Calvert Canines - Dog Behaviour Specialist & Dog Walking Service

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Calvert Canines - Dog Behaviour Specialist & Dog Walking Service A training & behaviour service based in Buckinghamshire, committed to force free, relationship focused training.

Proudly founded and run by Jen: a qualified level 6 behaviourist, aggression specialist & nutritionist. From puppies to senior dogs, the little ones to the big, Calvert Canines is about giving you the skills to help your dog be the best they can be in your care. Co-habitation is optimised through fostering a co-operative and safe attachment. FORCE-FREE methods and an understanding of your dog as a unique being is all you need to modify your dogs behaviour.

I ADORE this graphic from Mark at Bone Canis. I just had to ask to give it a share. Extremely wise words that we all nee...
23/06/2025

I ADORE this graphic from Mark at Bone Canis.

I just had to ask to give it a share.

Extremely wise words that we all need to sit and digest. The tunnel will be as long as the tunnel will be. Pressurising the dog to find the light can sometimes just pull them further away from that end.

Let it be 🐾💜

Snoopy has been walking with Calvert Canines since May 2021 and today we said bye bye 😢Snoopy started off nervous around...
23/06/2025

Snoopy has been walking with Calvert Canines since May 2021 and today we said bye bye 😢

Snoopy started off nervous around dogs and just being walked with my two terriers - even that was an accomplishment back then! He then became best friends with Molly who was just a puppy then. It all flourished from there.

Fast forward 4 years and the list of dogs Snoopy has on his friends list has grown exponentially. Snoopy felt safe with us and it didn't matter what dog we put him with - he'd trot with us happily. Mostly Adam of course, as Snoopy LOVES the men and once Adam got involved I barely got a look in anymore 😂 We used to joke that in every single picture Snoopy would be right at Adams feet and it was true! He followed Adam like his shadow.

Except when he was rolling in p**p. He was GREAT at that too 😂

Snoopy is moving into a new chapter of his life and this is where we must say goodbye 😢 We will hopefully see him here and there as one of the original CC dog walking dogs, he is going to be missed!

Here he is today on his last walk with us, joined by Molly (of course), Mitzy & Sherlock.

It's been a pleasure looking after you Snoopy. See you soon buddy ###

Love Jen, Adam & Amy 🐾💜

And still the best play faces award 🏅 goes to Wilf 🥹😁His first proper male play buddy and he chose well - Koda 💜 Sunday ...
22/06/2025

And still the best play faces award 🏅 goes to Wilf 🥹😁

His first proper male play buddy and he chose well - Koda 💜

Sunday mornings (now it's cool!) don't get better than sharing in this joy 🥹🐾💜

21/06/2025

"Let's go!" is such an important training cue for dogs with reactivity.

If you train it well enough you've got a cue that will help cut a reaction in half, or even stop one happening in the first place.

But what does "well enough" mean?

It means:

🐾 Train first somewhere the dog can fully concentrate on learning the new phrase and what it means e.g. house or garden.
🐾 Train for minutes at a time, multiple times a day.
🐾 Use suitably high value food that the dog will TRULY find reinforcing. Think "boy ill do that again!!" instead of "cool thanks".
🐾 Be energetic in your training of it. TD's little hop skips and jumps here are part of her personality, but also, because I've encouraged the joy whilst training!
🐾 Generalise the learning in different places BEFORE trying to use it in real life situations e.g. on the walks you do but without anything around to distract initially.
🐾 Purposefully start to practice around triggers but at a good distance initially

The more work you put into the early stages of this training the more reliable a cue you'll have to rescue your dog from a situation that they're not coping with in the moment.

You don't have to just hold on and hope, or drag your dog away - this cue will give you something to actively do in those situations we dread - when our dogs are reacting and we feel hopeless and helpless to interject.

DOG WALKING PICS: THURSDAY & FRIDAY 🐾💜One walk days for the end of the week with these temps! And reactive dog walk canc...
20/06/2025

DOG WALKING PICS: THURSDAY & FRIDAY 🐾💜

One walk days for the end of the week with these temps! And reactive dog walk cancelled tomorrow 😓 Still, more important we keep safe 🥰

Have a great weekend all. Keep it chilled! 😁

Lots of love,

Team CC 🐾💜

This rather hot Friday we welcome in Piper to the CC family. Piper is joining us for dog walking and we cannot wait to g...
20/06/2025

This rather hot Friday we welcome in Piper to the CC family.
Piper is joining us for dog walking and we cannot wait to get her out with new friends. Just as soon as she's fully healed & it's cooled down anyway!! Todays enrichment pop in was a great way to start building our bond however. She thoroughly enjoyed all the tasks we set her!
Welcome Piper. You're going to love your days with us, and vice versa!! 🥰🥰🐾💜

19/06/2025

As dogs are non verbal creatures (most of the time, aside from our chatters 😂) it is so beautiful watching the language they have between themselves. It's all about body language. Their bodies are all they have to communicate wishes and intent in the moment.

I caught this lovely snippet this morning between Sherlock & Lily.

You'd have to be there to get the full context of the video so let me add that Sherlock had been wanting Lily to play. It's not true that the only way a dog asks for play is by play bowing. On paper, Sherlock's tall upright very still stare might sound a bit abrasive but dogs aren't text books. They don't always follow the rules of the body language books we can buy. Sherlock was inviting interaction and his open mouth and bouncy approach will have helped Lily to read this for what it was - "shall we interact?!"

Lily's very gentle way of saying "no thanks" through the blinking and head turns was read perfectly by Sherlock though who took "no" as an answer pretty quickly. This is where the "my dogs friendly!" dogs who race over to another and pester for interaction get it wrong.

Dogs communicate perfectly well when they're standing metres away from each other. That space between them gives them the space to look at, absorb and respond to any communications they see. Taking "no" as an answer can be really hard for those dogs too who just blindly run into the faces of others. They're so invested in getting what they want they don't respond to any signals that the dog is giving off to be left alone.

What we see as friendliness is very wrong. Friendliness isn't intense playfulness.

This is friendliness 👇🏻 Sherlock's ever so hopeful but gentle question of 'play?' And Lily's gentle but clear response of 'no thanks'. And Sherlocks gentle 'ok' as he moves away.

Friendliness is space to communicate, time to process and keenness to respond to communications.

Love catching conversations like this and slowing them down to truly appreciate their full glory.

Sherlock did get some play in the end 🥹🐾💜

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS: the forgotten result. Scenario: dog at the vets who is worried by strangers. Stranger (vet) is doi...
19/06/2025

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS: the forgotten result.

Scenario: dog at the vets who is worried by strangers. Stranger (vet) is doing a procedure on the dog. Dog is being held by the harness, a muzzle, and some scruff of the neck. Dog tries to move away and when he cannot, turns around to snap. Equipment is held even tighter. Procedure is completed as dog stops trying to move away and doesn't snap again.

Result: it was claimed in the video I watched of this scenario that because the dog "allowed" the vet to complete the procedure they were "okay" with it and it was a successful exercise for the dog.

My thoughts: incorrect.

A dog standing there as something gets done to them is not a dog that is saying they're ok with it. The dog literally was being prohibited from fleeing (a response to stress) AND fighting (a response to stress). The dog couldn't do either. The dog had very little option as he was being overpowered by the strength of the human restraining them. This to me looks like a recipe for learned helplessness - not a positive exposure activity for the dog.

Learned helplessness isn't the foundation you want to build life skills on. Learned helplessness is more than likely a NEGATIVE felt experience for the dog. For a dog worried by strangers, being restrained so a stranger can do something to them is likely going to increase their suspiciousness and negative feelings around strangers overall. ESPECIALLY when the thing the stranger is doing is causing them pain and discomfort.

Ultimately yes, sometimes dogs need things done to them in order to tend to their medical needs, and that includes dogs worried by strangers. But outlining it as a helpful exercise that is benefiting the dog is a big error. It's just not that simple.

Yes we CAN overpower dogs with our strength, (most the time!). But using that ability as a way of helping dogs overcome anxiety and fear is backwards at best, dangerous at worst.

Let me be clear - RESTRAINING YOUR DOG SO HE LEARNS TO TOLERATE SOMETHING IS NOT A BENEFICIAL BEHAVIOURAL EXERCISE. It is not showing them that the thing you're doing is ok. It's showing them that they have no choice in that moment, that's it. Yes, sometimes in real life that's necessary. But as a training "technique" spread to the masses? No thanks.

WALKING WEDNESDAY GROUPS 🐾💜Group 1: Kenneth, Berni, Albus, Butch, Skip, Sherlock Group 2: Molly, Snoopy, Koda, Coco, Bel...
18/06/2025

WALKING WEDNESDAY GROUPS 🐾💜

Group 1: Kenneth, Berni, Albus, Butch, Skip, Sherlock
Group 2: Molly, Snoopy, Koda, Coco, Bella, Peanut, Lucy, Raggy, Lily

Well done for having your listening ears on group 1 and coming away from the water when we ask to let other dog walkers go there too. You were all fab. Pretty much everyone headed for the water spot today! Unsurprisingly!

"If the behaviour is unwanted, then punish it". -- a really simplistic bit of advice I heard recently when it comes to d...
17/06/2025

"If the behaviour is unwanted, then punish it". -- a really simplistic bit of advice I heard recently when it comes to dog behaviour.

This word "unwanted" is so unforgiving.

Consider a dog who is so scared of strangers coming in the house. Is their behaviour of barking/lunging and snapping "unwanted"? Yes from the humans perspective. From the dogs perspective, what is unwanted is being put in a situation where strangers are entering their space without protection.

Consider a dog who is really sensitive to being touched due to a skin disorder. Is their behaviour of growling and biting at the groomers "unwanted"? Yes from the humans perspective. From the dogs perspective, what is unwanted is being put in a situation where they are being manhandled to the point it's making them feel really uncomfortable and they aren't being heard when they try to communicate that.

Consider a dog who is growling when people approach their food bowl when they're eating. Is their behaviour of growling "unwanted"? Yes from the human perspective. From the dogs perspective what is unwanted is people walking straight by them as they are trying to eat their dinner.

Categorising behaviour as wanted or unwanted is so minimalistic. Some people WANT their dog to bark at the door! Some people WANT their dog to lunge at a person if they get approached in a dark alley at night!

And of course it really overlooks what drives behaviour in a dog. Behaviour is not just driven by what a dog is "allowed" to do, and you need to simply disallow what you don't want. Behaviour is also driven by a dog's NEEDS - for example they NEED to keep themselves feeling safe. Behaviour is also driven by organic causes such as a genuine medical condition. Or it can be driven by a dogs' momentary fleeting (or not) emotion. Yes, emotions can change in a second, yes we can't see emotions, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. That doesn't mean we get to ignore they exist and just categorise behaviour as either something we want to see or something we don't.

It's so inherently selfish to just train dogs to do what you want. Regardless of their very individual selves. It's so completely cruel to just punish an unwanted behaviour rooted in NEED.

NEED IS A PERFECTLY REASONABLE DRIVER FOR BEHAVIOUR. Basic needs. Social needs. Cognitive needs. All of the above.

More often than not a dog is not just thinking "you know what, I'm going to be an a*se to this dog and snap in his face because I can".

More often than not that behaviour is or at least WAS absolutely necessary. Not always. But more often than not.

Our job is to show dogs that their current behaviour patterns might not be necessary, instead let's give something else a go. But we don't do that by punishing them for it. We slowly convince them through careful re-exposure. Or we organise the world so they don't need to do it. For example, putting the food bowl out of the busy footfall of the house is a perfectly reasonable answer to a dog growling when someone walks by them as they're eating. Not everything is a fight to be fought.

Our understanding of dogs has gone far beyond them just being a trainable blank slate/pot of playdoh you can do what you like with. They're not play doh. You're not creating what you want to see from scratch by rewarding or punishing accordingly. There's big building blocks our dogs are made up of that we might not be able to change.

That's the truth of it.

Picture of TD because my goodness isn't she just stunning? In the same way we can't change our dogs' eye colour, we can't always change their perspective of the world. It's their perspective of situations that drives behaviour the most. Their behavioural choices are rarely UNWANTED to them 🐾💜

DOG WALKING PICS MONDAY & TUESDAY 🐾💜We've had a couple of days of really lovely walks. Mostly shade hopping & playing in...
17/06/2025

DOG WALKING PICS MONDAY & TUESDAY 🐾💜

We've had a couple of days of really lovely walks. Mostly shade hopping & playing in water.

Getting hotter for the rest of the week so pop ins etc will come into play.

Well done to Pebbles & Hettie who navigated a non-short lead walk together for the first time today! Super proud of you both 😘

And a big well done to Bailey who met the big Mr K for the first time today. You did good buddy!

And guess what..... JEN HAS HER CAR BACK!! A week away from it has been too long 🚗 Big thanks to Highgear garage in Buckingham for their work on it to get it back on the road.

Stay safe with the rest of the week please guys 🐾💜

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