It’s a Dug’s Life

24/12/2022

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas wehn it comes and all the best for 2023! 🎉🎉

05/11/2022

Hope everyone is coping tonight!
Remember to keep curtains and blinds closed, TV up loud and ensure your dug's have access to a nice cosey den to hide in. Lots of reassurance and distractions 🤞 likimats and Kong's are great to help keep your dug's mind off things 🐾
Keep your dug ON LEAD in the garden for p*e breaks even if fully secure - it helps to get them inside quickly if an unexpected bang goes off and prevents any unnecessary worry about pups bolting and finding an escape space which they maybe wouldn't normally try to do 🐾

07/08/2022

Dogs are lovely, but they aren’t here for public entertainment.

There are so many reasons the answer might be no to a person wanting to engage in physical contact. And an explanation isn’t always necessary.

Only the handler knows what’s right for them and their dog at that time.

#

26/07/2022

🙌👌🐾

I'm a proud snack leader

To all my fellow , owners trainers and behaviourists. I see you.

I love being a I'm saying that it's literally the tip of the iceberg! I know what's going on underneath the water, I know what's going on in the background.

We do so much more than just toss food.

You are doing a great job keep it up.

People can and will say mean things. It can be demoralising and hard.
But don't let anyone else tell you other methods are better. This works. Science is on our side. We got you.

30/06/2022

Alfie doing his thing on Tuesday night. Longest and most complex trail yet, but he loves every second of it, just look at that happy face and tail!! 💕🐾

17/05/2022

We have been a little silent on social media recently but what better way to say we are back in action than these photos of this afternoon's pups posing in these lovely lush grass flowers 😍😍

09/05/2022

Pete my own dog is a nervous reactive dog. The difference Mantrailing has made to his confidence is incredible.
Mantrailing has done for Pete what no other training I have tried with him has.
He can trail past dogs he doesn't know, children, children on bikes and scooters, joggers, cyclists, horses, he can pass shops and people coming in and out of them. He can now take his reward, the food at the end without feeling frightened or worried.
Did this happen overnight absolutely not but it did happen quite quickly.
The beauty of Mantrailing is that dogs are worked solo so they are never put in a position that they need to react to what frightens them, every trail your dog will do will be tailored to them.

If you have tried Mantrailing what has it done for you and your dog

29/04/2022

🙌👏🙌

Often asked “why reward based training when we’ve been using other techniques for decades”

This statement isn’t entirely true. Dominance based training is fairly modern and if I go back to my first teacher, my grandmother who was a serious dog lover, she always said to work with the dog. I remember in the 70s her showing me training with her then Labrador using a cup full of corn. No leash, no corrections just raw “shaping”. I didn’t know it was called that then, I must’ve been around 4 or 5 years old. I’m sure she didn’t call it shaping either! She done what felt right.

This is raw for me just now. I’ve just lost a dear soul. Gentle to his core, sensitive by nature. Never the easiest dog to raise as he, well had his own ideas about the narrative. His story could have landed him in trouble.
I’m glad I had Flea with the knowledge I have. Any coercion could have set him on an entirely different path. I believe if he had been forced into “compliance” he would have been a bite risk. Obviously I don’t know for sure as it was never put the test. He was never set up to fail.
Did I always get it right? No!
Was it easy? No!
Did I ever get frustrated? Yes!
But never at him.

I tell you this, even if you don’t have a dog as sensitive as Flea, that just because we could doesn’t mean we should.

He went his final journey living to his potential. A potential he was given the space to achieve. And as far as my years of research has shown me, using reward based training is the only way to achieve this.

So suck up the p*e on the floor, the puppy biting, the adolescent garbage, the missed recalls, the counter surfing and learn to understand your dogs needs and wants. Make it an environment where the room for error is slight, but the space for success is vast.
If the dog is handled with compassion and understanding you’ll avoid any nasty fall out, doing worse in the quest to do good.

Love hard. Train daily and enjoy one another.

28/04/2022

Camouflage at its finest.... Spot Angus 😅

16/04/2022

Today we tried something completely new to both myself and Alfie.
I wanted to find an activity to help Alfie's confidence grow and something that was fun and enjoyable for both of us.
I am so excited that we have found just that with Mantrailing!! Alfie was a pro and we both had a blast 🎉

Charlotte at the Positive School of Training was awesome and I can't thank her enough for taking the time to introduce us and teach us the beginnings to mantrailing. I can't wait to watch Alfie's skills grow and see what this super dog can do with more training 💕👌