What we do with our pups in the first few days, weeks and months of bringing them home will shape the rest of their lives and our relationship with them, so it is important to know what we are doing. Whether we realise it or not from the moment we start a relationship with our new family member they start to pick up on messages that we are sending them, through our tone of voice, body language, touch and how we treat them. Based upon these interactions they will start to form a mental picture of their environment, including us, and where they fit in to it. If we send them the right signals the ..read more

Many of my clients come to me confused about how to train their dogs. It’s not only the fact that they don’t know how to apply the training themselves but mainly they are unsure about crossing the invisible humane line when starting to do so. This is either because they have watched or read something written by the positive reinforcement only school – where even the ‘word’ No is too negative for a dog to handle, or they may have even heard of the opposite extreme of dog training that warrants that your dog must be terrified of you to become submissive, subservient and obey. In theory both of t ..read more

One of the best ways to create a great bond with our best friends is to give them things to do throughout the day. By doing this we are challenging their innate drive to accomplish something and will boost their confidence levels, both of which will help your dog to be balanced, stable and happy. There are many ways we can do this, but in general we must clearly communicate to them something that we want them to fulfill, and dogs being dogs will naturally want to follow our instruction and accomplish the task, before being be paid for their work, just like we do. First of all we must understan ..read more

The concept of positive only dog training was first brought to the UK in the 1980’s by a world-renowned dolphin trainer from the United States.  She had devised a new method of training that marked wanted behaviour with a sound (click or whistle) and then rewarded it with food to reinforce it. In this way she was able to train dolphins and whales to do outrageous tricks and tasks that had previously never been dreamed of. She experienced great success at this and became very famous in her field and then used her reputation to take her training method into other disciplines. In 1984 she re ..read more

At one time there was a consensus of opinion that positive only was the way to go where puppy training classes were concerned. However, over time and as a result of consistently good results people are becoming more and more drawn to a balanced training regime. Now I’m sure everyone will have their own personal preference when it comes to training methods, but one thing is certain. there are certain elements that feature strongly in both types of training. So, we thought we would take a minute to look at which elements are commonly found in both methods of training. Food Rewards It goes withou ..read more

Dog aggression is a common problem that has far reaching effects for dogs, owners and the local community. It has many root causes, most of which are negative experiences by the dog although at times it can be genetic – inherited from the parents. Nevertheless in all cases dog aggression can be solved completely but only when you have the correct understanding of dog psychology and the right system of training in place. The result of my system is a dog that does not experience any abnormal aggression at all. They will be completely clear of it and will act in ways that they would do naturally ..read more

Rescuing or rehoming a dog is a very altruistic thought that is done out of compassion by genuine and warmhearted people. However, as all too many owners of dogs from this type of background know things don’t always turn out as they’d originally planned and instead behavioural problems such as reactivity, aggression take over. They may also develop separation anxiety. The reason being is that altruism alone simply isn’t enough when rehoming a dog. If it is not infused with a good understanding of what a dog ‘truly’ needs and instead human ideals are forced on the dog then that’s when things ca ..read more

This is probably the most important command that your dog should know therefore it must be understood and taught properly. It can prevent your dog from getting in to all sorts of trouble, from chewing shoes, running in the road, running out of the front door, mugging strangers in the park, or barking, and it can also stop an ongoing and persistent problem immediately, therefore it should not be underestimated or avoided. That’s why I teach this command as part of my Basic and Premium Dog Obedience packages. There are a few common beliefs about this command that are mistaken, and they are: 1. t ..read more

Why is it that some people have friendly and social dogs and other people seem to have dogs that constantly react to every passerby? The answer is not always genetics, breeding or past experiences, although they can have some say in it. In fact, the biggest effect on our dogs behaviour is the social position that owners put them in, and here’s why. Owners treat their dogs like humans and not like dogs – from the time the domestication process from wolf to dog began thousands of years ago we have had an intimate relationship with man’s best friend. Since then dogs have been bred to work alongsi ..read more

There is nothing better for a dog owner to be trotting down the street with your pet pooch happily strolling along by your side. Those moments of mutual connection are special for us dog owners. We have a sense of peace and we can simply enjoy the company of our dog and relish in the walk itself. For many dog owners that is the dream rather than the reality. Being dragged out of the door and then off down the street is not peaceful, the feeling of connection is none existent, and the idea of enjoying the walk is absurd. In fact it can be downright frustrating at times and can even lead to rese ..read more