The South Shields Dog Trainer

The South Shields Dog Trainer Dog trainer

🏆 Twice Voted UK Best Dog Trainers by the public
🥇 5x Winner Dog/Puppy Trainer/Behaviourist of the Year
🌟 500+ 5 star Reviews
🎓 Qualified and Accredited
🐶 5000+ Dogs
🤝 Recommended By Vets, Dog Groomers, Dog Walkers, Pet Shops and More!

🐾 Dexter’s Second Session – Timing, Tweaks & a Working System 🐶The final dog on Golden Retriever Monday was Dexter, the ...
23/07/2025

🐾 Dexter’s Second Session – Timing, Tweaks & a Working System 🐶

The final dog on Golden Retriever Monday was Dexter, the Golden Retriever 💛

(Side note – if you’re a Dexter fan of the TV series, there’s a new season out and I am fully into it. But back to dogs rather than serial killers! 😂)

Dexter had his second session this week and it went really well 👏

The training from the first session had worked to a point, but it wasn’t going as smoothly as we’d hoped.

Why?

👉 The timing was slightly out
👉 The distance was slightly off
👉 Dexter was either very focused on the food or very focused on the dog

If the food came out first, he didn’t notice the dog.
If the dog came out first, he didn’t notice the food.

What we need is:

🐶 Dexter noticing the dog first
🍗 Then being able to focus on the food

That’s how we’ll teach him to stop reacting to dogs and look back at his owners when he sees one.

We made some slight tweaks to the system:

✅ Adjusted the distance from dogs
✅ Changed the timing of when the food came out

This made a really big difference 🔥
He saw a load of dogs – and looked back to his owners for the food… instead of pulling or lying down and trying to jump on them.

So well done to Dexter 👏
Well done to his owners 🙌
We’ll be back soon to start closing that distance.
Now we have that working system in place – it’s time to start levelling this up!

🐶 Meet Scout – Soaked, Silly, and Stealing Socks! ☔🧦Next up on Golden Retriever Monday, we were in Hebburn to see Scout,...
22/07/2025

🐶 Meet Scout – Soaked, Silly, and Stealing Socks! ☔🧦

Next up on Golden Retriever Monday, we were in Hebburn to see Scout, the Golden Retriever 🐾

Scout, like most Golden Retrievers, is a really, really nice dog – really friendly – but can react to other dogs.

We think this is frustration-based – he’s just too excited to see the dogs, and this shows when he tries to play with them. He gets a bit over the top.

Unfortunately, we got rained off in this session before I actually got to see this first-hand…

Instead, we all got absolutely drenched 🌧️

In the house, we introduced:

🎯 Marker cue
🎯 Focus Games

These will be used when Scout sees other dogs to bring his focus back onto his owners and gradually teach him to be calmer around other dogs – something we’ll work on next time.

We also looked at Scout and his obsession with stealing everything he can get his teeth on 🧻🧦

Things like socks, paper towels, tea towels – if he can steal it, he will eat it!

We chatted through:

✅ Appropriate alternative behaviours as an outlet
✅ Prevention methods
✅ Leaving cues and drop cues

All in all, Scout is doing really, really well 💛
He’s getting neutered this week – best of wishes to him!

We look forward to seeing Scout again soon 🐾

🐾 Golden Retriever Monday Continued – Meet Maisie the Golden Doodle 🐶Next up, we were in Gateshead on Golden Retriever M...
21/07/2025

🐾 Golden Retriever Monday Continued – Meet Maisie the Golden Doodle 🐶

Next up, we were in Gateshead on Golden Retriever Monday to see Maisie the Golden Doodle 🦴

Maisie is a really nice dog, but she’s quite anxious.

We’ve seen her a few times before, but haven’t seen her in a while – so this was a catch-up check-in to tighten a few things up ✅

We covered an awful lot in this session:

🐕 Getting her to settle when people come over
🐕 Dog-dog resource-guarding
🐕 When she resource-guards from other dogs
🐕 Avoiding people when she’s out, but trying to get behind them to learn about them
🐕 Barking at people when they pay attention to her when she’s out
🐕 Her behaviour in cafes
🐕 A whole host of other things!

Maisie is doing really well with all of these things 🙌
We just needed to refine and take some of this training to the next stage.

Well done to her owners 👏
Well done to Maisie 🐾
Everyone’s doing fantastic, and I’ll see you again soon!

It was a day of Golden Retrievers and Golden Retriever Mixers on Monday this week!First up was Magnolia, the Golden Retr...
20/07/2025

It was a day of Golden Retrievers and Golden Retriever Mixers on Monday this week!

First up was Magnolia, the Golden Retriever cross Newfoundland, in South Shields.
She’s about one year old – still very young – and she just wants to play with everyone and everything 🐾

On her walks, she’s really nice, but she can fixate on other dogs, really pull towards them, and be a bit much when she tries to play, especially given her size.

We’ve been working on getting her to check back in when she sees other dogs.
And she did this really, really well 🙌

✅ Sees a dog ➡️ looks back at her owner for a treat
✅ Starting to ignore dogs that aren’t paying her attention
✅ Reading all the right signals from other dogs
✅ Still needs a bit more practice – but she’s almost there

If a dog pays attention to her and tries to play, she still wants to pull towards them… but that isn’t too bad, because she’s responding well and reading things right.

Magnolia has done really, really well.
Her owner had done really, really well.
And I’ll be back to see her soon 💛

More puppy graduates from our South Shields venture. They all did amazing and we wish them well in there future.
19/07/2025

More puppy graduates from our South Shields venture. They all did amazing and we wish them well in there future.

Despite the risk of sounding like a broken record - Cece is making astounding progress! Once again, she has crossed anot...
17/07/2025

Despite the risk of sounding like a broken record - Cece is making astounding progress!

Once again, she has crossed another milestone, with her owner able to open and close the front door whilst Cece remained settled. Cece has also been able to sleep at night in a separate room with the door closed and let her owner do housework with the door closed. All of this is great progress and lets us know that Cece is feeling more comfortable and confident spending time on her own behind a closed door. This week, we looked at departure cues and how to introduce these without causing Cece stress. This will help Cece remain relaxed when her owner leaves the house as part of normal daily life.

Keep up the amazing work Cece & co!

This 6-Month-Old Pup Was Reactive and Scared of People 😟 Here’s What We Did 🐾Today we’ve been back to see Alun from Newc...
07/07/2025

This 6-Month-Old Pup Was Reactive and Scared of People 😟 Here’s What We Did 🐾

Today we’ve been back to see Alun from Newcastle, and we went down to Whitley Bay.

Alun’s only six months old and had a bit of a hard start. He was really reactive to people and really scared of them. It takes him quite a long time to warm up, and he struggled in a fairly busy part of town.

We focused heavily on just getting him around different environments, people, sights and sounds – all at a distance where he was comfortable.

✅ Letting him have a lot of his own choice
✅ Rewarding him for checking in
✅ Reassuring him when he struggled
✅ Giving him all the space he needed

It worked wonders 🙌 Alun is now fine walking past people and no longer reactive!

He’s still a little bit nervous and stressed when he’s out without the other dog from the house. So today we built up his focus and gave him things to do on walks to build confidence.

We taught him some parkour – jumping on and stepping on things that used to be nerve-wracking.

We also trained movement activities like:
👉 Spin
👉 Middle
👉 Hand touch
👉 Other trick training

This boosts confidence and focus, so he spends less time anxious and more time in a dopamine-fuelled state of mind 💥

The world can pass him by – and he’s got something else to do 🐶💛

Once again, Cece has smashed her training this week! From 10 seconds settled last week to 15 minutes in a room on her ow...
03/07/2025

Once again, Cece has smashed her training this week! From 10 seconds settled last week to 15 minutes in a room on her own this week. Cece is also choosing to settle away from her owner, out of sight and in new rooms. All of this indicates Cece is feeling more comfortable on her own and doesn’t feel the need to keep an eye on her owner at all times. This week, we looked at how to introduce new, more challenging criteria to Cece in easier ways. In particular, when her owner is heading towards the front door - a huge trigger for dogs with separation anxiety. Cece did wonderfully in our session and was able to stay relaxed in the lounge whilst her owner walked all the way to the front door.

Looking forward to seeing what progress Cece makes before our next session!

Cece has made great progress in the last few weeks, able to stay comfortable whilst she was left in room on her own for ...
23/06/2025

Cece has made great progress in the last few weeks, able to stay comfortable whilst she was left in room on her own for a whole ten seconds - a big deal for Cece. Next up is continuing to build this time and Cece’s confidence when her mum goes out of sight. Whilst her mum continues with this training, we looked at some other things to help Cece feel more relaxed in her own home.

In this session, we delved into some of her herding behaviours and introduced some games and training to help Cece and her owner manage these behaviours. To start, an outlet. Whilst Cece can be affectionately described as ‘energy-efficient’, it’s still important for her to have an outlet for these behaviours so we’ve introduced a new way for her to play with balls. Secondly, some impulse control. Cece wants to move, follow and herd others so we’ll ask the question, ‘Can you wait there whilst I do this?’. This will give her the opportunity to learn that she doesn’t have to follow to feel safe or access a reward, and that actually the reward will come to her. Thirdly, management. So Cece and her mum can have visitors over without them feeling like sheep, we’ve introduced a new greeting routine so Cece can meet visitors and stay relaxed in her own home.

Cece and her owner are making great progress and spending dedicated time every day to achieve their goals. We’re looking forward to seeing a more confident and relaxed Cece in the near future!

Puppy class fun!like any learning if you enjoy it you learn. Second class for this group and their confidence and attent...
18/06/2025

Puppy class fun!
like any learning if you enjoy it you learn.
Second class for this group and their confidence and attention has improved already.
I can't wait for next week.

More puppy graduates!Both puppies did amazing and have learned so quickly.
18/06/2025

More puppy graduates!
Both puppies did amazing and have learned so quickly.

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