EYE 2 EYE Dogs

20/07/2025

19/06/2025

30/05/2025

🐾 “He’s Friendly!” – Why That’s Not the Point 🐾

As a professional dog trainer and a parent, I spend my life around dogs—and so does my child. He’s grown up with working dogs, sport dogs, young dogs in training, and dogs with boundaries that must be respected.

From day one, we’ve taught him to:
✅ Read their body language
✅ Ask permission before interacting
✅ Never approach unfamiliar dogs
✅ Respect a dog’s space, even at home

Why? Because no matter how friendly a dog might be, consent and caution are non-negotiable.

So it’s frustrating—and honestly a little exhausting—when we’re out in public, standing in a queue or walking through a park, and someone brings their dog right over to us. No asking. No warning. Just a lead extended with a cheerful, “Don’t worry, he’s friendly!”

But here’s the thing: we didn’t ask for your dog to be in our space. And your dog’s friendliness doesn’t override our right to feel safe and in control of our environment—especially when it involves our child.

There is never an appropriate moment for a random dog to be in my child’s face unless I’ve initiated it. Not in the queue. Not at a café. Not at a playground.

This isn’t about being unfriendly. It’s about safety, respect, and modelling the kind of dog interactions that keep everyone—human and canine—secure and calm.

If you’re raising kids with dogs, please teach them the same:
🐶 Dogs are not public property
🐶 Space matters
🐶 “He’s friendly” is never a pass for poor boundaries

12/05/2025

A little bit of fun with some of our Mondioring obedience class this afternoon 😍

28/04/2025

Demand barking…
It’s easy to miss — but it’s one of the most common mistakes that feeds into bigger behaviour problems, especially in reactive dogs.

When your dog barks at you — for attention, for food, for play, or just out of frustration — and you respond (even by accident), you’re reinforcing that barking.
You’re teaching your dog:
“If I bark, I get what I want.”

At first, it seems harmless: you throw the toy, open the door, put the lead on.
But over time, it becomes your dog’s strategy for everything. Barking becomes the tool to manipulate their environment. And if your dog is already reactive?
You’re adding fuel to the fire.

When a dog learns that barking = control, you see:
• Barking at every small frustration
• Barking to demand access to things (doors, leads, toys, people)
• Barking when they see other dogs or triggers
• Barking just to “move the world” around them

So how do you fix it?

You don’t just ignore it — you also give your dog a better choice.

This is where incompatible behaviours come in.
If your dog is barking to demand something, ask for a behaviour that physically prevents barking — like a down stay, sit and look, or place command.
You can’t bark frantically and hold a calm down stay at the same time.

When you teach your dog that calm, obedient behaviour earns freedom, you build a dog that learns patience, self-control, and trusts you.

Freedom comes through obedience.

When a dog understands that good behaviour unlocks what they want — not barking, not pushing — they gain real freedom.
They can be trusted around distractions. They can cope when frustrated. They stop thinking they have to “fight” for control.

Bottom Line:
If you don’t want a pushy, reactive, barky dog calling the shots, be extremely aware of what you’re reinforcing.
Demand barking is never “just barking.”
It’s a habit you are either feeding or fixing.

Teach your dog that calmness, obedience, and patience open doors — not noise.
The result? A clearer-headed, more stable, and far more reliable dog.

Yes sausages,we’re looking at you 🤣🤣

25/04/2025

🥹🥹😍😍

21/04/2025

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31/03/2025

28/03/2025

21/03/2025

It’s easy to get caught up in the exciting stuff when you’re working with a super high-drive, well-trained dog. Whether it’s a sport dog or an operational dog, we sometimes overlook the importance of reinforcing the basics — those seemingly mundane tasks that lay the foundation for everything we do.

When you’ve had a dog for a while and know they’ve got a solid understanding of a huge range of skills, it’s tempting to focus on the more advanced work. After all, the dog “knows it,” right? But the truth is, those foundational behaviours are what keep everything running smoothly. Reinforcing the simple stuff — engagement, focus, and calmness — makes a world of difference when it really counts.

I remember going to a Mondioring competition once and seeing a hugely successful competitor training the day before his run. Normally, when you see people train the day before a competition, they’re working on the more complex parts of the routine or fine-tuning the flashy stuff. But this handler was different. He wasn’t phased about the advanced work. Instead, he calmly focused on reinforcing the basics. I watched as he spent time rewarding quiet engagement, simple focus, and basic position changes. It wasn’t about drilling competition exercises — it was about ensuring the dog was happy, connected, and grounded in those core behaviours.

That moment really stuck with me. It was a brilliant reminder that no matter how well-trained your dog is, those fundamentals never stop being important. In fact, they’re what make the more advanced work possible.

When was the last time you fed your dog for getting in the van? You might be thinking, “I don’t need to feed my dog for getting in the van — he doesn’t have a problem with that. It’s something he should do without negotiation.” And sure, your dog probably should know how to get in the van, and it should be something that’s easy and automatic. But that’s not the point. The point is what happens in the dog’s mind when you reinforce those simple behaviours. The effects ricochet across the rest of your training.

Every time you reward those “small” moments, you’re building value in your connection, sharpening engagement, and reinforcing the idea that working with you is always worthwhile — whether it’s a flashy exercise or a quiet, everyday task. Those ripples add up, creating a dog that is not only skilled but also confident and eager to work in every situation.

PD Angus after his mud facial.