Dogs By Beks

27/06/2024

🐾✨ Dogs In The City ✨🐾

26/06/2024

On leash. Off leash. Field zoomies. Sniffs. Rolls. Big smiles. Job done. 🥰

25/06/2024

Dogs By Beks on the top. We’re Wolf Walking Wellington on the bottom. If you couldn’t tell from the dogs looking at their respective handlers 😄

24/06/2024

🐾🐺 Happy Mondays 🐺🐾

24/06/2024

🌸🥰 Beautiful Miss Willow, setting the foundations to reshape her walking with more direction, instead of pulling to all the smells or getting concerned about other dogs.

Well done Team Willow 🥰🌸

21/06/2024

Today was hard 😆🤣

Building a new pack to be settled and balanced takes time. You go forward, then add another dog and have to slow it right down and rebalance it. Then you move forward, and slow it down again when another newbie starts. And if they’re impressionable, they can feed off others even when they’ve previously settled.

Today was a ‘slow it down’ day, with a lot of focus on getting the dogs to follow my energy, and getting them to stay in a settled position instead of moving around putting tension on leashes or stepping toward distractions. It was a beautiful day so we just kept working on getting in the zone in sun, sat for awhile with a ‘do nothing’ exercise getting them to nod off in the sun, and ran the gauntlet with half the city being on the waterfront. 😆

20/06/2024

🎶🕺✈️ HOLIDAY 2024 ✈️🕺🎶

Hey folks, I’ll be taking a break and heading overseas from 22-31 July so there’ll be no Adventures, Walks, Coaching or emails answered while I’m away. Will be having a ‘Magic Summer’ in the US (if you know you know 😆😄).

20/06/2024

🐾🐺 Meet our newest furbaby 🐺🐾

(Nellie wants to remind you to brush your dog & trim their nails if they need it 😆)

20/06/2024

🐾😍 These cuties 😍🐾

19/06/2024

🐾⚓️ HMNZS PUPS ⚓️🐾

19/06/2024

🐾🐺 Yesterday’s walk with Monty. 🐺🐾

Monty is still young and very excitable, with power behind him and super long range vision, so we’re teaching him to calm the mind, slow the body, take the power out and dial down the drive to get to dogs & distractions (even 500m away).

He’s a shepherd in doodle clothing, so getting his working brain in work mode and giving him a job to focus on walking at heel with other dogs (just Gus to start with) or when Gus is gooning round is starting to make inroads, and taking the power out with a dog understanding to stay in follow mode removes the risk of getting pulled down a bank to smells or to other dogs.

18/06/2024

🐾🐕 Field Trip Tuesday 🐕🐾

We headed to our good friends Pucci, DayCare For Dogs today to work on the social skills, and settling minds.

It’s one thing to know your place with your own crew, but the true test comes when you extend their skills into another balanced environment - different dogs, different energy, different personalities, different lead dogs. This is where they’re asked to show up, be true to who they really are rather than who they think they are, and in some cases, take the mask of bravado off, and slot into the chill vibes.

It’s always fascinating watching the new conversations going on, and how the lead dogs manage with poise when they see dogs have things to learn.

And it’s always lovely getting a warm welcome by the Pucci crew. Thanks for having us ❤️🌸❤️

17/06/2024

🐾🌲 Monday Mates - Zola, Louis, Wilson, Billy, Arlo, Murphy, Mac & Gus 🌲🥹

15/06/2024

🐾🌸 Miss Mio (which means ‘sweet darling’) 🌸🐾

This little darling needed help with direction, so she can see her humans have her back, she doesn’t have to step up and manage other dogs, and she isn’t choking herself to get to all the good smells to sniff and roll in! Lovely session with the smiles coming out ☺️🐾

14/06/2024

🐾☔️ Friday Crew ☔️🐾

This was going to be a sit/stay but most of them chose to lay down on the wet ground so down/stay it is 😆

13/06/2024

Chilly starts = beautiful days. Can’t complain! 🌞🥰

12/06/2024

Yes, it WAS a lovely Adventure, thanks for asking 🌞🐕🐾😄

11/06/2024

🐾 Parliament Pups 🐾

With We’re Wolf Walking Wellington & Billie & Co - Dog Walking 🚶🏽🐕🐕🐕

10/06/2024

🐾🌸 Monday exploring, with Zola, Gus, Max, Murphy, Louis, Wilson, Arlo & Billy 🌸🐾

08/06/2024

🐾✨ C O A C H I N G W I T H F L O ✨🐾

Border Collie’s are especially sensitive & intelligent wee souls. They show us if we’re not being absolutely clear in our communication, if we give too much leeway, or if we aren’t showing up in ourselves in ways they need us to. Where many other breeds will give us more grace, Border Collies show us up with the tiniest of gaps.

It can present as ears off, tension on leash, skittish or darting behaviour, reactivity or very clear ‘no, I’m not doing that’.

Yesterday we worked on getting Flo & her mum into more of a rhythm together, tightening up on clarity and keeping Flo in motion to walk her through moments where she’d otherwise react or stop to glue her nose to the ground.

🥰🐾

07/06/2024

Today’s extra long city walk included a café stop to practice chilling out around the bustle without getting up, whining, barking, demanding food, getting involved with people etc to build resilience and patience … and to share a banana loaf! 🤤

Our newest dogs had more learning staying in position while we walked instead of taking a coveted side or front seat.

Our nervy dogs are looking way more relaxed and happy in their own skin with more smiles.

Ranger is visible softening his fear, with calmer pick ups, now enjoying gentle pats and getting more comfortable each week (he’s an ‘in his own time & space’ dog, so I’m building his resilience at his pace without putting too much pressure on him to interact with me or others).

And our beautiful old hands helped the others settle more and follow their lead. 🥹🥰

06/06/2024

😍🐕 B A R L O W 🐕😍

Today I tested Barlow in a few different settings - around water, with my two dogs and his confidence at getting up on the rocks.

The rocks tested Barlow’s resolve and he thought he couldn’t do it, but with a bit of encouragement, he was soon getting up quickly, and learned how to get off calmly and gently without jumping straight off the big one. Young pups often struggle at this kind of exercise, but showing them they can helps build resilience and the confidence they can achieve more than they thought.

06/06/2024

🐾🌲 Thursday Crew 🌲🐾

Bowie tried and tried to get the dogs to chase her today with mad zoomies, but as far as they were concerned, her head was too nuts and she wasn’t listening to them, so they weren’t interested and just kept doing their thing. 🤪

A stable bonded crew like this one helps new dogs read the room and learn good social skills, knowing when to step in or back off to keep the newbies level headed, even when it’s fun and exciting. Today they taught her through backing off and not feeding the crazy vibe.

When Bowie has settled and can keep her head together, they’ll engage with her and play. For now, her wee mind has to work overtime to figure out what will get them to interact with her, as the default ‘go all in’ mode she’s been used to wasn’t too successful. 😄

So many great conversations had between them all today ☺️

05/06/2024

🐾🌲 Wednesday with Lucy, Gus, Wilson, Max, Raffy, Murphy, Finn, Arlo, Poppy & Luna 🌲🐾

04/06/2024

🐾🐺🥰 Beautiful day with these lovelies 🥰🐺🐾

01/06/2024

🐾🌸🌬️ Windy session with Annie 🌬️🌸🐾

Teaching a dog to walk without relying on the leash to tell them what to do is a layered process. We start with teaching them to follow body movement and being aware of both our and their bodies on a short leash, for meaning, direction and understanding.

Then we extend the leash to get more of the thinking power engaged, creating more space for them to make decisions we’d like to see more of.

Once they’re making good decisions and getting into a follower state, we give them the extra long leash where there’s less reliance on the lead giving direction, and more scope for the dog to keep watching where the handler is… and to have more fun with them.

Each step in the process doesn’t always feel like a big shift in the dial if we don’t know what we’re seeing, but I’m looking for those small subtle moments where the dog slows and their brain is whirring, or when we need to pivot a little to then get it firing.

The magic happens when each of those individual layers are stacked together. The dog starts to put the picture together of all the pieces, and they start to light up with understanding, going more naturally into a follower state and engaging more with their person.

The progression today went from tension on the leash, disengaged & scatty, fast movement, to slow and thoughtful walking, with softened body posture and lots of lovely smiles from Annie to mum, keeping a good eye on her (even when other dogs were nearby).

Great job Team Annie 👏🏼😍

31/05/2024

☠️ ⬇️ ☠️

Toxic slugs have been spotted in Wellington waters, and no it's not your ex! 🙅

Greater Wellington have confirmed two separate sightings of the native grey side-gilled sea slug or Pleurobranchaea maculate in Shark Bay, Miramar.

These sea slugs contain the toxic substance tetrodotoxin which can be poisonous to dogs and children. Please make sure that they do not touch or handle them on the beach or in the water.

While they might look a bit funky, these slugs are a common native creature and should be left to go about their business.

If you believe someone has come into contact with a sea slug and they start to feel unwell, call 111 immediately.

If you believe your dog has licked or eaten a sea slug, contact your vet immediately.

Please report any sightings, particularly in off-leash dog exercise areas through our online webform: wellington.govt.nz/Report-a-problem

Keep your beasties safe from these beasties!

31/05/2024

Friday Crew, who settled in with new additions Teddy & Tyson, and were so good a gentlemen took his hat off to us (literally) 😍

30/05/2024

🌸🐺 M E E T B A R L O W 🐺🌸

30/05/2024

🐾❤️ Such a good looking bunch ❤️🐾