Pawsome Training and Behaviour

07/11/2025

❤️❤️

06/11/2025

06/11/2025

06/11/2025

Next Workshops 🐕

Next workshop is Gundog Foundations 4th January - 25th January.
You do NOT need to have a gundog breed (spaniel, retriever, HPR aka viszla, pointer, setter, weimaraner) to partake.
Gundog Foundations is all about impulse control, steadiness, retrieval skills and whistle cues ❤️ and any dog can take part ❤️
Pop me an email ✉️ [email protected]
or Whatsapp message 07726165075 to enquire 🐾

Scentwork Foundations is 1st - 22nd February

All workshops can be done as 1-1s as well if you can't make the day/time ❤️

04/11/2025

01/11/2025

Puppy class update
🐾 SUNDAY CLASS FULLY BOOKED 9th November
🐾 1 left for the Monday evening - 17th November

31/10/2025

Say hello to Cody ❤️
Such a beautiful GSD puppy.
He did my puppy classes and now he does training walks just to get him used to the van and build his confidence ❤️
My 3rd GSD client ❤️

30/10/2025

There is no need for this unless
A) you have a working dog and it is a quick off/on in between the vehicle & field
B) the dog already walks nicely on the lead
C) to catch a loose dog

I have a few slip leads in my van for pure purpose of I see an escaped dog 🤔

29/10/2025

Think Wookie has mastered the art of treat catching don't you 😂🙈

28/10/2025

This is why I always advocate 3 sec rule in classes ❤️☺️

SECONDS COUNT
This post is not advocating that dogs meet every other dog, but rather about how to go about it in a safer way, if and when it does happen.

The 3 second rule for dogs meeting each other is used as a guideline to help foster positive introductions, prevent either dog from feeling overwhelmed or trapped and prevent any potential reactivity and stress.

A short 3 second introduction is enough time to provide important information to both dogs.

Enough time and information for dogs to decide – “are you a threat?”, “do I like you?”, “do I want to learn more about you?”, “do I really dislike you?”, “do I want you to go away?” etc. Both dogs may not feel the same way – one may not be happy to engage while the other may want to.

All interactions should ideally happen like this, not just initially. Just like us, dogs can have off days – things like pain, trigger stacking, lack of sleep or a host of other reasons can influence a dog’s emotional state and whether a dog wants to interact or not.

There are countless times I have witnessed meetings or introductions between dogs that have gone on just a few seconds too long and have not ended well.

This can have long lasting effects on future behaviour when meeting other dogs.

Understanding body language is critically important. If we are going to share our lives with another species, protect them, advocate for them and help them feel safe, then we need to understand and respect their language.

The examples in this post of red and green flags are just a few general ones to look out for – there are many more and these will differ depending on the individual dog, context and circumstances.

Here are some resources that provide more detailed information about body language –

The Veterinary Behaviour Centre
https://bit.ly/4hwC8k1

On Talking Terms With Dogs - Calming Signals, 2nd Edition by Turid Rugaas
https://bit.ly/4oftWqW

Make sure those first 3 seconds count – they can make all the difference.

28/10/2025

*Preventing unwanted litters is a goal we all share—but it's time to rethink the surgical approach. Hysterectomies and vasectomies, which preserve hormonal balance, can safely be performed as early as 8 weeks of age, making dogs sterile without disrupting their natural hormones.

New peer-reviewed study published in Nature:

How a dog’s lifetime exposure to his own hormones (before being neutered) affects how well he handles aging and frailty later in life.

Study Background

• Frailty = when older dogs (and people) become weaker, less resilient, and more prone to illness and death.
• Most research looks at how to prevent frailty — this study looked at what makes some dogs bounce back better after frailty sets in.
• The focus was on the HPG axis — the hormonal system that produces testosterone and controls reproduction.

Key Findings

• Dogs neutered very young (before 2 years old) had:

o A much higher risk of death once they became frail.
o About 16% higher mortality for every small increase in frailty.

• Dogs kept intact longer (more than ~10 years) showed:
o No increase in mortality linked to frailty.
o Their hormones seemed to “buffer” the negative effects of aging.

• Each extra year of natural hormone exposure reduced frailty-related death risk by ~1%.

What It Means

• Hormones from the te**es may protect against the worst effects of aging later in life.
• Removing them too early could make dogs less resilient to age-related decline.
• Frailty isn’t just about getting old — it’s also shaped by early-life events like the timing of neutering.
• This supports a “life course” view: what happens early in life affects health decades later.

Why It Matters

• The study suggests timing of neutering might influence how well dogs age.