Small and Mighty pets

12/12/2024

If your pet(s) was a Xmas character, who would they be?

12/12/2024

Stuck on what to get your loved one for Xmas?

How about our online training course?
Get life time access.
Suitable for all dogs, of all ages.

Click the link below, for more information

Welcome to GOOD DOG - LEVEL 1 where your dog can learn all the skills necessary to thrive with their human families. Whilst dogs have been bred to live with us for many, many years we can’t discount the fact they were once wild scavengers and still enjoy hobbies like bin raiding, people drag racin...

06/12/2024

06/12/2024

Anyone else's phone just went off?

06/12/2024

Due to amber alert weather warning with the potential to be red, we'll be cancelling all classes tomorrow, no puppy club, no imdt partnership grade and no Tracking class I'm afraid.

Stay safe everyone keep all you pets inside if you can. Secure everything down. Its ok if your dogs don't get a walk tomorrow or even Sunday. It's better to keep safe than risk being blown away or being hit by a flying trampoline.

03/12/2024

Clever Chester ☺️

23/11/2024

Due to bad weather we have today, all classes today, are unfortunately cancelled 😔

30/10/2024

Nice little quiet spot to get away from the fireworks if anyone needs too.

If you know of any similar places please share the link below

29/10/2024

Any of my training friends or experienced owners, looking to adopt a dog with a small challenge ☺️

Jack has recently been surrendered back to the rescue after having been adopted in December 2021 at the age of 5 months. He will remain with the adopters whilst we search for an alternative placement, although they did try to surrender him to The Blue Cross before approaching us. Sadly he has a bite history.

Jack is originally from Romania. He weighs just over 13kg and is neutered. According to the adopters, a mother and daughter, he travels well in the car and he walks nicely on the lead. He doesn’t like dogs that are bigger and more boisterous than him running at him, so he will bark, but otherwise he is happy to encounter other dogs. His recall off lead is described as ‘pretty good’ and he’s never bolted. However he is mostly exercised on lead, 4 times a day, the shortest walk being 15 minutes, the longest walk being approximately 40 minutes. The adopters say Jack seems perfectly relaxed at home and can be left for periods of up to 5 hours, describing him as ‘an angel when left home alone’. Jack is always happy to see visitors he knows, and is equally as comfortable with men as women. He is a little more wary of strangers but relaxes once he realises they are no threat. He can bark ‘aggressively’ (adopter’s word) at strangers if out on a walk in the dark. He has a number of doggy friends.

Jack has received some training. He knows basic commands, is toilet trained and will listen ‘when given a command (if he wants to)' (adopter’s words).

Jack was seen by the vet early in October and given a clean bill of health; his vaccinations are up-to-date. He is nervous when going to the vet and has been prescribed Gabapentin and Trazadone. We have his vet history and he has never shown any aggression at the vet, only nervousness.

Jack is being surrendered because he shows aggression around human food. The adopters reached out for support in April 2023 because Jack was barking when being told ‘no’ or ‘get down’ when there was human food on the side in the kitchen. We were also told he bit mum, so we arranged a video call with our behaviourist. When we checked back at the beginning of May 2023 we were told ‘it’s going well thank you. No more incidents’. They were asked to keep in touch but we didn’t hear anything again until October this year when they messaged to say they wanted to surrender him.

Jack has only ever bitten the mum, and, aside from one occasion, the trigger has been human food. The adopters have 2 cats and Jack is described as ‘wanting to play’ with them, but they mostly stay upstairs, separated from Jack by a baby gate. On one occasion, Jack heard the cats meow upstairs and bit the mum. Skin has been broken and when asked to decide a number on the Dunbar Scale, mum said the closest was a 3.

Jack has absolutely no aggression around his own food, only human food.

We are looking for an adopter (or foster) who has the skills and knowledge to help this boy with his aggression around human food, and possibly other issues about which we are not being told. The adopters’ vet offered to help find them a behaviourist but they declined because they do not feel they have the time or skill to help him.

If you feel you would potentially like to be a lifeline for this boy, we are more than happy to arrange for you to meet him / do a video call with the adopters and the rescue in order to understand more before making a commitment.

11/10/2024

Absolutely amazing display last night.

Who else saw the northern lights?

And out of interest are your pets ok or have they acted differently over the last few days?

08/10/2024

😱 omg sooo much rain, hope you and all your animals are safe. ❤️

02/10/2024

I can't believe what I have just seen on the internet today. and I've seen some pretty bizarre things. I'm not going to share the video because, for one, they don't deserve the 'shares' or the attention. and two... well. I'm just baffled at the idiocy of it. off all the warnings, of all the incidents, and losses...still, there are people with the attitude of, 'my dog won't do that'. (breath) today and...not too long ago, I saw a video clip of a toddler sitting on the back of a dog who was lying down, chewing on what might of been a toy, I didn't see, he definitely had something. what were the parents doing? laughing and filming, they were laughing at their kid sitting on their dog's back. This dog was very patient and stood up. He stood up, because he wasn't comfortable with the kid being on his back, resulting in the kid falling off, the kid was fine. ok the dog didn't attack on this occasion. but that still doesn't make it ok. A dog's back isn't very strong, suddenly putting lots of weight on a dog's back can really hurt the dog, ( same with horses, you don't sit on an unbroken horse straight away, they have to be trained to take your weight on their back and even then that's limited to how much each horse can carry because the same thing would happen if you're too heavy, they'll try to get you off, and carrying to much weight can cause major back issues ) so when the dog gives out plenty of warning signs such as moving away, lip curling, growling, air snapping...if these warning signs and messages keep getting ignored, eventually the dog is going to snap and bite this poor toddler. This is how a lot of children get hurt by dogs, this is how children are even killed by dogs. because management hasn't been in place, the dog has been ignored, and because people would rather laugh at something than keep the two safe.

Don't be this clown, don't let your kid sit on a dog.

21/09/2024

Amazing afternoon teaching tracking to Mischief Managed Pet Training crew.