A&S Dog Walking & Pet Visits

29/11/2025

25/11/2025

Working with your wonderful dogs whether through solo dog walks, puppy classes, training consults, walk & trains or the socially distanced dog walk brings as many challenges as it does the rewards.

Many of your wonderful dogs & some of the puppies are really worried about being ambushed by off lead dogs and this week has been no exception.

I truly do wish we could make other guardians understand the importance of training a solid recall and then using that cue to call their dog back from stranger dogs.

I’m deeply concerned how rife the ‘my dog is friendly brigade’ seem to be multiplying. However let’s not forget there are so many wonderful ethical guardians out there as-well calling their dogs, using a long line & generally supporting others by keeping their wonderful dogs under control.

Some of the walk & trains are where we seem to get these off lead dogs running around spoiling a training session and the worse part is these dogs guardians are none the wiser. How do we honestly get it across ‘Please do not let your off lead dog approach any other dog that you don’t know’ maybe it’s time the government stepped in and started a ‘Respect other guardians & their dogs’ campaign to drive this message home.

I’m also so pleased to have started the Socially distanced dog walk club where guardians with worried dogs can come and enjoy a distanced dog walk in the relative safety of others who also know the worries and experiences of ‘The ever so friendly dog brigade’ safety in numbers truly does mean lesser dog walking stress and more enjoyment in engaging with your dog.

24/11/2025

Tommorrow marks 5 years since my wonderful twin sister Donna left this world for an adventure somewhere else. ✨I do hope the world is kinder to her wherever she may be 💫 I’m sure it can’t be any worse than earth right now. Any cancer is a beast but breast cancer was particularly spiteful & cruel.

5 years of loss and of missing her truly madly deeply.

Tommorrow I am off on leave and will go on a memory walk and immerse myself in us just for the day.

There was no history of any breast cancer in our family so it all came as a really big shock. Please do get checked if something isn’t quite as it should be.

18/11/2025

1 in 4 puppies are likely to have been bred in a puppy farm. Please be wary when buying a puppy

Creator and activist goes on a mission to expose the UK’s largest puppy farm, a huge breeding facility in Northern Ireland.Puppy farms are alive ...

16/11/2025

Why give your dog choices?

There is still this out dated & very bizarre belief that dogs need to be controlled, dominated before they dominate us. 🤷‍♀️ Just so you are aware the very man who created the theory later debunked it & profusely apologised but yet the damage was done, and is still being done by people using punishment & control to train their own dogs & sadly to then train yours. 😔

Anyway onto the brighter stuff! For those of you using kindness, understanding & positive training methods, have you considered what choices you can give your puppy or dog during their day? If we think about any pet not just dogs. We have decided to rehome them, train them the way we want too, feed them what we want, walk them where we want & ultimately they live by our means, beliefs & our skill set. So…. What if we could just allow any pet we own to just have some small daily choices to give them a sense of freedom, agency and ultimately respect. Respect for them being an emotional living being who is living in our home & whom we decide everything for. So what types of choices could you offer?

➡️ Offer two chew treats & let your dog sniff them and then say ‘which one’ I have a video of this under highlights, choices. You’ll soon start to see their preferences & might be surprised by what they like food wise.

➡️ Let them choose the route you take on a walk. When you leave your house wait at the end of the road and see which way they turn.

➡️ Let them sniff & explore on a walk. Follow them for a short while when they seem to be interested in a smell or area. Imagine if you wanted to look at something & someone kept pulling or calling you away.

➡️ Let them rest where they want in the house. They might like a sunny sun trap or a quiet area away from the hustle of the house.

➡️ A really big part of giving a choice is using cooperative care (allowing a dog to opt into husbandry tasks) or out if they are worried or scared. We can also give a choice when a dog is worried about something on a walk & wants to retreat or hide. This will build confidence the next time they confront the scary situation.

These are just a few options you can consider to give your dog some choices in life & you might be pleasantly surprised in how they respond.

What other choices could you give your dog?

15/11/2025

Panda - Beagle missing Quainton area

15/11/2025

One to one puppy classes, Solo dog walks, One to one training, Walk & Trains, Sunday Socially Distanced Dog Walk Club.

The last few weeks have been busy with puppy one to ones. I’ve also been giving advice & information to new puppy guardians who are due to rehome their pups in the next few weeks. The topics are normally around crate v no crate, where should puppy sleep, first safe toys, bedding, what to feed & what equipment to buy. This can be such a minefield so I try to simplify these questions by giving ideas & choices.

The solo dog walks have been in Bierton, Bedgrove, Stoke Mandeville & central Aylesbury.

The Sunday Social Walk (on lead with distance) is at Pitstone this week. This is a wonderful group of guardians & their dogs who are worried about dogs/people being too close so we walk together but with distance.

Something I wanted to highlight to anyone booking a training/behavioural service. Someone contacted me this week & asked me how long it would take to have their fearful dog comfortable with being around other dogs off lead. Another trainer had told her ‘I can fix any behavioural issue in a few sessions’ It’s quite obvious this fixing of issues will be achieved using tools such as grot collar, prong collar or e collar, maybe all of them. I did ask the guardian would you be happy to use any of these tools on your grand child if they were scared of something? She immediately said no of course not. I then asked her ‘So why would you consider these being used on your dog’

We need to stop & think about how we view our dogs in society. We need to stop listening to social media, tv programs & people on dog walks about how to quickly change our boisterous, over aroused, fearful & anxious dogs into calm & compliant canines.

Dogs like us need choices, options, understanding, kind & tboughtful training, medical checks & most importantly they need us to advocate for them & for us to really consider these ‘quick fix options’ of using tools to strangle & cause pain to our dogs. Your remationship with your dog is key, building a safe bond. How can they view you as safe if you use intimidation & pain to gain quick results 🤷‍♀️