ThinkDog by Hannah Sadgrove

23/04/2025

Hey friends,

Most of you know me for dog training, but what you might not know is that for a while now, I’ve also been handcrafting leather gear for dogs (and humans!) — collars, leashes, and all sorts. 🐾✨ It’s been a bit of a quiet side project, but i'm looking forward to growing it as we settle into our new property over the coming months!

Up until now all products have been made-to-order (which are still available if you're after something in particular), but i'm excited to share that I’ll be doing my very first official product drop soon — and I’m using it as a way to give back. 15% percent of proceeds from the drop will be donated to a NZ based animal welfare / rescue charity. ❤️

I’d love your help choosing which charity to support! If you have a rescue you love, tag them in the comments and let me know why you think i should choose them - the charity with the most votes / likes will get the donation from the upcoming drop.

Thanks so much for being part of this journey — it really means the world to be able to do what I love and support dogs who need it most.

🌱 Plastic free
🌱 Non-toxic dyes
🌱Sustainable materials
🌱Lifetime guarantee

Small batch drop of pre-made one off items coming soon… 👀

02/04/2025

Edit: thanks everyone, we got inundated with enquiries for wee Jess! Apologies to those i couldnt get back to. Looks like we have found a home for her. I will contact those who have already messaged if this home falls through ❤️ It takes a village and im always so proud of how everyone comes together to help in these situations 🥰

**** BORDER COLLIE IN NEED OF A NEW HOME ****

This is Jess and she is looking for a new home.

She’s a beautiful 7 month old border collie.

She’s a little timid but once she warms up she’s a little sweetheart.

The ideal new home would be someone that is looking for an active dog, someone that maybe would like to trial some dog sports down the line or just a training enthusiast. She has been raised on a very large property so a bit of land would be ideal.

She’s has been raised around other animals.

She would suit a home without young children.

She is looking for a home urgently so please get in touch if you’d like more info.

28/03/2025

🌀 Curly Lessons: Formal handling is A-Ok 👌

Formal handling - meaning any kind of touching with a specific goal as opposed to affection / cuddling / playing kind of touch.
Think - eye ointment, ear drops, cut feet, nail clipping, grass seed removal, vet checks, grooming etc. the kind that many many many dogs learn to become suspicious and avoidant and fearful of.

It’s the kind of handling it’s really easy to forget to practice - until we need it - then it’s often too late and our dogs aren’t prepared.

Both pups have had the start of conjunctivitis the last couple days, so I jumped on it and got straight into a course of eye ointment for both of them before it could progress. Luckily, we’d already been practicing this stuff - so they largely just think their 2-3x daily eye ointment is just part of an existing game. Had I not already been doing it, it could have been a real struggle that was not just hard to achieve, but also broke down our trust and damaged their association with handling.

This video is less than a minute and a half long. That’s all it takes. And you don’t even have to do it daily. Couple times a week is great. The only goal is to do some kind of formal touching at a level that your pup easily tolerates and doesn’t avoid / pull away from. If they’re not into it - then it’s not beneficial. As they get used to it, you can do more, do longer, do weirder stuff. But always keep their enthusiasm as your goal. They should be actively engaged and willing. Think of these sessions as relationship building and future proofing, it’s not actually about achieving anything specific in the moment ❤️

27/03/2025

🌀 Curly Diaries - Patience

Puppies typically arrive with a pretty effective go button and a pretty non-existent stop button 😅

One of the simplest things to teach as part of your daily life, is for pups to slow down or pause or wait before moving through thresholds rather than darting forward as soon as there’s a tiny gap.

Start by blocking access and asking for a sit or down to get the initial pause, then as that becomes easy, progress so you’re not in the way and they’re waiting for a verbal cue to come through. Another handy tip I’ve found with pups diving out of crates is to create the routine that they come out straight into your arms for a cuddle / scratch or for a treat. Either way it slows their exit because they’re not aiming to do so far.

Neo in particular is an avid door-dasher. Give him half a cm and he’s throwing his body through it - which can be dangerous when he’s exiting a car or at the gate onto the road etc. - these skills aren’t there to teach ‘respect’ (I earn that, I don’t teach it) - they’re there to build safe dogs that are easy to live with ❤️

22/03/2025

🌀 Curly Diaries - Nail Clip Prep 22/3

Both pups need their nails done, but they barely know me so I decided to do a prep session to assess how comfortable they’d be with the whole palaver.

Husbandry stuff like nail clipping and eye/ear cleaning etc. are things they’ll need done countless times over their lives - so it’s important we prioritise how they feel about the situation more so than just getting it done. My goal is for them to go their new homes being comfortable and familiar with as many husbandry procedures as possible.

Call me crazy but I love this position for nail clips, especially with dogs that are naturally floppy / cuddly anyway. They’re supported, they get snacks, I have good access and view of their nails.

The goal is to teach the position first. Teach them that stillness gets rewarded. Show them they’re not being forced to stay there, then add the nail clipping. Both pups rocked this session, with zero worries or suspicion or handling sensitivity so I’ll bring out the clippers in a couple days when I repeat and see how we go.

Neither pup is overly impressed with being behind a barrier and left out of the fun - as denied by Neo in the background 😅. This is totally normal for pups that have ALWAYS had their litter around them. I’ll continue to structure training sessions where they’re rotated every few minutes and we should see a pretty quick decline in the fussing at the door. I’m keeping the other pup in sight because I don’t think they’re frustrated that they’re not involved, I think they’re a bit stressy when they’re separated. So staying in sight will prevent either of them from freaking out that they’ve been abandoned.

Reminder that both these gorgeous curlies are available for adoption, just get in touch ❤️

22/03/2025

🌀 Curly Diaries - First Field Trip 22/3

First beach trip. Both pups were straight in the water (as if they were bred for it or something?!) and did amazing. They met Jasper, our old deaf/blind foster (formerly Dudley) and we’re both great with him even though he behaves a bit weird 😂. Greeted him, then left him alone. They were indifferent to other people on the beach, and largely indifferent to other dogs too - though they met a lovely yellow lab who they both interacted with very appropriately, but then Rea was determined that should be her new family and threw a bit of a tantrum when they left haha

So far, Rea is more confident and forward, but also more thoughtful and potentially suspicious if I’m not careful. Neo is more cuddly and cautious (but not by any stretch a fearful pup) and a bit more ‘go with the flow’. Neither are overly drivey, which will mean they’ll make excellent mellow family pets ❤️

22/03/2025

Curly Diaries - Night #1 (last night)

Pups have had exposure to crates with their breeder but I don’t think they’ve ever slept in one solo before.

When we first start confining pups, it’s absolutely normal to get a little bit of fuss. The key is to be able to gauge whether their fuss is simply that, or whether it’s stressy panic that’s detrimental to their wellbeing and our goal. It’s not the 90’s, we don’t let pups scream it out in a crate anymore. We set them up to succeed.

These two had 2 short stints in their crates before bedtime - one for dinner, and another super short one just for practice. Then I popped them in at bed time with a fresh cows hoof to chew on, turned all the lights down, and went to bed.

Now if their fussing had escalated to barking / screaming / scratching to get out / heavy panting or anything else along those lines, I would have intervened and probably had them out for another toilet break to reset and then popped them in one crate together instead to try that as a solution. But, luckily for me, we got about 10-15mins of being just a bit unsettled, on and off whinging for a bit then lying down again, and all in all they self settled BEAUTIFULLY without me needing to help them out.

We want to build resilient pups, so a little bit of manageable stress that they can easily and successfully work through themselves is very beneficial. But again, it’s all in the nuance. Panicky puppies aren’t learning anything at all except that they’re unsafe, so the key is finding that balance.

We’ve had some foster pups absolutely panic and end up sleeping in the bed initially so we can do a slower transition to a crate, and lots somewhere on the middle that have needed more help than this (such as the crate right next to the bed with my hand shoved through the bars).

Each dog is different, so it’s important to work with the dog in front of you, not the one the textbook says you should have ❤️

Reminder these pups ARE available for adoption 🥰

21/03/2025

🚨 New puppy campers alert! 🚨

Neo (m, orange collar) and Rea (f, green collar) the two 5month old curly coated retrievers have joined us for a puppy camp to help get their training off the ground and best set up to find their new homes.
These puppies are absolutely adorable and cuddly and mellow as heck. There’s no behavioural concerns with them at all - it’s just beneficial to split litters up and give them lots of new experiences and more targeted training opportunities if they haven’t found their homes by 3ish months.

These two will be with us until they find their new homes, and I’ll be working through all of our normal puppy training foundations so they’ll be easy to live with beautiful family pets.

Would it be useful for me to video document their development & show what we work on day to day?

(Video of Rea’s graceful drinking skills 😂😂 - I think the water bowls will stay outside for now haha)

07/03/2025

Our boy is desperate to find his forever home! Please share!

He’s a sensitive lad who needs a gentle owner that’s not going to shout at him for getting things wrong.

He’s the cuddliest kissiest most affectionate guy you’ll ever meet.

He’s medium energy so if the weather is crap he’d just as happily have a Netflix day than a big outing.

He’s responsive out and about, recalls great, and is an all round good boy that’s easy to live with. Crate trained, toilet trained, doesn’t inappropriately chew etc.

He struggles a bit with new dogs - but makes friends totally fine if the intro is slowed down a bit. So he’s not going to be a dog park kinda dog, but could very easily live with another dog.

Please please help us find him his forever home, his fosters have been absolutely amazing but it’s time he settled with his forever family ❤️

Also enormous thanks to our bronze + subscribers who sponsor our foster programme. With this fella in foster with us for almost a year now we absolutely couldn’t have done it without you 🥰

And also a huge thanks to Nature's Ki - Pet Wellbeing for feeding our fosters too. You guys are the best 🥰

25/02/2025

New video up on the website for those snatchy grabby dogs that love their toys sooo much they won't back off and let you pick it up! You know who I mean 😂

A dog obsessed with their toys is a dog trainers dream! But in order for it to be useful in training, there needs to be some skills that com

24/02/2025

⌛Finding Time to Train⌛

We all know how hard it can be to carve out big chunks of time for dog training when life is busy. In fact any new habit is hard to make consistent at the start. But instead of aiming for 30 minutes after work or something equally daunting, my biggest success has come from:
💡 stacking habits,
💡finding ways to multitask, and
💡recognising just how successful a SUPER short session can be.

For example ➡️ layering in a couple of training reps while waiting for the kettle to boil or getting your dog to hold a down stay while you fold and put away the laundry.

My most recent discovery is finding a way to train and work out at the same time. Two birds one stone. Win win! Taz introduced me to ‘EMOMs’ (Every Minute On the Minute) workouts. I exercise for about 20 seconds, then spend 40 seconds ‘recovering’. Or now, i’ve realised i can utilise that time and actually have a really effective dog training session too. 20ish seconds of working out, followed by 30ish seconds training a dog. I can fit in a couple good reps and a smidgen of play, the perfect fun mini session - every minute! Plus, the dog’s also learning to manage their arousal while waiting for me during the bits i’m busy.

The TLDR; Training doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment—it can easily be layered into your daily routine. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. Even 2 reps.

❓Do you have any favorite ways to sneak in training?

19/02/2025

Big welcome to new board & train dude Marley the golden x Irish setter. Marley’s fresh to NZ and struggling a big with all the big life changes. He’s come for some R&R, respite from the big city life to a nice quiet lifestyle block, and some fun training to work on his reactivity towards other dogs and shape up some of his life skills 🤎 Day 1 today is just about us making friends and helping him settle in and have a good time 🥰