If your dog is scared of loud noises the most important thing that they must know is that no-one else is concerned about the same noise. Daisy (pictured) was dog I fostered for a while who had a fear of noises. Her previous owners had shouted at her to be quiet if she barked after being startled by a noise. All Daisy learnt from this was that her owner was upset by the noise too, and it gave her Read the rest of this entry

If you want to know how to stop a dog barking, I must first warn you that it is not likely that you will totally stop your dog from barking, because this is their natural way of alerting you that there is a danger. Many people don’t want to stop their dog from barking totally, as they are a deterrent to would be burglars. What it is useful to be able to do though, is stop a dog barking once they have Read the rest of this entry

Not ALL dogs are scared of vets, but not many of them like going there. So why are they scared, and what should you do if your is?

The fact of the matter is that vet surgeries aren’t a very nice place for a dog. Their first sense is smell. A vet will smell to them of a number of different unknown chemicals, it will smell of illness and death. It smells of the fear hormones of other dogs who’ve Read the rest of this entry

Anyone who regularly reads my blogs will know that I don’t believe in breed generalisations, so why would I pick out small dog breeds as a subject for a blog?! Well there are some breed generalisations that are true; for example, typically chihuahua’s are small. Bernese Mountain Dogs, on the other hand are usually quite big. Staffies are muscular and have locking jaws. German shephards have long Read the rest of this entry

Once again I am really delighted to be able to share the words of original Dog Listener Jan Fennell on my blog. Please feel free to paste comments and questions which I will duly answer:

“When we think of a dog perceiving something or someone as being a danger to either them or their family, we tend to think of the dog barking loudly and becoming hyperactive. Most people have seen a dog that is Read the rest of this entry

Have you got a barking dog? Most dog’s will bark now and again. It can be annoying in some cases, but it is also one of the original reasons for the relationship between dogs and humans. The bark provided us with the early warning signal that we needed before we came under attack from enemy approaching, much further away than we could perceive with our human ears or eyes, so we could prepare and Read the rest of this entry

As promised, today I am writing about some of the common (and not so common) myths that we hear about Dog Behaviour and Dog Training, and whether they are true or not. This blog is written with an understanding of canine instinct learnt from Jan Fennell. I am a Highly Recommended Associate of Jan Fennell, and regularly help dog owners to learn to understand their dogs and overcome and problem dog Read the rest of this entry

I often get asked by dog owners whether they’ve left it too late to train their dog, and I get asked this question by owners with dogs from as young as 20 weeks, to as old as 10 years. So that begs the questions “Can you teach an old dog new tricks?” and “How old is too old for dog training?” and the answer is simple. It’s never too late.

Dogs see every day as a new day, a day that they wish Read the rest of this entry

Anyone who knows me well will understand that I don’t pay for something unless I absolutely have to, or really really want something, so it occurred to me that some people may do a little research into getting help with their dog’s naughty behaviour, find out some prices and go for the cheapest one, or find out some prices and decide that they don’t mind the behaviour that much, so rather than spend Read the rest of this entry

I like to spend a little time reflecting at the beginning of the year on what I want to achieve and what I have to offer. I found myself thinking about what I offer to people as a Dog Listener… Well most people will come to me looking for Dog Training, because there is some sort of problem which is making life a bit difficult. The problems are highly varied, from aggression to other dogs, aggression Read the rest of this entry