ABC Dogs NZ

ABC Dogs NZ ABC Dogs NZ. All Behaviour is Communication. Sharing insights on reactivity, body language, and relationship-based learning. Based in New Zealand.
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What if you're trying to “fix” the wrong thing?The barking? Those lunges when they’re reacting?How about the pulling whe...
24/06/2026

What if you're trying to “fix” the wrong thing?
The barking?
Those lunges when they’re reacting?
How about the pulling when walking?

What if I told you working on just those could be the exact reason there’s little to no progress.
They’re often behavioural symptoms.

There is usually something much more happening and bubbling away under the surface.

If you really want to make progress, look at the reasons.
That’s not as simple as it sounds though.
Why is this happening.
What emotions are they feeling?
Because if it’s frustration and it isn’t looked at as a “whole”, not much will change.

How is your timing?
Timing in training is everything too.
Especially with reactivity and please, be careful with the advice to “just let them watch”.

Some can watch the world go by and make progress.
Others?
All that could be happening is allowing your dog to fixate MORE.
And it sneakily looks like “progress”

There are glancers.
There are lookers.
And there are fixaters.

A dog standing quietly can look like progress.
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes there's still a storm underneath.

Above all else.
Get onto issues asap.
They really don’t grow out of it, they tend to grow into and practice behaviours far, far more than time just magically waving over them and “voila”.

You can (please hear me with this), you can make progress.

It is often slower and more involved than some people realise.
But there are some key areas we all need to look at.

Timing.
Emotions.
Individuality.

They all play the biggest parts.
By far.

Tails can have an unsure side?👀Tails are sneaky.Their tail isn't just moving.It's communicating.Most people only look fo...
22/06/2026

Tails can have an unsure side?👀
Tails are sneaky.
Their tail isn't just moving.
It's communicating.

Most people only look for one thing
Wagging = happy.
Except that's not always true.

A dog can wag when they're excited.
Wag when they're frustrated.
They can wag when they're worried.
They can even wag when they're deciding what to do next.

This is where it gets interesting.

Because it's not just if the tail moving, it’s which side too.

Researchers have found that some dogs can wag more to one side than the other depending on what they're feeling.

Theres a catch though.
The problem is we often focus on the tail and ignore the rest of the dog.

A wagging tail attached to a relaxed body tells a very different story to a wagging tail attached to a dog with a closed mouth, hard eyes and a body full of tension.

That's why tails can be so misleading.

The same signal can mean completely different things depending on what comes with it, what side as well as where and when it’s wagging.

A tail can give us a clue.
But clues really aren't the whole story.

So what emotion are they communicating?

To answer that, we need to look at the bigger picture.

"Wait, they smile when they're afraid?" 🤔Fear doesn't always look scared.Sometimes it looks drooly.Wrinkly.Even smiley.A...
20/06/2026

"Wait, they smile when they're afraid?" 🤔
Fear doesn't always look scared.

Sometimes it looks drooly.
Wrinkly.
Even smiley.

And that's the tricky part.
Because the exact same signals can appear in completely different situations.

A dog can show teeth when they're happy.
They can drool because they're excited.
They can lick their lips because they're anticipating food.

So how do you know when you're looking at anxiety?

By not looking for just one thing.

Dogs rarely communicate with a single signal.
It's the combination that matters.

A hunched posture with whale eye and tongue flicks.
A wrinkled face full of tension with those pearly whites on display.
A curved body, lowered tail and drool running from the mouth.

One signal can mislead you.

Individually, the signals can "lie".

Together, they're often impossible to ignore.

20/06/2026

Where does your dog sit?🤔

"Why would I want my dog doing nothing?"🙄Because the nothing is everything.It's teaching them to settle.Teaching them to...
18/06/2026

"Why would I want my dog doing nothing?"🙄
Because the nothing is everything.

It's teaching them to settle.
Teaching them to switch off.
Showing them that relaxation is an option.

We spend so much time teaching dogs to do things.
Sit.
Come. Wait. Leave it.
But some dogs never learn how to stop.

Ever sat at a dog-friendly café and wondered how some dogs can just lie there and relax?

Next time you're there, have a look underneath them.
Notice that mat?
Their own little piece of familiarity in a very busy world.

A place where good things have happened over and over again.

Food. Pats. Toys. Praise.
Safety.

The mistake people make is jumping straight to "stay".

Because a mat isn't supposed to be a place your dog is forced to remain.
It's a place they want to be.

At first, all you're doing is making that spot the best place in the world.
Then you slowly expand where that mat goes.
The backyard.
Then a friend's house.
The vet waiting room.

It’s not "stay here."
It’s not "don't move."

It should be "This spot is safe."

That's why mat work can be so powerful.

That's why it works.

18/06/2026

Nope not ai👇

Passionate?You betcha.I am so over this.The same breeders.The same excuses.And the same old stories."It was an accidenta...
17/06/2026

Passionate?
You betcha.

I am so over this.

The same breeders.
The same excuses.
And the same old stories.

"It was an accidental litter."

One is an accident.
Avoidable, but let's be generous and call it an accident.

Two is preventable.
Six litters with barely five months between them? That's not an accident.
That's a production schedule.

"It's to protect the breed."

Is it?

Then where’s the health testing?
Not the certificate printed off the internet.
Not the made-up paperwork. But the actual health testing.

Because I'm seeing the consequences.
Not once and not occasionally

The same problems. From the same breeders.
Over and over again.

Hip dysplasia.
Luxating patellas.
Heart defects.
Blindness.
Deafness.
Skeletal abnormalities.

And then there are the things people don't immediately see.
The behavioural fallout.

The fearful puppy, or the anxious puppy.
That puppy that struggles to cope with the world.

The puppy that guards food because there was always competition and scarcity when that food was scooped into one bowl and it became a “free for all”.

Because breeding isn't just about what a puppy looks like.

It starts before they are even born. The health of the parents matters.

Those genetics absolutely matter.
And the mother? Her nutrition, environment and having a calm environment.

It all matters.

Because every decision made before those puppies take their first breath can affect them for the rest of their lives.

And who pays the price?

Not the breeder.

The puppy does.
And so does the family who trusted what they were told by someone who should have known better.

The family now spending thousands of dollars on surgeries.
The people trying to help a fearful dog navigate the world.
The couple sitting in a veterinary clinic hearing news they never expected.

The breeder has already been paid.
They've long since moved on to the next litter.

Everyone else is left dealing with the consequences.

We can try so hard for that “instant” connection that it can feel personal when it doesn’t happen.They may avoid you.Kee...
15/06/2026

We can try so hard for that “instant” connection that it can feel personal when it doesn’t happen.

They may avoid you.
Keep their distance and show zero interest in affection we can give.

We give them everything but sometimes fail to understand what they have LOST.

They can be grieving.

And we may not understand that, especially when they came from a very damaged background.
But ideal or just awful, it WAS familiar.

Losing that can absolutely affect them

The smell of the home they knew.
The loss of the walk on their favourite street.
Who they saw every morning when they woke up.
The routine they knew.

It’s all gone.

We see they’re struggling and desperately want to help them.

We buy them the comfy bed. But it’s not “theirs”, yet.
It smells different from the old musty blanket they had covered in their own hair.

We buy new toys and want them to play.
But it’s not their favourite game or their favourite toy. That didn’t come with them.

A dog can be in a vastly better environment and situation for them and STILL experience loss.

That adjustment they need?
Sometimes it feels personal.
Like you’ve done something wrong or you're not doing enough.
It feels like a distance and no amount of “trying” from us seems to work.

Their loss is real and it needs to be recognised.

Your new dog cannot feel a connection when theres no safety.
“But, it’s safe here, I would never hurt them”.

They don’t know that yet.
Safety can take days, weeks or months and it happens when it happens.
That 3x3x3 rule?
There is no real timeline we can predictably rely on other than it will take as long as it takes.

But when we are predictable and consistent, and when that feeling of safety envelops them THAT is when you will see those connections.

You’ll see glimpses .
They may be tiny at first or you may see real connection and then distance again.

A little more curiosity.
A bit more confidence.
They’ll start to show more trust.

Your connection now isn't what it will be in the future.

Because safety comes before connection.

All they need right now is to feel safe.

Save this for the hard days 💙

What was the smallest sign your rescue started to trust you?

"I swear he wasn't like this yesterday."The dog that's grabbing clothes, barking at everything, jumping and squealing or...
13/06/2026

"I swear he wasn't like this yesterday."

The dog that's grabbing clothes, barking at everything, jumping and squealing or struggling to listen.

I know it feels like it happened overnight.
What if it didn’t?

What catches people out is that dogs don't reset to zero after a sleep.

Excitement can carry over, long after the ball has been put away.
Frustration can carry over, even when there's no obvious cause.

A busy weekend gets added to the counter too.
Sometimes even a busy week.

We don't want to stop the fun.
We see them happy.
Engaged and loving the intensity.
Wanting to interact over and over again.

So we keep saying yes.

We excuse it.
"He's just a teenager."
"She gets mouthy when she's happy."
But eventually we can end up with a problem that excitement won't solve.

Because we've added more onto a dog who was already carrying the days before.
And the days before that.

That's why over-arousal can be so difficult to spot.

It disguises itself as fun.

As excitement.

As "the best day ever."
And it does that day after day.
Week after week.

And then we add more to “tire them out”.

The trouble is that sometimes the last thing an over aroused dog needs,
is more.

There's an uncomfortable part to this.We like certainty.See the signal.Name the signal.Understand the dog.A lip lick.A y...
11/06/2026

There's an uncomfortable part to this.

We like certainty.

See the signal.
Name the signal.
Understand the dog.

A lip lick.
A yawn.
Looking away.

Most people want one meaning for each.

One signal.
One answer.
One reason.
Done and dusted.

Dogs rarely offer us that luxury.

The same behaviour can be a calming signal, an appeasement gesture or a displacement behaviour.

The signal may be identical.
The meaning may not be.

Certainty is so tempting.

But to read dogs well, we need to stay curious.
We need to look at the context.

We need to question our first conclusion and even our second and third.

And sometimes we need to admit that what we're seeing doesn't fit neatly into what we thought we knew at all.

That's the uncomfortable part.

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