Canine Care, Dog Training and Behaviour

12/10/2025

I S I T O K

Dottie is the sweetest young girl. She was very unsure of me when I walked into her home. She was barking at me, then she observed me, then she decided I was not the threat she thought I was and that I could stay.

Imagine if giant strangers were invited to your house without you knowing and you had no say? You might have something to say about it?! Fair enough.

As your dog’s life coach/planner/decison maker you have to make sure they feel safe no matter what’s going on. Not just telling them they should stop barking and just be ok - because they might not feel ok!

Generally dogs that feel unsafe are too close to the perceived threat. Can you help your dog understand that guests come in peace? Can you help your dog make good choices and move away from the threat? Can you put your dog away when it’s not a training opportunity?

This is a big topic that I love brainstorming about. If you need some help, get in touch 🐾✨

www.caninecare.co.nz

07/08/2025

Happy Fri-yay to you all 💜✨

20/07/2025

We can make improvements in a session, provide clarity, sometimes even make an environment shift that changes everything.

But when big behaviours that come from big feelings or a developing brain are quickly changed. Something is wrong. Just the same way we would worry about a high energy personality suddenly feeling flat, this sudden shift is telling us something isn’t right.

No one can learn that fast, behaviour change takes time, learning takes time, skill, new muscle development.

But suppression, fear and confusion happens fast.

15/07/2025

Z O N E

It was really interesting working with Luci and her human. A good example of how important it is for myself to take good notes of all history and aspecs of the dogs life.

She suddenly started to yell daily at the same time to get out of her room when her mum was working. She had a history of some isolation distress but something was odd about this change in behaviour.

It turned out that her human had recently started taking her to a new place for her lunch walk. The green zone here in Christchurch. Luci started to feel when this walk was getting close and just couldn’t wait to go there as it’s a giant lush park with endless things to sniff and do. So she began to shout to get out there 🌳 💚

Her human started taking her there before work instead and voila. Luci slept happily until her normal lunch stroll around town.

Ps. How gorgeous is she! 🥰

02/06/2025

Last week I had the honor to speak to the parents and children at Phillipstown Community Hub on behalf of . I loved showing the kids where to pat a dog, and raise awareness about child and dog interactions in public and in the home. I turned my notes into a blog post for you to read and share far and wide. This comes straight from a mum who is guiding a child and dog growing up alongside one another ⭐🐾

Whether you live with a dog or meet them in public, it’s your job to teach your child dog skills. Some children are scared of dogs and some are overconfident around dogs, both can cause problems if they don’t know how to act safely. As a parent your goal is to build a positive relationship betwe...

29/05/2025

R U S H

A client asked me today -”what do I do if I’m rushed by an off leash dog and my dog is on leash?”. Great question! This big dog ran up to Percy and I today. Percy was off leash and as this dog approached. He didn’t look too intense so I just calmly said ”hey dude” and walked towards him to show Percy to do the same and so I could intervene if I had to.

If Percy had been on lead and I was away from roads etc I would have dropped Percy’s lead so he could move freely. Still saying hi to the dog with a happy excited voice to cut as much tension out of the air as possible.

If my dog was dog aggressive and I wanted to avoid the greeting I could have yelled to the owner to call their dog or thrown a decent treat scatter on the dogs face and walked away.

Technically, if you dog is on leash - no off leash dogs should rush up to you! That’s part of the ”dogs off leash if under effective control” rule. However it does happen so it’s good to know how to act when it does!

www.caninecare.co.nz

19/05/2025

T W O

Two years of raising a little human alongside my dog. What a journey it’s been—full of learning, adjusting, and growing together. I’ve been meaning to write more about it, because wow, has it taught me a lot.

Percy’s first reaction to Miki as a newborn was rough, and watching him transition from my ‘one and only’ to a family dog was a huge shift (though my love for him has never wavered). Honestly, I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome. These days, he’s even a little bit tolerant when she bumps into him or wanders into his space—something I wouldn’t have imagined in those early days.

It hasn’t been easy, but every bit of time, patience, and effort has been so worth it. ❤️

15/05/2025

S K A T E

Skateboarders coming around a corner is very scary if you ask Kafka. We had a super fun training session at her house starting to desensitise her to the skateboard itself, and a while later - me skateboarding up and down her driveway as she watched and ate delicious snacks. She felt much better about it when I left 🤩

Does your dog react to skateboards, bikes or scooters? I can help.

www.caninecare.co.nz

13/05/2025

L A T T E

Sooooooo....... she's been in the shelter FOR 1439 DAYS!??? WT&%$ #@.......

She is smart, funny, and full of love. Knows all her tricks and just adores people! I am having such a fun time training her - she can get a bit worked up seeing other dogs when out on walks so we are working on that. She needs someone experienced to come swoop her up for endless laughs and adventures!

Please share this New Zealand wide- let's find her person! She deserves a home 🏡

This is her profile:
https://dogwatch.co.nz/dog-adoption/latte/

09/05/2025

D O G W A T C H

It’s been a bit quiet around here lately because I’ve started a maternity cover contract at our wonderful local dog shelter, Dogwatch Sanctuary Trust. So exciting! ✨

I’ll be sharing some of the fun things I get up to—helping the shelter doggos and the awesome crew there with training and behaviour tweaks.

Pictured here is Woody, the absolute dreamboat. He’s just hanging out, waiting for his human to come along and whisk him away for endless Friday night snuggles on the couch. Movie nights and all. 💛 Here is his profile:

https://dogwatch.co.nz/dog-adoption/woody/

Happy Friday folks!