Today we celebrate Mya!
The fabulous Mya, who takes our Support Sessions, just got 89% on her first dog training certificate exam! She's walking the walk and talking the talk 🥰.
Truly understanding the reason we choose particular activities and recommendations with your family members is at the core of what we do. Both knowledge AND experience are important when it comes to the mental health of any living being and we promise to keep our fingers on the pulse of animal welfare, training and behaviour.
Both of these gorgeous dogs struggled with being in the big wide world and engaging with their people when they started with us. Our collaborative approach with different professionals keeps them flourishing! 🥰.
Support sessions are available to dogs and horses that have worked through an Animal Culture class, package or Behavioural Consultation. Let us help keep you steady on the path to success!
Just some of the gorgeous creatures we have been lucky to work with. Success looks different for everyone!
From dog sniffing contentedly, to winning agility ribbons, horses getting the hang of expressing their needs subtly and cats coexisting with other comfortably celebrate your pet for the little things that make them great 💜
Do these dogs look reactive to you?
Exactly!
All of these dogs have a stare/bark/lunge history. These dogs also have amazing, dedicated guardians! With careful orchestration and systematic, quiet work we begin to see effective results!
Once a month Animal Culture alumni have the option to join our Saturday (anti) Social Sessions (affectionately known as Sass!) Held at the wonderful Dog Days HQ so that we can help you work through that reactivity from all angles in a safe, supportive, judgement-free environment. There's coffee and cake too!
These sessions are open by invitation to those that have worked through our Reactive Dog Packages, or through the initial stages of their behavioural work (often including a specific vet work up). These sessions are also open to over-enthusiastic teenage dogs that have joined us for classes or training that are frustrated at not being able to say hi to everryyyybody!
Guardians and dogs must have worked through basic skills to attend, and are grouped together with no more than 3 other dogs based on needs and experience.
The goal for these dogs is neutrality ❤️. Whether you'd like to be able to pass a dog on the street without a 'song and dance', or would like to build your own confidence for handling your dog when they're feeling a little 'spicy', we use these sessions to work at your own pace and build confidence at both ends of the lead.
Reactivity shouldn't be dramatic, or include stress signals like panting, lunging or extended stressful barking. If it's hard for us to focus with our dogs going through this, we can guarantee it's just as hard for them!
If you are struggling with a reactive dog (otherwise social or not), drop us a message and we will let you know which of our services will suit you best.
For those wanting to understand a little more we have a FREE workshop coming up in August at Pet Essentials Whangarei 💜
One of these dogs has a bilateral (both sides) ear infection. Can you tell which?
Comprehensive pain assessments are a delicate and sometimes lengthy process and often a key part of our behaviour assessments. 💜 Discomfort presents itself in unusual ways, and sometimes it is not in the ways we may expect! Emotional disfunction can pop up in some areas but not others, and is the reason that behaviour work takes time, patience and a multimodal team approach.
Behaviour work is NOT the same as training work - you cannot train pain away as pain affects many physiological systems, including those responsible for learning. If your companion animal is struggling with life, training alone may not be the answer (though it will often feature in the later stages of behaviour modification).
Lucky for this wee chocolate girl (whose social skills are absolutely fabulous!) her incredible guardian, and care teams at The Grooming Lounge & Daycare and Mill Road Vet Hospital identified her discomfort quickly. Now begins the detective work as we work together to place other pieces of her behavioural puzzle 🥰
The wonderful Amelie, a 2nd year Vet student at Massey, has been shadowing Sinéad for the past two weeks to get an idea of what multi species training and behaviour work is all about!
A big thank you to all of the lovely clients that allowed Amelie to lay witness to your journey, and a big thank you to Amelie herself for being a wonderful student - asking brilliant questions and keeping keen observations. You're going to make an amazing vet Amelie (hopefully a Veterinary Behaviourist 😜)!
Last of all, Bella the mini pony would like to thank Amelie for the scratches that were so good she made a funny face 😍😍
👩🏫Puppy Class is all about learning!
Both puppies and their new guardians have lots of new skills to try in our classes.
Some puppies, like Chunks the English Bulldog, are born with raw social talent and charisma 🤣 just look at those polite little play bows! How could Daisy resist? 🥰
💜Play and trusted companionship can be a very important part of behaviour modification. 💜
Both of these pups have struggled with reactivity, with a history of overwhelm in social group settings, and both have conditions that cause physical discomfort (these symptoms are often linked). They also both have families that love them dearly and ensure that all their needs are met and ailments taken care of - and doesn't that care and support just shine through in this lovely play! 💜
These dogs are absolutely gorgeous with one another - they listen to cues, they respect personal boundaries and they both have a love of chasing and sharing. A healing match made in heaven 🥰.
If there's another dog on our books that may create a therapeutic relationship with yours, we will absolutely be sure to mention it. Our team members have logged well over 10,000 hours each mixing familiar and unfamiliar dogs for optimum outcomes in various settings.
[Though tons of fetch is not ideal for dogs with joint-based discomfort, a throw or two with your bestie is a great bonding experience and way to engage in play.]
CUTENESS ALERT!!
This little sweetheart is Bella, and she is lucky enough to have the most incredible guardians! Bella is prone to laminitis (a condition that leads to feet complications and pain), which must be tightly managed and so her opportunity to engage in environmental enrichment is sometimes limited. Here Bella's wonderful humans have provided her with different feeds and horse-friendly concoctions to taste! We love how vocal She is about her enjoyment!
New Year 2023
🎉 Cheers to a Pawsome New Year with Animal Culture! 🐾✨
As we bid farewell to another year, let's raise a toast to the countless wagging tails, playful antics, and the unbreakable bond between you and your fur babies! 🥂🐶
🎆 Gratitude and Joy:
Thank you for choosing Animal Culture as your training partner. It's been an honour to share in your pet's journey, and we can't wait for more adventures in the coming year!
Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with love, laughter, and endless tail wags! 🎉🐾
CHRISTMAS 2023
🎄 Merry Christmas from Animal Culture! 🐾✨
Wishing you and your furry companions a paws-itively magical Christmas! 🎅🐶 May your day be filled with joy, laughter, and the warmth of fuzzy snuggles. 🎁
Wishing you a woof-tastic Christmas and a tail-wagging New Year! 🎄🐾
Our latest Life Skills graduates Kiwa, Jessie, Mac and Beau showing us some lovely relaxed time around their friends and exciting humans 🥰.
Our last Life Skills course for the year starts next week! We have dates ready for next year's intake so be sure to get in quick as there are only 4 spots per class!
Does your furry or feathered family member have a bestie that isn't the same species? We want to see the cuteness!
Nugget, one of the Animal Culture family horses, loves to groom the dogs very gently! They don't always appreciate it, but hey, it's the thought that counts! 😅💜
Shout-out to the glorious Syd and his dedicated family 💜
A few short months ago, Syd had a propensity to shout at passing people, bikes, and dogs with a lot of 'passion'! Though the progress is not always linear (darn that pesky complicated thing we call a brain!), the proof is in the pudding! Here, Syd is able to see 4 dogs and their humans playing in the park (some even ran up to the fence to ask him to play!), to disengage from them, and be on his merry way, sniffing all the sniffs.
There was not one 'correction', a single volt of electricity nor a noose collar/lead of any kind given to Syd at any point during his work with Animal Culture, and there never will be. Syd is not shut down and he exhibits no overt stress signals such as panting. True success in these cases is not dramatic. It is subtle and it is soft.
Thank you to Syd and his family for having Animal Culture on the journey so far, and for all their hard work and perseverance in helping this handsome boy feel better about the world 💜
There are so many great options out there for joint and skin management these days - the issue being that lots of our animals don't love the needles that come with them!
Nelly is one squiggly wiggly girl and even eye contact can make her extremely excited. In a bid to help her become more relaxed in general, we need to ensure her itchy skin is under control via a monthly injection of Cytopoint. This was going to be very hard work. Sedating her each time didn't sound like a good time either!
Here is Nelly's amazing mum on her second cooperative care session. Nelly can move away at any time, and in fact, on the second round in the video, we can see that we wait for Nelly's full consent to carry on with her 'pokes'.
Whilst it may be tempting to just 'get in and get it done' (whatever that looks like), we risk ruining Nelly's bond with her guardian, making Nelly even more nervous at the vet, and there may be fallout beyond that such as being nervous about being touched by strangers.
We choose these methods not only because they are kind, but because they are also highly effective. Giving animals choice in a structured way results in them working alongside us.
Please do get in touch if you wish to know more about this process - Sinead works this with all domestic species including horses, parrots and pet rats!
We just LOVE receiving videos and photos of happy Animal Culture pets! Check out Oscar enjoying his latest toy 🥰. What did you do with your animal family this weekend?
Learning to love nail trims 🥰
Does your pup hate their visits to the vet for regular nail trims? Do you go to the vet because your dog is 'too difficult' to trim at home? The good news is that there is a way to work with that! We call this cooperative care 💜.
Here the small and sweet Bobo is working on getting familiar with her new nail dremmel so that her fabulous mum can do Bobo's pooch pedicures at home. What haven't we done here?
💅Held her down
💜Disregarded signals that she is/isn't ready
💅Put the dremmel on her feet abruptly
💜Not allowed her to retreat or take time to process
💅Told her off if she chose to move away
💜Turned the dremmel on immediately
💅Taken her to places that she already associates with scary things (scared brain = unable to learn comfortably brain!)
Good cooperative care is about explaining/proving to our beloved pets in small, but increasing increments that medical and husbandry care doesn't have to be scary or overwhelming.
Keep your eye on this page for Bobo's progress and if you would like to start this journey with your own pup (or parrot, or clicker trained horse) please don't hesitate to be in-touch!
