Dog be Praised

17/03/2025

Java passes his L1 Canine hoopers world progress award.

And doesn't he look proud of with himself ❤️

13/03/2025

Noise Phobias

If you have a dog who is scared of fireworks then you will understand how heartbreaking it is to watch your usually happy dog become a fearful shaking shadow of themselves.
But what if that fear then generalises? Imagine if months later your dog has days when they are too scared to venture past the front door because a trailer may clatter past on the road and favourite country walks have to be avoided.

The common advice is to counter condition, i.e. pair the trigger sound with food.
However, this will often fail because it is used too soon; before the dog is ready or able to learn.

This can make the situation worse.
I compare it to planting a seed in poor soil. If the seed does grow it will be weak, deformed and susceptible to pests and diseases.

So, to enrich our 'soil' we need to remove any other causes of stress and anxiety and build optimism within our dog.
We can do this by
🐕 Exploring and addressing pain and discomfort and not just assuming it is not present because there are no obvious signs.
🐕 Providing a healthy and varied diet.
🐕 Ensuring our dogs have good quality sleep, with a variety of beds in different locations.
🐕 Giving out dogs choice and agency where possible. For example Don't want to walk that day? Fine. Don't want to turn left? No problem.
🐕 Providing enrichment activities such as snuffling, searching and scenting.
🐕 Engaging in fun and easy win training games such as Leslie McDevitt 's Pattern Games.

When I met Storm 4 weeks ago she was refusing to leave the house some days and her anxiety was distressing her guardian.

We put in the above measures and today I walked with a joyful, fun loving dog who was able to cope with a beer keg delivery across the road, an unidentified bang, and was happy to walk into an area where she had once been so frightened by gunshot that she bolted.

We still have a lot of work to do, but we now have a solid foundation to build on to make next November far less traumatic for everyone.
Storm ❤️😍❤️

12/03/2025

Java had a slight ear malfunction today 🤣❤️

10/03/2025

The Premack Principle

The Premack Principle can be very useful when teaching your dog to do something that goes against their instincts, such as recalling away from a rabbit hole.
Premack is when you reward a low probability behaviour.(Something your dog is least likely to want to do) with a high probability behaviour (something your dog is most likely to want to do)
Often called Granny's Law "Eat your veggies, get your pudding!".

Here Ludo demonstrates recalling out of a rabbit hole, but can you think of any other examples?

04/03/2025

Bad Behaviour or Communication?

I have recently been working on loose lead walking and remaining focused around other dogs with a new client. Today we took the training to a more challenging environment - the big wide world! An environment in which he has practised the unwanted behaviour on many occasions. This beautiful smart dog kept lying down on the ground and shuffling along on his belly, which was incredibly cute.

In the past the guardian had been told by another trainer that this was bad behaviour and should not be tolerated.

Now I disagree with this. I saw it as a form of communication and th there are several things that this dog could have been trying to tell us, for example –

🐾They didn't understand what was being asked of them.
🐾The environment was too overwhelming.

But as it turned out, towards the end of the session the dog had a great big 💩 and so there's a chance that this dog was saying their tummy was a little bit uncomfortable.

However regardless of the actual reason the question I want to ask is this. “Do our dogs ever really behave 'badly' and therefore need correcting or are they desperately trying to communicate something to us and we just aren't listening?”

So next time your dog is doing something that is considered naughty and requiring correction take a step back and ask yourself “Why is my dog doing this and what can I do to change the situation so that the behaviour is no longer necessary”.

Picture of Eric communicating that he is bored of posing for pictures 😂❤️

04/03/2025

This Week’s Myth:
"Pain relief is not the focus, addressing the underlying cause should be the only concern."

FACT:
Pain relief should always be the primary focus, even if the underlying cause is untreatable. Managing pain is an important step, as it provides immediate comfort and reduces suffering, regardless of the cause.
Pain management is crucial for improving quality of life.

Let’s bust these myths together and make life better for our pups! 🐕✨

Sign up to our FREE course on how to recognise if your dog is in pain:
https://www.cameducation.co.uk/course/is-my-dog-in-pain

16/02/2025

Recall...

31/01/2025

And if it's indoors there's p*e flavoured sprinkles too!

29/01/2025

And the prize for the waggiest tail goes to......

27/01/2025

Another reason why prophylactic use of flea and tick treatment is not good practice.

Exclusive: Chemical in treatment for pet fleas and ticks is found in nests of blue and great t**s, killing chicks

24/01/2025

Something to be aware of, especially in multi pet households.

Social Pressure in Dogs

We are all familiar with the idea of personal space, and hopefully most of us recognise that our dogs have a sense of personal space as well. But another related concept that is not so commonly discussed is social pressure. Social pressure refers to the sense of discomfort created when another animal gets too close, causing us to seek distance from that individual to increase our sense of safety. This may not always escalate to a full flight-or-fight reaction, but experiencing this invasion of space can still often be an unpleasant experience. Usually, these situations involve conspecifics or animals that have adapted to live alongside each other (such as dogs and humans) rather than animals whose presence would immediately elicit a full-blown threat response.

On a broader scale, free-living dogs provide a lens through which to examine the concept of social pressure. These dogs often demonstrate an acute sensitivity to human proximity and behaviour. For instance, Bhattacharjee & Bhadra (2020) observed declines in free-ranging dog abundance and activity levels in response to increased human foot traffic, highlighting how dogs adjust their behaviour based on changes in perceived social pressure. Free-living dogs in urban environments are often reported to be remarkably adept at navigating human-dominated spaces and adapting to human behaviours.

There is a neurobiological basis for dogs' sensitivity to social pressure. The amygdala, a region of the brain involved in threat detection, is highly sensitive to the spatial proximity of perceived threats (Faul et al., 2020). This heightened sensitivity underscores the importance of respecting a dog’s individual thresholds for tolerating social pressure.

In our interactions with pet dogs, social pressure is almost too easy to use to our advantage. It is common to see people herding their dogs into a crate, car, or specific direction by using their own body language and proximity. While effective, this practice raises some important ethical questions. Do you want the reason your dog likes their crate to be because it offers relief from social pressure? And of course there are risks involved, as if a dog is feeling trapped and unable to escape that social pressure, they feel forced to resort to a fight response.

This is not to say social pressure is necessarily a bad thing, social pressure can contribute to healthy communication between dogs and humans. However, when possible, understanding and respecting a dog’s individual tolerance for social pressure plays a role in the formation of a healthy human-dog relationship.

04/01/2025

At last Elf on a Shelf month
is over and we can now dedicate the next 11 months to
🤩

24/12/2024

Merry Christmas everyone!