Pawsitive Training

10/01/2025

Small dogs often face challenges in having their space respected, as their size can make them appear approachable or less intimidating. However, they deserve the same consideration as larger dogs.

Signs like backing away, barking, growling, or a tucked tail often indicate they’re asking for space.

It’s important not to crowd or pick them up without their consent, as this can increase their stress. Allow them to approach on their terms and respect their comfort levels with people and other dogs.

Teaching others to recognise these cues helps create a safer, more respectful environment for small dogs to feel secure.

08/01/2025

Recently, I had a difficult case in which the owners complained their dog was aggressive and biting them. They reported that he was aggressive to strangers, and they were at a loss. As the session went on, it turned out the husband was hitting the dog as his friend, who was a horse trainer, hit a horse that bit him, and the horse never bit again.
So, the husband on this advice hit the dog every time he bit.
I told him point blank he was terrifying the dog and that was the reason he bit.
The dog was about 6 or 7 months old, so still playing and using his teeth. The husband was rough in his response as he grabbed the dog's mouth and held it tightly shut yelling "NO!"
This situation escalated until the dog went straight to biting as he anticipated the husband grabbing his mouth, and the husband went straight to hitting the dog.
The dog's body language was very similar to the drawing posted below.

We worked on simple training techniques to help the owners and the dog start to understand each other, the language I asked them to say was"YES" and throw kibble on the floor, instead of "NO!" when the pup jumped.
Preemptive training requires being prepared to mark the behavior you do want with a YES! instead of constantly correcting.
We discussed how we tend to go straight to corrections when we train instead of realizing that our animals don't understand us and that we need to take more time to help them learn.
Today I received an email from them telling me the biting has stopped and the husband is no longer hitting or yelling at the dog. They are going to keep the dog and continue training with me
She thanked me for training her husband and saving their dog's life, ( her words exactly!)
This is a good start to the year! Whew!

08/01/2025

Aww I love my clients ❤️

A lovely review and update from Dottie’s owners 🐶

07/01/2025

I’ve just had a lovely update on how Gus is getting on after his session before Christmas ❤️

Gus has an extremely strong association to guard his kennel, especially when food was involved and around opening and closing the gate.

Gus displayed this during our session where he lunged and air snapped at me for touching his crate door. He’s a big boy and his reaction was very clear and intended as a warning, not to cause harm, but it did make me jump!!

The risk of him practising this, or me telling him off, is it gets 10x worse. He is trying to tell me not to touch his crate, but he also doesn’t like food being near his crate.

Resource guarding training works by teaching dogs when you approach, something good is added. Eg, I approach your crate and give you a treat.

The dog learns, approaching it positive and being in my crate is positive.

For Gus, his association is so strong, fast, and he’s a very big dog, this technique at the moment doesn’t work.

Instead, we give him food toys, meals, treats, outside where he has space and there’s no small space for him to feel threatened.

We removed the crate door, so he can go on there but doesn’t get worried about the door closing.

Gus also showed signs of discomfort. This included:
Nibbling back legs
Chewing legs
Stretching
Sitting and laying wonky
Uneven gait

Interestingly, Gus didn’t show any signs of guarding since our session, due to his owners not putting him in situations to guard and keep and calm and positive environment, until he has a very bouncy walk where he over did his running and hurt himself.

Dogs guard not just for communication, but as a mood state lifter. This might be if they feel anxious or stressed or if they are in pain. Adrenaline spikes during guarding, and adrenaline dulls pain!

We are now getting Gus xrayed, whilst he is on pain meds, alongside managing his exercise. As he is triggered by a crate, we are working with his vets to get him looked at safely and avoid any negative scenarios.

References in comments.

06/01/2025

Before Christmas Dottie finished her 2nd training package 🐶

Dottie has a bad start where after coming into season she became really poorly. This impacting her food intake, and increased reactive behaviours such as barking at the TV, at reactivity, barking outside, struggling to settle…

Not only was she poorly, but also had a huge change with her hormones causing even more stress for her brain and body!

Dotties owners were amazing, and worked really hard to set her up for success and take their time to help her through her struggles.

She now travels really well, barks very little at the TV (sometimes the odd animal will get a little grumble!), is great in the garden, great outside, and settles incredibly well in the house (as you can see in the photos!)

I’m going to miss Dottie, but so pleased she is feeling better and more relaxed at home and on walks ❤️

20/12/2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR 🎄💖

I know I’ve only just started posting again this week, but I am now off for 2 weeks to spend time with my family and Beano and Badger 🐾

Social media posts, messages, emails, WhatsApp, calls, and sessions will resume on the 6th January 🥰

Happy holidays 🎉
From Kathy, Beano and Badger
Pawsitive Training 💕

20/12/2024

Such a nice update from Sid’s owner 😍😍

Sid is Border Terrier x Frenchie and had a phase where he would regularly chase the cats. After some engagement training and teaching him to be calm around the cats, he is now happily chilling with them 🥰

Well done Sid 💖💖🐶🐈

19/12/2024

Say hello to Lundy 😃

Lundy booked in to help with his confidence getting in an out of the car.

During our session I noticed signals of discomfort which might be contributing to him struggling. His owners will get him checked by the vets, but in the meantime we are working with creating a positive association around the car and getting a ramp to make it easier to get in and out 💖

The signs of discomfort I noticed included:

Fur pattern wiggle on hips
Refusing to jump in and out of car
Growling around touch/ pick up
Yelping when touching hips
Head turn and moving away when touching hips
Wobbly gait
Stiff when standing up
Sploot in sit
One leg sploot in down

It is so important we investigate and push for our dogs to be pain free if there are signals of discomfort at home or on a walk. Dogs are stoic and tend to hide pain in vets. Pain might also be muscular or something that is not shown in x rays.

19/12/2024

Lovely to catch up with little Monster and Peanut 🥰

They look so comfortable in that bed 😂 love spending time with thedarlinggang ❤️

18/12/2024

Look at Alma 😍😍😍

Alma booked in to help with interactions around other dogs which can escalate from play. A lot of Alma’s training involved impulse control, for example looking at dogs but not running over, and recall away from distractions 🐾

We also put in a 1-2-3 and let’s go for saying hello to dogs as Alma would always want to play and some dogs would want to sniff and carry on. If Alma did this she was heavily reinforced to teach her again, it’s okay to walk past dogs, it’s okay to sniff them and move away, and it’s okay to not even go over and say hello!

Socialisation isn’t about play. It’s about reading dog body language and behaving appropriately for that dog 🐶

17/12/2024

Remember no one is arguing the need for sterilization, it's the surgical technique that should be reevaluated. Hysterectomy and vasectomy achieve the same goal but leave important hormones intact according to science.

"The association between gonadectomy and timing of gonadectomy, and the risk of canine cranial cruciate ligament disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract
Objective - To determine if gonadectomy in dogs is associated with the risk of cranial cruciate ligament disease (CrCLD) and to quantify the magnitude of the association.

Study design - Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Sample population - Comparative studies with gonadectomized and entire dogs, with CrCLD as an outcome measure.

Methods - A systematic search of the primary and gray literature was performed. The effect size of the outcome measure was defined as the OR and 95% CI. Subgroup analysis was performed with sex, breed, and age at gonadectomy. A pooled OR (95% CI) was generated from meta-analysis of relevant studies. Certainty in the body of evidence was rated with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) framework.

Results - The literature search yielded 1398 results and 24 relevant studies were included for synthesis. Gonadectomized female (pooled OR = 2.293, 95% CI = 1.768–2.945) and male (pooled OR = 2.117, 95% CI = 1.665–2.691) dogs were both at increased odds of developing CrCLD in comparison with entire female and male dogs, respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that gonadectomy at 1 year or less was consistently associated with an increase in odds of developing CrCLD in both sexes. Overall certainty in the evidence was rated as moderate. All included studies were observational and no controlled trials were available.

Conclusion - In data with moderate certainty, gonadectomy is associated with increased odds of developing CrCLD in both sexes, particularly in dogs gonadectomized at 1 year of age or less.

Clinical significance - This study provides an estimate of the true effect size of gonadectomy on the odds of developing CrCLD, which may be useful for clinical decision making surrounding gonadectomy and the timing of gonadectomy."

17/12/2024

😍😍😍😍😍

What a day to be with this fluffy boy!!!

Of course he is adorable, but Chow Chows are a very complicated breed that need very experienced owners. As a breed, they can be extremely aloof and so body language can go 0-100 without any signs. This is what they are bred for, and so just because they are cute and have a very cool purple tongue, doesn’t mean they are suitable for you to own.

Geoffrey’s owners are aware of this and booked in to make sure they are putting as much as they can in place to avoid any escalation or issues in the future.

Things that can lead to dogs escalating is misunderstanding their needs and body language, using punishment or outdated dominance in training, and underlying medical issues.

During our session we spoke about how to appropriately deal with mouthing, signs for discomfort as he grows, body language and how to respond to this, and some puppy basics like settle, down, name and recall 🐾

If you would like help learning about your breed or need help with what breed to get please get in contact today 💖

16/12/2024

These trainings sessions are starting to look more like spa sessions 😴

Let’s talk about the importance of sleep!

Did you know, puppies should get between 18-20 hours of sleep a day??

This is so important for our pups to grow and develop. Sleep helps us process our day and decompress. Signs of your puppy needing more sleep can include:

Zoomies
Excessive mouthing
Destructive behaviour
Humping/ over stimulation

If your puppy needs more help to get to sleep, this answer isn’t more exercise or play, it’s encouraging your puppy to switch off. Enrichment such as KONG, chews, lickimats and snuffle mats are great for this.

Of course exercise and play is still important and needed for our puppies and dogs, but it’s a balance ❤️

16/12/2024

Start your week with the cutest photo of Bonnie 😍

This little sweetie booked in for some puppy sessions to start on toilet training, mouthing, socialisation, confidence building, home alone training and more!

Bonnie was a little worried during our session, so it is really important she takes it slow and avoids any over socialisation which can increase her anxiety.

Example include guests over handling, strangers picking her up, lots of eye contact (hard because she’s so cute!!)

It is so hard when we see a cute puppy, but just remember they don’t always want to be touched, and touching them might cause an expectation that every person is going to stop to say hello which can cause frustration and lead to reactivity 🐶

Examples of body language which might indicate a pup has had too much:

Lip licking
Yawning
Head turns
Walking away
Avoiding eye contact
Shaking
Growling
Snarling
Barking
Mouthing/ biting (sometimes due to teething)
Whining

If you would like help introducing your new puppy to the world get in contact today! 🐾❤️

07/12/2024