PupScouts Dog Training

25/04/2025

Back to work with Lindy & Beau! We’re now doing training sessions out & about and our first session is the park! We’re going to be tackling engagement and attention, getting him to focus on us, and also slowing things down ☀️

13/04/2025

Recall training with another dog AND just outside the dog park fence. Ashley continues to work hard with her pup and it shows!

12/04/2025

Congrats to these hardworking pawrents, Paul & Logan for helping their girl Margot graduate in our Basic Obedience program! They’ve spent weeks with us, consistent in their training, and every session just got better and better.

I love dog owners who are committed and PUT IN WORK.

Margot’s a sweet pup and she earned that cap & bandana 🎓

Welcome to the Pack, PupScour Margot 💗🌟💗🌟

11/04/2025

Dogs behave the way they do for many reasons. They don’t act out of stubbornness or a desire to be ‘naughty,’ nor do they try to take control to be the 'pack leader.' Old myths and outdated training approaches harm their well-being and strain the bond between dogs and their caregivers.

🧬 A dog’s breed and genetics shape certain behavioural traits. Genetic predispositions and breed-specific tendencies play a role. Some breeds lean toward behaviours like herding, hunting, or guarding.

The neonatal period and the environment a dog grows up in can impact and influence their emotional responses. Early socialisation period—appropriately exposing puppies using reward-based methods to diverse people, animals, and settings during their key developmental window—builds confidence and shapes emotional regulation, adaptive behaviours, social skills, and reduces fear or aggression later on.

Overstimulation triggers unwanted behaviours by overwhelming a dogs senses. Not enough sleep, loud noises, crowds, or constant busy activity can lead to hyperactivity or erratic/impulsive responses. For example, a dog might jump, bark, or pull on the leash when flooded with too much daily input.

Past experiences and learned consequences shape behaviour. Trauma, especially, can spark fear, anxiety, or aggression.

How caregivers interact and guide their dogs shape their emotional responses and behaviours. Empathy, prevention (environmental management), consistency, and positive reinforcement methods build a more stable and confident dog. Punitive correction-based and intimidation methods can create unpredictability, confusion, and fear, which may lead to aggressive defensive responses.

A dogs health—physical and mental—affects their behaviour. Pain, illness, or discomfort can shift how they act.

Emotions that cause distress, like fear, anxiety, or excessive excitement, drive behaviour or a ‘lack thereof.’ Responses are instinctive and depend on how the dog perceives a threat. They might react defensively (fight), flee to hide (flight), freeze in place, or fawn by showing submissive, appeasing behaviours to de-escalate conflict—like excessive licking or cowering. Some may shut down entirely into learned helplessness after prolonged stress, while others display excessive, out-of-context behaviours (fidgeting), like random ge***al checks, eating grass, scratching, or ‘shaking off.

Unmet mental or physical needs lead to frustration and destruction. A dog with pent-up energy or boredom might chew furniture, dig up the yard, or bark nonstop to release stress.

Diet influences behaviour, too. High-quality nutrition supports steady energy, good mood, and well-being. Poor food choices can cause irritability, hyperactivity, or gut issues.

As dogs age, canine cognitive decline can set in as well as the loss of hearing or eyesight. These changes can lead to increased confusion, disorientation, and altered social interactions in older dogs.

Every dog is unique, and behaviour varies within context, experiences, breeds, and life stages. Dogs express needs, emotions, and intentions through body language, vocalizations, and other signals. Reading these cues gives you insight into their behaviour and how they are feeling, which can help you prevent unwanted situations from happening or help you adjust your approach to challenges.

I’m not humanising dogs—they are sentient beings with emotions (Cambridge Declaration, 2012). Their feelings and needs may not be as layered as ours, but they’re real!

Thanks for reading and learning more about them🐾💜

05/04/2025

Ashley’s enrolled her little man Reggie in our basic obedience program and our first session was very eye opening for her and Aaron and they’ve got enough homework to put into practice until the next time we see each other. I can’t wait to see Ashley’s growth AND Reggie’s!!

03/04/2025

Celebrating another graduate & this time it’s Lindy & her little dude, Beau! Beau has done really well throughout training in the basic obedience program. From leash training, to recall, learning leave it, and going to bed… he’s done it all! Training never ends though, so I can’t wait to keep working with these two as they prepare to enroll in more advanced training with us!

Welcome to the Pack, PupScout Beau!

01/04/2025

We have a new PupScout Trainee named Hermes and it’s safe to say I am sooo excited to train together! He is a good-motivated, eager, and smart little guy who already aced his first session with us! We’re excited to see what the future holds with Blaid, Jeff & Hermes!

31/03/2025

Aero earned his lil cap & bandana and graduated from his socialization program with us! We started working together last year in his obedience and the progress from then to now is amazing! His mom Kaitlin puts in the work and it SHOWS. She’s done an awesome job working with him, and you can tell they enjoy doing things together. Pawfect job on your continuing education, PupScout Aero 😜✨🎓

27/03/2025

There’s a time to heel & a time for break — make sure you teach your dog to know the difference.

27/03/2025

25/03/2025

Our social pack hikes are a great opportunity for our clients and their dogs to be around dogs and NOT interact with them, either right away, or even at all. It might just feel like all you’re doing is going hike & sweating from incline, but your dog is getting their own workout in too, in more ways than just physical!

24/03/2025

It was a great morning for a pack hike with the pups! Joining us for the first time was Bentley, and his parents Oscar and Jazzmine, and Aero, with his momma Kaitlin. Moka brought his parents Akinyemi & Kayli, and Leo fetched his parents Preston & Sharlee 😉

21/03/2025

What might look like a small step for us, is actually a huge step for Melrose. Just getting her to be outside and calmly lie down beside her foster parents took a lot of courage for her. Little by little we’ll build her confidence.

18/03/2025

Coco doing her thing out at the park, & lookin good too! ✨☀️

16/03/2025

Rocky’s gotten better at his downstays, so now it’s time to work on place training!

10/03/2025

How to train your dog with their meals!

09/03/2025

Aero trains with Lovely for the first time & is rewarded with his prized sweet potato snackie 😋

04/03/2025

Morning sessions start your day right ☀️