Affinity Animal Training and Behaviour

25/08/2025

Not every behaviour is a “behaviour problem.”

We are generally very quick to pathologise what might be normal, context-appropriate, or physically driven behaviour. Let's concentrate on the latter here for a moment. Before we label a dog “anxious” or reach straight for behaviour meds, pause and ask: is the body asking for help?

Pain/medical issues show up in way more behaviour cases than most people think. Estimates range from ~28–82% of referred cases, and that's just referred cases (e.g., Camps et al., 2019; Demirtis et al., 2023; Kogan et al., 2024; Mills et al., 2020; Mills & Zulch, 2023). If we only chase "training fixes," we risk missing the real driver.

🔎Body stuff that often gets lumped into “behavioural”🔎

1. Musculoskeletal pain (neck/back/hips; toe/nail; soft-tissue strain) → reluctance, irritability, protectiveness around handling.

2. GI discomfort (nausea, reflux, constipation, food intolerance) → restlessness, avoidance, noise-sensitivity flares.

3. Skin/ear irritation (itch, infections, allergies) → poor sleep, touch avoidance, agitation.

4. Dental/oral pain (fractures, periodontal disease) → face-guarding, sudden “won’t do it”, reluctance to take treats.

5. Sensory change (vision/hearing) → new startles, “stubbornness,” spatial hesitation, especially with age.

6. Neurological changes (focal seizures/auras, neuropathic pain, vestibular episodes, cognitive change etc.) → sudden fear/irritability, freeze–startle cycles, “zoned-out” moments, pacing/circling, shadow-or light-chasing, head/neck rubbing, sleep startle and/or aggression.

7. Feeling unwell / sleep debt / hormonal shifts → lower thresholds, slower recovery, less play/social.

We can’t fairly — or effectively — modify learned patterns that grew on top of pain, itch, nausea, sensory loss, or fatigue without first stabilising health. Then, if any learned layer remains, address it. Reviews repeatedly recommend medical screening when behaviour changes are sudden, escalating, or out of character.

💡 Research snapshot: Dogs with noise sensitivity + musculoskeletal pain often show a different pattern and cope worse, so treating the “behaviour” while ignoring pain prolongs distress (Lopes Fagundes et al., 2018).

Friendly note: This isn’t “anti-meds.” Medication can be vital. It’s order of operations: body first, then behaviour so we’re treating the right thing, for the right reasons.

Quick triage you can use today:

✅Sudden change? Think medical until proven otherwise.

✅Scan basics: sleep, appetite, stools/urine, ear-shake/scratching, licking/toe-chew, gait, reluctance to chew.

✅Watch the trend: latency to engage ↑; voluntary initiations ↓; opt-outs ↑ across days = lower intensity and book the vet.

✅Ageing dogs: screen senses before assuming “training” or “cognitive” issues.

What “address the body first” looks like:

🐾Vet exam guided by history (orthopaedics; oral exam incl. radiographs; dermatology/otology; GI work-up as indicated).

🐾Pain plan (analgesia, physio, environmental tweaks). As comfort improves, protective/irritable behaviour often eases.

Bottom line is, training and medication both have a place, just in the right order and with the dog’s comfort front and centre.

**Important: Bodies and brains go together. Some dogs genuinely struggle with anxiety and when that’s the case, it merits careful evaluation and compassionate treatment (sometimes including medication).**

19/08/2025

19/08/2025

Can We Really Rule Out Pain?
​We all know the conversation. A horse starts acting out, and the owner says, "I've had everyone check him out, and they've ruled out pain." My heart goes out to them because I know they're trying. And as a trainer, the first thing I say is always, "Let's get them checked for pain."
​But here’s the thing: can we ever really rule out pain? Honestly, I don't think so. Pain isn't always a glaring problem with a clear diagnosis. Sometimes, it’s a subtle stiffness, a little twinge, or a dull ache that only bothers them in a specific situation.
​Horses are incredible at hiding what hurts. That "naughty" behavior—the resistance, the grumpiness, the bucking—that's often their only way of saying, "This hurts." We have to learn to see these things not as attitude problems, but as clues.
Also like humans the tolerance for pain will differ between horses,
​A single vet visit is great, but it’s just a moment in time. The real pain might only show up under the stress of a ride. So instead of just "ruling it out," we need to become problem solvers. This means working with a whole team—your vet, your farrier, your bodyworker—and most importantly, listening to the horse.
​Let's start thinking of that "ruled out" statement as an invitation to keep digging, not as a finished conversation. Our horses depend on us to be their voice.

19/08/2025

18/08/2025

09/08/2025

I love watching Megan with her dogs, they are all incredible! Have a look at the amazing training she is doing with her new pup who is training to be a medical alert dog 🤩

04/08/2025

Small signals.
Big meanings.
These movements and behaviors aren’t random.
They've been carefully chosen and deliberately used by your dog and they're being used to avoid confrontation, deescalate or steer clear of something they feel uneasy about .
They might sense just a little pressure or conflict...so they offer a signal to say, “We’re all good here.”

Growling is a clear signal they can give...but it's risky.
Way before the growl are all these little signals they can give.
It's communication and it's natural....but we can be "offended" when we realise they are aiming them at us.

Instead of taking it personally, we can ask ourselves....
Why do they feel the need to use them?
That question is an opportunity to support our dogs better

Some signals serve a double duty.
A tail lowering, perhaps tucking? Often fear.....but it can also act as appeasement.
A lowered head? Maybe appeasement, maybe fear.
Context matters.

They can be incredibly subtle.
Tricky to spot....but we owe it to our dogs to look a little deeper at why they are behaving the way they are.

It is all communication.

24/07/2025

08/07/2025

02/07/2025

The Parallel Universe of Dogs
Our dogs live in a sensory world entirely different from ours.
We think we experience reality, but the truth is, we only perceive our version of it.
How often have you debated the colour of an object? Or disagreed on how something smells or tastes? Human perception is fluid, subjective, and shaped by experience—now imagine how vastly different the world must be for dogs.
They might as well exist in a parallel universe.
That treat on the floor they can’t see.
That red ball in the green grass—so clear to us, yet invisible to them.
That cat in the bushes they seem to ignore—until the tiniest movement changes everything.
Dogs don’t see better or worse than us—they see differently. Their vision is adapted for dim light, making quick changes in brightness potentially disorienting. A dog struggling to transition between environments? Light conditions might be the cause.
Their acuity is estimated at 20/75—meaning that what a human sees at 75 feet, a dog sees at 20 feet. Yet their motion detection is extraordinary. While humans register movement at just 5%, dogs pick it up at 42%.
This could explain why they walk past a squirrel one moment, then suddenly lunge at something we haven’t even noticed.
Their depth perception surpasses ours, some studies suggest ultraviolet sensitivity, and remarkably, research even hints that dogs may align their bodies with the Earth’s magnetic field when they poo—which might explain their lengthy search for the perfect spot.
And then there’s sound.
Dogs hear nearly double the frequencies we do. They detect sounds four times farther than humans. That bark at "nothing"? That sudden startled reaction? It’s not nothing—they hear things we simply can’t.
Then, of course, there’s scent—perhaps the most misunderstood of all.
Smell is a world-builder for dogs. It’s how they navigate, communicate, and understand their surroundings. To restrict sniffing on walks is like blindfolding a human in front of a breathtaking landscape—a cruel disservice to their most powerful sense.
When we get frustrated with behaviors we don’t understand—scavenging, barking, hesitancy—we label them as bad, naughty, weird, or stupid.
But the reality is they don’t live in our world—they adapt to it.
Imagine how overwhelming human spaces must feel. Busy streets, unnatural chemical scents, chaotic sounds, restricted movement, expectations they never agreed to.
They see, hear, and smell things we will never experience, yet we often punish them for reacting to it.
So, when frustration rises—take a step back.
Instead of questioning their behaviour, question your own understanding.
Instead of restricting their instincts, respect the way they process the world.
Because if we truly listened, we’d realise—they have adapted for us far more than we have ever adapted for them.

02/07/2025