Resources
Articles and further information
There is so much to take into account with our dogs, their needs, wants and habits. This section is designed to give you as much extra information as possible to work with your furry family member
Chilly weather
Chilly weather can make for magical walks in the early morning or snowy days can be lots of fun playing chasing and search with your dog. However, just like days that can be too warm, we need to make sure we keep snow days and icy days as safe as we can for your dog so that you can enjoy them longer.
This article gives a few simple things to watch out for and to help make those wintry days fun for all.
Mental Stimulation
A huge amount of our training eventually comes back to mental stimulation, what it is, what type best suits your dog and what exactly it does for us. The more mental stimulation your dog gets that suits them the lower their frustration levels, the better they learn, the more solid your bond and the more robust their training becomes. Mental stimulation does not need to take long to do but listen to your dog when they tell you what they like.
The Benefits of Scentwork
Scentwork is a hugely rewarding activity for dogs that can help calm them, give a sense of satiation, and really cover a lot of mental stimulation in a short amount of time. It is a great way to deal with frustration and dogs who can get 'clingy' at times.
Meaningful mental stimulation for your dog.
Sun Safety
It is very easy for pups, adult dogs and older dogs to get over heated and start to run into health issues. Be sure to follow these tips to keep them safe and happy in the hot weather.
Big Scary Noises
A huge number of dogs have fears or even phobias of noises. Often these are loud sudden noises but for some dogs other more mundane noises can send them either running for the hills, ripping furniture or skirting boards or even shutting down altogether. As the more rational partner in our people-dog relationships it is up to us to recognise their pain, discomfort o
This is the first in a series of articles looking at dogs who have issues with noises, whatever they may be.
Behaviour Issues
Just like with people, dogs can fall into patterns of behaviour that don't work well in our society such as barking at other dogs, lunging at people, running away from everything new, or even obsessive or compulsive actions. Also just like us there are a huge number of reasons that these behaviours may be happening and may be getting worse. It is very important for any of these behaviours that we get to understand them, when your dog is using them and to work with the underlying cause of the behaviours, rather than just focusing on the outward symptoms, doing that will almost always lead to developing other outlets for the same issues resulting in even more work for us.
This series looks at different behaviour problems and also how we start to tackle them.
Training Tools
We are looking at a wide range of different training tools, whether they are good or bad for your dogs and how best to introduce them.
Lend a Helping Hound
Sometimes dogs are uncomfortable around other dogs be it due to nervousness or anxiety, from fear, due to a learned experience, or out of over-excitement. This discomfort can take lots of different forms. Typically it involves barking, lunging or pulling towards the other dog, growling or snapping. In other cases it can result in the dog shutting down or running and hiding. In any case, we need to work on the underlying reason for their discomfort and build up a modification plan to address it. In most of these cases, stooge dog sessions are required. Stooge dogs are dogs who can remain at a safe distance from the reactive dog so that we keep the working dog below their stress levels and gradually build up their comfort and skills at their pace. The stooge dogs play a vital role in the recovery of most dog-reactive dogs.
Here we look at the work the stooge dogs do and how these sessions also benefit them.