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Schooling 4 Dogs

Schooling 4 Dogs & Humans offers 121 training and behaviour consultations in Brighton and the surrounding areas.

Schooling 4 Dogs & Humans offers 121 training and behaviour consultations in Sussex

25/08/2025

Be careful if walking your dogs in Vale Park

22/08/2025

- 🐉MONDAY MYTH BUSTER #3

🐾💦 SEA SWIMS ≠ CANINE HYDROTHERAPY 💦🐾

👀We are looking at common misconceptions about hydrotherapy and dogs 🤔

So far we have looked at dogs who are afraid of water, and the belief that hydrotherapy is only for dogs after injury or surgery - neither have held water 🤣

Now let’s set the record straight about DIY hydrotherapy — swimming in the sea, your local river, or a backyard pool is NOT the same as professional canine hydrotherapy.

✅ Hydrotherapy is controlled, warm water exercise in a safe environment, guided by trained professionals. It’s designed to target specific joints, muscles, or rehab goals, with careful monitoring of movement, resistance, and heart rate.

🌊 Sea, river, or home swims? Great fun and enrichment — but they come with unpredictable currents, uneven temperatures, unknown depths, and no tailored support for your dog’s injury, arthritis, or post-op recovery.

💭 Think of it like this:
🏋️‍♂️ A physiotherapist-led gym session vs. running through a field.
Both have value — but they’re not interchangeable when it comes to recovery and joint health.

💙 If your dog needs rehab, choose the safe, science-backed route. Hydrotherapy heals. 🌟

Want to know more? Contact us:

☎ 01444 676020
📩 [email protected]
🕸 www.woozelbears.com/branches/burgess-hill

18/08/2025

Myth-busting Monday: "Dogs cannot sweat".

Although it is true that dogs do not sweat to the extent that humans do - dogs can and do sweat.

Dogs have sweat glands over their entire body but generally only the glands on the paws and nose are used for thermal regulation. This is because, in furry animals like dogs, sweat from the body is less effective as the fur tends to trap moisture and prevent it from evaporating. Therefore, sweat used for cooling is emitted from the dog's smooth, bald surfaces such as paw pads and nose.

The other sweat glands over the rest of their body are thought to function as communication, by giving off particular odours, rich in chemosignals and pheromones. Dogs also sweat more when they are stressed or fearful, so you may notice your dog leaves wet footprints behind when they are particularly scared, for instance during a vet visit. The release of adrenaline associated with the fight-or-flight (or flirt or fiddle!) response causes dogs to secrete sweat and hormones through their glands, just like humans do.

Because dog sweat is only effective at cooling from the paws and nose, they have also developed a panting response to heat that allows for much faster evaporation and cooling than they can achieve through sweat alone. However, dogs are more prone to overheating than humans and heat stroke can be deadly, so we cannot rely on panting alone to cool our dogs and must protect them from excessive heat.

More reading:
'The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behavior and Interactions with People' - Serpell
'Apocrine sweat glands in the circumanal glands of the dog' - Atoji et al.
'General sweating on the hairy skin of the dog and its mechanisms' - Iwabuchi

15/07/2025

At EquiCanis we provide expert veterinary physiotherapy tailored to the unique needs of your pet. Whether your animal is recovering from surgery, managing a chronic condition, or simply needs support to stay mobile and pain-free, our goal is to improve quality of life through compassionate, evidence-based care.

We support animals dealing with a wide range of conditions, including:
Orthopaedic injuries (e.g. cruciate ligament rupture, fractures)
Neurological disorders (e.g. intervertebral disc disease, nerve injuries)
Age-related mobility issues (arthritis, muscle loss)
Post-surgical rehabilitation
Performance enhancement for working and sporting animals
Soft tissue injuries (sprains, strains, tendon issues)

Our Services
Initial Assessment & Treatment Plan - Every journey begins with a thorough assessment. We’ll take time to understand your pet’s medical history, perform a detailed physical exam, and assess movement, posture, and pain. From there, we develop a personalised treatment plan with clear goals.

Manual Therapy - Hands-on techniques such as joint mobilisations, massage, and stretching help reduce pain, improve range of motion, and promote healing.

Therapeutic Exercise - We design targeted exercise programs to build strength, improve coordination, and restore mobility—tailored to each pet’s specific needs and ability.

Electrotherapy - Modalities such as laser, H-wave, and pulsed electromagnetic therapy can help manage pain, reduce inflammation, and stimulate healing in soft tissues.

Owner Education & Home Program - We’ll guide you through home-based exercises and daily care strategies to support your pet’s progress between sessions.

Who We Work With
We treat a wide range of animals, with a primary focus on:
Dogs
Horses
Cats
Other small animals (by referral or on request)
Whether it’s post-surgical recovery, managing arthritis, or addressing a performance-related issue, we tailor our services to suit the specific needs of each animal.

Veterinary Referrals & Collaboration
We work closely with vets, surgeons, and other animal health professionals to ensure cohesive, coordinated care. Veterinary referral is required for all new clients, unless for assessment and maintenance treatments (no medical conditions) only.

Contact us for a chat about your animals needs: 07879 632715

14/07/2025

The silent suffering that many dogs (ANY breed, but higher risk in some types) experience as a result of how we’ve designed them is a sad reality that is hard to think about because we love our companion dogs for how they look. They are to us, more than how they look. https://doggiedrawings.net/pages/dogs-of-the-world-book

Worth reading: What Should Dogs Look Like? By Dr. Jessica Perry Hekman.
https://open.substack.com/pub/companiondogproject/p/what-should-dogs-look-like?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Dr Alison Skipper: https://www.vethumanitiesuk.org/alison-skipper

https://functionalbreeding.podbean.com/e/dr-alison-skipper-the-health-and-history-of-brachycephalic-dogs/

Also check out this free download: https://doggiedrawings.net/products/buying-a-dog-ethically

If you are not a breeder and are interested in learning more deeply about breed traits, check out the Puppy Seekers Project

14/06/2025

☺️

02/06/2025

Myth-busting Monday: “If a dog’s tail is wagging, it means they’re friendly/happy”

This is a very common misunderstanding and unfortunately a dangerous one. As the tail can be the most obvious (from a human perspective) visual signal used by dogs, it is the one that people, especially children, pay most attention to. However, tail motion is not a very reliable emotional indicator in dogs. The position of the base of the tail and stiffness of the tail are better signals to pay attention to, but viewing the body as a whole is more important. Tails are ambiguous and vary hugely across breeds even in the same emotional context (compare the constantly moving tail of a busy spaniel to the relatively low tail of a sighthound or upright curled tail of a spitz). Individual personalities also influence dogs' propensity for wagging.

A wagging tail signifies emotional arousal. A dog with a wagging tail can be happy and friendly, however they may also be stressed, conflicted, frustrated or aggressive. When a dog is wagging a tail whilst looking at a human, this often indicates intent to interact, but that intention may not be friendly! It is important, therefore, to look at the whole body: the ears, eyes, mouth, paws, posture, hackles, tension, weight-shifting, etc., in context for that individual. Dog attacks on humans are usually a result of misunderstanding and miscommunication and most dogs will give ample communication before resorting to a bite.

Further reading:
• ‘Dog Bite Prevention: Effect of a Short Educational Intervention for Preschool Children’ – Lakestani & Donaldson
• ‘A Commonsense Approach to the Biting Dog’ – Heath
• ‘How anticipating relationships between dogs and children can help prevent disasters’ – Love & Overall
• ‘Interpretation of Dog Behavior by Children and Young Adults’ – Lakestani et al.

26/05/2025

Myth-busting Monday: "Treats are just bribes"

Would you go to work and do a job for someone else if you weren't paid afterwards? Do you view your wages as a bribe, or a reward? And when you get a bonus or a pay rise, doesn't it make you feel good? We work only because we are positively reinforced for working.

If treats were just 'bribes', reward-based training wouldn't be so successful - dogs wouldn't be able to perform complex tasks or long duration behaviours. Treats only work because they make your dog feel good and, in time, make the behaviour that led to the treat feel good. Working for food is a natural behaviour in dogs as it is implicated in survival. This means that the action of gaining food is intrinsically rewarding for a dog. The ANTICIPATION of a reward is rewarding!

Studies have shown that, if an action has been previously and repeatedly paired with a reward (for instance, food), over time this action itself will activate the reward centre in a dog's brain. This means that, if you consistently use rewards while training a new behaviour, over time that reward does not have to come as frequently because the behaviour itself will be rewarding for your dog.

This is not exclusive to dogs. Humans will perform behaviours over and over again purely for the anticipation of a possible reward. Cats will perform predatory behaviours repeatedly even if the reward of a successful catch is very infrequent. Chickens will peck at objects even without obtaining food because the act of pecking itself is self-reinforcing. In biology, complex behaviours are required to obtain infrequent rewards, particularly for predators and scavengers like dogs. In order for these complex and energetically-draining behaviours to be maintained, they must be rewarding in themselves.

This is how positive reinforcement works. It makes dogs feel good and choose to perform the desired behaviours. The motivation and drive to perform the behaviours can only occur if they are consistently followed by a reward during the learning process (strong reinforcement history). Food works well because it is rewarding for all animals, but obviously anything else that makes your particular dog happy (play, cuddles, praise, access to other motivated behaviours, etc.) also works!

We need to use rewards at the beginning in order to build that feel-good, positive connection and build that DESIRE. That does not mean the treats are used as bribes and it does not mean the behaviour is contingent on a treat being present.

Further reading:
'Neural Responses during Anticipation of a Primary Taste Reward' by Doherty et al.
'Dopamine and effort-based decision making' by Kurniawan et al.
'Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training: Adaptation and Learning' by Lindsay
See less

01/05/2025

Sharing this lovely recent review ❤️.

"Hannah came to our house to help us iron out a few problems with our adolescent Staffie . After a walk she gave me a plan to follow.
Her advice was absolutely brilliant, she is so knowledgeable. We went with the plan which was outlined clearly in emails.
Our boys behaviour is so much better. Hannah was always available for any questions I had and she is kind and encouraging.
I struck gold with Hannah."

29/04/2025

It's such a lovely time of year when the bluebells are out and the woods are carpeted in purple. But please please when you are out walking and taking photos, do not trample the flowers! Native British bluebells are a threatened and protected species and are extremely vulnerable to damage. A trampled bluebell is unlikely to ever recover or grow again next year. Please enjoy the beautiful flowers from the paths so that they can return next year. You can still take lovely photos of your dogs and children without damaging the flowers.

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