Storm's Squad - Dog Training and Social Walks

15/08/2024

I do work with small dogs too (not that any daxie believes that they are small).

The lovely are progressing brilliantly, and I will also get the chance to see lovely Mabel again in our upcoming Bristol events!

Mabel is a case where there is a significant pain component to her behaviour, but there are also behavioural issues that are not entirely due to pain.

Pain needs to be addressed, absolutely, but it does not give dogs a free pass to do anything they want including biting.

Hospitals don't just tolerate patients stabbing health care workers because "they are in pain", do they...

03/08/2024

I managed to take the best picture I've ever got of Storm today 🤩 She's in it, in focus, and actually visible (for a black dog and a terrible photographer that is not easy).

No filter!

Minsc was not in a posing mood.... scroll to see what he thought of pretty heather photos.

06/06/2024

Another birthday for Storm - she's 5.

This is the first birthday where I've not had a knot in my stomach about how yet another another year of behaviour modification had gone by still without managing to help my gorgeous girl out of her stressed and aggressive state.

When she turned 4, I'd been working with her based on on very extreme R+/forcefree principles for 3.5 years. 3.5 years later, her reaction distances had absolutely decreased, but from the horizon to the other side of a road. She was still stressed, still aggressive, and still living a life on lead and muzzled.

I didn't want that for the rest of her lifespan.

Her 4th birthday last year was what caused me to actually reach out to after a long period of online stalking of everything I could find about Jess' methods, while I worked through my own feelings on dog behaviour modification and every area of ethics related to that.

Jess Probst seemed to be the only person who had the missing puzzle piece for me, and at that time, the only person who I thought was truly open minded and was doing what was best for dogs, even though that meant she was doing her own thing and consequently getting grief from both the balanced world because she was critical of the way most trainers use ecollars, and the forcefree world too for not being militantly forcefree. She's now helping even more people find their missing puzzle pieces through HonestHounds, and by sharing her immense knowledge with other trainers.

Our lives are different now.

She's 5, and she's finally LIVING her life to the absolutely fullest thanks to me leaving that really extreme forcefree style of dog behaviour modification.

This gorgeous, complex, sensitive, intense, goofy, hardworking, funny, loyal (tending towards overly loyal...), dog is no longer in her stressed state 24/7, and her true personality shows now, to everyone she meets.

This photo was taken at a recent trainer retreat, and it means the world to me because this was taken by a stranger, while she was offlead, no ecollar, no muzzle, no management. People and dogs were milling around in the garden, and she was relaxed.

My girl.

31/05/2024

At what point in the 10.5 hour hike do you reckon the 2 year old GSD got tired?

2 munros (Scottish mountains) for starters in the first 4 hours, then a ridgewalk, and long extended scrambling sections that were... fun to get shepherds through.

Same question for the 5 year old shepherd and for the humans in the comments if you fancy it!

26/05/2024

Jess P asked me what I'd most want to say to other people who are currently stuck in the position I was in a year ago (and 2 years ago, and 3 years ago...).

The 1 thing is... there are ways you can help your dog out of their stressed state, you don't have to simply turn and increase distance any time your dog is "over threshold" even if that means your world is tiny and you and your dog are both stressed and constantly wondering what is around the next corner.

Also it doesn't take years, and certainly not a dog's entire lifespan.

The more I'm seeing dogs trained by (or worse owned by) Force free or R+ based trainers, and their dog reaching old age and dying still "nervous/reactive/fearful", the more it frustrates me that such an extreme view has somehow become the mainstream.

I can't change the fact that I left my own dog in her stressed state for 3.5 years before I managed to help her out of it, but I sure can let her life her absolute best thriving life now and help other owners and dogs thrive too

26/05/2024

And the fact I can now take my dog for a normal walk is how I know I've helped her come out of that horrendous state she (and I) were stuck in for years

08/05/2024

If you didn't get stuck to the waist in quicksand, did you even do a dog walk?

😂😂

07/05/2024

POV : you own a shepherd

17/04/2024

Delighted to be on the FAST TRACK – Clinical Canine Behaviour Practitioner & Trainer Programme run by the Cambridge Institute of Dog Behaviour & Training. I'm looking forward to solidifying and extending my existing knowledge, filling any gaps I have, and also just getting the chance to learn even more from an even wider range of dog professionals - more knowledge is always a good thing, and open-mindedness is the key.

I've had practical experience since 2020 with aggression and reactivity, and have the privilege to be mentored by Dundee Dog Training and working as an affiliate trainer with Honest Hounds learning so much more about how severe behavioural issues can be resolved in a holistic way - both the theory and the practical of working with aggressive dogs.

I can't wait to have even more knowledge, and more discussions about dogs, more theory, more practical, different perspectives, and to learn from my course tutors and my course mates over the next 18 months. Exciting times 🐾

We wanted to take the time to say a huge well done to our affiliate trainers and for being accepted into the Fast Track course run by the Cambridge Institute of Dog
Behaviour & Training.

This is an excellent step in their own continued professional development and an amazing way for them to upskill themselves to continue to support their clients and the Honest Hounds community.

We can’t wait to follow their journey! 🐶

01/04/2024

25/03/2024

So this is what I've been doing the last few days, Minsc has been on tour absolutely smashing it in London!

The amount of new "stuff" he's seen and handled like a pro is massive, and includes train journeys, automatic ticket barriers, drones, a hoverboard thing, women in hijabs, a street party, foxes, lifts, and many more.

He is such a resilient dog, and is a credit to everyone who's impacted his life, right from his amazing breeder Vylano German Shepherd Dogs through to Dundee Dog Training and Honest Hounds and everyone who has helped me keep this enthusiastic fuzzy hooligan on the path to being a very good boy 🤩🤩

19/03/2024

Walk with some clients/friends today, and all of our dogs including mine had "OH, WOW, I never thought that would happen" breakthroughs.

I'll pop stuff up about each of those in turn (the partners haven't got the full story yet, so I'm not going to spoiler them online!)

For now, just have some really boring footage of 3 formerly very reactive dogs (plus a bonus shepherd) just hanging out and doing dog stuff.

They got to just be dogs today, they hung out offlead, they sniffed some p*e, they mooched about together, they were just DOGS.

dogs

13/03/2024

Trusting your gut feeling.

Back when I was "just" a dog owner, I found it difficult to find what was right for me and my dog, and along that journey I got bulldozed by some bad advice.

Some of that advice lead to this. I was told by someone advertising as a trainer and behaviourist that my dog needed to go to daycare to "stay socialised" during covid.

It's one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made with her, and it made her frustration reactivity to dogs hundreds of times worse. At her peak, she couldn't see a dog even on the horizon without screaming, flailing, lunging, full hackles, absolutely blinded by her desperation to reach them, because she was so addicted to dogs.

If any owner reading this has a bad gut feeling about ANYTHING you are being told to do with your dog, go with your gut.

04/03/2024

Muzzle appreciation post (number 8953)

My Storm has been muzzled a lot more recently because the combination of her injuring her leg and then being on reduced exercise has meant she's got less tolerance than normal.

I could have thought, "No, we've graduted past using a muzzle. She doesn't need it anymore!". What good would that have done me.

This weekend, she spent a little time with a golden retriever meetup, and their energy and exuberance for life was VERY difficult for grumpy Mrs Fun Police to handle. I muzzled her and then quickly broke off from the group, as she would have overcorrected some of their rude behaviours, as her tolerance is low at the moment.

I still need to advocate for my dog and for my clients' dogs, but muzzles just give us such a lovely buffer zone to work in.

I've had a run of clients who've been told by other trainers not to muzzle their dogs or even muzzle train them. This blows my mind.

This advice had even been given to owners of dogs with serious bite histories, including to other dogs in the home and to their owners.

The ego of advising a client not to use a tool that keeps everyone safe is staggering to me.

if you want to start muzzle training your dog but don't know where to start, there's a guide on Honest Hounds (link in bio). You can try the Eduation zone for £1 with code HHJESSICA

26/02/2024

Entertaining, but also a window into the shepherd brain.

We deliberately bred them to be incredibly sensitive to changes in their environment, because that is necessary for what they were bred for (herding/guarding).

Now, we often expect them to live in our human environment, walking down a high street, not freaking out that bins have appeared on bin day, not freaking out that a new road sign has appeared and might be a murderer. Getting shepherds to be calm and relaxed in all situations is an uphill battle because they were bred for the exact opposite of that!

25/02/2024

Multi dog households - it is fine to treat your dogs differently.

Yesterday I took Storm with me to be a stooge dog for part of an over-reactive workshop with . She was great, and it was the right call to take her with me.

While I did that, my husband took our other dog up a mountain.

We treated them differently that day for lots of reasons, including:

-Minsc generally needs more physical exercise than Storm, and was very happy to do 10 miles up and down a mountain even though the snow was thigh deep (on the human!) in places
- Minsc is more cold resistant than Storm
- Storm recently injured her leg, and won't be up for mountain hikes on uneven terrain for a while (but she wouldn't have enjoyed this one even without the injury)
- due to the leg injury, Storm has been on reduced excercise, so I needed to give her stuff for her brain - interacting (with limited movement) with various new dogs met that need for her
- Storm is a much better stooge dog than Minsc, so was better for me to take to the workshop

Result was... both humans and both dogs had the day they needed and had their needs met 🥰

24/02/2024

Today I was walking/working the handsome Rex. I've met him several times, but he's not used to working with me.

If I'd have asked him to walk in heel for an hour he'd have missed out on the chance to move his body freely. If I just let him do EVERYTHING he wanted, he'd have really wound up some other dogs.

So, his job for today's walk was to hang out and do cool stuff with me! I gave him fun shepherd jobs to do, and he did the things!

Occupied his brain, occupied his nose, and he stayed on the planet. Good boy Rex!

22/02/2024

If the lead always means the end of the offlead walk/end of fun, some dogs will start to play keepaway, or duck and avoid their lead.

We want lots of repetitions of the lead going on meaning they get something great when the lead goes on (reward 1 for the dog), and then also get to go back to their offlead fun (reward 2 for the dog)!

11/02/2024

Today's social walk had lots of regulars, so we had chance to work on some close up work targeted at each of their issues.

The different dogs all have different needs/feelings/aims, so this included

- taking turns eating around other dogs
- calmly waiting while their owners fussed other dogs
- interacting with strangers (for our stranger-danger dogs)
- ignoring strangers (for our over friendly dog!)

The leads on/off and muzzles on/off and the distances we all work at are all set for the needs of each individual dog, it was a great session today (and it helped that it was dry...)

Back next Sunday at Pitlochry rec again

09/02/2024

A client asked me if they'd need to use an ecollar for the rest of their dog's life. I said no, not the way I teach it.

The client question was from some dedicated owners who have always previously been in the forcefree part of the dog training world, but who have recently been working with me with their boy for dog reactivity and stranger danger. I love these clients because they are good handlers, their dog is at the forefront of all of their decisions, and they are very concerned to do the most ethical thing for their dog. One small part of what we are doing with him involves building a conditioned response to an ecollar (vibrate = FUN!)

They asked me "Will we have to use this for the rest of his life?". They understandably don't want to, because of the charging, the hassle, remembering to use it, what if it loses signal, etc. Plus they just don't want to be reliant on any form of management long term - their end goal is just a walk with their dog (plus a treat pouch of course!). I told them that as we are changing both his underlying feelings and his behaviours, they will not have to use it long term.

I discussed how for my Storm, she wears it still, as a safety blanket/fallback for me, but it is nearly never needed.

That got properly tested today, as she slipped the ecollar off when a dog appeared 5 feet away! The rest of the story is boring - she verbally recalled and it was a non event.

I didn't like losing my safety net in that situation, but it shows that what I am doing is actually changing how she responds and how able to think she is in these situations, and her optimism in situations, rather than just hitting a button for compliance in the moment.

The full post about behaviour change vs relying on management and tools long term is in the Training Bites section on

02/02/2024

But I'm sure he (and dogs like him up and down the country who are not being walked) was given "enrichment toys" and snuffle mats and instagram-able worthy slow feeders.

How lovely to see him learning how to be a dog again now

01/02/2024

𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗺𝘀 - 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝗦𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗱 𝗗𝗼𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴

After helping owners online for over 4 years, last year Jess Williams decided to take the next step in her journey as a dog trainer. Over the last 6 months she has been an integral part of our team, doing Honest Hounds introductory behavioural zooms, helping with workshops, tours, Educational Walks and Residential Retreats!

Jess also runs her own training sessions, social walks and 1:1s in Pitlochry which have been going from strength to strength.

It’s actually quite unfair now, the follow up sessions are just me listening to how much success our clients have had from their work with her! 🤓😀

Last week, working with Zari the Dutch herder X, it would never have been possible to achieve what we did without the previous months of Jess laying the foundations.

Jess is a vital members of our online community too, making herself available to answer questions to everyone on our Coaching membership. She has a wonderful way of communicating with people and the patience of a saint when it comes to dogs.

Speaking of dogs, she’s successfully worked through some serious aggressive behaviours with her own rescue dog so she knows exactly the frustrations you can go through as an owner who is stuck with “what now” - as well as being well versed in all training methods, she can discuss what will best suit your dog and work with your lifestyle.

If you’re an Honest Hounds member, you can keep your eyes p*eled in the next few weeks for the option to book in a discounted 1:1 Zoom directly with Jess so you can take the next steps for a better relationship with your dog 🐾 🐶

30/01/2024

Two of my previous clients helping each other out in the Coaching Zone 🥰

In Coaching, members can ask questions tailored to their specific issues, and trainers will be along to answer them... unless other members get there with exactly the right answer first!

It is so lovely to see the knowledge sharing and the community aspect of Honest Hounds. It is also really reassuring as a trainer to see how well some of my clients have understood topics that had stumped them previously!

27/01/2024

What does a Social Walk or the Educational Walk include?

Well, , Willow, Jess Probst, and myself (whoever is running the walk) do what the dogs and owners need.

All of the dogs and owners there this morning had slightly different aims/issues, so Willow and I worked with the owners on what mattered to THEM that day. There were some group activities, some mooching along, plus lots of tips tailored to the needs of each dog/owner pair.

Today's owners got help with:

- Focusing around high distraction (me recalling Storm right past them) for some of the dogs who have been coming for a while but are movement sensitive

- loose lead walking tips for those who needed them

- homework to help a dog feel happier about going back on lead instead of playing keepaway (lots of reps of moving the lead near the dog then rewarding, without actually putting lead back on dog)

- advice for an owner with a reactive dog who was finding other dogs and the environment too distracting to focus on her owner at that time

As the grand finale, we had the classic "he's just friendly" dog running over to help us all practice what to do when we get rushed by offlead dogs with no recall 😅😁

27/01/2024

We had a great Educational Walk this morning helping Dundee Dog Training too.

All of the dogs and owners there have slightly different aims/issues, so Willow and I worked with the owners on what mattered to THEM that day. There is some group work, plus lots of tips tailored to the needs of each dog/owner pair.

Today's owners got help with:

- Focusing around high distraction (me recalling Storm right past them) for some of the dog's who have been coming for a while but are movement sentitive

- loose lead walking tips for those who needed them

- homework to help a dog feel happier about going back on lead instead of playing keepaway (lots of reps of moving the lead near the dog then rewarding, without actually putting lead back on dog)

- advice for an owner with a reactive dog who was finding other dogs and the environment too distracting to focus on her owner at that time

As the grand finale, we had the classic "he's just friendly" dog running over to help us all practice what to do when we get rushed by offlead dogs with no recall 😅😁

27/01/2024

Another social walk this Sunday - for you and your dog to practise appropriate behaviours on and offlead around other dogs/people/everything else in life. Run and supervised by an insured and experienced trainer.

At Pitlochry rec at 1:30, £10/dog

Almost all reactive dogs are very welcome if you give me a quick call in advance so I know what issues you are working through! (Some dogs will need some 1:2:1 work before joining in)

Jess

19/01/2024

The coaching tier on is for anyone who really wants to learn as much they can about dogs in general, as well as getting trainer input on their own dog.

There is a body language practice clip for coaching members in there now to practice OBSERVING what they see (the facts of the situation), and then to have a go at drawing CONCLUSIONS about the dogs' intentions or feelings based on those observations.

Owners (and unfortunately some trainers!) have a tendency to immediately jump to the conclusions section without fully considering all of the facts there can observe. This is a big reason why the dog world diagnoses everything as fear/anxiety!

06/01/2024

Back at the rec ground Sunday 1:30pm for a social/training walk.

Looking forward to seeing existing faces plus any new people who have decided this is the year they tackle their dog's socialising/reactivity!

£10/dog, please bring a fixed length lead, some tasty training food, and a hungry dog 🐕