Koven Moodley - Smart Pet Behaviour

12/06/2025

❤️

11/06/2025

"𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙖 𝙙𝙤𝙜, 𝙖𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚."
~ Roger Caras

📸 Sophie

11/06/2025

🧠🐾 Behavioural Tip: A Busy Dog is a Happy Dog!

Is your dog barking non-stop, digging holes or chewing everything in sight? It may not be “naughtiness” — it could be boredom!
👉 Just like humans, dogs need mental exercise every single day to stay happy, calm and well-behaved.

✅ What’s the solution?
Enrichment.
It’s not just a treat or a once-in-a-while activity — it should be part of their daily life.
By giving your dog something to do with their brain (and nose!), you help prevent problem behaviours and grow a stronger bond between you.

Try these fun, easy enrichment ideas:
🐽 Scatter Feeding – Toss dry food around the garden and let them sniff it out. It activates their brain and encourages calm behaviour.
🎯 Hide-the-Treats – Hide goodies in your garden or home and let them search like little detectives.
🧻 Treat Tubes – Use cardboard toilet rolls or egg boxes with treats inside. Cheap, fun and shreddable!
🧺 Towel Puzzles – Roll up treats in a towel and let your dog figure out how to unwrap the reward.
🧊 Dog Ice Lollies – Freeze a few treats in water for a cool, lickable challenge (perfect for hot days!).
🧩 Puzzle Feeders & KONGs – Stuff them with their regular food. It turns mealtime into a mentally stimulating game.

💡 Bonus: You don’t need fancy toys — just a bit of creativity and a few household items!
🔗 Want more ideas and how-tos?
Click here for our full guide to enrichment and how it can transform your dog’s behaviour:
👉 https://pulse.ly/hc2mwji6ur

10/06/2025

09/06/2025

PUPPY SOCIALISATION - MILLIE

I did some puppy socialisation with Millie the Doodle (bug) today and she was amazing with 10 dogs who she had never met. She is extroverted, confident and extremely playful. She tired out my dogs so much so that they are all fast asleep now.

In addition to loads of playing and zoomies, she had a chance to learn how to use a ramp, stairs (up and down), a dog door and get into a crate for some calm time to chew on pizzle stick. She had lots of exploring and investigating in the garden while learning how to navigate the pond which she absolutely loved.

Millie has booked with a reputable puppy school and daycare but until she starts there, she took the gap to start her socialisation journey safely already after her mum did a puppy orientation session with me last week.

Early socialisation for a pup is critical to build confidence and independence. Early, safe exposure (before 12-15 weeks) to different animals, textures, surfaces, people, sounds, experiences and environments is critical for building emotional resilience that will help them navigate through life as they grow. The more calm exposure that a pup experiences, the better. Don't leave it till the last minute to provide your pup with this opportunity as you may be setting them up for a life time of reactivity, fear and low confidence.

It was a pleasure having Millie spend some time with us this morning ❤️

09/06/2025

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Watch full video

08/06/2025

Forced crating, nail clipping, grooming or muzzling can all traumatise your dog. Be proactive and find a FF R+ professional to assist BEFORE it's needed.

08/06/2025

ABBEY - CANINE DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY

Because dogs are emotional beings, they can suffer from depression and anxiety. There are many signs that a behaviourist will look for to confirm an assessment of depression or anxiety before working with a vet and the guardians to address this emotional state.

Picture on the left - Abbey at the assessment. She was super anxious, very depressed (she showed all the clinical and behaviourial signs) and was not coping with certain sounds, the inverter, her new home, guests and the helper. She used to dig a hole at the end of the garden and sit there all day, not eating, playing or cuddling. She went into shut down mode. Her guardians were besides themselves on how to help her as she seemed to have been wasting away.

Pic on the right - Abbey after 3 months. She is changed dog who is happier, eating, playing, engaging with the world, has more confidence and is less afraid of everything.

From her guardian - "Abbey is a different dog... she is making more progress each day. She is even ok with our domestic now... visitors too. So a happy, stimulated, well adjusted dog, thanks."

In cases like this, meds alone will not be effective. Please seek the advise of a qualified animal behaviourist (not a trainer) with a background in emotionality, animal psychology and pyschopharmacology to assist with an assessment and a plan of action. Understanding your pet's emotionality and impact on behaviour will be critical in cases like this.

Well done Peter...your commitment to Abbey's emotional health has made all the difference 👏

07/06/2025

I had 2 clients today who have been using aversive trainers for MONTHS and not seeing results. They contacted me to ask for alternative views on various behaviourial issues that they were not seeing traction on. But I found them to be so attached to old ways of doing things, along with these old relationships, that I have doubts as to whether they are willing to change their thoughts, behaviours and mindsets long enough to give their dogs a chance to grow into the truly amazing dogs that they can be by using force-free, positive reinforcement methods to modify their behaviours. I think they wanted magical solutions without the commitment and investment required to build new brain patterns and hence new behaviours....oh well, if you know better and choose to not do better for your dogs, then the behaviour fallouts from aversive tools and methods are on you.

06/06/2025

When there are too many of us wanting some warmth on a cold Johannesburg morning but mum says we must be civilized and form a line to take turns in front of the heater...🔥

Umi was the smartest of the lot - she stayed under the duvet with the electric blanket on...

05/06/2025

Rethinking the HOW of sterilization and not the IF...