Pawfect Manners & Pawfect Agility

24/01/2026

Sniffing on walks …

07/12/2025

Resource guarding is most commonly caused by inappropriate responses during puppy stages. Read on to find out more & how to prevent it …..

All mine!

How to avoid possessiveness in your dog.

Cockers are like little squirrels … they love finding things, and if they don’t get into the habit of happily bringing you their treasures, they can get a little possessive. So how do you avoid this?

I think new owners are often surprised by how much Gundog Breeds want to pick things up and carry them, which is fine if it’s their toys, but not so much when it extends to your best sunglasses or things that might cause your puppy harm such as stones. People often say “He knows he shouldn’t have it” but this really isn’t true. Puppies and dogs act on instinct until they are shown how we would like them to respond. I’ll explain.

If you’re training your dog for the field you know from day one that you will be wanting your dog to bring you very high value items reliably and happily. Even the most seasoned Gundog Trainer will ensure that their puppy has a positive association with bringing things right into them by stroking and praising them down on their level whilst they carry things in their mouths.

Particularly with a cocker this approach is vital!

So to all new members with their new puppies!

Anything that your puppy picks up and carries, no matter what it is, and it’s down to you to manage your puppy’s environment, is a good thing and to be praised. Cockers absolutely love showing you how clever they are! Give them a huge fuss, take your time before gently taking the object and then praise them once they have released it.

If you go into panic mode, chase or shout at your puppy because you are either scared or cross because of what they have picked up, then you will run into problems.

Your puppy will then try and keep the item he has safe from you (you are acting in quite an unstable manner as far as your puppy is concerned) and will then be faced with the following options:

Run away with it
Put pressure on it with teeth
Run off and hide it
Swallow it
Growl/snap to ward you off

And that’s where it starts. It only takes one or two negative experiences to cement the above in a cocker’s mind. Prevention is better than cure!

02/10/2025

As a dog professional, social media is such a wearing place to spend any time.

I read a post (I should have learned to not read these things!!) where someone was asking for recommendations for a dog trainer because their puppy bites. Which is a great thing to do (if they did indeed find a good dog trainer who knows what they are doing), because getting the right advice is important

Unfortunately, alongside recommendations for trainers, the replies were full of loads of really terrible (and UNSOLICITED! advice)

👎 One person had said that the puppy was trying to exert their dominance and that you need to not back down

👎 One person said to not exercise the puppy for more than 10 minutes per day

👎 Another person said that that breed will bite until they're about a year old

👎 Another person said that playing tug games is part of the problem

👎 Another person recommended spraying the puppy in the face with water (because "it doesn't hurt" 🙄) each time they bite!

💩 What do these snippets of advice have in common? None of them are correct! None of the people giving the advice had the full story. They just knew that a puppy was biting and thought they were the amazing expert with a magic fix

🐕 Puppies bite because it's NORMAL! Puppies need the right amount and type of stimulation, enough sleep, a good diet, appropriate items to chew on, opportunities to use their mouth to explore, appropriate play, gentle handling (but not over-handling), help to calm down after excitement and careful introductions to all the things we do with them

❌ It's not about quick hints, tips and fixes

❌ It's not even about stopping the biting

✔️ It's about providing for their overall needs
✔️ When you get that right, things do get easier

Some puppies are more bitey than others and it's really helpful to have a puppy expert to help with this if you're finding it difficult

I'm seeing so much more poor advice on social media and my advice to anyone is to take everything with a pinch of salt 🧂

Even better....flush it down the toilet 🚽

___________________________________

👋 𝑪𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝑴𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒚 𝑩𝑺𝒄 (𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒔)
✅ 𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 & 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐷𝑜𝑔 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡
📋 𝐴𝐵𝑇𝐶-𝐴𝑇𝐼
💁‍♀️ 𝑃𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡
🩷 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑘'𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑃𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑆𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠
⭐ 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠, 1-1 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 , 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡
🐾 𝑉𝑒𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑

𝑬𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒑𝒂𝒘𝒔.𝒄𝒐.𝒖𝒌

15/09/2025

Recall away from distraction homework ✅
So lovely to see the progress in these pups.

12/09/2025

Perfect agility weather this morning 😍🐾

04/09/2025

Puppy classes teach pups to settle around others. Look at Sega patiently waiting her turn to investigate new things .. surfaces, high viz jacket, hat etc

01/09/2025

Tonight in puppy class (week 3) we played a game to encourage and reward curiosity and investigate novel items. We had a hi viz jacket, a hat, a bag and some different surfaces to investigate.
We discussed how to help pups cope with changes to their environment, how to help them cope with novel noises and prepare for fireworks.
Here’s Bisto with one of his noisy toys as a puppy…. Sound on!!

31/08/2025

Dog beds are so important - you can never have too many - they’re always in use 🤣🙈🙊
We have a guest to stay - just love how my dogs just accept anyone else into their home 🥰

29/08/2025

Currently on dry robe number 2 of the day .. but still smiling! ☔️🌧️💧

26/08/2025

Puppy class graduate Brontë continuing to work on control around the front door. After teaching send away to bed in class the next step was to introduce the doorbell as a cue. Brilliant work!

25/08/2025

Your first ever clear round is a very special moment indeed. Made even more special when you then win the class! Super girl Berri! Congratulations Su, so pleased for you! Exciting times ahead!