Crosby Capers

09/12/2023

08/12/2023

How to reduce your dog’s stress this Christmas and keep them safe…

03/07/2023

03/07/2023

We are having a "rethink the ball launcher habit" day today 😁

08/06/2023

Can you spot me amongst all these other super sniffy dogs ?

08/06/2023

Sunday Scent Work at Berkshire Dog Training with Kat from K9 Behaviour Consultancy

16/05/2023

RAISING DOG FRIENDLY CHILDREN
Teach children to be dog friendly before teaching dogs to be child friendly

I’m often asked - “How can I make my dog more child friendly?”

The question really should be - “How can I make my child more dog friendly?”

Children don’t come with an inborn ability to know how to treat dogs. It’s up to us to teach them.

I’m amazed that there aren’t more dog bites considering how often I see children treating dogs like stuffed toys.

If you think about it, dogs are actually amazingly tolerant and patient with people even when their attempts to communicate through their body language, that they’re really uncomfortable, are completely ignored or not understood.

As parents, it’s an important responsibility to teach our children about how to respect and behave around dogs.

Always supervise children and dogs, even if a dog seems relaxed and friendly.

Here are some links to free, on-line resources if you’re looking for more information on how to keep children and dogs safe together -

https://kidsarounddogs.co.uk/pages/free-resources
https://www.familypaws.com/resources/
https://www.cooperandkids.com
https://www.gooddoginabox.com/top-20-ways-keep-kids-and-dogs-safe/
https://poochparenting.net/blog/

16/05/2023

Can Dogs Detect the Earth’s Magnetic Field and Use it to Navigate? By Zazie Todd, PhD Click Here for original post Every now and then, there’s a story of a dog finding their way back home from somewhere a long distance away. Of course scent is very important to dogs, so following a familiar smel...

15/05/2023

I have reached 100 followers! Thank you for your continued support. I could not have done it without each of you. 🙏🤗🎉

12/03/2023

Great to see the great behaviourist Chirag Patel working with Crufts. He really considers the dog and human relationship while also considering the animals emotional and best wellbeing. Working kindly and thoughtfully. 🐾

20/11/2022

Something we see regularly, daily in fact is dogs pulled away from an interesting sniff. It's commonplace to see dogs secondary to phones or just a human forward march. It's sad to see and quite unfair. Sniffing is so vitally important for dogs. Their sensitive nose is amazing and the experience the...

12/11/2022

Lest we forget...........

17/10/2022

Life with a spaniel!

23/09/2022

Well here we are again. Left Elbow this time. Or lack of as sounds like I've been running about with zero elbow joint to speak of! Bone on Bone ouchie. Hi everyone, must get around to sharing some more news soon. Hope you're all well

22/08/2022

I want to kill a myth that has been circulating ever since i can remember.....

Harnesses make your dog pull!?

If harnesses made your dog pull you'd never have to train a sled dog to pull, in fact you absolutely do need to train sled dogs to pull, even if they are wearing a magical pulling harness.

Sled dogs wear harnesses because its safer for them than wearing a collar. A collar would do alot of damage on any dog that is pulling, therefore choosing to use a harness will keep them be safer.

NOW, you do need to choose the correct harness for your dog, a 'Y' shaped harness with front attachment are my favourite ones.
You also need to make sure your dogs forelimbs can move freely from the top of their shoulder. also take a look to make sure their legs arent rubbing on the straps when they move.

IF you need help, I am sure your local force free trainer can point you in the right direction. Make sure they are ethical and put your dogs welfare first.

30/07/2022

Those who know me know I used to be an army dog trainer. I learned two things while I was in the army working with dogs, both are still a daily part of my life.

First: you always sort your dog out before you sort yourself out.

Are they thirsty or hungry? Do they need anything at this point? Every day without fail, I follow this rule that I learned so many years ago. Dogs’ can’t just fill up a water bowl, they can’t stop a griping hunger in their stomach on their own, but we can. So I choose to meet their needs before I work on my own, and I always will.

Second: you always move at the slowest man’s pace.

This lesson taught me everything about living with older, slower dogs. As dogs get older, they run less. Older dogs sniff more. They sniff everything. Senior dogs might be stiff and achy and need to cover less ground, but they cover that ground at a slower pace.

Please consider their needs and go at their pace.

It’s not fair to leave them behind or pull them along.

11/07/2022

I got stuck in traffic this morning and of course began thinking about dogs.

Imagine a day where you wake up, eat dry cereal and go to work. On your way to work you’re stuck in traffic and frustrated. You want to go faster and get to where you’re going! When you get to work you have to sit alone in an office. You’re allowed to eat on your lunch break but nothing else. You drive home in more traffic and eat more dry cereal and are told to immediately go to bed. Sometimes you’re allowed to have fun on the weekends but more often than not you have to do chores.

You’d be miserable. Utterly miserable.

This is how a lot of our dogs lives look. They get up and eat dry kibble. They go for a rushed walk on a short lead, not being allowed to stop and sniff or run and play. They sit in a crate or an empty room all day at home. They go for another rushed walk on a short lead, eat some more dry kibble and then get put to bed.

In my ideal world EVERY dog would have a day with joy in it. Every dog would have a class or a club or an activity they love every day. Every dog would have fresh food and plenty of chance to sniff and play off lead. The ideal world doesn’t exist though, especially in the current climate (both economical and weather!)

You don’t have to change your life to meet your dogs needs more and nor does your dog need to be perfectly trained to enjoy life more. Try;

- Adding some fresh food to their diet. See what tastes they like and don’t like!
- Looking up some dog sports and signing up for a class.
- Going for a walk and letting them sniff for as long as they like. Doesn’t have to be anywhere we deem exciting. Industrial estates often have the best sniffs!
- Hiring a secure field for an hour.
- Invest in a long line and explore a new walk together.
- Look up trick training tutorials on YouTube and have a play. Doesn’t matter if you fail to teach the trick as long as your dog and you are smiling at the end.

We need to honour our dogs more. More and more in modern society, especially in the UK, it’s the done thing to get a dog and for it to be a family dog but our dogs are incredible, beautiful, smart and intelligent creatures that deserve more than dry biscuits and a march around the block.

Our dogs don’t live for very long compared to us, and they give us their all and question nothing. Honour your dog and don’t relegate them to ‘office life’. They deserve so much more.