Fen Pups Dog Training

22/10/2025

Please support your local dog trainer if you have the means!

However, if you can't spend the cash right now on extracurricular classes or enrichment toys- don't feel bad!

Enrichment is inspired by natural behaviours and natural environments- your dog wants to spend time with you out in nature, sniffing and peeing on stuff :)

Follow for more money saving tips for dog lovers ✨️

19/10/2025

🐿 This morning a squirrel started down a tree trunk right in front of my and my dog, Alix. Alix started towards the squirrel, who luckily turned tail and scurried up and away!

🐕 What Alix did then was interesting: she didn't stand watching the squirrel, bark, jump around at the bottom of the tree or go hunting for more little furry guys. Instead she picked up a stick and ran with it.

🤔 In this moment she made an excellent decision to play instead of hunt.
We could also say that she self-regulated by picking up the stick!

➡️ It can be really powerful when we teach our dogs that they have other choices for their behaviour. We can use the dog's motivations and interests to widen their behavioural repertoire.

👀 Some hunting dogs get really obsessed with searching for prey. If your dog does this, take a step back and think about what their walks look like at the moment. What other options could you offer them?

🤝🏻 First we show them the options, but over time, they can begin to choose these for themselves, without prompting from us.

17/10/2025

Dogs 👏 get 👏 nice 👏 food 👏 for 👏 free

She's my m8 she gets to lick the pl8

17/10/2025

15/10/2025

3 Tips to get you started understanding how to work with your high prey drive dog!

It starts with observing our dog.
It starts with understanding the environment.
It starts with learning to enjoy the process.

:)

15/10/2025

Why I love high prey drive dogs- and you should too!

14/10/2025

What does it mean to be domesticated? What does it mean to domesticate? This quote: “it was the animals who started it all” comes from biologist Susan Crockford, and I’m taking it as a jumping off point to refresh the way I think about how the domestication of dogs started. Consider that humans and wolves would have co-existed for thousands of years pre-dog. They would have observed each other, learned from each other, and people would have noticed the parallels between human and wolf. Indeed, early humans would have had awareness of and relationships with other animals too- but it was only the wolf who was able to reciprocate to this degree.

In his book, Morey (2011) states that it was a “social relationship first and foremost” between people and dogs. In the case of dogs, we can think of domestication not as something that we did TO dogs, but a mutual, social relationship that changed and grew over time. Core to that relationship is a curiosity and desire for connection on both sides.

07/10/2025

I love thinking about dogs of the past, how they lived, and how people related to them, especially at times when dogs were vital to human survival.

This object is a lovely little glimpse into such a life.

Any guesses what it might be? Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas! I'll explain in my next post! :)

06/10/2025

IT'S TIME FOR ME TO CONFESS:

I used to let my dog chase wildlife. I used to take her to places specifically so she could. I believed it was what she should do, what she had to do to be fulfilled.

Second confession: I don’t regret it. Otherwise I would have never seen what my dog was capable of- the pure focus of instinct and athleticism. I got to see the speed, the agility and determination, the motivation, the sheer beauty of a dog doing what she was born to do: baby, she was born to RUN!

I don’t do this anymore. In fact I work hard to prevent it! The risk to wildlife, the risk to my dog, is obviously too high! So I’ve read and studied and trained and experimented and observed, and I’ve learnt how to keep my dog’s world big and open and exciting, while staying safe.

Have you got a dog with high prey drive? What’s your challenge?

19/05/2025

Animal welfare research and application has most commonly been done with farmed animals. But our pet dogs face welfare issues too, and we can use the existing frameworks to help us think about what our dogs need, and how we can improve their lives.
“Choice tests” involve asking the animal what it wants, and changing their environment or handling to reflect the findings of the test.

The 5 domains model aims to improve animal welfare by caring not only for physical health but also providing a good life, a life that is worth living.

Next to farm animals, pet dogs enjoy many more benefits of their domestication- but their welfare needs can still be overlooked.
Our dogs are ingrained into our lives and societies, therefore their welfare often overlaps with ours. Better welfare for people means better welfare for their dogs.
More green spaces, less pollution, more time, less precarious housing- would improve the lives of humans and dogs.

I’ve adapted this graphic with my dog Alix to demonstrate the 5 domains. The University of Edinburgh have a free short online course for anyone interested in improving their knowledge of animal welfare (not just dogs but dogs are well covered). I’ll link it below.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/animal-welfare

23/03/2025

🔔Time for a doggy history lesson! Studying dog burials from different times in history can tell us so much about how dogs have adapted to hugely varied environments and roles.

🐶The Bonn-Oberksassel dog remains were thoroughly tested and are decidedly dog remains, not that of a wolf.
This was a domesticated dog, slim build and medium size. At this time people were hunter gatherers.

🌎 All over the world, from Siberia to Sudan, dogs have been idolised or eaten, pulled loads, hunted prey, or looked after babies.

🧭The Bonn-Oberkassel dog is just one link in a chain of evidence to uncover, to help us understand the history of our beloved dogs.