An update: Things have developed quite a bit from when I first started this page and blog to share life and insights from life with a pair of blue merle boys. In light of that, and to streamline life a little, from this point all of my work will be via the Good Guardianship site and Facebook page. I want to thank everyone who has read, shared and commented on the articles here and hope you will come with me to Good Guardianship where I will be sharing the same insights into living with dogs and how to help you have the best possible lives together ..read more

  Looking for a trainer to work with, whether for standard life skills like loose lead walking and the cues they need to know to have a safe and happy life, or to help with some kind of behavioural issue that is impacting on your life together, can feel like an absolute minefield. Everywhere you turn, you can see lots of trainers of all different types, and it can be incredibly difficult to work out which type is the best if you don’t have an understanding of the different training methods that are used. Those seen frequently on social media, the ones with lots of followers and subs ..read more

  There is a tendency among dog guardians to think of the behaviours we see in our dogs as being either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. There are the desirable behaviours, the things that we want our dogs to do, and the undesirable ones, those behaviours we may call misbehaving, being naughty, behaviour problems, and so on. The thing is that these labels of behaviour are not really either accurate or useful. When looking at the things our dogs do, what we need to be asking ourselves is ‘What is my dog trying to tell me?’ Dogs communicate through the use of body language and behaviour. This can be t ..read more

 It’s ok to grieve for the dog you wanted. When thinking about adding a dog into our homes and families, most of us picture how it will be. The fun things we’ll do. The long walks we’ll go on to enjoy the world around us. The family trips out to places, long relaxed days of enjoying ourselves with our canine companions by our sides. That’s the ideal, the thing that most of us want for us and our dogs. The difficulty is that’s often not how it turns out. I have had one of those dogs who could go anywhere, with anyone, and who was happy around people, dogs, vehicles, livestock and so o ..read more

It is no secret to many who have visited this blog that, when it comes to dogs, the Border Collie has completely stolen my heart. My history with them goes back to childhood – my very first dog as a kid was a Border Collie x Shetland Sheepdog, and he was absolutely the best dog (as they all are, but there was something about him that made him my perfect canine childhood companion) – and continued through into adulthood with working sheepdogs. I adore the breed, their intelligent brains and drive to work with their people. For many people, however, the Border Collie can be very full on, and ..read more

This is my dog, Finn. He pops up frequently on my various blogs and social media accounts as a) he’s gorgeous, and b) he is the inspiration behind what I do. He is a fearful and anxious boy, who is reactive to other dogs, to people he doesn’t know, and to wildlife and livestock. I have been told previously that he is ‘not a good advert for your business’ because of his insecurities and fears. That, as a canine professional, especially one who focuses largely on canine reactive behaviours, I should have ‘fixed’ my dog and his behaviour problems a long time ago. I have issues with this. F ..read more

Enrichment is a word that is coming into ever wider usage in the dog world. Adding enrichment into the lives of our dogs means adding value and enjoyment to their days, letting them carry out normal and natural dog behaviours. There are now many books, articles on websites, social media groups etc, all focusing on the topic of enrichment activities for dogs. This greater knowledge and awareness of enrichment activities and the benefits that providing enrichment can bring to our dogs is fantastic and can only serve to increase their enjoyment of their lives. Many different forms of enri ..read more

One of the most important techniques available to us, particularly when working with fearful and reactive dogs is counterconditioning. Doing it correctly means the dog’s response to the thing that is worrying them changes from a negative reaction to a positive one. Doing it incorrectly will either not improve the situation or could even make the situation more complicated.   How then do we know if we are carrying out counterconditioning correctly? Let’s start out by taking a closer look at counterconditioning.   Not All Counterconditioning is the Same I’ll often se ..read more

If you have added a puppy to your family at any point in the last few years, the chances are that you have seen something like a ‘socialisation checklist’. A whole collection of different objects and long lists of types of people guardians must introduce puppies to as soon as possible, beginning immediately on getting them home. However, does sticking to these types of lists guarantee that a puppy will grow up to be a well-adjusted and well ‘socialised’ adult dog? To consider this question we must start by asking another. What is ‘Socialisation’? The common perception of socialisation i ..read more

  I have never been a believer in sharing only the good when talking about life with my dogs, my complex and sensitive ‘reactive’ boy most of all. He has been doing really well in the last few months, and I probably shouldn’t be surprised that we ended up having one of ‘those’ walks last week. ‘Those’ walks can happen to all of us, no matter how knowledgeable and experienced we may be. We can do our best to avoid getting close to triggers but, in all honesty, as soon as we step out into the wider world, there are factors that are beyond our control. This happened to us the other day, an ..read more