Calvert Canines - Dog Behaviour Specialist & Dog Walking Service

The little anxious whispers of canine body language. There are many body language signs of minor anxiety in dogs and it's easy to get a hold of a good infogram or two nowadays to start to learn about this. NOTHING is as good though as slowing down clips of your dog and looking out for what signs you can see them showing themselves because not all dogs will use the same signs. Lucy is a lip licker, that's her go to behaviour when concerned. Raggy will droop his head. Behaviour star Wilf ⭐ here is an avid head turner. In just this slowed down clip of a few seconds Wilf turns away multiple times. Watch his ears as well. They are also communicating anxiety by one or both twitching/being held backwards. (He's just getting to know his two new friends and Raggy rolling around on the floor in front of him was a bit perplexing 😂). It is SO IMPORTANT to recognise these signs of minor anxiety and stress. By recognising it we can respond to it, or at least not make the current challenge any harder. Minor anxiety of a dog stepping a little out of his comfort zone is ok. That's where change can happen. But we need to know when to stop pushing and just give the dog time to process the current difficulty level. We need to be able to recognise whispers of anxiety to do this. Wilf was fantastic yesterday - even with an off lead dog temporarily inviting themselves into our session - he was able to shake it off and carry on with the task at hand. That shows a very very high level of resilience which is a new thing for Wilf 👏🏻👏🏻🐾💜

I was reflecting on my walk this morning how much pressure we put on dogs to go out into the world and just make friends with every dog they see. We wouldn't dream of putting that pressure on our kids; that would be considered dangerous. You don't encourage kids to approach every person they see and ask to hug. It had me bemused, whilst I watched Sherlock and Molly play so nicely together. These two are very good friends and see each other practically every single day without fail. FRIENDSHIP is important for our dogs (most dogs, some dogs genuinely don't want anything to do with other dogs and that's ok). But your dog having a friendship group is not synonymous with pleasant interactions with every dog on the street and in the park. If your dog has friends but doesn't want interactions with stranger dogs - THAT'S NORMAL. That doesn't make them "reactive". It doesn't make them anti-social or somehow not good enough. It doesn't make them problematic. It makes them like the majority of dogs out there. Having friendships is all a dog needs. They don't need the constant intrusions from very extroverted dogs running over like they're long lost lovers. It's just worth examining our expectations of our dogs on a frequent basis. There is nothing more joyful than seeing two dogs genuinely enjoy every second of each others company. But supporting our dogs' social needs with friendships is much more important than worrying about whether our dog can say hello to a total stranger dog without concern 🐾💜

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MBOGO! We really hope you enjoyed your special birthday walk this morning with sister Piper, boss lady Jen & your friends Lucy & Raggy. We love you loads you adorable little guy. Thank you for all the joy you bring to our walks. Thank you for helping all our puppies feel comfortable around dogs like you. You rock. Lots of love, Team CC 🐾💜

There are SO MANY ways you can deliver your dog a treat when working with them and the mechanics of the delivery matters when working with some dogs. When working with Meeko we have to really ooze calm in everything we do. He's so quickly and so easily overstimulated something as simple as how a treat is delivered can make a difference to his overall state of mind. Bending down and popping the treat on the floor instead of throwing it for the dog to find is a really simple way of removing any adrenaline rush to the reinforcement. For dogs that are easily frustrated trying to catch a treat and/or sniff it out can simply add to the bucket of frustrating things they are dealing with in that moment. These two work together SO beautifully. Even the quietest and calmest of marker words had Meeko turning around for his reinforcement. Another thing that can make a difference in dog training: how the marker word is gestured. It's not always about being high pitched and exciting and celebratory. I just so love watching training interactions between two bodies who are attuned with each other as these two are 🐾💜

I just LOVE this boy 🧡 One of big T's favourite things to work for are cat treats. Only fair then that the cat gets to join in with the enrichment! Interspecies relationships are very special, aren't they? Sometimes dogs and cats under the same roof need to be coached to just ignore each other. But these two will actively sleep next to each other 🥹 Beautiful 🐾🧡🐱🐶

My little lady, just chilling. Can you spot the second she realises I'm looking at her? 🥹 DID YOU KNOW: a tail wagging is not just an expression of how a dog feels, it is also a purposeful communication signal. In this moment Lucy is inviting engagement and using a signal that domestication has given them to help their engagement with us humans (before lazily getting up to get a cuddle). DID YOU ALSO KNOW: one theory of why the tail wag became a social signal in dogs as a result of domestication is because us humans are attracted to rhythmic stimuli, especially those with isochronous patterns like metronomes. Simply put, we liked the look of the wag! A visual preference for us, but a very important communicative signal for them.

A TRUE SETTLE 🐾💜 "I no longer get a takeaway cup incase I have to leave! I now get a proper 'eating in' mug for my coffee! 😁" Jess was originally taught a "settle" through rewarding with food when she was on the mat. It was recommended that this way she will learn to be calm in cafés etc. Unfortunately not. Jess became very vocal, not only to get the treats and attention, but to micromanage what was going on around her in terms of people passing the table. The food activity activated her and caused her to start guarding her space from anything approaching. WHAT WE DID INSTEAD 🐾💜 We paired a certain scent with Jess being sleepy outside of this scenario. When choosing to rest at home the scent would be popped near her and we monitored her reaction to it. She didn't move away from it and soon started to opt to be close to it to sleep so at that point we knew she could start using it as a cue to "rest" in the outside world. The result is clear. Once Jess' needs are met she will more than happily go for a snooze on her mat, as encouraged by the scent association. Waiters can now approach the table with no drama and Jess has completely stopped barking for attention in these scenarios. IMPORTANTLY - THIS HAS BEEN BUILT UP OVER A NUMBER OF MONTHS! This is absolutely NOT an overnight quick fix. Jess' mum has been working on this every week, setting Jess up for success in small steps. Learned associations are powerful but take a while to truly build up when you're trying to foster true calm. Worth the effort though. Well done you brilliant duo 🐾💜

WALKING YOUR PUPPY - What should it look like? Every time our puppy is out of the house their brains are sponges learning about the world, learning about how they want to respond to the world, and learning about how the world wants to respond to them. How can we set them up to have a life of calm confident contentment in the outside world? I've made you a video to show you :) Please share. These take quite a while to make but I couldn't be a reactivity/aggression specialist without also showing you how to buffer AGAINST reactivity in the outside world developing in the first place! Plus, it's just super cute and fascinating watching such a young little mind respond to such a big world. 🥰

It was SO LOVELY to see Winston again - oh my word. I adore this team of 2 and the way they work together. Our targets have changed since our work last year. We've moved onto looking at his car reactivity. Winston's mum has very realistic goals - she isn't concerned about pavement walking Winston but there's just ONE STRETCH that's just a few metres long that it would be ACE if Winston could build up coping skills for. So we'll give it a good go. But we start by practicing elsewhere. There's more than one way to potentially tackle car reactivity and it's about finding what will work for Winston. We want to find that out though BEFORE he starts building associations with that particular road. Behaviour modification is as much planning what you DON'T DO as much as it's planning what you DO. "I'll just carry plates with me everywhere I think", Winston's mum said when she saw how it was creating a pattern that Winston was using to help him with the plethora of distractions out there today! The things we do for our dogs right? 😂🐾💜

IT ISN'T AS COMPLICATED SOMETIMES AS YOU MAY THINK. Since my Lucy's spay I've noticed she's become a bit more "reactive" on our local village walk. Most our walks are out in the country but it is convenient to sometimes go local and she does seem to like the change in smells that brings - so I've been working on pulling down her reactivity in her local area. How? What training technique did I use? None. I just noticed that as soon as she got out the front door she would charge ahead in her haste to keep up with my speed. Our tiny dogs, of which Lucy is one, end up having to basically RUN to keep up with our typical human walk. She would whizz by all the environment had to offer. If she did stop and sniff it would be for a millisecond only. That was just the way she walked in the village. The last few walks I've very purposefully slowed her down. I've forced myself to walk almost painfully slow, sometimes stopping altogether, and this has meant she's moved a LOT slower too. Not only that, she's been stopping to watch and process things and that's where the beauty has happened. Where before she would start pulling, lunging, vocalising on the sight of a dog, she now takes a look, watches, and moves on when she's processed the goings on. In that space she's learnt that she doesn't HAVE to be defensive and warn dogs away. Because more often than not they don't approach her anyway, they just walk on by. She wasn't allowing herself the chance to see this when she was just charging ahead full speed. This is the beauty of behaviour modification. It isn't always about learning particular methods with fancy names. Sometimes the change can be as simple as this - SLOW DOWN. Watch in this video how she notices a dog, watches (with her little paw lifted bless her), then moves on comfortably. She's off lead because I know she's not going to run over. We passed 6 dogs today. All six she was under threshold in response to, even when some of them were bouncing and looking

HARNESSES TEACH A DOG TO PULL!! Change the record🤦🏻‍♀️ There are many reasons why a dog may learn to/resort to pulling on lead. Blaming a single piece of equipment is, to be honest, lazy, and hugely unappreciative of the complexity of dog behaviour. Have you thought of this? Perhaps the dog has learnt to pull because nobody has taught them to not? Perhaps the dog has learnt to pull because their excitement levels are so high they have absolutely zero impulse control skills available to them? Have you also thought that... In the moment a dog may pull because they need the toilet. They may pull to get away from something they dislike eg when walking by the road. I will keep shouting this until I'm blue in the face. We need to protect our dogs' necks. Harnesses aren't the block to a dog walking nicely. A lack of effort in teaching your dog how to move forwards on lead is, even when they're excited to get to their destination. (Yet another video of 1 year old spaniel Alby still acing his walking nicely skills, despite the fact he's spent his entire life in a harness. Here we are going towards the park.)

I saw this quote on a meme this morning and I immediately thought how perfect it is for our terrier type dogs who embrace their feistiness and will not simmer down for anybody! 😂 Tilly & Pennie here having a happy morning play, terrier style! Celebrating our feisty terriers who own who they are every day. Love them! 🐾💜

A dog trainers evening well spent 😂 Watch Lucy's little tail wag "I KNOW THIS ONE!" and the little glance towards her puppy brother "ARE YOU WATCHING?!" before answering my question. Just a funny. Because hats, brushes, shoes and goodness knows what else are all toys for puppies aren't they!!! 😏😂

Viewer discretion advised 😂😂😂 One of my firm boundaries with Alby I've worked hard on is teaching him that nothing good happens if you jump up. One way I helped him succeed with this is by keeping all interactions relatively calm so he wasn't swept up in excitement, losing his self control. Months down the line I'm starting to purposefully inject some excitement to help him learn that same rules apply: no jumping up please! A bit of a fun video, nothing to be taken too seriously, especially my dancing skills 😂 Anyone spot my little Lucy at the beginning of the video? Mums gone mad, I'm out 😂🐾💜

❗REFRAMING LOOSE LEAD WALKING ❗ WHAT IS LOOSE LEAD WALKING? ✅ A balanced upright posture from the dog ✅ A balanced upright posture from the human ✅ Calmly interacting with the environment as it passes, no lunging towards certain smells ✅ Able to change speed/direction or pause walking with ease ✅ An awareness of the human at the end of the lead through little check ins (however they look like for the dog). WHAT LOOSE LEAD WALKING IS NOT! ❌ A fixed position at the heel, measured by the inch ❌ Denying the dog the option to sniff or toilet/mark (unless in certain circumstances). ❌ The dog walking staring up at the owner for food delivery ❌ An unwillingness to allow the dog to have changeable side preferences or walk in front (unless in certain circumstances). ❌ A short tight lead with constant upwards tension at the neck Alby is a typical spaniel who doesn't find food rewards all that rewarding. He wouldn't walk nicely in order to "earn" food so I'd be wasting my time waiting for that. Since he was a tiny pup I've had to be extremely consistent that we only move forwards if I'm not being dragged down the road, and you only get to reach that smell if you don't lunge for it. My goal isn't that he walks impeccably by my side but a bit of awareness and general concern that there's a human at the end of the lead is quite enough for me. He finds this easier some days than others but that's very typical for an adolescent boy. Loose lead walking isn't just a training exercise you tick off, it's a part of your relationship that involves respect on both sides 🐾💜

BE THEIR SAFE BASE - with Pebbles 🐾💜 Pebbles, once anxious and reactive, has transformed in confidence and social skills in the last 5 months. Here she is on her beach holiday not only coping with the intrusion of multiple big dogs, but feeling free enough to have a little run with them. This wasn't without worry. Having multiple stranger dogs appear in a fast paced manner isn't every dogs cup of tea. What I loved about this video in particular is watching Pebbles use her people as a little bit of positive support throughout. Using voice and body language (no food) they let Pebbles know that they're there, she's doing good. We rely on food to communicate our presence when so often, just being there will do. Pebbles LOVES her people. She doesn't need them to feed her cheese. That way of working was actually making her reactivity worse because she was starting to carry the worry of needing to guard the food too. This trait is very present in our poo mixes at the moment. (Pebbles is a mix of many many breeds, all influencing her behaviour predispositions in some way). So many poo mixes I see for reactivity have ended up in a situation where they're guarding food from other dogs. We need to be very careful of heavy treat training with these dogs. Even if you think it isn't relevant, like with loose lead walking. Being a safe base is often enough. In fact, more than enough, it gets you where you wanted to be. On a beach, mixing with dogs, enjoying life 🐾💜