Cambridge Dogs

05/08/2026

Update - OWNER HAS BEEN FOUND! Thank you.

If anyone knows someone with a dog called Charlie Clarke, someone has found a bag of nose/paw prints labelled as such dropped in a carpark in Cambridge today. Here's hoping the power of social media can return them to their owner!

14/07/2026

Autonomy, competence and relatedness are psychological needs underlying human growth and development. But not just humans...https://cambridgedogs.wordpress.com/2026/07/14/self-determination-theory-for-dogs/

04/07/2026

"No" is not a behaviour that your dog can perform.

Ranty post sorry

For the third time this week, during a 1:1, I’ve had exactly the same conversation.
This isn’t having a go at anyone. It’s just one of those moments that makes you realise how much misinformation and social media influence even the most intelligent people.
Why do we expect dogs to think like us?
Your training should be made up of reinforcing the behaviours you want, not constantly correcting the ones you don’t.
Before anyone jumps in, when I say “correction” I’m not just talking about lead jerks or physical punishment. A correction can be anything. Saying “No!”, “Stop it!”, “Ah ah!”, shouting, pulling on the lead, pushing the dog away, or interrupting them. They’re all forms of telling the dog they’re wrong.

But here’s the problem…
If your dog spends most of its time hearing what not to do, how is it supposed to know what to do instead?
Dogs don’t think,
“My owner doesn’t like this behaviour, so I’ll work out the opposite behaviour and offer that instead.”
That’s simply not how they learn.
If all we do is point out mistakes, we’re expecting the dog to magically fill in the gaps. Instead, we should be showing them the behaviour we do want, then reinforcing it until it becomes their first choice.
If your dog hears “Good girl!”, “Good boy!”, “Yes!” and receives reinforcement less often than it hears “No!”, it’s probably time to rethink your training.
If that’s you, don’t feel guilty, step up. Revisit your training plan or ask for help creating one. Sometimes just a handful of simple, clear training criteria can make all the difference.

Corrections create confusion. Confused dogs offer more unwanted behaviour because they’re trying to work out what on earth you actually want from them.
This is even more important with puppies. They’re already trying to make sense of a huge, confusing world. They don’t need more uncertainty from us. They need clear guidance, consistency, and lots of reinforcement for making good choices.

Catch your dog getting it right far more often than you catch them getting it wrong. That’s where real learning begins.

26/06/2026

Who needs AI generated artwork?

When we're looking at changing behaviour - trying to reduce or remove a problematic behaviour we first consider how we can manage the dog and their environment to avoid or reduce rehearsal of unwanted behaviours and make performance of the wanted behaviours easy.

Alongside this, we consider what function the behaviour may be performing for the dog. Is it meeting a need, substituting for a need that isn't being met, or the consequence of an unmet need? How can we help that dog be as healthy - emotionally, physically and cognitively - as possible?

And thirdly, we consider training. I include all aspects of interactions with humans (and non-human family members and playmates) within this, even outside of 'formal' training - as repeated interactions with another individual will result in learning. So maybe I should have called that section learning... And here's the problem with not using AI - if I want to change it I'll have to draw the whole damn thing again!

Safety with trusted individuals meets a core emotional need, as does an environment which fulfils cognitive needs as well as keep a dog safe physically and emotionally. So these are all interlinked.

26/06/2026

Obsessed with his new - I keep telling him its too hot to play!

25/06/2026

https://www.thecanineandcoclassroom.co.uk/blog-3-2/hot-weather-enrichment Hope everyone and their pooches are surviving the heat!

A blog of how to mentally stimulate your dog

14/06/2026

"Be very choosy about which trainer you hire. It's still the case that you could hire somebody who's going to come and make it worse." That's Jean Donaldson of The Academy for Dog Trainers talking about how careful we have to be when hiring a dog trainer to make sure that we only hire someone who will use modern, reward-based methods. The full conversation is full of tips about resource guarding in dogs. Jean also tells us why she wrote the second edition of her book Mine!. This book is a must-read if you have a resource-guarding dog!

Listen to The Pawsitive Post in Conversation wherever you get your podcasts, watch on Youtube, or do both and read a transcript on my blog (link in bio).

Mine! is available wherever books are sold.

12/06/2026

My three top tips:
1. If you get a puppy, train them. Go to training classes or get a one-to-one trainer especially if this is your first pup (and no, family dogs that you had in the home when you were growing up don't count!). Nothing substitutes for face-to-face training. If you and your dog end up both unsatisfied with each other and you haven't put the training in then you only have yourself to blame. By training I don't just mean obedience. I mean communication, learning about dog body language, management, meeting needs and how to take account emotions when addressing behaviour.
2. When you're choosing a trainer, choose carefully. Yes, the industry might be legally unregulated, but there are respectable qualifications and accreditations out there. Large animal welfare organisations (eg. RSPCA, Dogs Trust and Blue Cross) recommend ABTC organisations such as APDT and PACT. Look up the organisation websites, their membership requirements and ethics. While anyone can call themselves a dog trainer, the onus is on you to do your homework. If you're still not sure, then ask your vet. The trainers with the loudest adverts on Google or social media are not necessarily the ones equipped with the skills to help you and your dog.
3. If you're a dog trainer and you want to help people and their dogs, join one of these organisations. Unless they've attended your classes, vets and other professionals have no way of judging your training skills or being confident your ethics align with theirs, unless you are a paid-up member of an organisation that assesses their members. There are plenty of rubbish organisations willing to take your money and give you an "accreditation" for very little work - this may fool the public but you can't fool yourself. And no, 30 years of owning dogs doesn't make you a dog trainer.

This is someone you're going to live with hopefully for the next 15 or 16 years at least. That relationship doesn't evolve magically and without any effort to a perfect partnership like it does in the movies, any more than our marriages or relationship with our kids do. This isn't about someone coming in to train your dog. It's about someone showing you how to communicate what you want from your dog and how they communicate what they need from you. And getting the best from each other.

11/06/2026

Dogs don’t naturally invite other dogs into their homes. We humans facilitate these visits, often without considering how unnatural the situation may feel for o