Catalyst Canine

24/08/2026

Poor Ella was really struggling when we first started working together. Unable to leave the house, hiding in her kennel for long stretches of time, struggling to find joy and contentment.

Her mum was incredibly distressed seeing her become more and more shutdown but together with the help of ’s dynamic dog assessment and an array of vets we figured out that Ella suffers from a spinal condition and was experiencing significant pain and discomfort in daily life.

By treating her pain through a biopsychosocial approach we’ve made enormous strides and Ella’s world is getting bigger every day.

We still have ways to go but I’m so proud of Ella and her guardian!

12/08/2026

20/07/2026

Reading ‘Tell Me Where It Hurts’ by Rachel Zoffness as a part of ’s mentorship has reaffirmed to me once more how important our work as behavior consultants is in helping painful dogs live their best lives.

For a long time, I felt stuck if a client was having trouble getting their dog adequate medical support. These days I feel more confident in my medical liaison skills - helping clients navigate veterinary care. But I am also more empowered than ever to support them in building a life for their dog which improves their quality of life and alters their dogs experience of pain.

13/07/2026

Piglet’s feelings about horses are shifting! From his first fright as a puppy in which he needed to be gently escorted away, to settling around horses like a champ!

If at any time he had shown me that his thinking brain was offline I could have helped him more with distance or suggesting alternative behaviors to regulate himself.

Overall I’m super pleased especially because it was beginning to heat up!

27/06/2026

There are no guarantees but you can stack the odds in your favour when bringing a second dog into your home!

25/06/2026

Play with your dogs. That’s the whole message.

23/06/2026

Team Zoey has officially graduated coaching. 🎓❤️

When we first started working together, Zoey’s world had become very small. But so had her guardian’s.

Every walk carried worry. Every encounter felt like something that needed to be managed. Every decision came with the weight of trying to prevent things from going wrong.

Today, the biggest change isn’t just that Zoey is hiking again, navigating unfamiliar dogs, meeting strangers, and exploring the world with more confidence.

It’s that her guardian is trusting again.

Trusting Zoey to make good choices.

Trusting herself to support Zoey through difficult moments.

Trusting that one hard day doesn’t undo months of progress.

Because behavior change isn’t just about changing the dog. It’s about rebuilding a relationship where both dog and human feel safe enough to live a bigger life.

Congratulations Team Zoey. Your world is bigger, your partnership is stronger, and you both worked incredibly hard to get here. ❤️

16/06/2026

When people hear “loopy training” they often think about dog sports or advanced clicker skills.

But I think it’s just as valuable in behaviour work.

A training loop is the entire cycle that occurs around a behaviour:

Cue → Behaviour → Reinforcement

In this clip, the hand touch isn’t the whole exercise.

Bo collects a thrown cookie, turns back towards me, touches my hand, earns reinforcement, and then is cued to collect the next cookie before the cycle begins again.

The goal is to create a loop that is smooth, predictable, and easy for the dog to understand.

Why?

Because once the dog understands the pattern, changes in behavior become meaningful information beyond whether he understands the cue to touch my hand.

If the dog suddenly struggles, disengages, hesitates, or finds the exercise more difficult, we can be more confident we’re seeing something about the environment, the level of challenge, or the dog’s current state—not just confusion created by our training.

Clean loops don’t just help dogs learn.

They help us become better observers.

Have you ever used loopy training in your own training sessions?

11/06/2026

Facts.

25/05/2026

It’s getting hot out. Heatstroke is a big deal. Sadly I’ve witnessed a couple of dogs be seriously affected by it. But I’ve also seen the effects of heat in behavior in ways that I don’t see talked about enough!