbookingform

⭐WHAT ELSE CAN I DO FOR MY PUPPY?⭐

You can sign up to my full Puppy Power Programme at any time, even before you bring your puppy home. Find out more here
https://www.behavewithhayley.co.uk/puppies
⭐Knowledge is Power when you have a new puppy!⭐

Visit my website for more details on all my dog behaviour programmes.

10/03/2025

22/02/2025

Great advice for puppy parents ❤️🐶

🐕 TIPS ON HOW TO APPROPRIATELY & HEALTHILY SOCIALISE YOUR PUPPY /DOG WITH OTHER DOGS 🐶

If you want a dog who interacts well with other dogs, follow these easy to remember guidelines.

1️⃣ Help them learn that not every dog is available for social interactions.

By considering how suitable BOTH dogs are, you will naturally create a balance of avoid vs approach.

For example, if you have an exuberant young dog, then it’s unlikely a senior dog will enjoy their efforts to play. Recall to create space and reward to make avoidance more valuable.

Similarly, if your puppy/dog is nervous, avoid exuberant dogs who may be too invasive of personal space and escalate existing fears.
Instead, orient closer to relaxed, ploddy dogs as and when your puppy/dog is ready.

Don’t force or rush your nervous puppy/dog into close encounters and interactions.

Even friendly and social puppies and dogs can have low confidence/fearful days, due to stress, tiredness, pain and brain development phases.

Adapt your approach to exposure to dogs based on where they are at that day (or the day before).

Being mindful that many dogs on lead or a longline may need space and maintaining appropriate distance will further manage the expectations of highly social dogs. If the handler communicates all is well (the dog is on lead to improve recall but socialises well), then an interaction may not be off the cards! But do consider whether it’s practical to allow interactions if your puppy/dog is also on lead!


2️⃣ Teach your puppy /dog to not approach dogs from great distances!

Consider how quickly you can intervene from the distance you are, should there be a problem such as a fight or attack.

Interactions should generally happen within 15 metres of you, not across the meadow.
If you’re nice and close, you can monitor and manage (if needed) the quality of the interaction.

3️⃣ Teach your puppy/dog to approach other dogs at a steady pace.

High speed approaches can be perceived as threatening and trigger defensive behaviour. Fast and chaotic behaviour may also trigger a dog’s prey drive.

Polite approaches involve a walk, trot or slow canter that slows further as they drawn in closer. Ideally they should move in curve on approach or stand still to invite the dog to close the final distance.

Stalking or lying down and then firing at the dog at speed is not appreciated by the vast majority of dogs and will set the interaction off on a bad foot.

4️⃣ Teach your puppy/dog to not expect play from every dog.

The majority of their interactions should be mooching along and exploring with calm dogs or a brief “Good morning! Have a nice day!” with suitable passing dogs.

High intensity play should be less frequent and carefully monitored!

5️⃣ Help them read the room. They should learn to recognise invitation (consent) to approach, disinterest or requests for space.

But equally, you need to know what these signals look like in order to guide your puppy/dog into making appropriate decisions when they can’t do so on their own, such as recalling them away and moving on.

You should be close enough and paying attention so that you can see that your dog’s approach is anticipated and welcomed by the other dog as well as see easily what communication is going on between the dogs as they interact.

📝 What you need

-Awareness
-A proactive attitude
-Understanding of dog body language
-Time to practise recall in lower distraction situations
-A variety of high value treats
-A longline
-Their favourite toy to occassionally reward recall (don’t engage them with toys close to unfamiliar dogs).

There are two webinars on play and body language under education in our website aswell as handouts (with videos) on managing longlines and teaching recall.

⚠️ Even super friendly dogs can develop problem behaviours. For some, all it takes is one dog to give them a strong bollocking for their unsolicited and intrusive approach and a fear of dogs can develop.

‼️ Remember, your puppy/dog doesn’t have to do socialise on every walk, not every day in order to be socialised.

Make sure you take time and space to help teach them to think about you and respond to you.

But also, a nice ploddy walk exploring the environment calmly can help prevent walks becoming a thrill seeking experience that leaves you with an over aroused dog that’s difficult to manage.

🌟 It’s easier to build these foundations early on in a young puppy / dog, rather than waiting until they are more confident, experienced and exuberant, and/or bigger and stronger.

Photo of a slightly deranged looking Mohawk by Matt Elliott Pet Photography 💕

17/02/2025

Ever heard the saying:

‘If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you always got’

If your dog is having big reactions in certain situations , hoping that one day they will do something different, is a bit of a waste of time.

Big feelings and reactions often come from a place of fear or anxiety. They can also come from a place of frustration. If you keep putting your dog in the situations that cause these reactions, nothing is going to change, not only that, the behaviours are likely to get worse.

You are likely to end up trying to punish your dog in the moment as well to try and stop them, many dog trainers would also do this, as they have very little knowledge about all the systems going on inside a dog’s body and how to deal with this kindly and ethically. And some of them don’t really care if they give your dog a yank or a jerk to just stop them communicating their feelings in that moment.

Your dog is not being naughty when they are reacting in this way. You just see the behaviour, but going on inside their body are a whole host of chemical reactions, that are getting stronger and more ingrained each time it happens.

Take a break from the stress, avoid the situations for a while and seek out professional help on how to change these behaviours going forward.

11/02/2025

Please sign this petition 🦊 ❤️

Fox hunting is illegal but trail hunting using animal urine, body parts and carcasses as a trail for hounds to follow isn't, and can be used to cover up illegal hunting.

We and the League Against Cruel Sports need 4,938 signatures by next Tuesday - please sign and share: https://bit.ly/4hy9DBw

10/02/2025

Check out recent podcast about when dog walks become stressful and really not much fun.

Full of great advice, as always.

07/02/2025

Go Rosie!! 👌⭐

Rosie has comfortably made it to 5 minutes alone time. It may not sound like a lot, but it's a huge achievement, trust me.

It's been a journey up to this point - and that's exaclty what I tell any owners who have a dog suffering from Separation Anxiety or Isolation Distress.

Everyone has a piece of advice about how to deal with separation anxiety. Maybe they'll say, "Oh, just leave them with some food," or "Leave them in a crate," or "Leave the radio on," or "They'll get used to it."

The truth of the matter is, that none of this is likely to make any difference an in some cases,can just make things worse.

It's a hard slog. It may require medication from your vet. It will definitely require dedication, patience, and consistency from you.

Rosie is such a lovely dog, she has shown fear and anxiety in a variety of situations - lucky for Rosie that she has an awesome mum who has made so many changes for Rosie and followed the plans like a trooper.

The early stages are so important to start changing how a dog feels about being left alone. I went through it with my own dog 5 years ago, it took me around 1.5 years until she couldn't care less if I was gone for 4 hours.

Rosie and her mum still have a way to go but I am really impressed with the commitment and the changes in Rosie over the last 6 months.

We will continue to push ahead and extend the times methodically.

Look out for updates.

#

03/02/2025

Why I don’t use slip leads in dog training – and you shouldn’t either!

Slip leads are a popular style of rope dog lead that is worn around the dogs neck. These leads are generally more popular in gundog training world, along with in rescue centres so that they can quickly and easily get hold of or release a dog.

Slip leads are sometimes used by trainers and pet owners to aid in walking on the lead, and work by tightening and loosening around the neck.

The idea is, that when the dog pulls, force is applied to the neck, and when the dog is relaxed, the lead is slacker around the neck.

The dog will quickly learn that when they feel an uncomfortable tightening around the neck that walking slower will reduce the discomfort. This, in turn, teaches a dog to walk on a lead without pulling.

So, slipleads work to stop your dog from pulling quickly –

But at what cost?

Even short term use of a slip lead greatly increases the chance of your dog developing structural damage, and it’s not uncommon for these tools to cause:

- Trachea damage, leading to a collapse of the trachea
- Choking, coughing and gagging
- Neck injuries
- Vertebrae injury
- Nerve damage
- Eye damage

Not only that, your slip lead will greatly increase your dogs chance of gaining psychological trauma from it’s use, increasing the risk of your dog developing fear related behaviours and anxiety disorders.

As a professional dog trainer of 11 years, I do not advise these leads to be used as a training tool to stop pulling – it doesn't matter if Bob down the road told you to use it because it worked amazing for him – it’s not an ethical or safe choice.

Does it stop pulling quickly? Of course it does! But is it really worth risking the physical and mental well-being of your best friend?

If you are struggling with a dog who pulls on the lead, there are plenty of alternative and humane training methods – which may take a little longer, but will be 100% less damaging in the long run.

Need help with your dog’s pulling and live in Neath, Port Talbot or Swansea? Get in touch to get started!

Call/message: 07891 222454
Email: [email protected]

23/01/2025

A snapshot from a chat today, with one of my lovely clients.

Of course, Mildred is always lush and her humans love her to bits - but she has been behaving in some ways at home, that have been causing concern.

Her progress has been amazing and her mum said 'she is doing so well'

My reply was 'She's doing well becuase you're doing well'

Your dog's behaviour won't change simply by getting me to come round. You need to do to work in bewteen sessions, make necessary changes, have empathy for what is going on and get with the programme 😀

What you do 'with your dog', 'to your dog' and 'for your dog' will bring about behaviours that you want, or you don't want.

When you change, they change - it's just the best thing for me to see.

Mildred has some time left on the programme,and she still wants to get with it, so we are going to focus on something different for the remainder 🐾❤

17/01/2025

16/01/2025

🐶Dog Parents
🐶Trainers
🐶Day Care
🐶Any dog professionals

This is a fantastic free resource.
4 videos from the wonderful Karolina ILLIS Animal Behaviour Courses

It's only free for a short time so sign up you dog geeks!

15/01/2025

Yesterday and today I saw clients who were using these instruments of torture.
They were told to use them by their previous “trainers”
They were told that they didn’t hurt.
They hurt and damage the delicate neck, the thyroid gland, the trachea….many get terrible arthritis in their neck as they age, from this equipment.

I train humans.
I train humans to treat their dogs with kindness, love and care.

Does pain and intimidation work?
You bet it does.

Does the little boy threatened with a beating clean up his room before his dad gets home? Of course.

 Does the little boy down the street clean up his room just as well when his dad promises a hot fudge sundae if he gets it accomplished?

I don’t know. Maybe the little boy who is threatened cleans up his room better? Maybe the boy excited to get a hot fudge sundae does a better job?

One relationship will leave the child living in a state of fear. Emotional scars will last.
Nobody wants to live their life afraid of what’s around the corner.
Nobody should want to inflict this on their dog.

I want my dogs to be happy and excited when I walk in the door. Happy about what fun we will have and what wonderful thing we will do next. Not afraid about what will happen and what pain will be inflicted.

Can’t believe this kind of stuff still goes on, but it does.
It’s not OK. It does hurt.
It really really does.
❤️‍🩹🐾

Grateful to have made a difference today.
We can’t help every dog, but for those that we do help, by training and educating their humans, their lives have been changed forever.