There is much advice that can be sought about how to walk your dog, how long to walk your dog and where you can walk your dog. However, do you ever stop and think about the world your dog lives in? Modern life means we are rushing around, and everything is or needs to be done yesterday. Our dogs are part of this fast-paced world we live in, but they need time with us and a walk should be solely for them. A walk may just be a walk to you, but for your dog, it is probably the most important part of his/her day. It is the time in the day when they can be a dog (sniff, explore, etc) and more impo ..read more

We walk our dogs every single day, being both fantastic exercise and overall well-being for us and our dogs. So with the very welcome arrival of brighter days and later sunsets, here’s a list of 8 dog walking tips to ensure you are prepared for those delightful walks ahead: 1 – Lead, Collar & ID Tags For Dog Walks It’s important to maintain control of your dog whilst out on a walk, a collar and lead will help aid this. If your dog pulls whilst on lead, I can recommend a couple of tips, one is to stop and wait until the lead is loose the other is to turn and walk in the opposite direction ..read more

Here at Specialist Dog Training, we take the current Covid-19 crisis very seriously so for now, dog training classes have been suspended until further notice. In the meantime, let’s use this as a positive opportunity to really think about what you want to achieve, learn and gain from dog training classes. Socialisation has always been top of the list for owners, a main proportion of the reason they attend class: Puppy owners requesting to bring their puppy to class so that they can play with other puppies, as this will socialise them with other dogs. Dog owners asking to join a class so that ..read more

Here are our top 5 winter tips for looking after your dog: Tip 1: A dog fleece, coat or sweater may be useful. Some breeds may benefit from wearing a sweater indoors too, especially if your home is on the chilly side. What to look for when choosing the right coat, fleece or sweater for your dog: Most coats are either made of wool or fleece, so make sure that this material is suitable for your dog and it does not cause your dog irritations to the skin when they are wearing it. The coat, fleece, sweater should be snug, but not tight. Make sure that your dog can move (walk, run) when wearing th ..read more

I had a completely different blog planned for this month. However, this subject just keeps coming back in different forms so I just felt this burning urge to write on the subject again. As we entered lockdown many of us became used to the restrictions of life and that included our dogs too. Our focused changed when we were out with our dogs for our daily exercise and we became mindful and respectful of other dogs and owners. Interestingly during this time puppies have been calmer, more owner focuses and thrived at the basic training. However, as lockdown measures eased so did our restrictions ..read more

Google will undoubtedly be your best friend whilst you search through the different dog breeds, whilst also getting distracted by the image section and checking out the super cute puppy and dog images too. It can seem over whelming with all the information that you need to consume so check out these top 10 tips that you need to know and consider before getting a dog or puppy… Commitment-phobes beware! It’s the age old saying but a dog is for life! Before purchasing that potential puppy / dog, know that this furry bundle of joy will be in your life for 10 – 13 years (going by the average age o ..read more

Dogs can be fearful of several different household sounds but mainly the vacuum cleaner, even if it is a Numatic Henry or Hetty hoover with a smiley face! All our dogs see the world very differently and this is due to life experiences, situations and their natural fear of certain things. So, once the hoover has started, some dogs will bark at it, some will try and chase it and then some dogs will bark, chase and try to bite it. So why are dogs fearful of the hoover? The reasons behind the fear of the vacuum cleaner has several different elements, such as: The noise – the vacuum cleaner has a ..read more

With the current climate of worry and anxiety attached to the Covid-19 crises and the events and situations changing daily due to this pandemic, self-isolation creates an extra set of concerns and problems for dog owners to overcome. It’s essential during this time that dogs don’t get bored (and we thought keeping ourselves entertained was thought provoking enough!). Bored dogs don’t cope well with little stimulation each day and if this starts to happen, behavioural problems may start to occur. We at Specialist Dog Training decided to collate some information together to help owners, dogs an ..read more

Training your dog is one of the most important things you can do as an owner. Training takes time and patience to get it right. We have put together ten dog training tips that will help you get the most out of your dog’s training. Be positive – we all know that positive reward-based training is paramount when training your dog or puppy. But we also need to be positive when we are training. If we are tired, bored or just not into training, your dog can sense this and this can affect the way your dog responds to you and the training. It is better to end with an easy training command, such as s ..read more

What is socialising? For most of us, and you’re not wrong if you are thinking the following, it’s introducing puppies to dogs so that they learn how to interact with other puppies/dogs. This is just one facet of socialising, not all of it as it encompasses so much more. For those owners who think that you have a small window of opportunity to carry this out, and if you miss “the important age”, you miss the opportunity altogether, read on! I have, and continue to do so, receive several phone calls and enquiries regarding puppy socialisation classes, or whether they could join a walk to help s ..read more