I read a paper recently called An Investigation into the Impact of Pre-Adolescent Training on Canine Behavior by Dinwoodie and colleagues. The aim of the study was conducted to see whether training done prior to 3 months of age was more effective than doing training later. Here is what they found.

Christmas can be a difficult time for many reasons: lack of routine, new visitors coming into the home, lack of sleep, more noise.

Many people have dogs because they enjoy the social side of having a dog.. chatting to people in the park and watching their dogs bound around and play with each other. However, for many people I work with this isn’t their reality. Their dog may have had a bad experience with a dog and is now scared, or they could be recovering from an operation, for example. This can make walks – especially in narrow locations very difficult. If you, your self have had a dog who shows signs of reactivity then you’ll appreciate how hard it is and you may be doing the below already.. but if not please read on. · If you see a dog who is reactive walking down the street (perhaps they have a jacket that is yellow), or perhaps their handler just looks uneasy.. then walk across the road.. this will give a dog some breathing space. · Feed your dog to distract them rather than letting them get fixated on the other dog. · Change direction or if you can, wait behind a parked car so that the dogs do not notice each other. The above steps can really help a dog and their handler. Walking a reactive dog can feel stressful and anxiety inducing and people’s behaviour can really help the dog and the person.

Some things to teach/get started with, with your new puppy

Devastatingly, thousands of dogs end up in rescue centres each year, sometimes because people have financial problems or divorces and sometimes because of behavioural and health problems (behaviour and health are interlinked – pain can make a dog more grumpy and less tolerant). The pandemic and cost of living crisis means that rescue centres have seen the perfect storm of dogs arriving into their care.

If it’s going to be your puppy’s first Christmas this year here are some things to consider to make the day as safe for your pup and enjoyable for you and your family as possible. 

Considerations when hiring professional to work with your dog

If you’ve joined a puppy training class or are thinking about joining one you may be thinking about what training tasks are the biggest priority.. you want to focus on those that will benefit yours and your dogs life the most (of course tricks are ace, but life skills are the most important!). There are some classes that are purely socialisation where training tasks are not taught but I will cover that in a different blog.

My dog is doing a runner when I get their walking equipment out – why?