Adaptive Behaviour

08/05/2025

I've spiffied up my website - there's some new content and all online learning, resources and scheduling for clients/members will be able to be accessed here.

Check it out at adaptivebehaviour.co.nz and let me know what you think!

🌟🌟If you're a past or current client, and/or were a part of my older online community, I have a special offer for my new and refurbished lifetime Adaptive Behaviour Community membership (that includes unlimited access to all my current and future online material and 10% discount of ALL services) - comment YES below and I'll send you a message with details 🌟🌟

24/04/2025

The Joy of Shared Routines

There’s something quietly profound about the rituals we build with dogs.

The sniff-stop that has to happen at the same bush every day.
The exact way they circle before settling into their favourite blanket.
The look they give you when it’s 6:02 p.m. and dinner was due at 6:00 sharp.
The gentle nudge of a nose that says, “Now it’s our time.”

These aren’t training goals.
They’re co-authored rhythms. Tiny negotiations. Micro-moments of companionship.

We don’t always teach them, not deliberatley, anyway. In fact, sometimes they teach us! But mostly, they emerge.

And once they do, they tether us to each other in the best ways.

These shared routines are proof that dogs don’t just live with us—they shape how we live too.

22/04/2025

Over the next few months, you might see a new face in our group and private sessions!

Jordan will be observing and assisting with training as part of their UNITEC Canine Behaviour and Training qualification. They already have some great knowledge and experience under their belt, and I'm excited to have them join the fun! 🤗 🐶

Welcome Jordan! 🥳👋

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Hi, I’m Jordan (they/them), currently completing a work placement as part of a Certificate in Animal Management – Canine Behaviour and Training.

I bring a background in psychology, having completed a Bachelor’s degree before following a deep-rooted passion for working with dogs. My experience so far includes working as a Daycare Assistant at Wag Doggy Day Care, volunteering with the SPCA, and gaining hands-on skills through placement hours with Dogwatch Sanctuary Trust.

Particularly drawn to the connection between dogs and humans, I’m fascinated by how training can not only strengthen that bond but also offer meaningful insights into ourselves. My goal is to support both ends of the lead—helping dogs thrive and their humans feel confident and understood.

16/04/2025

One of the best parts and central goals of the work I do is helping dogs and their families discover greater connection, freedom and joy in their lives together.

All of the dogs in this video started training with me because they struggled on walks and being around other dogs in one way or another. This last weekend they were able to enjoy a fun social session with lots of appropriate play and many good choices (maybe excluding the one at the very end of the video 😅😂).

This is all credit to the energy and time their humans have dedicated to teaching and supporting the dogs as they've developed the necessary skills for this sort of situation - not always easy, but definitely worth it!

What's even better is this was all achieved in a way that valued and respected each dog's experiences and needs. No aversives or corrections needed. 💜

I'm so grateful to be able to work with such awesome, dedicated clients, be a part of their journeys, and see the growth and results of all their efforts - these moments are just the very sweet cherry on top 🍒🍨

14/04/2025

We had a bit of an eventful end to our week: Forte spent Friday at the vets on fluids for dehydration because he stopped eating and started drinking lots of water to just regurgitate back up🤢. Thankfully he has come around is almost back to his normal self now - we even got a few seconds of zooms on our walk today. Gosh it's stressful having an older dog that's unwell! I guess Forte just wanted to remind me how much more I need to appreciate his presence 😅

One thing that was very (not) fun was getting Forte to take his medication. He is a picky and delicate eater at the best of times so finding non-traumatic ways to
encourage swallowing instead of dissecting, licking and spitting out tablets required some experimentation and perseverance.

Things that helped:
🧈 Coating the tablets in butter - he'd sometimes swallow the whole thing but it'd also create a nice hydrophobic barrier so the tablet didn't dissolve when I put it in something wet (🤓🥼🧪***science**).
💊 Freezing it in balls of peanut butter
🍖 Wrapping pills in globs of raw meat (cat food)
🧆 Mixing medicated bits of food randomly with decoy bits of the same food

If you have a less fancy patient that eats food like a normal dog then tossing, scattering or feeding a rapid fire sequence of medicated vs non-medicated food can often work well too.

What are your go-tos for getting your dog to take their pills?

10/04/2025

Today I added some scentwork enrichment to Spot's walk 👃🐶🐾 Though Spot's had lots of practice searching for toys, I've been challenging him with more novel objects - today was his first time searching for this piece of fleece (actually part of a snuffle mat 😅).

First we did a few easy practice runs in the grass as warmup then I sneakily hid it in the rocks as we walked past vefore I asked him to search.

The nerd in me loves the science behind this game - since it's warm and there are lots of air gaps, you can see Spot following the rising odour out the top - how cool is that! Notice how he has to circle out quite wide before he actually works back to the source - if I were to restrict him to the area where I knew the odour was, I would have interfered with his search and made his job harder. Being able to read the dog's body language and know when to trust his process vs. when to step in and help can make a big difference to the success and enjoyment of a search.

Have you tried scentwork? Would you like to?

06/03/2025

👇👏🙌

Your Dog Owes You Nothing—And That’s the Point!

We bring dogs into our homes. We decide what they eat, where they sleep, how they spend their time. We are the ones who are empowered and it is humans who decide the rules—rules they never agreed to, in a life they didn’t choose.

Your dog doesn’t owe you a perfect recall.
They don’t owe you a sit on cue.
They don’t owe you affection, compliance, or some predetermined idea of “loyalty.”

And yet, every single day, they give. They show up. They communicate in the ways they know how. They exist in a world that often demands their unwavering obedience without question, their patience without reciprocation, and their love without condition.

But here’s the thing—relationships don’t work like that. A good relationship isn’t built on debt; it’s built on trust, understanding, and mutual respect.

So instead of assuming they owe you perfection, let’s rephrase the question: "What can I do to make life better for them?"

Maybe that means giving them more choices—more agency.
Maybe that means meeting them where they are instead of where we think they should be.
Maybe that means recognising that their behaviour isn’t about us—it’s about their needs, emotions, and experience of the world.

Because at the end of the day, our dogs don’t owe us anything. But what they give is something far more valuable than ounwavering compliance.

They give us trust. And that’s worth everything.

15/02/2025

Forte turned 11 today ❤️. I'm so grateful for this beautiful boy and his quiet, steady presence. He wouldn't win any obedience competitions(and I certainly don't expect him to!) but I trust him to manage almost any situation I put him in with obliging grace and patience.

Now he's starting to show his age a little - moving slower, being more particular about what he wants (and doesn't want) - and I find myself trying to simultaneously remember and forget that the time we have to enjoy our dogs goes too fast.

I so appreciate the little moments of connection and understanding we share every day, and I'm more than happy to cater to his whims, and suffer his judgment for as long as I can.

06/02/2025

Awesome FREE resource!! Check it out if you would like to communicate (listen) better with your dog.

https://www.facebook.com/share/19noudb2K2/

04/02/2025

Super excited about our first ACLL mentorship session this Thursday!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FnHVFxhcr/

This week we will be discussing canine development!

As trainers and behaviour consultants, when we talk about canine development, we often focus on puppies and adolescence. But development doesn’t stop at adulthood—it continues into the senior years, bringing new challenges that impact behaviour, training, welfare, and wellbeing.

Take Grandma Monday, for example. At 14, I (Erin) started noticing physical changes. Her eyesight and hearing weren’t what they used to be and we struggled through incontinence and vestibular disease. But beyond that, I saw subtle signs of cognitive decline. She would get confused in familiar spaces, hesitate more in decision-making, started to become more aloof, and even started to forget how to walk through doorways as things progressed.

With careful management—structured routines, environmental support, targeted nutrition, medical care, and enrichment—we were able to give her another four years of quality life. But it wasn’t without its challenges.

Cognitive dysfunction in older dogs is more common than many realise. Did you know:

🐶 Over 50% of dogs over 11 show signs of cognitive dysfunction?
🐶 Symptoms can include disrupted sleep, anxiety, house soiling, confusion, and an onset of aggressive behaviours.
🐶 Early intervention—like mental enrichment and dietary support—can help slow progression.

In our mentorship programme, we’re diving into canine development this week, exploring how training and behaviour modification should evolve across all life stages. Puppies and adolescent dogs demand our attention, but so do seniors, who need tailored approaches to keep them thriving.

Want to join the conversation and gain deeper insights? Our mentorship programme is built for trainers and behaviour consultants looking to strengthen their knowledge and skills.

Thursdays at 6:30pm NZT

bit.ly/ACLL-NZ
bit.ly/ACLLPackage

03/02/2025

This! So much!

It''s not just about getting the results also also about HOW we get the results.

💭 Do our expectations align with the needs and skillset of the learner?
💭 Are we increasing or decreasing stress and frustration?
💭 How can we offer or create more choice and agency?


I always aim to change behaviour in a way that considers, respects and promotes the welfare of my clients. This usually means taking things slower, going more gently and compromising on our human wants more than if I only cared about quick and easy (for the human) results, but I believe it is well worth it, and I'm inclined to think our dogs would agree. ❤️

Why should trainers and behaviour consultants care about animal ethics?

Dog training and behaviour modification are often framed as purely scientific disciplines—rooted in behavioural science, ethology, and learning theory. But those fields alone don’t tell us what should be done. Ethics completes that picture.

Every teaching/learning decision is an ethical decision.

🔹 Which methods we choose—Do they prioritise the dog’s well-being, or just the fastest results?

🔹 How much agency we allow—Do we give dogs choice in training, or simply expect compliance?

🔹 What behaviours we seek to modify—Are we changing behaviour for human convenience, or because it improves the dog’s life?

Ethics is not separate from training—it’s embedded in every protocol, tool, and recommendation we make. Aversive methods work, but at what cost? Even within positive reinforcement training, we must ask: Are we being truly dog-centered, or just focusing on efficiency?

Teaching dogs is a nuanced practice. It requires a nonlinear, critical approach and an understanding of all of the confounding variables in each individual dog-human relationship.

Behaviour consultants and trainers don’t just modify behaviour—we shape relationships between humans and dogs, both individually and on a societal level. The way we teach influences not just the individual dog, but broader attitudes about how nonhuman animals should be treated, and paradigmatic shifts that will help dogs thrive.

We owe it to the dogs we work with to think critically, not just about what we do, but why we do it. Ethics isn’t a side topic—it’s the foundation of our profession.

03/02/2025

UPDATE: That was quick! Think we are sorted now! 👐🙌🥳

🚛 TRANSPORTATION HELP NEEDED 🚛

Friends! I've sourced some steel fencing panels for the Adaptive Paddock (yay 🥳) but need a way to get them from Hornby to Marshlands - do we know anyone who offers these services (appropriately compensated, of course)?

I am terrible at estimating but I'm thinking it'd be at least a few trailer loads? Help!