Safety tips for Fireworks Night Fireworks season can be a tricky time for puppies, especially when it's their first experience of loud bangs and flashing lights. For many, the first time might pass uneventfully, with no signs of fear. But even if your puppy seems fine, it's important to help them associate these sounds positively, to avoid fear issues developing later on. Here's how to make sure your puppy's first fireworks are a positive, or at least manageable, experience.

How to select the best treat for your puppy! Treats! This topic comes up again and again — I've done lives, videos, posts, but thought I'd write about it too, as it keeps coming up! A treat is the easiest way to reward your puppy or dog for a job well done! The way dogs learn is "the behaviour that gets rewarded, gets repeated" — so if we reward the desired behaviours, they're going to happen more frequently! So far so good, but what is an acceptable treat? Would my dog not g

How do I stop my dog from resource guarding? What is Resource Guarding, and why is it important to prevent it from developing? Resource guarding is your dog showing aggression (from growling to snapping and even biting) in the presence of resources, or situations associated with resources. The resources that your dog may want to defend will vary from a food bowl/food objects to resting spaces, toys, and 'stolen items', to name a few. Resource guarding is actually a pretty nor

Why does my dog steal things? If you share your life with a Labrador, Spaniel, Retriever, Cockapoo or Labradoodle, you may be dealing with some "creative" behaviours. Dog steals things and runs away. Shoes disappear from the hallway. Laundry vanishes from the basket. Your prize flower beds get dug up. Lead walks feel like a tug-of-war. Sound familiar? These aren't signs of a naughty dog. They're signs of a gundog (or gundog cross) doing exactly what they were bred to do — jus

Bringing home a new puppy is an exciting time, but it can also be very stressful, even for experienced owners! One of the reasons is that when it comes to puppies, everyone seems to have an opinion. The internet is filled with conflicting advice, which often makes it difficult for new puppy guardians to know what the right thing to do actually is when it comes to teaching your puppy to spend time alone. Do you let your puppy sleep in the bedroom, do you sleep downstairs with

Why saying “No” doesn’t work One of my favourite walking places had security guards with dogs all summer. Apparently they’re there to stop people swimming in the lakes — although they’re still there now and it’s really not open-water-swimming weather any more. So a couple of times a week I’d pull up by the security guard’s van, smile, make small talk about the weather and how he works too much (seriously, the same guy was there three weeks running with no breaks), and unload