A Dog's Best Friend

09/07/2025

It's my birthday 🎉 and as always I would love you to celebrate with me by sharing photos of your gorgeous dogs below 😍 bonus points of I had the pleasure of working with them in the last 10 years x

08/07/2025

Missy is coming up 5 months old and has been partaking in my VIP puppy package. Here you can see some of what she's achieved during the 4 sessions completed so far. Her owners main priorities amongst all the basics were toilet training and being calmer about them leaving the room and people coming in the house (she was jumping the stair gate) we also covered some other impulse control behaviours, attention and basic recall too. We also had lots of fun as you can see. She's such a sweetheart with a huge personality like most terriers and I'm so proud of how hard her and her family have worked through the package 😊😍🐾
If you have any questions about our services please feel free to reach out regarding all Training and Behavioural requirements via www.a-dogs-best-friend.com or email [email protected]

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05/07/2025

Target training transfers to so many skills that are helpful such as placement, scent work, consent training, recall and building on distractions but I can also be a fun quick session with the purpose of mental enrichment and entertainment too. 😊🐾
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17/06/2025

Each year I assume that people are aware of how hot is too hot for their dogs, unfortunately it's still startling to see so many walking their dogs when it's definitely unsafe for them to do so, so thought I'd pop this reminder below.

Please remember that if you're unable to facilitate early morning or evening walks or take them to wooded and shaded areas when the temperature is creeping up then having your dog miss a day or two of going out is definitely preferable to them getting heat stroke or worse and obviously avoid leaving them in the car unless you're able to leave the Aircon on!

Frozen enrichment toys, cooling mats/bandanas and fans are great at helping them regulate their body temperature when home and if their anything like my little pink polar bear, who would happily sunbathe all day, make sure to limit their access to the sun and use suncream if needed. 🐾😎

10/06/2025

Recent review of our Awesome Adolescents Package for the amazing Reggie ❤️.
The package is catered to teenage dogs that may need a refresher of the basics or are struggling with the changes that adolescence brings and needing new skills to help them and their owners navigate this development stage. For dogs 6 months - 2 years old. For more information or to request a free assessment form please feel free to reach out via the button below, visit www a-dogs-best-friend.com or email [email protected].

06/06/2025

I often hear that a reaction "came out of nowhere" or "they are usually fine with XYZ but they completely freaked out this time". This is usually due to what we call Trigger Stacking.

Essentially Trigger stacking is a dog being hit with one "trigger" after another without enough decompression to have their adrenaline return to baseline, this then results in a reaction to what was the "last Straw" (which if interacted with alone can normally be ignored or redirected from)

Trigger stacking is something that every dog experiences to some extent and is often overlooked or unknown by owners. So try and make note of how your dogs day, or week is going, so you can set them up to succeed rather than putting them in situations they are going to add to what may have already been an overwhelming walk/social situation.

As suggested in the poster, decompression after busy walks/days or weeks is best, no dog will die from missing a few days walks, and you will find both you and them find it much more enjoyable next time you venture out if so. You can also aid in their regulation by creating opportunities to lick, sniff and chew as all of these help calm a dog too.

For more tips or to request a free training or behavioural assessment form, please visit www.a-dogs-best-friend.com or email [email protected]

23/05/2025

Woody is 10 months old and has been lucky enough to have found himself a fabulous forever home, (which as an adolescent staffy cross can be incredibly tricky) His new family includes children, teenagers, adults and cats so we have been working on basic training, impulse control and helping him be calmer in exciting scenarios. During his latest session we had the privilege of the two youngest children being home and so they were my training assistants today. Their parents were wanting to prioritise the kids learning how to listen to Woody, let him have space when needed and have the tools to ask him to respond to them needed so that is what we discussed, rehearsed and worked through. Both they and Woody did a fantastic job listening and training and it was a pleasure to have their help 👏🏼🐾😊

20/05/2025

This is one of my favourite tips to give when working with dogs that struggle to respond around distractions. If their nose is down consider their ears offline, so time your cues with this knowledge and you will hopefully find they're no longer "ignoring" you as much 🤞🏼🐾

13/05/2025

I'm very pleased to say that the 20% off Discount Code PerfectFit Harness offered my customers for Dogs Day Out weekend is available to be used until June 10th, so that those of you who were unable to make the event can still indulge.

As many of you know I highly recommend Perfect For harnesses as they are not only amazing quality, and come in a wonderful variation of colours and sizes, they also do exactly as the name alludes to.

They take away the need to touch your dogs feet or go over your dog's heads which many are uncomfortable with and they accommodate the dogs natural balancing points and offer both a front and back attachment, which can be utilised by also purchasing their double ended leads.

So if you're looking upgrade your dogs walking equipment go to https://perfect-fit-dog-harness.com/harness.html and use the code BEST20 for 20% off.