Military K9 Training & Behaviour

13/07/2025

WHY YOUR DOG’S WINTER DIET DOESN’T WORK IN THE HEAT

When the weather changes, your dog’s diet should too but most owners completely miss this.

During the colder months, your dog’s energy demands are typically higher. They’re exercising more, their body is working harder to regulate temperature, and they’re burning more calories just to stay warm and active. That’s when a higher food intake, especially for working breeds or those in regular training—makes perfect sense.

But come summer? Everything changes.

As the heat rises, your dog naturally slows down. Walks are shorter, training sessions are less intense, and activity levels drop. But many owners keep feeding the same amount they did in winter… and then wonder why their dog is gaining weight, becoming sluggish, or showing signs of gastrointestinal stress.

Here’s the deal:
👉 Less exercise = less calorie output = less food required.
👉 Overfeeding in summer can lead to bloating, digestive issues, weight gain, and a drop in drive and focus.
👉 Excess food in the gut during hot weather makes your dog more uncomfortable and increases internal heat. Not what you want when they’re already struggling to cool down.

You wouldn’t eat a roast dinner before sunbathing, don’t do the same to your dog.

Summer is the time to scale back slightly, monitor body condition weekly, and adjust based on performance and energy levels. You’re not starving your dog, you’re fuelling them appropriately for the conditions. When the work picks back up in the autumn, so can the food.

This is a professional approach that makes a big difference. Don’t feed on autopilot. Feed with purpose.

08/07/2025

A dog that’s always on isn’t switched on, it’s stressed. High drive without an off switch isn’t a badge of honour; it’s a liability.

True working dogs know when to light up and when to settle. Balance is the mark of good breeding, better training, and excellent handling.

Train the off switch, it’s not optional, it’s essential.

02/07/2025

When we talk about training dogs, two terms often get thrown around interchangeably: behaviour and obedience. But make no mistake, these are not the same thing. Understanding the difference between them, and recognising how they work together, is essential for raising a well-rounded, stable dog.

Obedience refers to a dog’s ability to perform specific trained commands on cue. This includes:
• Sit
• Down
• Stay
• Recall (come)
• Heel
• Place

Obedience is command-driven. The dog learns that when you say a word or give a signal, a specific action is expected. Obedience can be polished and precise, and it’s often trained in a controlled environment. You can test it in trials, measure it in sessions, and see visible progress with repetition.

Behaviour, on the other hand, is how a dog naturally acts in day-to-day situations especially when not being actively commanded. This includes:
• How the dog greets people or other dogs
• Reactions to novelty or stress (loud noises, strange dogs, unfamiliar places)
• Impulse control (waiting calmly instead of rushing through doors)
• Reactivity, fear, aggression, or confidence
• Ability to settle and self-regulate

Behaviour is shaped by genetics, early development, environment, and social experiences. It’s what the dog chooses to do on its own, when left to its own instincts. Behaviour is foundational. You cannot train stable obedience on top of unstable behaviour it will always crack under pressure.

Too often, people focus solely on obedience. Their dog knows the drill: sit, stay, heel. But when the doorbell rings, the dog loses its mind. This is a dog that knows commands but lacks self-regulation, emotional control, and environmental coping skills. In other words, it’s trained but not stable.
On the flip side, dogs with stable temperaments but no obedience can still be a handful. A calm, friendly Labrador that refuses to recall or stay is a safety risk. A dog that loves people but pulls on the lead like a freight train is no joy to walk.
One without the other creates imbalance. Together, they produce calm, reliable, confident dogs that are a pleasure to live with and safe to take anywhere.

Balance is the Goal.

01/07/2025

Scent pairing is a clever technique used to introduce a new target odour by linking it to one the dog already knows and is rewarded for. Instead of starting from scratch, we piggyback off a familiar scent. The known odour is paired with the new one during training, so the dog begins to associate value with both.

Over time, we fade out the original scent, leaving the new target fully imprinted and just as meaningful to the dog. It’s efficient, it’s effective, and it keeps the momentum going in training, especially useful when building multi-odour dogs.

In this session, Kong is the trained odour and we are pairing it with paper money.

28/06/2025

Context is everything.

The e-collar isn’t magic and it’s not cruel, it’s communication. And like any good communication, it’s only effective when it’s clear, consistent, and used in context.

In this example, the e-collar isn’t being used randomly or emotionally. It’s layered into the training based on the dog’s understanding and the demands of the moment. Whether it’s a silent recall, a distraction heavy heel, or a safety critical sit, the stim has been conditioned to mean something specific. That’s what separates training from button-pushing.

You’ll notice this dog doesn’t flinch, panic, or shut down, even when higher levels of stimulation are used. Why? Because the dog has been trained to understand the collar.

When arousal goes up (like chasing prey or reacting to a threat), we may need to use higher levels to cut through that intensity. But it still makes perfect sense to the dog. No panic. No confusion. Just action.

This is what context-based training looks like:
✅ Stim makes sense
✅ Dog knows what to do
✅ Handler stays calm
✅ Trust remains intact

The collar is not punishment, it’s information. Used well, it becomes just another part of the training toolkit, like a leash, a hand signal, or a verbal cue.

The goal isn’t control. The goal is clarity.















’tComplain

24/06/2025

This is an excellent day out. I highly recommend going to see some of the best working dogs in the country and have a chat with the boys and girls who train them.

DATR OPEN DAY 2025!!!! FREE ENTRY!
Saturday, 28th Jun 2025: 1030am to 4.30pm.

This event is held every other year & it is always a very popular event! The official Poster & some more details follow:

The DATR Open Day is suitable for individuals, couples, groups of friends & families with children. With a forecast of 50 stalls of interest & vendors, there will be lots to see & do!

Note: Pets cannot be brought to this Open Day event due to the presence of Military Working Animals on display & being used in demonstrations.

Military Demonstrations will take place all day in the main arena! Lots of Military Working Animals (Dogs / Horses) & Mascots (a wide variety of animal types) will be available to meet or see! We also listened to our 2023 feedback & have planned more food / drinks vendors due to the last event's high footfall!

Main arena events start at 1030am, but carparks & walk-ins are open from 10am onwards. Other facilities such as interest stalls & food / drinks vendors will begin to open from 10am, enabling you to explore & refresh before the demonstrations begin. Main arena demonstrations finish at 4.30pm. At this time, the Open Day will close. You are not constrained by the opening time/s listed & may arrive at any time before 4.30pm!

There will be lots of other places on site to explore, such as Military Working Animal Rehoming, Veterinary, Military Mascot Animals & Farriery displays. The event will also feature a flypast by a historic Battle of Britain Memorial Flight plane. This is forecast for mid-afternoon, but the historical plane featured & an exact time will be confirmed during the event (due to on-the-day plane choice availability & flight-path approvals that are out of our control). A Military band from the Royal Military School of Music have been booked & will play on-the-march in the arena.

More details will be published on our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram & Twitter-X) at a later date, so please hit that 'Like', 'Follow' & 'SHARE' button!

Facebook:
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Many thanks for your interest; we hope you can visit!

🐾 🐴 🩺 ⚒️ ✈️ 🥁

22/06/2025

The dog training world loves its all encompassing maxims. But all encompassing maxims miss something critical… nuance.

This one about all dogs being poised and ready to grab the leadership role and start setting rules for you — if you don’t for them — is a great example.

The most important insight of my training career came to me early, and was an obvious one. Namely that personality is THE most critical, and least talked about aspect of dog training.

I was lucky enough to have 3 dogs with wildly different personalities all living under the same roof with the same exact environmental information being shared with each. And even though what I provided was the same, the behavior that came back from each dog was wildly different.

One would happily take any opportunity and any resource and run with it. Another became an anxious, dangerous mess. And the last one was just fine — literally zero behavior issues.

Same house, same human “in charge”… and three wildly different responses to what was provided… or not provided. 😉

And thus the point of this post. What you get when you don’t lead your house will depend entirely on your dog’s personality. I’ve had countless clients whose dogs were taking everything they could — setting rules and boundaries for their humans in a terribly dangerous fashion. And I’ve had countless clients whose dogs were terribly neurotic messes who had no inclination to grab anything. And I’ve had countless clients whose dogs have been neurotic messes who have also been grabbing whatever they could along the way.

The upshot? Reality, and our dogs’ variance in personality/genetics, are way too messy for neat and tidy maxims.

PS, the dogs who aren’t fazed by the leadership vacuum? They don’t come me. They’re just fine. Lucky owners.

20/06/2025

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