3 Alternatives to Your Usual Walks for a Reactive Dog

One of the very first things we often learn about dogs is the essential nature of the daily walk. For many dogs, daily walks are something they really enjoy. For those dogs and their humans, the hours spent out exploring together are a perfect way to spend time together.

For other dogs and the humans who live with them, the daily walk can be an anxiety-inducing, tense, and stressful experience. Never able to truly relax, constantly scanning the environment. Worrying about what might be coming around the next corner to cause upset and stress.

'My Trainer Said They'd Fix My Dog! What's Going Wrong?'

I had a conversation the other evening with someone I met through a Facebook group. She messaged me with a video of her lovely little dog who is reactive but is doing really, really well after years of consistent and careful counter conditioning and desensitisation work.

3 Excellent Places to Work with a Reactive Dog

At the beginning of realising that your dog struggles with some aspects of their world, it can feel overwhelming. The amount of change that has needed to be able to take your dog places as if they were a ‘normal’ dog can feel insurmountable.

A ‘Normal’ Dog?

I take issue with the concept of a ‘normal’ dog. Our canine friends are often subject to unrealistic expectations. Think of the differences between the women we see in the media and the average woman in daily life. Similarly, the expectation of how a dog should behave can bear very little resemblance to the reality of a dog being a dog. And we should be doing everything we can to let our dogs be dogs!

The Most Important Question to Ask Your Dog Trainer

 

Selecting a dog trainer can feel like an absolute minefield. So many dog trainers are out there, and many claim they can sort out your dog’s problems fast. These promises can be very tempting to a struggling guardian.

Why We Must Consider Canine Emotions

What emotions might this dog be feeling?

The relationship between humans and dogs stretches back thousands of years. We are continually finding new evidence of just how far back this amazing partnership goes, although we may never know for sure exactly how and when the first dogs and guardians came together. For much of this time together the relationship has seen two distinct levels – humans at the top (as our species considers us to be in so many ways) and the dogs beneath, the lesser part of the combination.

To Train or Not to Train?

I've read a few discussions recently on the ethics of training. I'm not talking about the ethics of how we train - there is no question that positive reinforcement reward-based training is the best way to train. Instead, I'm referring to why we train, or perhaps the better phrase is how much we train. All dogs need a certain amount of training to be able to exist safely and fit into what is a very human world. How much training should we be doing with dogs as standard?

3 Top Tips to Avoid Damaging Your Dog's Recall

One of the most common problems dog guardians report is that their dog won’t come back when called. Failure to recall can be frustrating, embarrassing and – in some cases – dangerous. A dog who will not return when called could run up to other dogs, who may or may not want to interact. They may run up to unknown people – surprising as it may be, not all people love dogs. Shocking, I know, but people do exist who don’t like dogs! The dog may reach the end of the safe area and run out into a road, with the potential for catastrophic consequences.