Wolf and Fox Dog Training

13/12/2024

Owning a reactive dog can be hard work!
I took Bjorn out this morning and it's as though the last 4 months of training haven't happened. He was reactive, pulling and stressed. Instead of getting annoyed with him we came straight home, there is no point trying to force a stressed dog into situations they cannot cope with at that moment in time, you end up doing more damage than good. So we called it quits, came home and had a cuddle. I scattered some biscuits in the garden and took a minute to re regulate myself while Bjorn did the same thing.
I told myself a fantastic phrase I learnt from other trainers HE'S NOT GIVING YOU A HARD TIME, HES HAVING A HARD TIME.
I looked back over the last 24 hrs and realised there had been multiple small stressor for Bjorn. Things that we forget about but that have slowly stacked up in his body creating lots of stress and leading to a dog that was ready to tip over.
So often the best thing you can do is to end a walk and try again another day. Your dog may have an upset tummy, they might have some pain, they could be trigger stacked from seemingly minor events but what ever it is no walk is worth a stressed dog OR a stressed human.
We will try again another day when he's had time to relax and decompress. In the meantime thee focus will be relaxation and stress busting enrichment and a thorough check of his back legs.
Training is never linear and working with the dog you have infront of you on any given day makes life so much easier.

11/12/2024

The other day I left my plate on the pouffe and came back a few minutes later to it...still on the pouffe! untouched by either dog. I thought 'wow I am so lucky' and then I thought some more...
and realised its not luck! its hard work, dedication and meeting my dogs needs.
Heldig back in the day would have taken that opportunity as soon as it was presented and on many occasions did (if you know you know!) and Bjorn is just two years old, hes still a teenager testing boundaries and trying new things. I don't make it a habit to leave things that could be harmful within reach but because of my health issues I often suffer with something called brain fog. I'm so grateful that I've got the tools to create safety nets with my dogs.
So how do I achieve these things without punishment and without needing to use a cue?

The first thing is ALWAYS management, don't give your dogs the opportunity to practice the behaviours you don't want. Dogs are by nature opportunists and they will repeat behaviour that is reinforcing. Grabbing a tasty snack of the side or a plate is what's called a self reinforcing behaviour. The more they do it, the harder it is to teach an alternative behaviour.

The second thing is to ensure that your dogs needs are met, searching for food is a great boredom buster for dogs but can easily be an undesirable behaviour so provide a healthy outlet! meet your dogs needs before they go self employed. Giving dogs who scavenge a chance to do it in a controlled way will NOT promote it, it will give it an outlet. I love playing 'find it' with biscuits or throwing a few in the grass. You can also keep your dogs diet interesting by offering dog safe healthy snacks like broccoli or natural yogurt so they feel fulfilled and aren't bored by their own food.

Reward the behaviour you DO want. If you have food and your dog settles down in their bed, reward! If your dog looks at the food and chooses to move away, reward! reward every behaviour that is something you want. Let them know what the expectation is in this scenario. Capturing behaviour in this way is SO effective because it is the dog making a decision to offer a behaviour that is then rewarded.

Lastly you can train a solid leave it cue, this is a back up to everything else you do and I use it lightly so that the leave is a default. A lot of more traditional trainers would start here but with R+ the aim is to teach the dog what you want and allow them to really learn in the situation, this makes you less reliant on cues. It is still a great back up though, just in case!

I got a little video to show how good these two are, you can see that Bjorn has some interest and chooses not to act on it, he was rewarded for this because I want that behaviour to continue (excuse the mess!)

06/12/2024

Any clients that walk on Rimrose Valley or along the canal, there is a case of Parvo virus in a young puppy in the area.
Both of my dogs are showing mild symptoms but are recently vaccinated.
Parvo is highly contagious and more dangerous to un vaccinated, young or already un well dogs.
If you suspect your dog is showing symptoms contact your vet to discuss care.

04/12/2024

Re posting this because it's so easy to forget that not all dogs enjoy our human activities.
Christmas can be a great time of year for us and our dogs but it's great to take a minute to think about which parts they will actually enjoy taking part in.

With Christmas fast approaching I thought it would be good to talk about what we expect from our dogs at this time of year.

We all have that lovely image in our heads, opening presents with the family, our dogs relaxing at our sides but how realistic is this? For a lot of dogs this time of year is confusing, a bit overwhelming and quite scary. So what can we do as guardians to help them through this?

Create a safe space, this is a quite area separate from busy spaces make sure its nice and positive by using lick mats, chews and treats.

Enrichment, make sure your dog is still getting their needs met and has plenty of options for chewing and shredding, this will reduce the likelihood of them opting for your presents!

Set ground rules, make sure everyone enjoying Christmas with you understands your dogs needs and what they can and can't do. This is especially important with nervous dogs or young children. For example children are not to interact with the dog without adult supervision.

Is it really best for your dog? This can be a hard thing to come to terms with but when we have nervous, reactive or excitable dogs its really important that we asses weather having lots of people and loud noise is whats best for our dogs. I have personally missed family Christmas because Bjorn struggles with lots of people. This year I will be taking him but there have been lots of conversations about his needs and boundaries and I will be taking baby gates with me to help make safe spaces for him.

Lets all have a fun, safe Christmas! and enjoy this photo of Heldig and Bjorn when they were almost the same size.

30/10/2024

My absolute favourite enrichment activity doesn't cost a penny!

There are so many options nowadays for toys, games, chews, lick mats etc on the market to help us entertain and give outlets to our dogs, it can all honestly be a bit overwhelming and adds up in cost really quickly.

If your looking for something cost effective that will for fill your dogs need to sniff, search and shred, saving recycling can be an amazing way to do that. I keep back big boxes and throw in dog safe recycling like toilet roll tubes, amazon parcels and egg cartons. Then at dinner time I hide biscuits and let them hunt for them.

This is such a good activity for nervous dogs to build confidence in their environment, with different textures and smells. It down regulates their nervous system after a busy day and it meets some of those needs. Doing activities like this can also help dogs who scavenge, dogs who struggle to regulate excitement or just dogs who want to do something new!

I use games like this during training and as part of enrichment plans, its amazing the difference a few bits of cardboard can make! :)

Send a message to learn more

09/10/2024

I have been sooo bad at posting on here lately 🙈 !
I find social media and marketing isn't something I'm naturally great at, but I've also just been spending a lot of time focusing on my own dogs. They have both done such a fantastic job of settling into life in Mersyside and I've been having a great time with them levelling up their confidence and skills.

With Heldig I've been working really hard on being less reactive myself. When you have a reactive dog and a history of incidents with off lead dogs and aggressive owners it's so easy to become reactive yourself! A fresh start really highlighted to me how anxious and tense I had actually become and how I was inadvertently feeding Heldigs anxiety. We all slip, we all make mistakes, what's important is that when we see them we equip ourselves to make changes. I've started taking a few deep breaths when I see an off lead dog approaching and forcing myself to smile at the owner rather than say anything. I've put sniffing on que for Heldig and together we are coping SO much better with out of control dogs. She has even started choosing to interact with dogs she would have previously struggled with. At 10 years old this girl just continues to surprise me 🥰.

Bjorn started to show that he was ready for walks! (Yay) and so I began by very, very gradually re introducing him to things. We started of with his harness and took more than a month practicing having it put on (he is gear averse) and playing. Then we moved onto leaving and entering the house. Last year Bjorn began to struggle with coming back in after a walk, moving, stomach trouble and pain where all contributing factors and for what ever reason he started panicking very badly when asked to come inside. It progressed to the point where he rolled, slipped his lead and bolted into traffic. So I took at least another month just walking him out the front door, playing games in the drive, back in through the gate and repeating. Round and round and round. Was it boring, yes 😅 but it has helped him so much! The next step was walking and much to my new neighbours surprise we spend another month just walking up and down our cul-de-sac (honestly it was a great way to meet the people on my road).
Once Bjorn was feeling really confident with all the sights and sounds around home I added 2 or 3 trips a week to a nearby field where he can watch people and dogs walk by with lots of space.
So over 3 or so months Bjorn can now manage about 30minutes out the house and he can disengage all by himself from triggers. It might sound like a lot of work for a 30minute walk but for Bjorn this is HUGE and I'm so proud of him.

So that's my little update and I'll try to remember to post some clients soon! 😊

Edited to add a photo, how could I forget!

05/07/2024

What should our focus be when training our dogs?

Honestly mine used to be getting external validation, people telling me my dog was well trained, well behaved and impressive. I badly wanted to prove that I am good at training, at working with dogs, that I could ‘fix’ Heldig. I learnt some pretty tough lessons with this mindset. It's so easy to push our dogs to do things because they should or it's because it's what dogs want and humans expect and that's ok right? But this mindset can lead us to forget that dogs are individuals.

With Heldig I was pushing for interactions she couldn’t cope with and most importantly, wasn't to her benefit this early in her journey and only made her journey harder and longer, ultimately causing me and her more stress.

Nowadays my focus isn’t on what my dogs can do for me or what they can achieve, it's on what makes them HAPPY. We are settling into our lovely new home and Bjorn has not been for one single walk. In fact he hasn’t been for a walk for several months. This might sound like insanity to most dog owners and there are for sure very complex reasons that Bjorn isn’t out and about right now including his health issues but at the end of the day the main reason is because it does NOT make him happy! He is processing so much change right now, exploring his garden and learning about his new environment through the smells that drift over the fence and for now that is what he needs.

Lots and lots of the people around me have struggled to understand why this big bouncy boy isn’t going out and exploring the world because it's what dogs should enjoy, but right now Bjorn doesn’t. We have a plan to very, very slowly offer him choices to expand his world but until it's something he wants and that makes him happy I won't be doing a single bit of behavioural training to achieve this.

So for now we are focusing on playing, enjoying his food and relaxing and that's it because that's what he can cope with and what makes him the happiest. I could push him to go for walks and prove that I can get him doing things but it wouldn’t make him happy and ultimately that wouldn’t make me happy.

So lets all think about what makes our dog happy, do they enjoy going to the cafe or being around lots of dogs? If yes, great! If they struggle or don’t enjoy it then maybe its time to consider why we are taking them with us to do these things?

26/06/2024

The vast majority of dogs in modern homes are not having their needs met to an appropriate level. This can result in lowered confidence, boredom and destructive behaviours.
Dog are designed to scavenge, explore, dig and sniff. The problem I have found a lot is that these 'messy' behaviours don't really fit into modern lives.
One issue I hear of over and over again is dogs digging up our lovely gardens. As humans we spend a lot of time arranging our gardens in a way that we like and it can be really frustrating when our dogs come in and in a few seconds launch all our hard work in multiple directions. As humans we have to remember that our dogs have no concept of a nicely manicured lawn or nice new plants and that they are just doing something, that to them, is so completely natural and normal.
Bjorn is doing a lovely job demonstrating how quickly a large dog can make a good muddy mess! but I don't tell him off, Bjorn is a dog with quite low confidence and he is really enjoying himself, so instead of shutting him down I take this opportunity to help boost that confidence. A dog with higher confidence overall is less likely to show reactive or fear based behaviours so its a win. I would however love to turn this section of the new garden into a shade garden with lots of lovely woodland plants so how am I going to stop digging in this area without punishing him and damaging his confidence?
I will build Bjorn and Heldig their very own digging pit. This can be an old paddling pool or a sectioned of area of the garden filled with dog safe materials for them to dig through. Interrupt any unwanted digging with a positive interrupter, re direct them to the appropriate area and encourage them to dig here. Repeat until they know where to dig. You can bury toys or treats to help make it extra fun!
Its a win all round, you keep your nice garden and they get to display natural behaviours and build confidence. Happy digging! :)

17/06/2024

This morning I ordered my dog's food, my partner asked how much it had come too and I felt a little sheepish because I spend a good amount of money each month on Heldig and Bjorn's food. It is important to me and I've spent a lot of time researching the best, most affordable diet for them.

I am not a nutritionist or vet and cannot advise on individual dogs' diets. I do however want to take some time to express the importance of diet and the undeniable link between diet and behaviour. This is sometimes a contentious subject, the body coach (Joe Wicks) is currently a point of conversation for many because of an interview where he spoke about the connection with diet and behaviour in humans.

But it is undeniable no matter what you think that good quality food is good, for us and our dogs. High levels of carbohydrates can lead to excess fat, excess energy and in turn increased anxiety. Over feeding can cause weight gain that leads to joint pain that in turn affects behaviour. Poorly tummies, itchy skin and allergies can all increase anxiety, depression and irritability in our canine companions.

It's one of the things I have really focused on with my young dog Bjorn. He has had three anaesthetics, three rounds of strong antibiotics and long term pain medication over the last year and a half. All of this has wreaked havoc on his digestive system, so how have we helped this?
High quality food and supplementing his diet with things like bone broth and kefir. When his stomach is happy and his digestion is healthy his anxiety drastically reduces.

Finding the right diet for you and your dog is tricky, I look for single source proteins, so no meal or derivatives and above 40% of the overall food. Good wholegrain carbohydrates as well as healthy veggies, although you can always add some dog safe veg yourself! There's some great websites that list all of the nutritional information with a directory so you can compare nutritional information versus cost for your situation. I use https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/search/?q=wainwrights and for my two I have for a long time found Wainwrights super food wet and dry food to be the best quality for cost for me and my dogs, this is not a sale and I have no link with the product.
Please consult your vet or a qualified dietitian and do your research to find what works best for you.
As an added bonus to all the good food, Heldig and Bjorn have such pretty coats 😍

05/06/2024

Romeo is my first official Liverpool client and we’ve certainly started with a challenge.

Due to limited socialisation in his first home and then the very sad loss of his mum Romeo is feeling very uncertain about a lot of things in his new environment. He has attached himself to his new owner Sarah and is finding separation from her, or attention from other family members really overwhelming.
The fear and uncertainty that he's feeling comes out as lunging and barking, especially when someone initially enters his space. He is working really hard to protect what he feels he needs to.
He is so lucky that his family are willing and ready to work together and help Romeo understand that he doesn’t need to protect his space in this way, to help him feel secure and to start building his confidence outside of his bond with Sarah.
We have started him with some counter conditioning using a clicker which he responded to fantastically, some enrichment games and tasks that take into account his lack of teeth! And lots of management to help him settle and feel secure.
Once we have built a foundation of trust, some confidence and security we will slowly be able to expand Romeo’s world in a way that he can cope with.

I don't usually do ‘before’ videos because of the way I work I try to avoid putting a dog into the situation that triggers them but as its things in Romeos home environment that are the trigger and his owners were able to collect this information for me i'll attach a short video of poor Romeo feeling very unsettled. I will try to get an updated video at our follow up but we already saw fantastic improvement in the first session (i'm just terrible at remembering to take photos or hit record! 😂)

01/06/2024

Settling into a new area is a busy time and I'm so lucky to have my amazing friends take care of my demanding duo!
they are living it up in the sun on holiday near wales while we get their new garden ready for them to enjoy. I'm missing them like crazy but I get daily pictures and updates of their antics.

As I'm so short of cuddles from my two I'd absolutely love to hear how everyone else dogs are doing! Clients old and new, or if your just on the page please spam me with pictures of your adorable lot🥰

As always here's some picture's of my two not missing me one bit 🤣

13/05/2024

It's summer! And things are beginning to look up. I've unfortunately been dealing with some difficult health related issues for quite a while now and I've really missed my job. Working with people to help them understand their dogs is my passion and being unable to do it has been so, so hard.
Thankfully some lifestyle changes and medication means I'm finally getting back to doing the thing that gives me motivation, training! 😁
I will only be accepting one client a week so spaces will be limited going forward, this is so I make sure my health stays a priority and also to ensure I give you all the absolute best service I can.
The big move to Liverpool was put on hold for a while but I will officially be moving to the Crosby area at the end of next week and will be taking clients from the 23rd.
There's also been a change to my Logo and name to something that I feel better reflects the way I work and also gives a little nod to my two dogs Heldig and Bjorn! The lessons they have taught (and there's been a lot 😂) have brought me to where I am today along with all of my absolutely fantastic clients from Sheffield, you all taught me so much.
I’m so excited to move forward on this journey and get back to work, so please get in touch if you would like to learn more about your dog and your relationship with them. Find great ways to work as a team and get the best out of your companion.

And as always a picture of Heldig because shes just too beautiful. 🥰

05/02/2024

Freddie's (previously Tank) gaurdians sent over this lovely video of him getting to grips with his Nina Ottosan puzzle,
These are a fantastic option for engaging your dog mentally, building problem solving skills and confidence!
I love to pair these with behavioural training to help dogs self regulate in a positive fun way.
Freddie looks like he's having a great time getting to grips with this one 😊

24/01/2024

So glad the modern, ethical dog training community is standing up and saying something about this 'dog trainer' and his outdated un educated methods.

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