The City Dog Club

20/06/2026

Struggling to get past distractions or finding your dog reactive to city life?

The 123 game gives your dog a simple pattern to follow when the world gets a bit too much. Instead of reacting, they learn to move with you.

Start it at home so it becomes automatic, then take it out into the real world, past dogs, people, scooters… all the fun city chaos.

This is one of my go to games for building focus and calm on walks.

20/06/2026

Teaching the beginnings of a leave it cue.

Living in the city can be tough for dogs.

One minute you’re enjoying a nice walk, the next there’s a discarded sandwich, half a sausage roll and something mysterious that’s been sitting on the pavement since bin day.

That’s why every leave it starts somewhere simple.

This is the first stage. Teaching your dog that moving away from something they want is what makes the good stuff happen.

No shouting. No grabbing things out of their mouth. Just helping them make better choices.

Once they understand the game in your hand, we can start building it into real-life situations. But first, they need to understand the concept.

The foundations matter.

19/06/2026

The first thing I teach every dog is a marker word. It’s how I got Scrappy off lead in two weeks.

A marker word such as ‘yes’ bridges the gap between behaviour and reward, so the dog understands exactly what worked.

On walks, I used it to mark every check in by Scrappy. I would take her breakfast on her walk and use it to reward her every time she looks at me. Looking at me became a positive outcome for her.

It became so powerful it doubled up as a recall for her and I still use it over a year and a half later.

17/06/2026

Terrified of picnic season around the corner? Join the picnic challenge to sharpen up your recall. Keep your pup from hassling picnic goers and embarrassing you!

Dm the word picnic to join the challenge!

Send a message to learn more

16/06/2026

Thinking of getting a dog from overseas and you live in the city do your research. Some dogs from abroad cannot adjust to city life with its lack of freedom and overwhelm. Make sure your charity is reputable and on hand if things go wrong

13/06/2026

Dachshunds are so much more than cute dogs. Never underestimate their potential!
unds

08/06/2026

How to create a resource guarder:

Keep taking things away from your dog.

Scrappy isn’t guarding the jacket. She’s guarding the kibble that I have left in the pocket.

Resource guarding is a normal canine behaviour. Dogs guard things they consider valuable, whether that’s food, toys, beds, people or even space. People resource guard too. We lock our doors, protect our phones and put fences around our property.

When a dog learns that people approaching means valuable things disappear, guarding can become more likely.

The growl is not the problem. The growl is information. It’s your dog’s way of saying, “I’m uncomfortable with what’s on happening right now.”

Listen to the growl. Understand what your dog is trying to protect. Then work on changing how they feel about people approaching rather than simply suppressing the warning. With Scrappy because I have never tried to take anything off her but always just made what o have seen more exciting she is easy to disengage from something she finds valuable.

What’s the strangest thing your dog has ever guarded? Our first dachshund used to resource guard pink fluffy things!

05/06/2026

Picnic season is coming, which means one thing: dogs suddenly deciding that every blanket in the park has been laid out especially for them.

This month in The City Dog Club we’re teaching a special recall cue: PICNIC. The goal is simple. When your dog hears it, they leave the dropped sandwich, sausage roll or unsuspecting family picnic and come running back to you.

In this reel I’m starting the process by pairing the word with food. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing more videos of Bruno learning the cue, along with games you can play at home to build a reliable recall around distractions.

It’s all part of our June challenge inside the club.

Comment PICNIC and I’ll send you the link to join, or visit my website to become a member.