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Bark To Basics, Manchester (2026)

04/11/2026

🌶️RED group class🌶️
RED stands for Real-world Exposure & Development.

The RED Advanced Group is a group class that contains dogs & owners who have worked REALLY hard to get to this point with their Reactive Dogs.
No short cuts, no excuses - they've put a ton of work in, they've been dedicated & consistent and worked really hard in their 1-1 sessions & on their homework - the results speak for themselves 🙌🏼 we get alot of messages about group sessions, and while we do offer them, we ensure all of the dogs & owners invited to attend RED are at the same level.

The RED Group is held monthly in different locations to allow for appropriate exposure to new & novel environments whilst training around other dogs, it also provides a social opportunity for the owners of Reactive Dogs. Most people with Reactive Dogs dream of being able to do normal things with them, like going to a cafe or pub, exploring new places that aren't hidden away, taking them to a dog friendly shop or venue, going on a walk with a friend & their dog, being able to do prolonged exposure whilst maintaining neutral behaviour in busy environments or just being able to stop and have a chat with another owner. This group is not only a great example of the fact that reactive dogs CAN achieve this, but it's also a brilliant example of the owners grit & determination to train, maintain & improve upon their dogs skill sets.

Everyone here should be incredibly proud of themselves & their dogs 🐕
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02/11/2026

Meet Maui !
Maui a large 10 month old Czech working line German shepherd who came in to work on his reactive behaviour towards some, but not all, passing dogs. Maui would occasionally lunge & bark at a passing dog seemingly out of the blue, because he's already completed some personal protection foundations his owners really wanted to get this nipped in the bud so he could continue training for his future job - we got to work !

At the beginning of our session Maui was pulling ahead a fair bit and his focus was all over the show - One thing I absolutely loved about Maui from the get go is that he's got a lovely temperament with people, he's really neutral with strangers and that's exactly what you want in any personal protection prospect, they should be capable of discerning a threat vs a person who wants to say hello . During our assessment we could see he was quite overstimulated by socialising with passersby, this is a really common problem across the board with all dogs in recent years and it's largely due to outdated advice on what socialisation is, when we hear the term "socialising" we understandably think meeting people, meeting dogs, but what it is for dogs is about *exposure* to distractions and triggers, while maintaining engagement and neutral behaviour - taking your dog up to everyone all the time commonly causes low handler value & engagement and can impact training on walks as a result, we see this more in working breeds Vs companion breeds, largely because companion breeds usually have far fewer drives going on and are naturally abit more relaxed than their working cousins - I would say the Czech line of GSD is the most intense, and what comes with that is a higher likelihood to engage with the environment if handler value & engagement isnt made a clear priority from puppy hood, Thankfully this is a pretty simple problem to resolve and his owners have been brilliantly proactive at getting this sorted now while he's still young ! Before we got started we spoke about trigger stacking and how even excitement can devolve into frustration if he can't go up to or greet a person or dog, I could see he is mostly neutral with dogs and only reactive once he's already been stimulated again and again - so we focused on breaking that cycle.

We got to work on leash skills and building strong engagement, Maui had very little food drive but a very strong ball drive - we spoke about how when a dog reacts, adrenaline & cortisol can impact the food drive, this is commonly linked to stress but it's not always stress that is the cause, we see plenty of food refusal in overly excited dogs too. We opted to use his ball as a structured reward instead which he was really eager to work for ! After a few repitiions Maui was ready to start passing dogs in a heel. In true German shepherd fashion, he clicked on quickly and smashed this segment of his session. He passed multiple dogs and crowds of people & kids without feeling the need to approach. An engaged dog doesn't become a hyper fixated dog and will become neutral to their environment as a result. We spoke about how we would need to stick to a pretty strict structure with the ball being a new reinforcer for behaviours we DID want, and this largely involved him not getting the ball for free anymore until the behaviour is proofed in.

Lastly, to tackle the 72hr cycle of adrenaline & cortisol we taught Maui how to decompress to build a nice "off switch" this is imperative to stop trigger stacking in it's tracks and to show dogs yes the environment is pretty interesting, but not as interesting as your owner - It's key that we allow for dogs to practice natural behaviours that aid in emotional regulation without letting natural behaviours be the only thing dogs like Maui are interested in when out and about. He did great with this and wasnt nearly as obsessive once he found an area he wanted to explore and could default back into an nice engaged heel now that he had clear instructions and a reward to work for. To finish, we set his owners up with a ton of resources for furthering his future in personal protection and bitework 🙌🏼

Maui now has some homework to be getting on with,
We're really looking forward to see how he gets on in the next few weeks - well done big lad !

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27/10/2026

Meet Meeko !

Meeko is a stunning Chow Chow came in from Wirral to work on his behaviour towards guests in the home after a couple of biting incidents involving food. Meekos owners opted for 2 Half Day sessions, we've done 10 hours of training with this boy in total now. In the first part of our session we had him out on a walk to see if there was any trigger stacking occuring that could be leading to the issues in the home, we could see Meeko is quite conflict avoidant when out on a walk, this is easily mistaken as nuetral behaviour when it's not super obvious but we ran through some of the more subtle behaviours at play so his owners could see what was really going on.

Meeko is predictable in the home with just his family members present - but in typical chow chow fashion, he's not anywhere near as tolerant of strangers in the home. The first incident occured when a guest went to touch him when he was eating, an easily made silly mistake, the second incident occured when a guest went near a table full of food that Meeko was sat Infront of and a few behaviours leading up to it had gone amiss. Unfortunately dogs who resource gaurd food only need to practice this behaviour once to see its the answer to their problem - you go near a resource, they bite you, you go away. It works as far as they're concerned ! For our 2nd half of our session I traveled down to their home to work on this, we did request Meeko was muzzled for this part of the session and understandbly his owners didn't believe he would need this equipment as i'd met him once before at this point - going back to those conflict avoidance behaviours I saw on the walk gave me a good reason to believe he wouldn't be tolerant of me in his safe space, the home. Upon entering the home for the first time Meeko gave me a good telling off by attempting to bite, I totally understand the hesitation owners feel when we reccomend muzzle training in preparation to their house call but thank god we did as It was clear there was some strong resource guarding going on and those guarding genetics were playing a role, too. Chows are a primitive spitz breed and a traditional guardian breed, we spoke about how spitz breeds are naturally very independent dogs and how their communication skills arent always as clear compared to less independent breeds such as retrievers, shepherds etc they tend to be abit more stoic and they usually will only ask you once ! we spoke about management, structured decompression and ran a few different exercises with people entering the home which he did well with and we soon had him chilling in the hallway and not paying me any mind whatsoever when walking past, largely because I wasn't trying to become his best friend - for alot of dogs this can escalate the situation, where as time, space and mutual respect help reduce pressure.

During our second session, he was far more tolerant of me entering the home and politely warned me instead, he eventually lay down near me as we spoke about how important it is to keep an eye out for this body language, to listen to it and to redirect him so he doesn't feel the need to escalate - I was really happy to see this behaviour had improved as had his communication since I last saw him - however his behaviour with guests near food needed some intervention. For this session we brought a male decoy to simulate the situation that occured with a guest near food, fortunately for our decoy Meeko didn't mind him near the resource whatsoever 😂 nice day off for him it seemed! So I took over and Meeko was not impressed that I was taking food from the table. The purpose of this exercise is to show him negative behaviour does not make me go away and it doesn't escalate either - it equals nothing, and the alternative is that he has his own resources to indulge in away from me that I won't go near - after a few attempts of trying to bite and me not going anywhere, he understood it won't make me back off so he can take the food intended for guests. this is only something we do with dogs who have practiced bites before as it becomes a habit worth practicing again and again - showing them it doesn't work makes it a pointless behaviour to practice when there other resources they can have without any drama.

We covered hand feeding and reccomended this is practiced daily to build a strong positive association with hands and food, we also reccomended Meeko is kept on a lead with his owner *short term during this training* when guests arrive so he can understand that everytime someone goes near the table for food he will get a reward via hand feeding for the positive decisions he makes, making them worth while to practice again and again. This also teaches him to not approach the table alone and that hands give, not take ! By the end of the session he was enjoying handfuls of a nice, high value dry food and ignoring people taking food from the table, he even had a quick nap at one point 😂

We set his owners up with some detailed, tailored homework to work on this going forward and we really can't wait to see Meekos progress, his handler relationship is 10/10 so we've high hopes for this handsome boy 🙌🏼
Well done Meeko

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25/10/2026

Meet Mishka !

Mishka is a beautiful Belgian Malinois who came in to work on a few seperate behaviours - she was really pent up, pacing and pulling on walks, she had no engagement and some apprehensive behaviours towards dogs - this was making walks abit difficult, but thankfully we could put all of that drive to good use in her training ! We got to work

We made a start by finding a quiet spot to work on Mishka's engagement & handler value. It's one of my pet hates when people say "oh my dog is engaged" and then they post a video with absolutely zero distractions around 😂 that's not what we do here, however, when we are building these skill sets from the ground up it's key to not throw yourself or your dog into the deep end. We began working on luring a nice heel and getting consistent engagement from Mishka by drilling repetitions and giving her rewards for making the right decisions, she did so well with this and showed us she was really keen to work ! We also changed how her grot collar was used, you'll see me banging on about how tension builds frustration and it was a classic case of exactly that, once we adapted the use of the collar and allowed for more slack she was far more relaxed - gradually we increased distractions such as passing dogs & people, she maintained her new skill sets beautifully 🙌🏼

From there we began working her in busier environments. Mishka has bags of drive so we opted to make her walks a "job" for her, ontop of discussing ways we can offer her genetic fulfilment ontop of her training going forward. This is such an important element to consider when you buy a highly driven working breed, otherwise they can fall into "self employment" and unfortunately the job they choose is rarely good for dog & owner ! We also showed Mishkas owner how to help Mish decompress in session to avoid trigger stacking. While Mishka isn't reactive, she is apprehensive and needed some clear, black and white structure on her walks to follow. From that point onwards we had her in a nice heel, walking calmly past dogs and distractions without any concern.

I've actually met Mishka before when her brother, Odin, came in for training and I already knew she would smash her training, she's a beautifully natured dog with alot of determination to work for something - I love to see that in a dog ! Since our session Mishka has been smashing her homework with her owner and has even been in the Range to work on her exposure, her owner is showing some real dedication to training - well done, good girl ! We can't wait to see her progress 👌🏼

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09/10/2026

Meet Mocha !
Mocha is a gorgeous German Shepherd pup who came in to work on arousal and leash skills, she's massive for only 13 weeks old and has been pestering her older Brother when he's trying to play fetch !
Mocha would become abit overly aroused by her big brother Moose when walking alongside him & reasonably, there's only so long and adult dog will tolerate this behaviour - Mochas owners are also interested in getting her started in a sport for genetic fulfillment which is going to really benefit little Mocha long term which I love to see 👏🏼 we got to work !

We had both Mocha and Moose in this session so we could correct and redirect the behaviour as it was brewing. We made a start on leash skills and showing Mochas owners how to lure the heel position and make it valuable for her. We opted to start this in a quiet area with some passing distractions to keep expectations reasonable for a young puppy. During luring, we worked on leash pressure & communication to help Mocha understand lunging & redirecting due to arousal wasnt as valuable to practice compared to the heel position & structured hand feeding. From there we began walking her alongside Moose and she was completely unbothered - By session end Mocha was walking in a nice relaxed heel, not opting to redirect onto her brother and ready for a much needed nap !

Moose has already trained with us, so his owners are already up to date on how valuable hand feeding is - this is something we reccomend for the vast majority of dogs in training. If you've worked with us before you'll have heard me say "look at your dogs food as a wage" ! Because she's still young it's unlikely she will be able to eat 3 full portions of food whilst out on walks & training, so we spoke about beneficial ways she can earn the rest of her food without keeping her constantly switched on. Despite being relatives, Moose and Mocha couldn't be anymore different when it comes to having enough drive for a "job" so we spoke about sports and outlets that will help her thrive. Her owners are really proactive & noticed early on she would likely need abit more than Moose - I love to see that 🙌🏼

Mocha now has some homework to complete, I've been enjoying seeing her updates and progress !
Well done pretty girl 🐕

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05/10/2026

Meet Bronson !
Bronson is a Dutch herder x Rhodesian Ridgeback who came in to work on his reactive behaviour towards dogs, and on occasion joggers too ! Aswell as some Redirection. Bronson's last trainer said his behaviour was "pure aggression" but all we saw in session was an aroused, frustrated young dog with some age related insecurities. He is a large, young rescue boy and he's inherited that Dutch tenacity - if he's not happy, he's got no problem in letting the problem know ! - that being said, he's not not we would call aggressive, he's just reactive and full of beans. When he saw a dog he would fixate at a distance, bark excessively & try to lunge toward - his size & strength was understandably making him abit hard to manage with these behaviours going on and to top it off he was pulling heavily on the lead - we got to work !

We made a start by swapping out Bronson's harness for the slip so we could teach him a nice slack heel. We spoke about how additional tension can cause more frustration - if you ever see clips of working Dutch you'll notice alot of the time they're on tie outs, not being able to actually get the lure builds frustration & drive towards the lure, adding value and the behaviour the handler wants to see. Now we obviously don't want Bronson becoming frustrated and aroused by dogs or people, and a slack leash heel can break alot of that tension. He took to this in no time, from there we started shaping in better handler engagement. Engagement isn't a flashy trick, it's really important for reactive dogs to learn to focus on you instead around triggers & to value you above all else.

We gradually began working Bronson around passing dogs and he did beautifully, we started him off nice and slow and gradually increased at his pace -
By session end Bronson was so much more relaxed when passing dogs and you could tell he had enjoyed using his brain on his walk, not just his eyes and mouth ! We also spoke about genetic fulfilment to avoid self employment and mistakes down the line - the vast majority of Dutch, Malinois, GSD, Rottweilers, even Terriers & Dachsunds that come in here end up are in a cycle of being "self employed" ! This happens when strong working genetics don't have a useful place to go, and there's no stopping those genetics ! So they end up being practiced in other ways instead, and it's never in a good way 😂 we spoke about some sports and links with reputable sport trainers that would be ideal for Bronson to express those genetics in a healthy structured way going forward.

Lastly, we have spoken about Bronson's Redirection as he didn't do this in session - Engagement is also incredibly important for dogs who redirect to reduce trigger stacking. Like many of the dogs that come in here, Bronson struggles with redirection when he's over stimulated - this can occur because of pressure, aggression, nervousness or even prey animals in view, more often than not it occurs when people or dogs come too close and your leg, arm, wrist is the closest available thing - and if course, it's linked to low impulse control. Basically anything that gives your dog a big kick of adrenaline can set this off. Bronson is currently muzzle training with his owners so we can get this nipped in the bud in his next session with one of our Decoys so we can show his owners the do's & don'ts while building better impulse control !

Well done Bronson 🐕✅

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02/10/2026

Meet Rhea !
Rhea came in to us after spending some time at a board & train Kennel. Rhea was been returned with a scab on her spine from a mystery injury, & ontop of this, since being returned home Rhea's behaviour has taken a massive U turn. She's become heavily fixated towards dogs & reactive. Her owners are understandably concerned & during the first minute or two of our assesment she was barking, lunging & growling at a passing dog in view. This is a pretty intense reaction for such a young dog who was fine only a handful of days ago, bless her - we got to work !

We made a start on some foundational behaviours in a quiet area while classically conditioning in the behaviours did want Rhea to offer such as loose leash walking and handler engagement. Rhea being a typical German shepherd took to this really quickly and was nice and relaxed in no time in a slack leash heel. We gradually introduced triggers during training to help her understand, a dog is passing, it's not your job to involve yourself, and there's a positive option that you can choose instead. Rhea has bags of drive so we discussed a sport via one of our amazing links to get involved with going forward so we can provide genetic fulfilment ontop of training.

Rhea is 6 months old and she was right in the middle of a difficult critical development period, commonly referred to as a fear period, due to behaviour regression. This is always made harder for both the owner and dog if a dog has a stressful experience during this stage - dogs brains undergo massive reorganization during this development stage, it commonly leads to issues surrounding reactivity, intolerance, nerve and conflict. We spoke about how to manage a fear period in regards to exposure and normalising everyday distractions that can become triggers while using everyday walks as a training opportunity.

By session end Rhea was far more relaxed, in a heel and showing Neutral behaviour towards passing dogs. Rhea is still only a puppy and still has a long way to go yet in her training & proofing, we are really looking forward to seeing her progress ! She now has some homework to crack on with until we see her again - well done big girl !

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20/09/2026

Meet Luna !
Luna is a standard American bully x Staffie who came in to work on her reactive behaviour towards dogs. Luna is 4 years old & this behaviour was really ingrained as a go to when she spotted a dog - she's a strong girl & was spending the walk pulling her owners along until she spotted a trigger & she would then lunge, bark & growl at the passing dog. This was making walks pretty stressful for everyone involved, despite this behaviour towards dogs Luna is a lovely, friendly girl with people and was buzzing to meet me ! - we got to work !

We made a start in a quiet area to keep Luna under threshold, here we began working on her leash skills. Prior to 2005 you just never saw pet dogs on harnesses and they've been really, cleverly marketed since then ! You would see them in conflict sports and on working dogs however, and at the time alot of these harnesses were and still are marketed as agitation equipment. This is a really common problem we see when reactive dogs come in, they're usually on a harness, straining at the end of the lead and you have very little control when they fixate on a dog and react ! Instead we got Luna on the slip to allow for full control - if you have the head you have the body, but it's important to learn *how* to use a slip lead, the tool alone is not going to magic away behaviour! Luna and her owners did really well with this skill set, we had her in a nice slack heel in no time at all - now it was time to get her walking past dogs !

We gradually began working around triggers at a comfortable distance while we laid the foundations for neutral behaviour. Luna did really well with this, and while she had habitualised the behaviour over the last few years, she showed us she is capable of calmly passing a dog 🐕 Luna is dealing with dog aggression, not just reactivity, and this is important because it's a different kettle of fish altogether. A reactive dog doesn't = genuine aggression, and an aggressive dog may not be reactive at all and strike silently - the reason as to why this is different than just reactivity is because we can't change genetics, but we can change how and when dogs practice them. Unfortunately aggression has become a dirty word over the last decade, even breed standards have had the word removed which makes it alot harder for owners to properly research the genetic predisposition of a number of breeds, but I do want to be clear that an aggressive dog does not = an unpredictable, dangerous dog ! Loads of breeds are prone to dog aggression, knowing this just means we can set her up for success long term with realistic goals in mind.

As we took Luna around passing dogs, we showed her there are positive alternatives she can engage with and earn for making the right decision. We spoke about to go forward with this long-term during the proofing stage - our only goal with Luna is to build Neutral behaviour, not to make her hyper social or friendly with other dogs, neutral behaviour is a realistic goal for her. Luna did so well passing dogs in session, we showed her owners how to create opportunities for structured decompression to avoid trigger stacking on a walk, this really helps with self regulation all while increasing exposure as we counter condition reactivity as we classically condition in engagement and neutrality to triggers. By session end Luna was loads calmer, had improved tolerance and was nicely plodding along at her owners side. To finish up, we covered abit on muzzle training - the attitude towards muzzles has massively changed in recent years thankfully, I like to think of them as a very clear marker for other dog owners that says "my dog is in training and needs abit more space" and most people are respectful and sensible when they spot a dog wearing one :)

Luna did great for her first session with us, we can't wait to see how she's doing after the homework period - well done good girl !

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16/09/2026

Meet Sadie !

Sadie is a rescue Lurcher, we suspect some terrier or bull terrier in her mix along with alot if whippet is in her mix - Sadie has been struggling with reactive behaviour towards dogs, where she would panic, lunge, bark & growl at passing dogs on the lead. After some discussion we found that Sadie was right on the cusp of her final fear period, which has exacerbated this behaviour! We got to work

Between the ages of 4-8 months and 18-24 months, dogs can experience a development period that's commonly referred to as a fear period - understandably alot of people mistake this period as their dogs being teenagers who are choosing to be abit cheeky or intolerant when in reality their dogs brains are undergoing massive reorganization in preparation of them becoming independent adult dogs, for those prone to nerve this can exacerbate reactive behaviour towards triggers and make you feel like you're taking one step forward and about ten backwards ! It's a really frustrating time for both dogs and owners

We focused on getting Sadie back on track by counter conditioning the reactive response as we offered positive alternatives for successfully passing dogs on her walk. Sadie took to this in no time, thankfully her owners are really on top of her training and thanks to that strong relationship they've built up, she was pretty easy to teach redirection and alternative behaviours to ! We continued to work around triggers at a comfortable distance and Sadie did so well throughout! By the end of session she was alot more relaxed and able to calmly walk past a dog, now we just need to focus on daily maintenance of this skill set so we can fully proof it in

Lastly we encouraged a reputable DNA test for Sadie.
This is so important when we're training mixed breeds, obviously being a lurcher we knew she was likely to have a very high preydrive so we've reccomended some genetic fulfilment to help satiate that natural hunting desire on top of training. Sports like lure coursing are perfect for preydriven sighthounds, lurchers and longdogs and allow dogs to feel like they've chased a rabbit, we also reccomend letting them have a go on a tug toy at the end so they can give something a good shake ! If we find out she does have some terrier back there then a sport like barn hunt would be another great edition that she would likely enjoy.

Sadie is currently practicing her homework, we can't wait to see how she does ! Well done long girl 🐕
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02/09/2026

We've Hit 5k Followers On Facebook 🎉

As Promised We Are Going To Give One Dog And Owner A Free Session Worth £250.

As Many Of You Know, We Work With The Cases Many Other Trainers Often Won’t Touch:
Reactivity Dog Aggression Bite risks Human Aggression Prey Aversion Resource Guarding Behavioural Euthanasia Candidates
Etc

We Can't Believe 5000 People Have Chosen To Follow What We Do - So We Are Offering This Session To Someone Who Truly Needs It 🙌🏼
In Session You Will Have An Assessment, Practical 1-1 Training Tailored To Your Dogs Needs, Ongoing Support And A Clear Plan To Move Forward With Your Dog.

To Enter:

• Follow The Page
• Like This Post
• Comment Your Dog’s Name & The Behaviour You're Struggling With (Feel Free To Drop A Photo 📸)

For an additional entry:
• Share This Post To Your Story & Tag Us

The Winner Will Be Selected When The Giveaway Closes On Oct 2nd 2026.
The Winner Will Be Contacted Privately By This Page.

Good Luck 🐕