Paws for Thought - Canine & Equine Coach

30/11/2025

It won’t be long until Christmas and the New Year, make sure you order your snoods in plenty of time to help your dog over the festive period. Not only fireworks but noisy parties th snood will help your dogs stay calm.

29/11/2025

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNHMXhVomgf/?igsh=MWZlZGFsaHB4Zm8ybA==

28/11/2025

Imagine if you were walking down the road and a stranger ran up to you and you just had to let them do whatever they wanted without sticking up for yourself?

It's a bit unthinkable isn't it?

That's often the position we are asking dogs to be in when we try to silence their "reactive" behaviours that are actually not reactive at all, they're boundary setting.

Dogs are allowed to set boundaries. Some dogs have stricter boundaries than others. Some dogs get overtly cross when their boundaries are crossed, others get fearful. But expecting dogs to NOT have boundaries and allow absolutely everything anyone wants to do with them without push back is unrealistic.

🐾 If play gets too rough and rude, dogs are allowed to say so
🐾 If a greeting is far too fast and impolite, dogs are allowed to say so
🐾 If a human is touching a dog in a way that's making them feel threatened, dogs are allowed to say so.

The thing is, if we try to punish these boundary setting behaviours, we run the risk of making them worse. Boundary setting behaviours are controlled and appropriate to the situation. But if we try to silence them the dog may just react with more aggressive behaviour responses in a way that becomes inappropriate to the situation. For example, much more exaggerated a response, unable to control themselves, unable to have their say and move on.

Any cross words from our dogs and we immediately feel we need to apologise, they're in the wrong. But are they? Lily is one of the most gentle and friendly dogs I know. Certainly the most sociable I've ever parented! But even Lily gets cross. Even Lily has boundaries. A short sharp collection of woofs towards dogs jumping in her face too often and she moves on. That's boundary setting. That's normal.

Picture: we give our dogs boundary setting behaviours ALL THE TIME. Telling dogs to get off things, telling dogs to sit and wait, teaching a dog to walk nicely.... These are all boundary setting behaviours. We need to allow our dogs to have their own boundaries too. Boundaries aren't aggression 🐾💜

28/11/2025

Who is the one animal that has changed your life?

I have so so many!

27/11/2025

27/11/2025

*Edit* - two men can be seen breaking into the van at 3:30 this morning Thursday 27th November in southville, Cwmbran. Crime reference number is GWP-20251127-0104 if anyone has any information.

Urgent

Big adventures are suspended today!

Sarah's van has been broken into. We'll let you know more when we know more but we've the police, insurance and other things to sort today..

We're sorry!

😭

24/11/2025

Recent studies conducted by the Institute of Heart-Math provide a clue to explain the two-way ′′healing′′ that occurs when we're close to horses.
According to researchers, the heart has an electromagnetic field larger than the brain: a magnetometer can measure the energy field of the heart that radiates from 2.4 meters to 3 meters around the human body.
While this is certainly significant, perhaps more impressive than the electromagnetic field projected by the heart of a horse is five times larger than that of a human being (imagine an electromagnetic sphere around the horse) and it can influence straight into our own heart rate.
Horses are also likely to have what science has identified as a "coherent′′ heart rate (heart rate pattern) that explains why we can feel better when we're close to them. Studies have found a coherent heart pattern or HRV to be a solid measure of well-being and consistent with emotional states of calm and joy-that is, we exhibit such patterns when we feel positive emotions.
A coherent heart pattern is indicative of a system that can recover and adapt to stressful situations very efficiently. Many times, we just need to be in the presence of horses to feel a sense of well-being and peace.
In fact, research shows that people experience many physiological benefits by interacting with horses, including lower blood pressure and heart rate, higher beta-endorphins (neurotransmitters acting as pain suppressors), decreased stress levels, decreased feelings of anger, hostility, tension and anxiety, better social working; and greater feelings of empowerment, confidence, patience and self-efficacy.

23/11/2025

23/11/2025

Fabulous snoods!

Feeling Happy Thank you.

Just having a look at my reviews I have nearly 400 over my webpage, Etsy, Trustpilot & Facebook all are 5* except one 4* due to sizing which could have been avoided if the measuring guide had been followed. So a big thank you to all of you who have taken the time to send a review.

We are now back up and running the machine are all set up again. I will be sorting out the human Snoods today so keep an eye out for the offer.