Parker's Canine Training

22/07/2025

🤩🥰

🐶 PUPPY COURSE SPACE 🐶
A space has opened up on my puppy course due to start this Sunday if anyone would like to join us.

22/07/2025

When your car breaks down. Your lovely clients agreed to reschedule (thank you, very appreciated and sorry!!)
What do you do instead...practice chin rest duration of course!!!

Ceri Jones Sof is joining in too.. 😄 she's very good at it.

20/07/2025

🎉🐾 I’m extremely happy and proud to share that I’m now a Fear Free Certified Professional! 🐾🎉

This feels like such a meaningful step because I’ve always worked beyond traditional training methods. Animal welfare, emotional safety, and genuine connection have been at the heart of everything I do and becoming a Fear Free Professional officially aligns me with a movement that puts those values first.

Over the years, I’ve learned to view a dog’s behaviour through many different lenses, from emotional health to body language, movement, sensory needs, and daily routines. These lenses help me see where we can make changes that truly support the dog’s wellbeing, whether it’s more calm time, more sniffing, less pressure, or more freedom.

Fear Free training isn’t about forcing a dog to “just do it.” It’s about helping them feel safe enough to learn, supported enough to try, and happy enough to keep choosing the behaviours we teach, because they trust the process and enjoy it.

My approach might take longer than quick fixes. That’s because I believe in ticking off as many well-being boxes as possible before asking for behaviour. I want training to last, not just because the dog can do it, but because the dog understands, feels safe, and actually wants to do it.

This means building: 🧠 Emotionally resilient learners
🐕 Strong, trust-based communication
💛 A training experience that feels good for everyone.

If you’re looking for help with your dog that goes deeper than commands and corrections — that sees behaviour as communication and honours your dog’s emotional needs — I’d love to support you.

Here’s to a kinder, safer, and more thoughtful way forward. 🐾💚

18/07/2025

🌿 Big Breakthrough for Tattie Today! 🌿

We’re feeling so proud of this lovely little milestone—Tattie completed part of the confidence course today with her owner, and it’s the first time she’s ever felt safe enough to do that! 💚

It may look simple from the outside, but this moment has been a long time in the making. Tattie has a history that made trust difficult, especially with male figures, and it’s taken steady, gentle work to build a relationship where she feels safe and confident.

Today, she not only stepped onto the course with Michael—but walked right to the corner alongside him. No pressure, no rush—just trust. 💛

Alongside this, we’ve been: ✨ Building Michael and Tattie’s connection through careful treat-and-retreat games
✨ Introduced Tattie to low-pressure training like 'touch' and movement cues.
✨ Starting to harness Tattie’s ’s natural prey drive for some upcoming fun and play-based learning!

Her world is gently expanding—and today’s breakthrough reminded us that progress isn’t always fast, but it’s always worth celebrating.

Here’s to the quiet wins, the soft eyes, the brave steps, and the long game. 🌱

12/07/2025

Halo Pups are completely right and this is a brilliant post.

As a Kids Around Dogs pro we always advice parent's to supervise children and dog interaction, during this heat I can't stress enough how important that is.
KAD Kids Around Dogs

Statistics show there are more dog bites in hot weather.

I can bet my bottom dollar that at some point over the last few days you have felt irritated or uncomfortable in this heat.

How are you all sleeping at night?
Anybody else tired?

It’s a challenge to get a comfortable nights rest.

Am I right?

Feeling hot, uncomfortable, lethargic and overtired can really impact how we feel and how we tolerate certain situations.

Have you found yourself snapping at family members, pushing your partner away when they want affection and generally feeling agitated?

Your dog may be feeling the same.

❌ Short on sleep.
❌ Hot
❌ Uncomfortable
❌ Irritated

Imagine for a moment that it is as hot as it is now but then add a fur coat on top of that and/or shortened airways and you can imagine that for some dogs this is going to be REALLY hard going.

I am sure you are doing your best to keep your dog feeling as cool as possible.

But be aware that your dogs tolerance levels will be lower than usual.

Dog bites statistics increase in hot weather.

Like us, dogs have short fuses when they are feeling uncomfortable or agitated.

Your dog may more likely be inclined to growl, snap and bite.

Here are three things you can do to avoid your dogs hot weather fuse blowing!

✅ Give them space!

Your dog may not want affection right now.
Your dog might not want cuddles.

Sure, give some affection if your dog approaches you but keep it brief and use the three second rule!

* Hands on for three seconds then take hands away completely and wait for your dog to ask for more.

* If your dog does not ask for more then keep your hands to yourself.

✅ Resources!

Resources for dogs are things like food, water, space and toys.
These are all things that dogs value and sometimes want to protect.

Ensure that you have plenty of water available for your dogs and plenty of cool quiet areas to rest, this is especially so in multi dog households.

Make sure that everyone has enough options to move around and that no one is hogging any cool spots or water stations.

Also, your dogs may not be eating as much so give them smaller meals and pick up any uneaten food to prevent guarding.

✅ Keep your dog’s world small.

Some dogs are not going to cope right now with having visitors over.

Even if your dog is friendly please be aware that you want to be keeping your dogs world very small at the moment.
This means keeping their life simple and not having loads of people around with lots of noise.

Keep their world quiet and ‘small’

Feeling hot, uncomfortable and tired can really increase your dogs stress level.

So let’s be sensible..

✅ Keep your dog’s world small.

✅ Give them that space that they require.

✅ Keep them cool and quiet to catch up on missed sleep.

Little tip for you humans. I put my bed sheets in a plastic bag in the freezer for an hour before I went to bed last night.

Worked a treat! 👍😁

08/07/2025

When Happy Tails Home Boarding reached out wanting to book in my Body Language Presentation I was over the moon.

Dogs speak. Constantly. Not with words, but with their eyes, ears, tails, skin, breath, and body. And if you work with dogs, whether you’re a groomer, walker, boarder, vet nurse or sitter, understanding that silent dialogue is not optional. It’s essential.

“Dogs are always talking. We’re just not always listening.”
— Kathy Sdao

It’s your first line of communication and your biggest safety net.

When you understand what a dog is saying:

🐕You can de-escalate conflict before it happens.

🐕You create positive associations with your service.

🐕You reduce stress and trauma for dogs in your care.

🐕You become the kind of human dogs choose to trust.

“If you listen carefully, a dog will whisper before they ever need to shout.”
— Sarah Fisher

Dogs don’t bite out of the blue. They bite after whispering, then asking, then begging, then warning—and only when no one listens. As professionals, it's our job to not only hear the whispers, but to respond in kind.

07/07/2025

This little lady came to us from Hope Rescue, after being rescued from a puppy farm. She has had some challenges with her interactions with men, stemming from her earlier experiences. As part of the ongoing work with these two, we’ve been focusing on cognitive exercises to help Tattie feel more confident and secure. Today’s session was all about integrating these thoughtful exercises into her daily routine.

Through a series of cognitive tasks, we helped Tattie engage her thinking brain to move from one goal to the next, including some balance work and simple decision-making tasks that encouraged her to think through her actions, rather than rely purely on instinct. These exercises are part of a larger plan to help her gain trust, and they’re already showing promising signs of progress.

Check out Tattie in action—she’s doing beautifully, working through these challenges step by step!

05/07/2025

✨ Why Training Around Other Dogs Builds Real-Life Skills:

When young dogs like Gracie get the chance to practice skills around other dogs in a safe, structured environment, their brains are doing some amazing work:

🧠 Social referencing – Gracie watches how other dogs move and respond, picking up valuable social cues through observation rather than direct contact.

🧠 Generalisation and fluency – By practising her skills (recall, lead walking then chin rest, hand touch for cooperative Care) around canine distractions, those behaviours become more resilient — not just tricks in quiet places, but skills that hold up in the real world.

🧠 Emotional regulation – Learning to feel calm and stay engaged around other dogs helps prevent frustration barking, over-arousal, and the need to interact with every dog they see.

🧠 Building positive associations – Working near other dogs without pressure to engage teaches neutrality. For sensitive or excitable dogs, this is gold — it's the groundwork for calm, sociable behaviour later in life.

✅ This wasn’t just a training session — it was an experience. One that builds resilience, emotional control, and a deeper connection with her handlers.

We’re so proud of how Gracie handled herself today. Experiences like this are worth their weight in gold for puppies and adolescents — helping shape not just good dogs, but emotionally intelligent ones.

04/07/2025

Awww this is why he's my favourite dog walker! 🐕 🥰 Dog walkers have a lot of responsibility. It's Adder Seasons, it's time for nesting birds, fledgings, heat stroke, babies foxes, badgers, rabbits, pesticides, insects bites, stings, reactions, blue and green algea. Not to mention health and Safety, physical and mental well being and the human responsibilities. A dog walkers job is a tricky one. Keeping your dogs safe is their main priority. Their role is to safely provide enrichment, prevent behavioural problems spilling over from lack of enrichment and environmental exposure. We’re talking about more than just movement. We’re talking about freedom to sniff, choice in direction, natural enrichment, social needs, decompression time, and mental engagement. These are the things that help reduce boredom, frustration, anxiety, and over-excitement. And when those needs are met out there, you’re far less likely to see unwanted behaviours like chewing, barking, jumping up, or difficulty settling when their well being needs are met. 💯🐕 right, I must stop typing! It's sheep shearing day today! Time to move sheep and seperate lambs. 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑.

03/07/2025

Very excited to say my friend has now become a licensed home boarder. What makes me more happy is she only takes one household at a time.

Liz and Molly have joined me on the Gun Dog Games and the Follow Your Nose Scent Work course.

Liz is brilliant with Molly her rescue Pointer. Molly is very gentle, calm and would make a great doggie host.

If you would like to know more here's her website and email.
[email protected]
https://happytailshomeboarding.my.canva.site/