Small Town Pup

11/19/2025

DISTANCE ASSISTANCE

It’s not easy having a reactive dog. As much as we may feel frustrated, restricted, angry or even ashamed or embarrassed, our reactive dogs are also experiencing a range of negative emotions when they react to something that triggers them.
Reactive dogs have a nervous system issue not a training issue.

This nervous system reaction is usually caused by anxiety, fear, feeling threatened, frustrated or may even be pain related.

These emotions cause high levels of stress and stress prevents both us and our dogs from being able to process information, think clearly or learn a different, more acceptable way of reacting to whatever triggers us.

This is why creating enough distance is so important.

I’m really scared of snakes and even struggle to look at them. The only thing I want to do is run and create as much distance as possible.

If someone was restraining me, forcing me to sit and look at the snake while trying to feed me my favourite chocolate, telling me there was nothing to worry about or trying to educate me about the reptile, it would do nothing to alleviate my fear and would only increase my stress levels.

Doing this at a sufficient distance, where I felt safe would be far more effective and my stress levels would be much lower. In time, with patience and practice, I may even be able to get much closer to the snake without having a negative reaction.

The same principle applies to reactive dogs. Creating sufficient distance where they can see the trigger but still feel safe and don’t react is the best way of helping them to cope with their feelings.

Some dogs, or people, may never be able to decrease that distance and that’s also okay.

We need to accept our dogs for the unique individual they are, keep working on the things we can improve and change and accept the things we can’t.

11/19/2025

We have been having lots of fun.
Do you need boarding while you go out of town for the holidays?? Let your fur babies come and have fun and get lots of love with us 🥰🧑‍🎄
❤️❤️

11/16/2025

Dogs are absolutely incredible.

It honestly blows my mind how poorly some people still treat their dogs.

These animals have evolved alongside humans for thousands of years. We selectively bred them to suit our needs and preferences, shaping their abilities, their appearance, and their behaviour. Through this long partnership, many dogs now form deep attachment bonds with humans — often choosing their human family for comfort and safety, even over other dogs.

Their sense of smell is extraordinary. With hundreds of millions of scent receptors, dogs can detect odours at concentrations far beyond human ability. We rely on them to save lives, find missing people, locate drugs and contraband, detect illness, assist disabled handlers, and help people live more independent lives. They can detect tiny chemical changes in our bodies — shifts associated with stress, fear, or illness — giving them an insight into our emotional and physical state that we can barely imagine.

Their hearing is also far superior to ours. Dogs can detect sounds far too soft for human ears and hear pitches well above our range. Their ears pick up information from the environment that we simply cannot perceive.

Dogs can learn more than 100 cues and commands. Research often compares parts of a dog’s learning and understanding to that of a two-year-old child — though in some areas, especially social cognition, dogs outperform young children.

And they make us healthier. Dogs help reduce stress, lower blood pressure, lift our mood, and make us feel connected and supported. They are a source of stability, joy, and companionship through even the hardest times.

So yes — they are dogs. But they are also remarkable beings we are privileged to share our lives with. For everything they give us, the very least we can do is treat them with the respect, kindness, and care they so deeply deserve.

💜

11/16/2025

11/16/2025

🤔

I never like saying this.🫣
We see it as affection.
Dogs can see it as a restraint.
That's the issue here.

As humans we feel a desire to show our love and affection the exact same way we show it to our family.
We wrap our arms around, pull closer and squeeze tight.
They may wriggle, so we hug tighter.
We might playfully wrestle with them when they move away or try to leave, we often do that to other people we know well.

That doesn't mean it translates well to dogs.

If a dog is trying to leave or is not accepting or receptive to a hug, don't insist.
If we need to use our strength to hold our dogs from leaving, they don't want a hug.
They want space.
Space equals safety to a dog.

Don't take it personally, many dogs don't like hugs.
It goes back to feeling restrained and having their freedom of movement restricted.
Being able to move away from anything they're uncomfortable with builds trust way more than insisting they accept that very close, tight physical contact.

Children often greet family dogs with hugs and that's absolutely fine if that dog is happy to be hugged by that child, but this may form a habit of greeting other dogs by getting low, face to face and restraining/hugging a dog they don't know.

Hugs aren't a right we should insist on.
If a dog accepts them and enjoys them, that's trust built over time and feeling safe.

It's not from restraining and removing options to move.

11/11/2025

🔥

"They trust me, they took the food"!
Food really must be used carefully and respectfully or it can cause big problems.
For a dog it can create a desire to be closer without being emotionally ready to be that close.

This is often seen with dogs in a new home or when meeting new people.
It isn't a "they've taken food, now they're good" sign.
It means they are torn between two emotions.
They can be drawn to, but fearful at the exact same time.

Can food help?
Yes, of course, but with an anxious dog it needs to be introduced with thought and care.
Feeling safe needs to come first or we can prolong a dogs worry and discomfort.

Conflicted dogs are sometimes difficult to spot.
They may appear confident.
They may approach and then back off (with or without food).
They may want to be near or close to a human but we can miss the low head and those "slicked" back ears that tell us they're uncomfortable.

These dogs are well and truly torn between a want and a worry.
Their safety and comfort needs to be the priority here.
Not food.