What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 6:45pm Tuesday 9am - 6:45pm Wednesday 9am - 6:45pm Thursday 9am - 6:45pm Friday 9am - 6:45pm Saturday 9am - 6:45pm Sunday 9am - 6:45pm

Optimum Canine, Kent (2026)

31/05/2026

Why do trainers that use punishment claim trainers that avoid punishment are the issue with rising dog attacks? The stats say otherwise — want to know what the data is saying? Read this post‼️

I had someone message me after my last post and say:

“Force-free trainers are to blame for the rise in dog attacks.”

So let’s talk about that. I am a force-free trainer.

I follow a strict code of practice where I avoid fear-based and pain-based tools. I do not reach for intimidation, suppression, leash corrections, prongs, shock collars, slip-lead choking, or “make the dog deal with it” training as my first response.

That does not mean I ignore dangerous behaviour.
That does not mean I let dogs rehearse aggression.
That does not mean I believe every dog can be fixed with cheese and cuddles.

And it definitely does not mean I would rather see a dog euthanised than admit a case needs specialist intervention.

In the most serious cases — where euthanasia is genuinely on the table — I may refer a client to a highly skilled tool-based trainer, or, where it is within my own training and competence, guide the owner myself.

But that is the point:

That should be the last resort before a life is lost.
Not the first thing people are told to do on TikTok.

And that is where the real problem is.

We now live in a dog-training culture where punishment is being repackaged as “leadership”, “balance”, “clarity”, “neutrality”, “accountability”, or “common sense”.

But very often, underneath the polished wording, it is still the same thing:

Pressure.
Fear.
Pain.
Suppression.
Shut the dog down and call it trained.

Now look at the data in this infographic.
Dog numbers peaked during the pandemic.

They have since dropped back down and plateaued.
Yet serious dog-related injuries have continued to rise.

So the argument that attacks are rising simply because “there are more dogs” does not hold up properly if that’s what you were thinking.

The issue is not just how many dogs we have.

The issue is how those dogs are being bred, raised, socialised, managed, handled, trained, punished, suppressed, and misunderstood.

AND before people point the finger at force-free trainers, they need to look at what owners are actually doing.

Punishment-based methods are not rare.
They are not some tiny fringe problem.
They are common.

The RVC pandemic puppy research found extremely high use of aversive methods, including physical punishment, shouting, and leash-jerking.

And dogs exposed to these methods were more likely to be associated with behaviour problems.

That matters.
Because warning signs are behaviour.

Growling is behaviour.
Barking is behaviour.
Lunging is behaviour.
Avoidance is behaviour.
Snapping is behaviour.

These things are communication.

And when you punish communication out of a dog, you do not magically remove the emotional problem underneath.

You often just remove the warning label.

That is how you end up with dogs that “bite out of nowhere”. They didn’t bite out of nowhere.

They were probably communicating for months.
They were just punished for doing it.

And now social media is pouring petrol on the fire.
The algorithm loves drama.
It loves conflict.

It loves the “before and after” transformation where a dog goes from barking, lunging, reacting, panicking, or protesting… to standing still and looking “neutral”.

But neutral is not always calm.
Quiet is not always safe.

Still is not always trained.
Sometimes stillness is learning.
Sometimes stillness is trust.

But sometimes stillness is suppression, conflict, fear, shutdown, or learned helplessness.

And unless you understand the difference, you can make a dog look better while making the dog feel worse.

That is not behaviour modification.
That is cosmetic training.

It looks good for the camera.
It feels good for the human.
It sells well online.

But the dog pays the price.

So no — I do not accept that force-free trainers are the reason dog attacks are rising.

The data does not point cleanly in that direction.

What it does show is far more uncomfortable:

Punishment remains common.
Aversive methods became heavily normalised during the pandemic puppy boom.
Online training culture rewards drama, dominance, conflict, and quick fixes.
And dog-related injuries to people and other dogs are continuing to rise.

That should concern everyone.

Not just force-free trainers.
Not just balanced trainers.
Everyone.

Because this is not about trainer politics.
This is about public safety.

It is about dog welfare.
It is about children getting bitten.
It is about dogs being attacked on walks.
It is about owners being sold confidence instead of competence.

It is about dogs being silenced instead of understood.

So before blaming the people trying to avoid fear and pain, maybe we should ask a harder question:

What happens when an entire culture teaches owners to punish the warning signs?

Because my fear is simple.

If your goal is to shut your dog up, make them look “neutral”, suppress their behaviour, and punish their communication, then you may not be solving the problem.

You may simply be hiding it.
And hidden problems do not disappear.

They grow.
They leak out.
And eventually, someone pays the price.

Another dog.
Another owner.
A child.
A family.
Or the dog itself.

Choose kindness and understanding first!
Choose education and data!
Choose safety and welfare!

Because punishment may stop the noise.
But good training changes the outcome.

29/05/2026

⚠️ THIS IS A I’M F🤬KING FUMING POST - Read with caution ⚠️ That side of the dog industry has a culture problem.

Not every person in bite sport is bad. Not every decoy is abusive. Not every handler is reckless.

But there is a huge part of that world that is absolutely poisoned by ego — men trying to prove how hard they are through dogs that have no choice but to trust them.

And now, I’m getting messages where people are horrified at an AVD trial. where a dog was beaten to death by a decoy in front of the dog’s owner.

‼️ READ THAT AGAIN ‼️

A dog.
At a “sporting” event.
In front of handlers, trainers, spectators, and people who should have known better.
WAS BEATEN TO DEATH BY A DECOY.

That is not sport.

That is not training.

That is not “pressure testing.”

That is not “real-world preparation.”

That is a sentient animal being failed by the very humans who were supposed to protect him.

And now people are distancing themselves.

Now people are saying,
“That’s not us.”
“That’s not real training.”
“That’s not what bite sport is.”
“That’s just a few bad people.”

But the problem is bigger than one event.

When an industry teaches the general public that any method is acceptable as long as the dog obeys, this is where that road can lead.

When pain is normalised, people push harder.

When fear is normalised, people justify more.

When ego replaces ethics, the dog pays the price.

And let’s be brutally honest — a lot of aversive training is not done because the dog needs it.

It is done because the human wants fast control.
It is done because the human is frustrated.
It is done because the human wants to look powerful.
It is done because the human has mistaken suppression for training.

The dog goes quiet and they call it respect.
The dog stops fighting and they call it obedience.
The dog shuts down and they call it balanced.

NO‼️

That is not balance.
That is a dog learning that humans are dangerous.

To the general public:

Please stop rewarding this culture.

Swipe past the videos.
Do not like them.
Do not comment to argue, because even outrage feeds the algorithm.
Do not share the “hard dog” content that glorifies intimidation, choking, smashing, hanging, flooding, or “dominating” dogs.

Because behind some of those videos is a culture that thinks dogs are there to prove a man’s worth.

They are not.

Dogs are not props.
Dogs are not ego extensions.
Dogs are not content machines.
Dogs are not punching bags in the name of sport.

They are living, breathing, feeling animals.

And education, knowledge, welfare, and morality do not stop at species.

If your training method requires the dog to be terrified, hurt, shut down, or overpowered before it “works”…

Maybe it is not the dog that needs more discipline.

Maybe it is the human.

$How hot is it outside?I’m fairly sure all the fracking in the world has finally cracked open the earth’s core and allowe...$

24/05/2026

How hot is it outside?

I’m fairly sure all the fracking in the world has finally cracked open the earth’s core and allowed hell’s flames to burst through 😈🔥.

So no, dog training is not on the agenda yesterday, today, or tomorrow by the looks of it 😩.

Instead, I’ve filled my final placements for June, created my own ChatGPT filter, and I’m currently being judged every 5 minutes by a Springer Spaniel who keeps asking:

“Is it training time yet?”

No mate.
It’s time for shade. Water. Fans. Dramatic sighing. Repeat.

Keep your dogs cool today, avoid the hot pavements, and remember — sometimes the best training decision is knowing when not to train 👍

22/05/2026

“He listens perfectly at home.”

This is something I hear all the time.
And in most cases, the dog probably does.

But here’s the bit that often gets missed:

A dog performing a behaviour in the house does not automatically mean they can perform that same behaviour sequence in a brand-new environment.

New smells.
New movement.
New sounds.
New arousal.
New reinforcement available from the environment.

That changes everything.

So when a dog struggles outside, it doesn’t always mean they are being stubborn, dominant, or deliberately ignoring you.

It often means the behaviour has not yet been trained properly in that context.

In this clip, I am not trying to fight the environment.

I am using it.

Sheldon gets to process the new location, then I ask for small, achievable moments of engagement. When he gives me that check-in, I reward him, and then the environment becomes part of the reinforcement.

That is how we help training travel.
Not by blaming the dog.

Not by expecting kitchen-level behaviour in a field full of smells.

But by training the behaviour sequence in the context we actually need it.

Your dog has not “forgotten” the training.
You changed the environment.
Now you have to help the training catch up.

17/05/2026

If you read this, it could change the way you think about feeding your dog — FUR ever — sorry bad pun, but seriously read the post 😬

I recently had a debate with a lady on FB who (as the kids say) “dropped into my DM’s” to just make me aware of her opinion — could have been done in the comments section (sorry, think I’ve swallowed the urban dictionary this evening).

She believed that because I utilise my dog’s daily food for training, I am just as “barbaric” as people using prong collars or electric collars.

Strange comment I know, one is given the dog an ultimatum with fear and pain, whilst the other is feeding them for a job well done.

Her argument was simple, “All life deserves the right to food.”

On the surface, that sounds compassionate and caring, but let’s actually think about this rationally and utilising scientific fact.

Food is a primary reinforcer. That means your dog does not need to be taught that food has value.

Food already has value.

A clicker, on the other hand, is a conditioned reinforcer.

The clicker only means something because it has been paired with something the dog already wants — usually food.

So food has real biological value.
The clicker has learned value.

Now think about humans.

Money is not naturally reinforcing.
A newborn baby does not care about a £20 note.
A dog does not care about your debit card.

Money only has value because of what it gives us access to:

Food.
Shelter.
Comfort.
Phones.
TVs.
Cars.
Security.
Choice.

Therefore in the human world, money is a conditioned reinforcer. It only has value because of what it predicts and what it allows us to access.

What do most humans work for?

We perform behaviours, we get paid, and those behaviours are reinforced. Why is that not cruel? Could it be that it gives us a sense of purpose?

That is how behaviour works.

So why do we suddenly act like it is cruel when a dog works for food?

Here’s the important part:

I am not saying dogs should be starved.
I am not saying food should be withheld.
I am not saying a dog only deserves to eat if they perform like a circus animal.

That is not training.
That is bad welfare.

What I am saying is this:

If your dog is going to eat anyway, why waste all that reinforcement in a bowl?

Why not use some of it to teach recall?
Why not use it to build focus?
Why not use it to reward calmness?
Why not use it to build confidence?
Why not use it to teach your dog how to live successfully in a human world?

What I am trying to say is your dog’s food is not just food.

It is information.
It is communication.
It is reinforcement.
It is motivation.
It is one of the most powerful tools you have.

Giving a dog food in a bowl is not automatically kindness. It’s just a missed opportunity. It’s a chance to train and reinforce many behaviour sequences in different locations and contexts, which means FAR LESS need to utilise outdated practices.

People always ask me for the secret formula, why does my dog respond so reliably in situations where their dog cannot even begin to focus? I’m telling you the secret formula every time you ask me — use your dog’s food by rewarding small successful approximations.

When your children start school, do they start learning their ABCs first? Or calculus?

Of course it’s the ABCs! Then through successful small approximations over many many years do they get to calculus — so why does a dog have to be “fully” trained by 6 months.

Our children are not even potty trained by 6 months.

A dog who earns food through training, games, problem solving, scent work, calm behaviour, and engagement is not being abused.

They are being enriched.
They are being taught.
They are being given purpose.

And in many cases, they are actually happier for it.

Do we really think dogs were designed to sit in a kitchen waiting for a bowl to appear? Or does the food bowl benefit us?

They were designed to search, move, think, problem-solve, sniff, work, and interact with their environment.

So no, using your dog’s daily food for training is not barbaric. Done properly, it is one of the kindest, smartest, most natural ways to train your dog.

For me the question is never just:

“Should my dog have the right to food?”
Of course they should.

The better question is:

“If my dog is going to eat anyway, am I using that food in a way that improves their life?”

Because food can fill a stomach.
Or food can build a dog.

12/05/2026

If you are a dog owner currently experiencing issues with your dog, you need to read this. I have put a lot of information in this post to help you.

I am getting a lot of dogs coming to me with more severe issues than the dog started with due to misinformation.

Firstly, why are so many dogs ending up in rescues between 6 months and 2 years old? And I can almost guarantee it is not what you have been told by certain trainers.

Most people think it is because their dog has suddenly stopped listening. They think the training has been forgotten.

Or they have been told by social media that their dog is being stubborn, dominant, difficult, or “testing them.”

True behaviourists know there is often something much bigger going on.

Adolescence. And this is the part of owning a dog that most owners are never properly educated on.

Puppy training is not enough people. A dog can do really well as a puppy, attend puppy classes, learn sit, down, recall, lead walking, settle, and all the basic behaviours…

Then adolescence arrives, and suddenly everything feels different.

NOT because the dog has forgotten.
NOT because the dog is plotting against you.
NOT because the dog needs to be “put in their place.”
BUT because their brain and body are changing.

During adolescence, the emotional and motivational parts of the brain — the limbic system — develop faster than the parts responsible for impulse control, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

In simple terms?

Your dog’s excitement, frustration, prey drive, social drive, curiosity, and need to explore can suddenly become much stronger.

Is this ringing any bells with you?

At these difficult times, their ability to regulate those feelings has not fully caught up yet. The training has not disappeared. It is still there. Your dog is just struggling to access it under higher arousal, and this is where so many owners get tricked.

Have you been told any of these myths?

Have you been told your dog needs “corrections”?
Have you been told your dog is challenging you?
Have you been told you need to become firmer, harsher, or more dominant to be the “pack leader”?

The sad reality is that the dog is often not being deliberately difficult. They are overwhelmed by a nervous system that is changing faster than their self-control can handle.

And sadly, this is where some dogs are failed.
Not by owners who are trying their best.
But by the very people those owners turn to for help.

I recently knew someone with an adolescent dog who was encouraged to send that dog to a so-called “police trainer” — who was about as much of a qualified behaviourist as I am the pope.

Afterwards, they said the dog was “so much better behaved.” But what was their criteria for “better behaved”?

The dog did nothing.

No spark.
No curiosity.
No natural behaviour.
No confidence.

Just silence.

Luckily, someone who had seen the dog before and after noticed what others were missing. They said it looked like the dog was too afraid to do anything, and they sent them to me.

Unfortunately some people do not know the difference between a trained dog and a shut-down dog, due to social media and tv shows.

The right way gives a dog self-control.
The wrong way takes away confidence.

* A dog that has stopped offering behaviour is not automatically calm.
* A dog that has stopped exploring is not automatically balanced.
* A dog that has stopped making choices is not automatically trained.

Sometimes, that dog has simply learned that doing anything is unsafe. And that really upsets me.

What if your child went to school full of life, personality, questions, emotion, and curiosity…
And then came home silent, withdrawn, and scared to make a mistake?

I doubt you would say, “Wow, they’re so well behaved now.”

You would be worried. And rightly so.

So why is it labelled as success when it happens to a dog?

Adolescence does not need to be crushed out of a dog. It needs to be guided. The goal is not to create a dog that does nothing unless told to sit, heel, or come.

The goal is to create a dog that can feel excitement, frustration, curiosity, and emotion — and still know how to come back down.

That means rebuilding behaviour sequences.
It means managing the environment better.
It means preventing rehearsal of unwanted habits like pulling, chasing, jumping, barking, ignoring recall, and exploding at distractions.

Not because your dog is “bad.”

But because the more those behaviours are rehearsed, the stronger those patterns become.

This is also where duration work matters. And I do not mean asking for a 3-second sit and hoping for the best.

I mean building the dog towards meaningful duration.
Long duration behaviours.
Not 30 seconds.

I mean a minimum criteria of 2–3 minutes, built gradually, fairly, and at the dog’s level.

Why?

Duration gives the nervous system time to come down.
It gives your dog time to move from emotional reaction back into regulation.
It teaches your dog that excitement does not have to become chaos.

This is the missing piece for so many adolescent dogs.

So please, they do not need owners who give up on them.

They do not need to be punished for having an immature nervous system.
They do not need to be frightened into silence and then praised for “doing nothing.”

They need structure.
They need patience.
They need reinforcement.
They need carefully built behaviour sequences.
They need owners who understand that adolescence is not the end of training.

It is the second phase of training.

Many of the dogs being labelled as “bad dogs” are not bad at all. They are young dogs going through one of the hardest developmental stages of their life — with humans who were never taught what adolescence actually looks like.

A lot of adolescent dogs are not failed dogs.
They are dogs failed by a lack of education around normal development.

And there is a massive difference between a dog that is regulated…
And a dog that is suppressed.

SIDE NOTE: A qualified behaviourist will not be defaulting to prong collars, e-collars, intimidation, or physical corrections as the first answer. These should never be the starting point. They are often sold as “training” when, in reality, they can simply suppress behaviour or worse. Why is this bad training? Look up what Thorndike & Skinner say about punishment.

Anyone who immediately jumps to these methods without first looking at the dog’s emotional state, environment, reinforcement history, behaviour sequences, development, and ability to cope is not giving you a full behavioural picture — and they are posing as a behaviourist.

12/05/2026

Good morning 👋

I hope everyone is well.

Just a little message to say thank you to the people who have messaged me, supported me, and stayed loyal when they’ve noticed other trainers suddenly offering very similar packages, wording, and ideas.

Honestly? It’s fine.

This industry has always had a strange side to it. People copy services. People watch quietly. People borrow language, ideas, frameworks, and sometimes even try to get close to clients to see what someone else is doing.

It’s sad — but it’s not new.

This year alone has reminded me of one thing very clearly:

You can copy a package.
You can copy a phrase.
You can copy a post.
You can copy the outside of someone’s business.

But you cannot copy the years of experience behind it.

You cannot copy the timing, the eye, the feel, the ability to read the dog in front of you, the hours of mistakes, the hard lessons, the emotional investment, or the real skill that sits underneath the work.

And you definitely cannot copy someone’s purpose.

For me, this has never been about looking clever online. It has always been about helping dogs and owners understand each other better — especially the dogs that are nervous, reactive, misunderstood, or labelled as “difficult.”

So, to the people copying: crack on.

It tells me I’m doing something right.

And to the people who continue to trust me, recommend me, support me, and see the difference between copied words and genuine skill — thank you 🤝

Now it’s time to evolve again 💪

11/05/2026

Do you have a high energy dog that just won’t relax in the home⁉️
The way to get them to stop and sleep is simple…

Put a Keir Starmer speech on 👍✅🥱

08/05/2026

I’ve had a few people message me recently asking why I’ve become quieter on social media and what I think is happening within the dog training industry. Truthfully, I think a lot of us have forgotten something important.

When I was a teenager I got my very first dog — an Akita x GSD, called Duke. I loved that dog with everything I had, he came with me everywhere, and still to this date I have not taken any routes walking my dogs (or walking in general) because it does bring back some traumatic memories.
However, like most normal dog owners, I genuinely thought I was doing things properly.

We went on walks, practised obedience in parks, met up with other dog owners and I “corrected” behaviours I didn’t like because that’s what people told you good owners did. Especially if you grew up watching TV trainers such as Cesar Milan.

Then one day, during adolescence, he was attacked by another dog. Something changed in him after that. And because I didn’t truly understand behaviour back then, I listened to the advice people gave me.

- Slip leads.
- Corrections.
- “Be the pack leader.”
- Punishment for unwanted behaviour.

None of it came from hatred. It came from wanting things to get better, and slight embarrassment of my dog having an “reactive” episode. That’s the part I think people miss when these conversations happen online.

- Most owners are not trying to hurt their dogs.
- They’re trying to fix problems.
- They’re stressed.
- Embarrassed.
- Overwhelmed.
- Sometimes even scared of what their dog is becoming.

I understand that because I was once that person too. But despite how much we loved him… things never truly changed.

His reactivity never went away — he may not of exploded as much, but soon as that trigger was in the environment he went “full throttle,” on one occasion I had to hold onto a lamppost to anchor myself.

The only time his reactivity got any better was when I got my second dog, and I researched for myself how to train a dog using positive reinforcement methods. When I got my second dog, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Izzie, something in me shifted.

Instead of constantly asking “how do I stop behaviours I don’t like?” I started asking “how do I help this dog understand what I do want?”

That single mindset change transformed everything.

I started learning about reinforcement, stress, learning theory, emotional states and relationship building. I stopped expecting dogs to magically understand human expectations simply because they lived in human homes.

And suddenly training stopped feeling like conflict.

- My dogs became calmer.
- More engaged.
- More responsive.
- More connected to me.

Not because they feared consequences. Because they trusted communication.

Dogs three, four, five and six all followed the same pattern.

- No aggression.
- No battles for dominance.
- No need for physical intimidation.

Just dogs that genuinely wanted to work with me because we understood each other. And honestly, this is why I struggle with parts of the modern dog training industry online.

A while ago I watched a trainer speak openly about surviving an abusive relationship. She talked about fear, pressure, compliance and how living under consequences changed her behaviour and decision-making. At the same time, she was using aversive tools in dog training.

And I remember sitting there thinking:

“Human beings already understand that fear changes behaviour.”

- We all know pressure changes behaviour.
- We know consequences change behaviour.
- We know living under discomfort changes the decisions people make.

“Why do we suddenly stop asking emotional questions when the learner is a dog?”

I read a post today about a trainer trying to convince people that an electric collar is like a “tens machine.”

Luckily enough, the majority of people in the comments didn’t buy that analogy and dismissed him as a snake oil salesman. Even one trainer that uses them called him “a liar,” and said that if he is going to use one he should “own it, because owners when they need to use it around livestock or wildlife will be horrified.”

Going back to question I asked myself genuinely changed me.

Because yes — punishment absolutely can suppress behaviour. But over the years I’ve started asking myself something deeper:

- Is the dog learning because it understands what I’m asking for, or because it is trying to avoid something unpleasant?
- If the behaviour changes, how does the dog actually feel underneath it?

Let me clear one thing up that is often labelled on a trainer that shares the same stance and scientific education as myself, I don’t think dogs should be allowed to do whatever they want, and I absolutely believe in boundaries, structure and guidance.

But I also believe there is a massive difference between teaching a living creature…and simply controlling one.

Personally, I think social media is slowly teaching people to value control more than understanding. We often are getting caught up in how situations affect us — but remember empathy on the dog’s behalf.

One thought I do want to leave with anyone that has got this far in this post is simply this;

If we can agree that physical pain is inhumane to “correct” human (a sentient being) behaviour, then why can we not agree that physical pain towards another sentient being is wrong?

26/02/2026

A quote that sticks with me is something that that Kay Laurence once said…

“Pulling on the lead was taught by the owner. They followed the pup, they followed the dog because it was easier and they were in a hurry. They reinforced this behaviour. Ethically, you cannot punish the dog with the use of aversive equipment to cover their laziness or ignorance.”

This is so true! We often are too busy or not willing to change our ways — and then we punish a dog for behaviour we have reinforced.

Optimum Canine

31/05/2026

29/05/2026

24/05/2026

22/05/2026

17/05/2026

12/05/2026

12/05/2026

11/05/2026

08/05/2026

26/02/2026

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Monday	9am - 6:45pm
Tuesday	9am - 6:45pm
Wednesday	9am - 6:45pm
Thursday	9am - 6:45pm
Friday	9am - 6:45pm
Saturday	9am - 6:45pm
Sunday	9am - 6:45pm