Victoria Cooper - Certified Canine Behaviourist & Mentor

29/07/2025

This Just Breaks my heart 💔 Do you know anything about your dogs parentage? Did you meet mum and dad? Were they happy healthy emotionally stable cared for and loved? Sadly there are thousands of Cockapoos and doodles bred from mums ( and dads) like this little girl in this story. Used abused and discarded - a means to making thousands of ££££ for the purpose of lining an unscrupulous heartless persons pockets . As dog lovers we need to seriously question the mass breeding practices that occur in England and what impact this has on the parents of puppies.
We need greater regulations. We must do better 😞

The Saddest Day — Lauren’s Story 💔

Today broke me.

In all my years of helping mums give birth, I’ve never felt a sadness like this.

Lauren arrived 4 weeks ago.
Scared. Silent. Thrown away by a backyard breeder.
No longer “useful.”

If they’d known she was pregnant, she wouldn’t have been let go.

She lived her life in a cold garden shed — churning out litter after litter.
Advertised as “beloved family pets” — as if that makes it okay.

This morning, she went into labour.

She was vomiting, shaking, clearly distressed.
I lay beside her, rubbed her tummy, and just… talked.

Her head in the corner, body low, trying to disappear.
No one had ever seen her before.
She was just a machine to them.

She turned to me.
And in the middle of all that pain…
She just looked at me, a little lick on the nose.

Seven healthy babies.
Born in warmth, with someone by her side.
For the first time in her life.

This will be her last litter.
No more dark sheds. No more loneliness.

✨She’ll never be used again.✨

Please — before you buy that designer pup…
Think about Lauren.
Think about her life, her fear, her shed.
Think about the mums and dads kept in silence, breeding the next “cockapoos.”

And when you say
“I had to buy a puppy because rescue wouldn’t give me one…”

Remember her face.

25/07/2025

24/07/2025

Azrael the Rottie. Living his best life. I worked with him and his family last year when he was reactive to people and dogs. He also had sore elbows and hips. By addressing his discomfort and overall welfare, we turned him around from being a suspicious anxious character to a dog that’s living his best life with his pals. There IS hope AND support for you if you have a reactive fearful dog. Don’t let anyone tell you, that large breeds need forceful methods - it’s a myth and a con spread by ignorant uneducated trainers. We don’t need to hurt or scare dogs to train them. Need help ? Get in touch.

22/07/2025

New secure 2 acre field to rent near junction 29 M1.
I don’t know who runs it, if there is water, shade, double gates or poo bins, or how it’s managed so please do your due diligence and safety checks when booking. Let me know how you get on if you use the facility

https://www.facebook.com/share/19BKax1gPb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Our 2 acre dog park is suitable for many types of dogs and their owners! With a drive-in, secure parking area, you can let your dogs straight out from the car and our 1.9m high fencing is tall enough to allow you to all feel safe and secure.

15/07/2025

Have you got a new puppy? Sign up for this FREE Q&A sessions with my excellent colleagues at People and Dogs. Dog Training and Behaviour

📣 FREE Live Puppy Q&A & Meet the Trainer – Monday 28th July at 6.30pm 🐾

🐾 Got a new puppy and a head full of questions?
🐾 Want to feel confident before putting your pup in the hands of a trainer?
🐾 Feeling overwhelmed by all the advice online?

Join me, Jenny – owner of People and Dogs – for a relaxed, online Puppy Q&A and info session designed for new puppy parents who want real, down-to-earth guidance from a qualified, force-free trainer.

💬 Ask questions
👀 See how we support you in and out of class
🤝 Get a feel for our training approach before you commit

Whether you’re worried about toilet training, biting, sleep struggles or socialisation – this is your chance to ask anything, without pressure or judgement.

🗓 When: Monday 28th July
🕡 Time: 6.30pm – 7.30pm
💻 Where: Google Meet (live, not recorded)
👩‍👩‍👧 Who: Human-only session for those with puppies under 6 months
🎟 Cost: FREE – booking essential

✅ Learn how our kind, force-free training really works
✅ See what you’ll learn in class and how we support you between sessions
✅ Preview our exclusive online learning portal
✅ Find the right course for your puppy’s age and needs

🐾 This is the perfect first step before signing up to train with us.

📍 Spaces are limited – reserve your place now:
👉 https://PeopleandDogs.as.me/Questions

14/07/2025

I wonder 🤔 when this will start being offered in the UK - or even better, stop the mass pre pubescent neutering. Definitely needs more research

I’M ON TESTOSTERONE REPLACEMENT!
🥜New Study Shows Testosterone Therapy May Help Neutered Dogs Feel Better🥜
A new veterinary study found that giving testosterone, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), to neutered male dogs may help correct health and behavior issues caused by hormone loss (not so shocking to doctors that practice functional wellbeing: lifelong hormones matter!).
NO ONE IS AGAINST STERILIZATION (please read that again, before you comment); it’s the updated surgical techniques that vets need to learn to sterilize AND preserve crucial hormones.
When males have their go**ds 🥜 cut off as puppies (vs. a sterilizing vasectomy) they lose their supply of lifelong testosterone, and then what happens?
“Spayed and neutered dogs have been reported to have a higher incidence of obesity, urinary incontinence, urinary calculi, atopic dermatitis, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, hypoadrenocorticism, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, immune- mediated thrombocytopenia, inflammatory bowel disease, hip dysplasia, cranial cruciate ligament rupture, aggressive and fearful behavior, cognitive dysfunction syndrome, prostate adenocarcinoma and transitional cell adenocarcinoma. Musculoskeletal issues may be especially significant for large breed dogs gonadectomized before they have finished growing, as bone physeal closure is delayed,” says reproductive expert Dr. Michelle Kutzler, DVM, PhD, DACT, Professor of Theriogenology (all of her statments are backed by studies, of course, link to Dowoadable PDF of research also in comments).
This group of symptoms is sometimes called “spay-neuter syndrome,” and in this most recent study, researchers gave weekly testosterone injections to neutered male dogs for 90 days. They tested different doses and monitored the dogs closely.
What they found:
* The treatment was safe, even at high doses.
* Testosterone levels returned to normal, without side effects.
* Hormone imbalances improved, especially the levels of a hormone called LH, which rises after neutering and may be linked to certain cancers.
* The dogs’ general health, behavior, and lab values stayed stable or improved (like Homer’s!).
This is the first published safety study using HRT testosterone injections in neutered dogs. It gives veterinarians a starting point for helping dogs who may be struggling with life after desexing 🥳!
Why it matters: This research offers hope for dogs who suffer from hormone-related issues after being neutered. Hormone replacement—when done safely and under veterinary guidance—can improve quality of life in a way we haven’t been able to offer before— I know because I’m doing it for my neutered rescue dog, Homer (who, at 17, needed this therapy to bring him back to vigor 💥).
I advocate vets learn different sterilization surgical techniques for this very reason: vascetomy and hysterectomy remove reproductive potential without compromising endocrine balance, but until these newer techniques are taught in vet schools (hopefully y’all have signed my petition begging vet schools worldwide to teach these simpler alternatives, link in comments), we’re left with learning more about HRT for pets. I’m so grateful to the Parsemus Foundation for investing in this critical research (link to the study in comments); when we know more we can do better 🙏🏼. Read my comments about females, cats and vets that offer alternatives in the comments ⬇️.

11/07/2025

One of my absolute favourite things?

Creating content that helps people really understand their dogs and how to make their lives better.

Whether it’s something practical, mindset shifting, or just a fresh way of looking at behaviour…
If someone learns something and walks (puts down their phone 🤷🏻‍♀️) away feeling more confident or connected with their dog? That’s my dopamine hit right there. 😅

Because education leads to empathy and empathy changes lives. Especially dog shaped ones.

What’s something you’ve learned recently that’s helped you and your dog?

09/07/2025

To the people STILL sharing myths and misinformation on your professional pages

‼️Listen
‼️Learn
‼️Read
‼️Update yourself ‼️
🆘 it is irresponsible and unprofessional to not be up to date on dog welfare if you have a platform of followers.
💥Dogs lives are at risk due to some ignorant people STILL spreading misinformation
🔥💦❄️💧💧💧Rapid cooling saves lives ❤️‍🔥

07/07/2025

Please sign and share to help protect dogs from punishment based tools used on them

I would like the Government to ban the use of aversive tools such as electric shock collars, prong collars and invisible fencing due to the possible physical and mental harm caused to animals. I believe trauma and cruelty is unacceptable. Legislation on this topic has still not been enacted.

06/07/2025

This is Bella
Isn’t she cute? Looks like “butter wouldn’t melt” as the saying goes.
But she may be tiny but she is mighty !
Bella is determined and fierce when strangers step onto her property. She guards her territory like a mighty miniature lion and has been successfully repelling all intruders for several years!
It hasn’t helped that Bella’s garden is at the front of her house where a footpath passes the fence and she feels she has to diligently defend this space from any potential or perceived threat
Also she has been given free access to this front garden to practice being a guard dog so she’s become very accomplished at security work!

Additionally her owners have been given some really old fashioned and unhelpful advice by a previous “professional” (?!) who advised them to threaten her and sq**rt her with water every time she barked as some one passed the gate 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️
It’s not rocket 🚀 science what happened over a period of time - the result was she has become increasingly worried about people passing her garden and her reactivity and defensive behaviour increased .

Dogs learn by forming associations - if we use threat and punishment when they bark at someone passing the house - or bark at another dog, their learned association will be that people or dogs passing the house is a bad experience and associated with something unpleasant such as being sq**rted with water, yelled at or worse.

These old fashioned methods don’t address WHY the dog feels the need to defend her space
So as per my usual mode of operation - I stripped everything back to basics.
Observing and analysing if she feels worried about people in general or just on the front garden
And I found that she is anxious around some strangers in public areas.
So we are addressing that first - working on her confidence in public places
Giving her space and teaching her cues to help her feel safe such as going under a bench out of the way of footfall. Improved recall in from the garden. Emotional and cognitive games to build confidence and develop emotional resilience
And creating positive associations around strangers. And as a result Bella’s confidence is slowly building.

A certified, accredited dog trainer or behaviourist will always ask WHY the dog is displaying problematic behaviour and dig into the root cause of it. Most problems are rooted in strong emotions - fear, frustration, anger, jealousy or even pain. The use of punishment and suppression does not address the underlying causes of behaviour problems it just addresses the symptoms. For long lasting humane and effective behaviour change you need to work on the dogs emotions - when you change the emotions, change the owners interactions, manage the environment = positive changes in the behaviour

03/07/2025

A correctly fitted and comfortable harness is an essential piece of equipment for your dog. It should protect your dogs throat from choking, whiplash and bruising and should protect their shoulders - so it should always be be a Y shaped harness not a T shaped harness
Julius K9 are T shaped harnesses that go across the front of the dogs shoulders
They are not appropriate to the dogs physiology. There’s also some cheap ‘no pull’ type harnesses that either dig behind the arm pits and elbows or cut across the chest
I always ensure a dog is physically comfortable before I start teaching new behaviours . No choking prong spikes or garrotting here either

For local stockists and fitting of excellent ergonomic harnesses please contact Bradway Pet Shop

This is a repost(ish) but well worth repeating. Many of you have heard me harp on harness fit time and again. Having spent decades evaluating harness fit in working dogs of all types with thermal imaging (as well as having years of working and active dog experience combined with a strong biomechanics knowledge base) using front-clipping or "Gentle Leader" type harnesses only guarantee more structural stress in active dogs that makes for more work for me and other chiro/sports med colleagues. PLEASE only use harnesses that fit with proper ergonomics! [NOTE: I've tweaked the English & syntax in the added-on description below so it might read a little differently.]

"All dog owners should know this fact! A harness like this is a terrible injustice to your pet!! AVOID USING THIS TYPE OF HARNESS !

In a dog's forward movement, a harness with a tape that crosses its chest from side to side hinders it in the same way humans would bother going hiking with an elastic band holding their arms. Physiological movement of the front extremity is prohibited. Just like rubber would inhibit the pendular movement of our ARMS.

Thanks to the "Study of Canine Movement at the University of Jena", we now know that in the dog, the center of rotation of the front limb is at the top of the scapula, but in the human the center of rotation in the arm is in the shoulder (head of the humerus). Jena's study demonstrates, among other things, the importance of scapular movement for dog locomotion. Now we understand the importance of taking into account the free movement of the dog's shoulder when choosing a chest harness.
That means there SHOULDN'T be bands across the scapular (orange) area, and they shouldn't cross the chest side to side either.

From the point of view of biomechanics and physiotherapy, it is recommended not to choose getting harnesses that have a strap that goes through the chest laterally, or that have straps that touch or press the scapula.

Always lean towards harness models with ERGONOMIC design, to allow maximum freedom of movement for your dog, improve his well-being and safety during his walk.
Source : REAL CEPPA"