Top Tails with Vanessa Byrne

03/04/2025

They say that nerves travel down the lead, what if I was to tell you they don’t?

As someone who competes with their dogs and also judges, I’ve seen and experienced nerves kicked in on countless occasions.

The Dog that can do everything perfectly in practice all of a sudden loses the plot when it comes to the ring.

We panic, we can’t get the dogs attention. We wonder what we can do. Our confidence in ourselves and in our dog leaves us.

Was it a one off? We go in the ring again, it happens again.

Now we are into a cycle.

We worry, The Dog picks up on our worry and then we worry more.

What is going to happen next time?

Canine Flow tells us that nervous energy travels from our hearts to our dogs hearts.

This is fully backed up by scientific research carried out by the Institute of heart math.

So now you know that, what can you do about it?

How can you control those nerves?

How can those feelings be changed?

How can your performance and in turn your dogs performance be changed, be transformed?

Canine Flow gives us the answers .

As an experienced competitor in various Dog sports, I can assure you that by using a few small techniques you can conquer your nerves and restore your confidence in yourself and your dog .

Come and learn what so many of my clients now know .

In just two hours spent with me and then practice at home and at your event venue, you can transform your performance.

You can change the narrative .

Enjoy the peace and Tranquility of Lenches lakes on my canine wellness retreat.

Take a breath , relax and learn calming techniques that will help you control those nerves.

For more details and to book your space, click on the link in the comments.

I’m really looking forward to seeing your progress.

02/04/2025

“be more dog” is one of my favourite phrases.

Our dogs live from their hearts; they live in the moment.

They are our guides, they bring things into our lives that we need, the lessons that we need to learn.

Maybe your dog is telling you to live more in the moment?

I discovered Canine Flow because of problems that my dog Brian was having; but it was Tonka (in the photo) that benefited too and now my dog Howard.

Live in the moment, be more dog.

If you need help from your dog to live in the moment then come and join me on my Canine Wellness Session.

It’s being held at the beautiful and tranquil Lenches Lakes, which is on the edge of the Cotswolds.

I’d love to see you and your dog there.

Details are in the comments.

01/04/2025

Just ask me on your next visit, or drop me a message and I can give you further details.

27/03/2025

Jarno the cairn terrier and his human have saved their space on the Canine Wellness Session that I’m holding at the beautiful Lenches Lakes.

I’m so excited for them.

Two hours of peace and relaxation.

Meditation, learning how to perform Canine Flow Spiral Massage and the health benefits of Earthing.

I can’t wait.

Who’s up for grabbing their space?

Details are in the comments.

24/03/2025

The biggest gift is of course is your presence.

How often are we so busy doing though?

Come and join me for less doing and more being.

It’s an opportunity to relax, be with your dog and connect together on a truly heart centred level.

This is for a maximum of 5 lucky dogs and their humans to join me on a Canine Flow Wellness Session.

For further details see the comments.

10/03/2025

Looking after the oldies…

When our dogs get older we need to adapt. We need to do things at their pace.

The older dog often feels more vulnerable. Their ability to stand may be greatly reduced.

Drying becomes a more complicated process because they often cannot tolerate the high powered driers anymore and they need to lie down more, which means it’s harder to dry tummies and legs.

Arthritic dogs have more sensitive legs and joints and sometimes cannot tolerate the clippers on them anymore.

Just like us as we age an older dog is less flexible.

So how do we adapt?

A shorter more functional style.

Splitting the groom in to a bath and then a day later a groom.

Bathing at home and just coming for a trim.

Working on the floor instead of the table.

Lots of little breaks.

Coming more often for a shorter amount of time.

Sometimes it’s best to stay with your dog to help support and soothe any anxieties.

TopTails is just about to step into their 14th year of business. Many of the dogs of my books have been with me for many, many years.

It’s an absolute honour to groom the older dogs that have been with me so long.

06/03/2025

We’re at Crufts today!
Howard did me proud by being placed third in his class.
Absolutely over the moon.

03/03/2025

Absolutely all of this.
It is also hugely beneficial for dogs to have a first visit (whatever their age) where they have a chance to discover the salon and meet me in their own time.
It is a gentle introduction with treats and things to snuffle and explore.
I can tell a lot about how to support your dog when they are groomed from these visits and I find the dogs that experience this have a really positive outlook to their visits afterwards.

Puppy Grooming: Why Starting Early is Essential!🐾

As professional groomers, we know that early grooming plays a huge role in a puppy’s development. Educating new puppy owners on why grooming should start early can make all the difference!

Let’s work together to educate them and make their pups’ first grooming experiences positive.

📢 Let’s Spread the Word! 📢
✅ Encourage owners to start brushing at home from 8 weeks old.
✅ Recommend a puppy introduction groom from 12 weeks (once vaccinated).
✅ Explain the benefits of regular salon visits to build confidence and maintain coat health.

🐾 Groomers, please share this post to help educate your clients! Let’s make every puppy’s grooming journey a happy one! 🐶✂️

**a

24/02/2025

All prepared for delivering guest training with Sue Williamson’s Taking the Grr approved groomers tonight.

We’re looking at taking the energy out of drying.

How to make drying a calmer experience for our dogs and save time and energy.

I love doing these types of sessions, working with people who are dedicated to doing their very best for the dogs they groom. I also usually learn something myself.

27/01/2025

Most of my posts on this page are focusing on dog grooming, but I am also a Canine Flow Master Practitioner.

Im really excited to have been invited to be a guest speaker for Lakeside Dog Training.

Maybe you’d like to join us?

The word for 'dog' in Hebrew, the traditional language of Israel, is 'Kelev' which literally translates as ‘like a heart’.

Our hearts emit frequencies that are directly connected to our thoughts and feelings.

Our hearts are a reflection of our subconscious mind. Scientists have proved that our hearts are in actual fact more powerful than our minds and our thoughts at influencing or creating our reality.

Our dogs are part of our reality.
They have the biggest heart mass per body mass any other living organism.

This means they are sensing or ‘picking up’ what is going on for us emotionally all the time. They feel what is happening, what we are feeling through our hearts. They are super tuned into us.

Dogs can display undesirable behaviour when, for whatever reason on our part, our dogs either cannot reach us - match up to us emotionally in order to ground their own emotions onto us, or they receive unsettling emotional messages from our Heart.

For our dogs, there isn’t good or bad, there is just Energy.

For them it is energies emitted from our hearts such as anxiety, stress, fear, frustration and helplessness need to be shifted, balanced or transformed.

However, energies such as peace, calm, generosity and love are absorbed.

Our dogs are a true reflection of where we are emotionally, a mirror of our subconscious feelings.

What is your dog trying to tell you?

To find out more come and join me at

Wildgoose Rural Training,
Hallow,
WR2 6LS

On Sunday 9th February.

The booking links are in the comments.

03/12/2024

Puppy introductions make such a difference to the grooming experience throughout your dog’s life.
Little Reggie took to it all in his stride.

A light handstrip of his puppy fluff, a very gentle bath (no shower hose yet) and some experience of the hair dryer (the sound but no air on him).

He was absolutely brilliant with his handling (well done to his people for that) and he took all the sounds in his stride.

He’s got homework to do, which is getting used to the hairdryer blowing on him.

Each puppy introduction is unique to your individual dog.

Some dogs need lots of short appointments to get use to one thing at a time and others (like Reggie) can cope quite a bit more.

12/11/2024

Oreo is keen for me to get cracking 💕

29/10/2024

Coco’s journey…

Huge amount of progress made today.
We stayed calm in the bath, all the way throughout our bath, no panic, just calm.

Yes we did hang our front paws out for a bit, but that helped with washing Coco’s tummy.

We are also making good progress with being comfortable with the hairdryer being on in the room.

Small changes can make a massive difference

🐾💕x

08/10/2024

It’s that time of the year again when the geese are off on their travels.

It’s a time we used to find a bit of a strain. Brian used to react to them flying overhead. He’d go and bark at them. I don’t know if he was saying get out of my air space or safe travels.

Along with that his skin would always get more sensitive.

Was it the change in air temperature?

Was it the geese?

Was it just different mould spores in the air due to that changing of the season?

Who knows, it doesn’t really matter what the cause is.

What matters is that we acknowledge that change of energy and we support it, we help it flow.

Now when I hear the geese, it fills me full of joy, of happy memories of my Brian.

He may be gone, but he’ll always be in my heart.

16/09/2024

Most of the dogs I groom are normal grooms.

Bath, blast, finish drier and then trim.

I try and make it as calm an experience as possible for both me and the dog. I’m all about having the easiest groom possible. It makes it physically and emotionally less challenging for all parties.

I do also have a few dogs on my books that are special cases.

Flo came to me needing a new start.

We worked out she wasn’t acclimatised to the hair dryer and that she had sensitive front legs and was accepting but nervous of the clippers.

We’ve worked together on all of these areas.

Her human was more than happy for me to do as much as I could and then stop if Flo started to struggle.

Yesterday was the first time we managed a full groom, including the blaster on low power.

The photos are of part way through drying and then having a break whilst I cleared some hair up.

It’s another energy flow in the grooming salon success story.

Small changes can make a big difference.

💕🐾x

28/08/2024

Going the extra mile.

Every product that TopTails uses is selected with great care. Even down to the blade and scissor sanitizer and the oils used on equipment.

These essentials are plant based, hypoallergenic and food safe.

So when Woody came in today with a recovering sore spot on his tail I knew that every product I use is as safe and as suitable for sensitive skin as could absolutely be possible.

21/08/2024

Absolutely made up with this young chap.

The amount of progress Chester has made and continues to make is fantastic.

I’m not his first groomer, he came to me after a less than positive experience.

His people took on board my advice (which did include having his matted ears shared off at the vets) and breaking down his first appointments into shorter chunks. His feet and legs are now less sensitive and although I have to be very careful with the clippers near his ears, we’ve cracked a lot of the sensitivity to them.

We don’t always use the blaster (he’s work in progress with that) we have to be careful with which treats we use and when, because although they motivate, they can also over excite.

We have a few calm breaks as we go along, but we are managing a full groom now.

We are having a short trim to make everything more manageable and avoid matting up again.

In time we might be able to go a bit longer and put in some styling, but for now positive behaviour and being knot free is our focus.

It’s an energy flow in the grooming salon success story
💕🐾x

11/07/2024

TopTails is devoted to using as natural products as possible, that are ethically sourced and have as few air miles as possible.

When Lakhi and Kevin set up The Pawdinary Grooming Supplies their products were an instant hit with so many groomers.

I couldn’t ignore the recommendations and so I gave them a go.

I’m so glad I did; the products are amazing 🤩

The ethos behind the products is amazing 🤩

TopTails also sells their products; if you want to support a local business that supports dogs in rescue as well as having a superb shampoo or detailing spray just ask me for what’s best for your dog.