Real-world solutions from puppies to seniors
Minor Morris – Secondary Fears Travis is heading towards 7 months old now and so has passed Jim Mathieson’s statue of William Hogarth countless times. It was only yesterday that he really noticed it – and decided to bark. Now that he has passed the half-year mark, he has entered adolescence and the Second Fear […]
E is for Etiquette – manners maketh the mutt and the human! How do dog owners annoy me (and my clients) – let me count the ways! 1 Unsolicited, unwanted (and incorrect) “advice” – especially from people who know that I’m a behaviourist and trainer and usually in inverse proportion to their actual knowledge 2 […]
Home Alone 2 – Travis Goes Solo. The next stage after accustoming Travis to a crate was to leave him on his own in the house for a short period. It can seem as if you are velcroed to your puppy at first. Dogs are social animals and, in their feral state, would never be […]
A Soggy Day Out – It’s Wimbledon Fortnight Following the heatwave, we now have a traditional Wimbledon Fortnight – it’s tipping down with rain. Equally predictable, the one day that we schedule for a day out to celebrate a friend’s birthday was the first day of (torrential) rain all summer. Undeterred, we boarded the tube […]
Crate Expectations – Monster in a Cage! I finally gave in and crated Travis. In all honesty, I’ve always been rather lukewarm about crates. They certainly have their place for travel or in a veterinary or show setting, but I was never keen on crating dogs in the home. That was before I had a […]
Cock-a-hoop – The Royal Wee One thing that all new dog owners learn very quickly is that one’s conversation with other owners in those little gatherings that happen in the park frequently becomes scatological. Urine is included, from those early days of housetraining to the next milestone for dog owners: cocking the leg. Well, today, […]
Pool Party – we’re having a heatwave. It was simply too hot to travel with Travis as the mercury crept towards 30°C again, so I cancelled plans for the afternoon and filled Travis’ new toy. I tossed a tennis ball into the middle and left him to work out how to do the rest. He’s […]
Thunderstruck – Travis had a surprise by being woken up from a cooling snooze by hearing thunder for the first time as we experienced some welcome rain after the brief and sudden hot spell. He was born into a dry winter and, although he has experienced hail a couple of times, thunder is a novelty. […]
Teenage Tantrums – puppy to terrible teen. Travis is now six months old; the testicles have descended and his brain is entering its last stages of development into adulthood. Puberty can be as challenging for dogs as it can be for humans – and that includes the owners! Training success is rarely linear – […]
Showing off: dog shows are held all over the country every year and can be a good way of exposing your puppy to being handled and meeting a wide variety of other dogs in a controlled setting. Whether it’s a local village fête or a Crufts qualifier, a well run dog show provides a wealth […]