Perth Dog Walking Services

31/08/2025

🎆 Fireworks season is coming – start now! 🎆

You don’t have to dread it, you just need to train for it.
Dogs don’t magically “get used to” bangs overnight — it takes weeks of gentle practice. Start desensitising now with YouTube, Alexa, or Spotify:

1️⃣ Start when chilled - don’t add firework noises to an already hyper or over-aroused dog.
2️⃣ Play fireworks on whisper-volume while your dog relaxes. Reward calm.
3️⃣ Keep sessions short (3–5 mins), repeat daily, gradually playing for longer as dog stays calm.
4️⃣ Gradually increase volume only if they stay chilled. If they react, turn it back down, but don’t turn it off!
5️⃣ Mix it up – different rooms/times so it sticks.

⚠️ Your vibe matters – if you’re tense, they’ll feel it. Stay calm, casual, and in control. Act like you can’t hear a thing and carry on as normal!
🚫 Don’t fuss, cuddle or reassure – dogs don’t understand “it’s okay,” they just learn that trembling gets praise. Instead, reward when they’re calm and settled.

Start today so Bonfire Night is less drama and more chill. 🔥🐾

29/08/2025

🐾 Dog School Diaries - Turning challenges into calm, happy walks

🏆 Most Improved: Ringo the Rescue
Ringo is a mixed rescue with a history of reactivity. After working with several trainers without success, Ringo’s reactivity remained a daily struggle – until now.
His walks had been ruled by avoidance: early mornings, late nights, quiet routes, and crossed streets to steer clear of other dogs.

Today that all changed. With leadership, guidance, and improved leash handling, his owner stepped into the role Ringo needed all along – calm, confident leader. The result? A relaxed dog who no longer feels he has to control the world, because he knows his human has it handled.

For the first time, his owner can walk wherever she likes, at whatever time she likes, with Ringo trotting calmly at her side. 🐾✨

💪 Best Team Player: Jet the Springer
Jet is full of beans, full of bounce, and full of bad habits on the lead. Walks had turned into a tug-of-war, leaving her owners feeling more like reluctant water-skiers than happy dog walkers.

In one session we introduced clear leadership and guidance skills, sharpening up leash handling so Jet learned to walk with her humans instead of dragging them down the street. The difference was instant – no more chaos, just a Springer who finally realised life is much easier when she follows rather than leads. A total game-changer for both Jet and her owners. 🐾✨

🚨 Neighborhood Watch Graduate Jack is proof that small dogs come with very big opinions. At just a few pounds, he thinks it’s his duty to alert the whole neighbourhood every time a leaf blows past or a child whizzes past on a scooter. Bark first, ask questions never.

His session was about showing him it’s not his full-time job to run home security. With better leadership, leash handling, and some clear boundaries for the house, he started to relax and follow instead of freelancing.
Jack might be tiny, but the lesson was big: calm leaders make calm dogs. 🚨➡️🐾

✨ Most Potential: Luna the Chow Chow causes mayhem at home with barking, her session was about showing her owner how leadership, structure, and clear communication can help guide that strong personality. Chows are famously independent thinkers, so we focused on practical strategies like leash handling, impulse control, and setting house rules to help Luna feel calm and secure—rather than taking on the role of neighbourhood commentator.

Every dog is capable of progress when their humans commit to consistency, boundaries, and calm leadership. It’s never about “fixing” the dog in an hour – it’s about giving owners the tools and confidence to shape lasting change at home 🐕✨

🐾

Struggling with your dog’s behaviour?

I offer professional 1:1 dog training and behaviour modification sessions in the Perth area, tailored to your dog’s specific needs—whether it’s pulling on the lead, recall issues, reactivity, or just general manners.

Using a balanced, real-world approach that gets results, I’ll help you build calm, confident leadership and clear communication with your dog.

Drop me a message to chat about how I can help! 🐾

29/08/2025

Always kept on my toes with this lot! ❤️😂

27/08/2025

Wednesday 🐾

Stubble field zoomies, swims and a shot on the roundabout for Paddy and Charlie 😂

26/08/2025

Tuesday 🐾

Sunshine for the dog park this morning then everyone got soaked this afternoon!

25/08/2025

I see a lot of people who believe because their dog is trembling it must mean they’re anxious or nervous - it doesn’t!

Dogs can shake for lots of reasons, and context is everything.

👉 Some common reasons for trembling include:

🐾 Anticipation or excitement (like waiting for a ball to be launched, food being prepared or in the car on the way to a walk)
🐾 Cold – especially in leaner breeds or wet weather.
🐾 Pain or discomfort – trembling can sometimes be a subtle sign something isn’t right.
🐾 Stress or anxiety – yes, this is still a possibility, but it’s just one of several.

That’s why it’s so important to look at the whole dog. A wagging tail held at mid-height, perked ears, and focused eyes? Likely excitement/anticipation.

A tucked tail, pinned ears, lip licking, yawning, or avoiding eye contact? That leans more towards anxiety.

Body language is the key to understanding our dogs – no single sign tells the full story. So next time you see a trembling pup, zoom out and take the bigger picture into account.

Here’s a video of Cassie at the golf course on Friday night, trembling with the anticipation of Reece hitting a golf ball - she just wishes she was allowed to fetch it back for him!

(Anyone who knows their golf will hear he hit a terrible shot 🙈😂)

23/08/2025

These “Welcome to the Pack” posts used to come thick and fast – but you might have noticed they’re a little less frequent now. That’s not because I don’t want to shout about your lovely dogs (trust me, I do!) – it’s because the pack is getting so full and I’m not taking on as many new faces these days.

That in itself feels huge – what started as me walking a handful of dogs (sometimes one a day!) has now grown into a thriving little community of wagging tails, muddy paws and happy owners.

I’m so grateful for all of you who’ve trusted me with your dogs – it’s thanks to your support and word-of-mouth that I’ve built such a busy, successful business.

So, with that being said – let’s give a big welcome to our newest pack members - Shadow, Balloo, Amber and Jet! 🐶✨

We might not be adding new friends every week anymore, but every single one that joins feels special, and I’m excited to have them on board for plenty of adventures ahead!

22/08/2025

Friday 🐾

21/08/2025

I’ll be honest – one of the reasons I hesitated getting into the dog training industry was the constant pressure to follow the “positive-only” crowd. The truth? That approach doesn’t work for every dog or every situation, and pretending it does often leaves owners stuck and dogs misunderstood.

I believe in balance. Realism over politics.
Every dog is an individual, and training should be centred around their needs – that means plenty of rewards, but also fair corrections when they’re needed. That’s how you build clarity, trust, and results.

This is worth a read - dogs (and their owners) deserve honesty, not ideology.

“Reward based training” “Positive reinforcement training” “positive only” “Force free training” “science based training” are all terms you’ll have heard recently… or rather have had rammed down your throat 😝😆 (sorry not sorry) but what does it mean?? What does it ACTUALLY mean?? And why do some trainers use it and others don’t? I don’t use the terms to describe my training!! Why?

Well here’s the thing - ALL trainers use positive reinforcement for the vast majority of training and behaviour!
It basically means we add something nice when the dog does what we want!
Sit = treat
Simple as that! So why aren’t ALL trainers saying we are “Positive reward based” if we all use it?
Well because it now represents a group of trainers who use it EXCLUSIVELY and will not use any other method available - they wouldn’t remove something nice from the dog to give a consequence, wouldn’t add something not nice (like a verbal correction) or anything that they perceive the dog to find mildly unpleasant (lead correction, aversive noise, introduction to what the dog finds triggering)
There is no escalation or deviance from just rewarding the good thing the dog does and you as the owner have to stand through long periods of bad behaviour simply ignoring it and waiting for the dog to do something good or simply avoid any situation your dog may do something bad- I’m going to give an example to make it easier.

If a dog (not a pup) jumps up continually at people a positive reward based force free trainer would drop treats on the floor to encourage the dog to not jump up but to stay on the floor and get the treats….. Now… I would tell you that’s rewarding the behaviour!

So what would I do? I would start by rewarding the dog for getting off, but if that didn’t work I would escalate my methods until we found what worked and stopped the behaviour - and that’s going to be different for every dog!
I would use something that the dog doesn’t like to discourage the behaviour! That could be a loud hand clap, sharp “OFF” command or a pet corrector to introduce a noise that the dog doesn’t like and therefore associates with the jumping up and doesn’t want to do the behaviour again.

Some extreme Positive only reward based trainers would say that it’s unkind as the dog doesn’t like it!
But I’ll tell you that dropping treats on the floor doesn’t stop the behaviour, the dog has no idea that you’re trying to stop them jumping and therefore will continue to do so! Which can be dangerous! They can knock children/ elderly people over, scratch and hurt people which gets them into trouble and it’s an unwanted and unnecessary behaviour!
So there is a fix
And there is a kind way to make owners think they’re fixing it but they’re not!

And now the perpetual argument starts
The Science based positive only trainers will make out that anything other than permanently feeding treats is cruel!
And normal logical thinking trainers like myself tell you that leaving a dog in a perpetual state of uncertainty and not setting boundaries is cruel!

I suppose it’s up to you, the dog owner to pick a team! 😆😆😆 So good luck because it’s an absolute sh!tshow in the dog training world 😆😆😆😆and nobody agrees and if you want to give this post 20 mins of being on the internet and then read the comments you’ll begin to see how many extreme and varied levels of ideology and methodology there are in dog training!!

19/08/2025

Tuesday 🐾

Stubble fields are officially back 🙌

18/08/2025

Monday 🐾

Totally fed up with this heat now… would like chilly days now please! 🥵

14/08/2025

Thursday 🐾

The morning group were out sharp and home before it got too hot ☀️

Then it was iced coffee for me and treat hide and seek for Ringos house visit - I lasted less than 3 minutes in the garden for his p*e 🥵

That’s me finished up for the week as I’ve taken tomorrow off, hope you all stay cool over the weekend and I’ll see everyone next week 😎