3 Mutts & a Blonde: Dog Training Co.

Home
United Kingdom
Chesterfield
3 Mutts & a Blonde: Dog Training Co.

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from 3 Mutts & a Blonde: Dog Training Co., Pet service, Chesterfield.

Building calm, reliable dogs — even the spicy ones.

📍 Derbyshire / Chesterfield
🦴 Reactivity | Obedience | Puppies | Off lead freedom
💥 Structured, tailored programmes
📱Enquire to get started

29/07/2026

Most people misunderstand socialisation.

Socialisation doesn’t mean your dog needs to meet every dog they see. In fact, for many dogs, that’s the quickest way to create frustration and overexcitement.

The goal is neutrality.

A dog that can walk past another dog without pulling.
A dog that can settle while other dogs train nearby.
A dog that can focus on you, even when the world is busy around them.

That’s exactly what we work on in my Socialisation & Neutrality Classes.

🐾 Structured exercises
🐾 Calm, controlled environment
🐾 Real-life skills that transfer outside the class

If you haven’t trained with me before, please drop me a message before booking so I can make sure the class is the right fit for your dog.

📍Chesterfield
🌍 Book here www.threemuttsandablonde.co.uk

27/07/2026

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞… & 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 💕

Willow spent the day at work with me today while her mum was on a long shift.

She came to sessions, chilled between them, ran errands with me and even got to help me out as a stooge dog.

Safe to say she made me incredibly proud today. Seeing a dog that once needed help become a dog capable of helping others is something I’ll never get tired of. 🤍

26/07/2026

𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐞 🐾

Marmalade is a 9-month-old working-line retriever who thinks everyone and everything deserves a hello..at full speed and power!

Over the next few weeks, she’ll be joining me on one of my training programmes where we’ll be working on:

• Loose lead walking
• Tightening up her obedience
• Building neutrality around people, dogs and distractions
• And the best part… achieving safe, reliable off-lead freedom.

She’s a beautiful dog with plenty of drive, but right now she’s a little too interested in everything going on around her which has given her Mum & Dad a fright on a few occasions!

I’m looking forward to showing you what she’s capable of with the right training 🙌

24/07/2026

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝, 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝.

I had a disagreement (shall we say) with a gentleman whose dog came charging over to mine.

His response was… “well if your dogs are off lead it usually means they’re friendly.”

No.

It means they are off lead.

That’s it.

It doesn’t mean they want to interact with every dog they see. It doesn’t mean they want another dog running into their space. It doesn’t mean they are an open invitation for every dog in the area to come over.

Some dogs are off lead because their owners have put in the work. They’ve trained recall, neutrality, engagement and the ability to exist around other dogs without needing to say hello.

Some dogs are off lead because they’re enjoying their walk with their owner and have absolutely no interest in yours.

And even if your dog is “friendly”… that doesn’t mean every other dog wants to meet them.

Your dog’s intentions might be good, but the other dog doesn’t know that.

A dog running over isn’t always a friendly greeting. Mostly it’s just a dog who hasn’t been taught that not everything in the environment is there for them to interact with.

Give people and their dogs space. You have no idea what they’re working on, and you have no idea how much effort has gone into getting that dog to where they are.

21/07/2026

𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐲 🐾

Bailey is a 3-year-old Labrador who has only been with his family for 9 short weeks.

His reactivity towards dogs started showing pretty quickly and, despite already completing a training programme, it unfortunately hasn’t solved the problem.

Due to his owners’ physical restrictions, Bailey will be joining me for a series of day trains. We’ll be covering everything from engagement and foundations right through to his reactivity, with the end goal of giving him the freedom he deserves.

I’m really looking forward to working with Bailey and building him from the ground up before handing everything over to his family.

I’ll be documenting Bailey’s journey from start to finish, so stay tuned!

20/07/2026

I came across a post on a community page today about a dog that had apparently attacked another dog.

The comments were wild.

“There must be something wrong with that dog.”
“I’ve had dogs all my life and they’ve never done that.”
“Can’t believe he uses a prong. I dread to think what happens in his house.”

Are we actually for real?

If that dog did attack another dog, then of course the owner needs to take responsibility. That’s part of owning any dog. But one incident doesn’t automatically mean they’re a bad owner, or that they’re the reason the behaviour exists.

The problem is we see a tiny snapshot of someone’s life and suddenly everyone becomes an expert. Nobody knows that dog’s history, genetics, health, previous experiences, or what that owner has already tried.

One comment really stood out:

“Can’t believe he uses a prong. I dread to think what happens in his house.”

A complete stranger looked at one photo and decided they knew what happened behind closed doors. That’s a huge accusation to make based on absolutely no evidence.

We also need to stop assuming that because you’ve owned a lovely, sociable dog, every dog of that breed is the same.

I own a beagle, a breed that is often described as gentle, friendly and a great family pet. That doesn’t mean every beagle is the same. Nelly has bitten me more times than I can count. Does that make her a bad dog? No. Does it mean every beagle is like that? Absolutely not.

Dogs are individuals. They have their own genetics, experiences, emotions and thresholds.

Any dog can bite. Any breed can be reactive. Behaviour doesn’t discriminate.

This kind of judgement is exactly why people don’t reach out for help. It’s why people struggle alone. It’s why they go through trainer after trainer before admitting they need support, because they’re terrified of being judged by people who think they know the whole story from one Facebook post.

The owner should absolutely be held accountable if their dog has caused harm. But the internet doesn’t need to decide they’re abusive, irresponsible, or the sole cause of the behaviour based on a single photo and a few lines of text.

If we keep attacking owners every time something goes wrong, don’t be surprised when they stop reaching out until it’s too late.

A little less judgement. A little more empathy. We’d all be better off.

Rant over. I hope everyone has a lovely day… except the people who leave ridiculous comments on the internet.

18/07/2026

🚫 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐧-𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

“Can they say hello?”

How about… no.

I don’t allow on-lead greetings because I don’t want to create problems I then have to fix.

The lead changes the whole interaction.

Dogs don’t naturally greet by walking straight towards each other, head-on, and being forced to stay there.

They use movement. They create space. They move around each other. They have the option to leave if they’re uncomfortable.

A lead takes a lot of that away.

Now you’ve got two dogs meeting face-to-face, often with tension through the lead, with neither dog able to properly communicate or move away if they need to.

It’s not that on-lead greetings always end badly. It’s that they stack the odds against the dogs before they’ve even met.

Then one day the owner is left saying…

“Oh, he’s never done that before.”

But dogs don’t usually just snap out of nowhere.

Often they’ve been telling us they’re uncomfortable, but they’ve been repeatedly put in situations where they don’t have the option to move away.

It’s a no from me.

I want my dogs to be able to walk past another dog and carry on with their day.

If my dogs are going to interact with another dog, it’ll be because I’ve chosen for them to, in the right environment, not because we happened to pass someone on the pavement.

Not every dog wants to say hello.

Not every dog needs to.

And every walk doesn’t need to become a meet and greet.

Sometimes the best thing you can teach your dog is that other dogs simply aren’t their business.

17/07/2026

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐏𝐋𝐎 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲?

This is probably going to be the hardest part.

If you know Nessie, you’ll know the word rest is not in her vocabulary.

The surgery is done, now comes the hardest part…

➡️ 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 – she’s already starting to feel better and I’d rather prevent crazies than deal with the consequences.

➡️ 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲– she doesn’t need to be on strict crate rest but for those times she struggles to settle, in she goes.

➡️ 𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 – giving her an outlet that works her brain without putting unnecessary strain on her knee. It’s something we can learn together.

➡️ 𝗟𝗼𝘄-𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 – we’ll still be training, just in a way that’s appropriate for where she’s at in her recovery.

➡️ 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗴𝘀 – they won’t be left with Nessie unsupervised. They’re all as feral as each other, and it only takes one moment to set her back for weeks.

➡️ 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 – just because she starts acting like she’s fine doesn’t mean her leg is healed.

Nessie isn’t a dog that is going to find doing nothing for 8 weeks easy so I’m going to try my best to meet her physical and mental needs without compromising the healing process.

I’ll be sharing the whole journey over the next few weeks and exactly how I’m managing recovery with a high-drive dog.

I’m sure it will be fun 🙄

15/07/2026

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬.

Nessie’s operation is tomorrow and, if I’m honest, I can’t think about much else.

I’ve got messages to reply to, content to make, admin to do, but my brain has completely checked out of everything except tomorrow.

And it got me thinking…We expect so much from our dogs when they’re worried, scared or overwhelmed.

“Why won’t they listen?”
“Why won’t they take food?”
“They do this just fine at home!”

But when the brain goes into survival mode, learning takes a back seat.

It’s exactly why a reactive dog often won’t take that handful of cheese everyone tells you to use. It’s not because food doesn’t work. It’s because they’re already over threshold and their brain is dealing with what it believes is the biggest threat in that moment.

Yet we’re still surprised when their dog ignores food, blows off cues and makes poor decisions.

That’s why you can’t tie yourself to one training ideology. Use whatever the dog in front needs—provided it’s fair, ethical and effective. Because dogs don’t read training books or scientific studies and they certainly don’t care about human politics. They just need someone who understands what’s actually going on in their head.

If you could bear with me over the next few days, I’d really appreciate it. When it comes to my own dogs, I’m an absolute worrier (some would say dramatic). Nessie means more than the world to me, and I’ll be counting down the minutes until she’s safely back home where she belongs.

All sessions will still be going ahead as planned unless I contact you and say otherwise. I may just be a little slower replying to messages than usual.

Address

Chesterfield

Telephone

+447719822640

Website

http://www.threemuttsandablonde.co.uk/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when 3 Mutts & a Blonde: Dog Training Co. posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to 3 Mutts & a Blonde: Dog Training Co.:

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Pet Store/pet Service in Chesterfield?