The Wag Way

18/08/2026

Walking my dogs is one of my biggest pleasures. I believe it is as important as training and a huge part of their general welfare.

Have We Really Reached the Point Where Dogs Don’t Need Exercise?

There seems to be a growing trend in the dog world suggesting that perhaps we’ve got it all wrong about exercise.

That dogs don’t need long walks. That physical exercise is overrated. That enrichment, training, sniffing, scatter feeding and mental stimulation can replace the need to get out there and physically move.

And I think we need to be very careful.

Because in our attempts to become more enlightened about dogs’ emotional and behavioural needs, I worry that we are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Dogs still need exercise.

As long as I have owned dogs, exercising them has been one of my greatest sources of joy. Walking, hiking, exploring, watching them run, sniff, play and simply be dogs. It has been good for them, good for me and an enormous part of the relationship I have built with every dog I have owned.

And now, as a professional dog trainer and behaviour specialist helping people across the globe with behavioural challenges, one of the most common contributing factors I see is remarkably simple:

The dog isn’t getting enough appropriate physical exercise.

Not because the owner is lazy.

Not because they don’t love their dog.

Not because they’re negligent or a “bad owner.”

Life is busy.

People work long hours. They have children, families and commitments. Winter brings dark mornings and dark evenings. Summer brings extreme heat. Some people live in areas where safe off-lead exercise is difficult. Others have dogs with reactivity, poor recall or other behavioural challenges that make exercising them more complicated.

There are a hundred perfectly understandable reasons why exercise can become difficult.

But an explanation for something doesn’t necessarily change the dog’s need for it.

The Five Es

I talk extensively about what I call the Five Es:

Education.
Enrichment.
Exercise.
Entertainment.
Emotional Stability.

They’re all important.

And notice that exercise has its own category.

Enrichment isn’t exercise.

Education isn’t exercise.

Training isn’t exercise.

Giving your dog a stuffed Kong isn’t exercise.

Sniffing for treats in the garden isn’t the equivalent of being able to stretch their legs and physically move their body.

All of those things have enormous value, but they fulfil different needs.

Sometimes I think we’ve started treating these things as interchangeable when actually they should complement one another.

What Would the Ideal Look Like?

If we were talking about best practice, I would love to see the average healthy dog getting somewhere in the region of an hour to an hour and a half of appropriate physical exercise each day.

Ideally, where appropriate, some of that would involve freedom of movement.

Running.

Trotting.

Exploring.

Sniffing.

Playing.

Moving over different terrain.

Interacting appropriately with other dogs if they enjoy doing so.

Being able to choose where they go, what they investigate and how quickly they move.

In other words, opportunities to move and behave like a dog.

Obviously, that picture has to be adjusted for the individual.

A young Border Collie and an elderly Pug aren’t going to have identical requirements. Breed, age, health, physical condition, temperament and lifestyle all matter. Exercise needs to be appropriate to the dog standing in front of you.

And no, relentlessly throwing a ball for an hour isn’t necessarily healthy exercise either.

Exercise doesn’t simply mean exhausting your dog.

It means giving their body an appropriate outlet for what it was designed to do.

But What If I Can’t Do That?

This is where I think the conversation needs to become practical rather than judgemental.

Because telling somebody, “You should walk your dog for 90 minutes every day,” doesn’t magically give them another 90 minutes.

We have to help people think laterally.

If your lifestyle means you cannot provide the textbook ideal every single day, ask yourself:

How can I tick that box differently?

Perhaps it’s a dog walker.

Perhaps it’s secure field hire.

Perhaps it’s two shorter walks rather than one long one.

Perhaps it’s meeting somebody whose dog yours enjoys and arranging regular walks together.

Perhaps it’s incorporating exercise into training.

Perhaps it’s getting in the car and travelling somewhere once or twice a week where your dog can have more freedom.

There are solutions.

But first we have to acknowledge that the need exists.

Freedom Starts With Training

One of the biggest barriers I see to people adequately exercising their dogs is actually a training problem:

They can’t let the dog off the lead because they don’t have a reliable recall.

And I completely understand why.

If your dog disappears over the horizon, chases livestock, runs towards roads or charges up to unfamiliar dogs, letting them off lead isn’t responsible.

But rather than accepting a lifetime of restriction, make recall training a priority.

Work on:

* Name response games
* Collar grabs
* Restrained recalls
* Conditioning a strong recall cue
* Reinforcing voluntary check-ins
* Teaching your dog that coming back to you doesn’t always mean the fun ends

And while you’re working on it, use a long line appropriately or find secure spaces where your dog can experience greater freedom safely.

A recall isn’t simply a useful obedience exercise.

A good recall can dramatically improve a dog’s quality of life.

Find Safe Spaces

Public spaces aren’t always easy.

You’re at the mercy of other people’s dogs, other people’s decisions and occasionally other people’s lack of control. And however well trained our own dogs are, they’re animals — mistakes can happen.

So find environments where you can safely give your dog opportunities to move.

Secure fields have become enormously popular for good reason. They can be invaluable for reactive dogs, dogs in training and owners who simply want to allow their dog some freedom without constantly looking over their shoulder.

A secure space can transform what exercise looks like for a dog who otherwise spends their entire life attached to a lead.

Exercise Doesn’t Cause Every Behaviour Problem — But Lack of It Doesn’t Help

This distinction matters.

I’m not suggesting that every reactive, anxious, destructive, frustrated or hyperactive dog simply needs “a longer walk.”

Behaviour is far more complicated than that.

But when I’m looking at a behavioural problem, I want to know whether the dog’s fundamental needs are being met before I start trying to modify their behaviour.

Because asking a dog to demonstrate emotional regulation when their physical needs are chronically unmet is stacking the deck against them.

Sometimes the dog doesn’t need another protocol.

Sometimes they don’t need another enrichment toy.

Sometimes they don’t need another training exercise.

Sometimes they need to get out of the house and move.

We Made a Commitment

This might be the uncomfortable part.

When we choose to own a dog, we make a commitment to meeting the needs of another species.

Not just when it’s sunny.

Not just when we have spare time.

Not just when it’s convenient.

That’s part of the reality of dog ownership.

That doesn’t mean beating ourselves up when life occasionally gets in the way. It doesn’t mean that missing a walk makes somebody a terrible owner.

It means recognising the difference between occasionally being unable to meet a need and redefining the need because it has become inconvenient to meet.

Those are two very different things.

And that’s where I think some of the current conversation around exercise is becoming problematic.

Rather than helping owners find realistic ways to meet their dogs’ physical needs, we’re sometimes telling them those needs don’t really exist.

I don’t think that’s progress.

Don’t Replace. Complement.

Give your dog enrichment.

Train them.

Educate them.

Play with them.

Give them opportunities to problem-solve.

Teach them how to settle.

Build emotional stability.

Let them sniff.

Give them choices.

And…

Exercise them.

These things aren’t competing philosophies.

They’re pieces of the same puzzle.

The goal isn’t to create an exhausted dog.

It isn’t to create an overstimulated adrenaline ju**ie who needs three hours of running every day just to function.

The goal is a dog whose physical, emotional and behavioural needs are being appropriately met.

So perhaps instead of asking:

“Does my dog really need exercise?”

We should be asking:

“What does appropriate exercise look like for the dog in front of me — and how can I realistically provide it?”

Because sometimes the answer to improving our dogs’ behaviour isn’t found in another training technique.

Sometimes it’s waiting outside the front door.

Pick up the lead. Get outside. And go enjoy your dog.

09/08/2026

It is very important to understand this when you love and want to interact with dogs that are not your own. Something I wish every parent taught their children.

🐾 Not every dog wants to be touched — and that's okay.

Dogs are not public property, and we should never assume that an unfamiliar (or even familiar) dog is inviting interaction just by being present.

The golden rule: don't approach unknown dogs. Give them space, stay relaxed, look slightly away, and let them come to you.

And even when a dog does approach you, sniffing, standing nearby, or coming close is NOT necessarily an invitation to pat them. Wait for clearer signals — loose, relaxed body language, leaning into your leg, gentle eye contact, a nudge, a paw, or a play bow. Those are consent.

Once you have those signals, you can ask their guardian if it's okay to interact. Keep it brief, and pause to check if they want to continue.

🚫 Avoid: patting on the head, pushing your hand in their face, hugging, or overwhelming them with too many people or too much intensity.

⚠️ Signs a dog is uncomfortable: lip licking, yawning, looking away, moving away, ears pinned back, tail tucked, whale eye (whites of the eyes showing) — and of course snapping or growling, which is an immediate request for more space.

This applies to children too — teaching kids that unknown dogs are not to be approached is one of the most important lessons we can pass on.

I've put together an infographic breaking all of this down — save it and share it! 👆

And if you want to go deeper, I've also made a video exploring whether people should even have the expectation to pat an unknown dog — and why "asking first" doesn't always make it okay 👇
📺 https://youtu.be/K2D8cOGUhs4

07/08/2026

A really good read for everyone.

Reclaiming the Word Balanced

I want to reclaim the word balanced.

There. I said it.

And before anybody starts reaching for their keyboard, I don’t mean “balanced” as in a bit of chicken in one hand and something unpleasant in the other.

I’m talking about reclaiming balance in how we raise dogs.

Because somewhere along the way, I think we’ve lost the plot a little bit.

We seem to have created two opposing camps.

At one end, there’s:

“Put this on your dog.”
“Correct that.”
“Press this button.”
“Don’t let them get away with it.”

And at the other:

“Don’t expose them to anything.”
“Close the blinds.”
“Don’t walk them.”
“Scatter some food.”
“Let them decompress.”
“Give them another lick mat.”

And somewhere in the middle of all this noise, I sometimes wonder whether we’ve forgotten something fairly fundamental:

How to actually raise a dog.

The things experienced dog owners don’t see as problems

I was working with someone recently, and it got me thinking.

I could see several tiny behaviours beginning to emerge in their dog. Nothing catastrophic. Nothing worthy of a Netflix documentary.

Just little flickers.

And it made me think about the dogs I’ve raised myself.

I’ve owned around 30 dogs during my lifetime and currently live with 15 of my own. That’s a lot of dogs. A lot of adolescence. A lot of hormones. A lot of inappropriate decisions.

And probably a lot of chewed things I’d rather forget about.

My dogs aren’t robots.

They’ve done stupid things. They’ve tested boundaries. They’ve had disagreements. They’ve developed inappropriate interests. They’ve occasionally made decisions that have made me think:

“Well, that was bloody stupid.”

They’re dogs.

But perhaps one of the biggest things experience gives you is the ability to recognise the flicker before it becomes a fire.

You see something and think:

“Ah. I know where this could go.”

And you deal with it.

Not six months later when it’s become an established behaviour.

Now.

Normal doesn’t mean leave it alone

Take a Border Collie chasing flies.

Border Collies are genetically predisposed to notice movement. We’ve selectively bred them for generations to be extraordinarily sensitive to it.

So a young Border Collie becoming fascinated by a fly isn’t exactly breaking news.

Initially, it can look quite funny.

Fly moves.

Dog stalks fly.

Dog chases fly.

Everyone laughs.

Except the dog is potentially getting something incredibly valuable from that interaction.

Movement triggers behaviour. Behaviour produces gratification. The dog gets its little dopamine hit.

“Oooooh. That was good.”

So it does it again.

And again.

And again.

Eventually, something that began as a relatively innocuous expression of genetics can become highly rehearsed and self-reinforcing.

Now try stopping it.

Suddenly you’re removing access to something the dog REALLY enjoys.

And that’s where frustration, conflict and even redirected behaviour can appear.

The behaviour wasn’t necessarily abnormal to begin with.

But normal doesn’t automatically mean desirable.

And understanding the difference is incredibly important.

Dogs resource guard. Humans do too.

Resource guarding is another example.

Put several dogs together and occasionally they’re going to disagree about stuff.

Food.

Toys.

Beds.

People.

Space.

That’s mine.

Move.

I had that first.

You have children? Congratulations. You’ve probably witnessed resource guarding too.

“THAT’S MINE!”

“HE’S GOT MY THING!”

“SHE CAME IN MY ROOM!”

“MUUUUUUUM!”

We don’t immediately diagnose the children with a behavioural disorder.

We educate them.

Sometimes you share.

Sometimes you don’t have to share.

That’s yours.

That’s theirs.

Don’t take things from each other.

Give it back.

Stop winding your sister up.

Basic social education.

Yet when dogs display perfectly understandable social behaviours, we can sometimes catastrophise them.

Of course resource guarding can become serious. Of course it needs appropriate management and intervention.

But the first tiny grumble over a toy doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got Cujo living in the kitchen.

It means you need to pay attention.

And then adolescence arrives…

Oh joy.

The teenage years.

Your delightful puppy suddenly discovers hormones, independence and opinions.

Anyone who has raised a teenager knows roughly how this goes.

They test boundaries.

They make questionable choices.

They hang around with individuals you’d rather they didn’t.

They stay out later than you’d like.

They discover things you wish they hadn’t.

And eventually they bring home a boyfriend or girlfriend you can’t stand.

Welcome to adolescence.

We understand that humans need guidance through this period.

We don’t expect to tell a 14-year-old something once and have them respond:

“Thank you for your guidance. I completely understand your perspective and shall modify my future behaviour accordingly.”

If you have one of those, congratulations.

Perhaps have them cloned.

Yet with dogs, people become incredibly disheartened when they’ve redirected something three times and the dog does it again.

Of course it did.

Training takes repetition. Education takes repetition. Growing up takes repetition.

Some dogs are easy.

Some are tenacious little sods.

I’ve owned both.

Positive does NOT mean permissive

This has been one of my mantras for years:

Positive is not permissive.

Removing aversive tools from my toolbox doesn’t mean removing boundaries.

I don’t need to hurt a dog to tell it I don’t want it doing something.

I don’t need to frighten it.

I don’t need to intimidate it.

I don’t need to string it up, hit it, shock it or cause it pain.

But equally, I don’t have to stand there throwing cocktail sausages at it while it dismantles my sofa.

There is another option.

Education.

My dog starts chewing the sofa.

I interrupt.

“Nope. Not that.”

Here’s a bone.

Chew this instead.

Dog goes back to the sofa.

I interrupt again.

Here’s your bone.

Dog goes back again.

Okay. Clearly you’re currently more committed to interior design than I anticipated.

So perhaps I’ll put you on a lead for a while. I’ll prevent access to the sofa. I’ll make the appropriate option easier and more reinforcing.

And tomorrow we’ll practise again.

No drama.

No rage.

No battle.

No need for a medieval torture device.

But equally, I’m not letting you eat my bloody sofa.

That’s a boundary.

And I’m perfectly entitled to have one.

Sometimes the consequence is simply: that doesn’t work

This is something I think we’ve lost sight of.

Not every consequence needs to be painful or frightening.

Sometimes the consequence of an inappropriate behaviour is simply:

That avenue doesn’t work.

You try chewing the sofa.

I interrupt you.

You try again.

I interrupt you again.

You try for the 48th time.

Guess what?

I’m still here.

And I will calmly interrupt you for the 49th.

Eventually, the dog learns:

“This isn’t particularly productive.”

Meanwhile, I’ve provided appropriate outlets and reinforced the behaviours I do want.

That’s training.

That’s education.

That’s persistence.

And persistence is massively underrated.

Reinforcement isn’t pacification

I LOVE reinforcement.

My entire training philosophy is built around understanding reinforcement and using it intelligently.

But there’s a difference between reinforcing behaviour and pacifying a dog with food.

Food isn’t magic dust.

And indiscriminately feeding a dog isn’t necessarily training.

What behaviour am I reinforcing?

Why?

What is the dog learning?

What happens when the food isn’t available?

What skills am I actually developing?

Those questions matter.

Somewhere along the line, we’ve occasionally started behaving as though the alternative to punishment is simply feeding continuously.

It isn’t.

Just as taking treats out of your pocket doesn’t automatically make you a dog trainer, putting them into your pocket doesn’t make you permissive.

Reinforcement should have purpose.

The pendulum has swung

Dog training desperately needed to change.

We’ve learned more.

We’ve questioned methods that caused pain, fear and intimidation.

We’ve become better at recognising emotion.

We’ve learned about genetics, arousal, stress, reinforcement, environment and choice.

That is progress.

I have absolutely no desire to go backwards.

But progress shouldn’t prevent us from asking whether we’ve occasionally swung the pendulum too far.

Because the answer to:

“Correct everything.”

cannot simply become:

“Never tell a dog it can’t do anything.”

The answer to:

“Make the dog comply.”

isn’t:

“Remove every expectation.”

And the answer to inappropriate behaviour isn’t always:

“Scatter some chicken.”

Sometimes a dog needs us to say:

No. We’re not doing that. But let me show you what you CAN do instead.

Kindly.

Clearly.

Consistently.

That’s the balance I want back

So yes.

I’m reclaiming the word balanced.

Not balanced tools.

Not half reinforcement and half punishment.

Not chicken in one pocket and an aversive in the other.

I’m talking about a balanced perspective on raising dogs.

Love AND boundaries.

Freedom AND responsibility.

Reinforcement AND expectations.

Compassion AND clarity.

Understanding genetics without using genetics as an excuse.

Accepting normal behaviour without allowing every normal behaviour to flourish unchecked.

Managing when necessary without making avoidance a permanent way of life.

Allowing dogs to make choices while recognising that sometimes the answer to their choice is:

“No. Pick another one.”

I want dogs that are confident.

Social.

Resilient.

Happy.

Optimistic.

Amenable.

Able to cope with frustration.

Able to exist in the real world.

Able to hear “not that” without falling apart.

And able to make good choices because they’ve actually been taught how to make them.

I’ve raised enough dogs to know that none of that requires violence.

But it doesn’t require permissiveness either.

There is an enormous amount of space between those two extremes.

And perhaps it’s time we occupied it again.

Because kindness doesn’t mean weakness.

Boundaries don’t require brutality.

Reinforcement doesn’t mean bribery.

Management doesn’t mean avoidance.

And positive…doesn’t mean permissive.

That’s the kind of balanced dog training I’m more than happy to put my name to.

04/08/2026

Last week the weather was awful and none of my Tuesday evening students felt like braving it, so I set them a challenge to do at home. I forwarded a couple of tricks to chose from and train their dogs at home. Tonight they all showcased the trick they had taught. Such a fun and rewarding class to teach. 😁

29/07/2026

This is such a good post I had to share it. I hope all my students not only read this but comprehend it.

Note: point no.1 is (in my opinion) the most important.

10 Things You Should Do… and 10 Things You Should Never Do When Training a Dog

By Simon Chapman

Whether you’re a first-time dog owner, an experienced handler or a professional dog trainer, there are certain principles that stand the test of time.

Training methods may evolve. New equipment comes onto the market. Social media influencers appear overnight claiming they’ve discovered the latest miracle technique.

Yet the fundamentals remain exactly the same.

Dogs haven’t changed nearly as much as people like to believe.

Successful training isn’t about finding a magic wand.

It’s about understanding the dog in front of you.

So here are my 10 Do’s and 10 Don’ts that I believe every dog owner, handler and trainer should keep in mind.

✅ 10 Things You SHOULD Do

1. Build the Relationship Before Expecting Results

Every great dog begins with trust.

A dog that enjoys working with you will always outperform one that simply obeys because it’s worried about the consequences.

Spend time together.

Play.

Walk.

Train.

Rest together.

Create value in yourself.

Remember…

Dogs don’t follow titles.

They follow leaders.

2. Be Consistent

Dogs don’t understand:

“Sit means sit on Mondays… but not when Grandma visits.”

If one family member allows jumping up while another tells the dog off for it, guess who becomes confused?

The dog.

Consistency creates clarity.

Clarity creates confidence.

3. Reward Good Decisions

Dogs repeat behaviours that work.

That reward might be:

* Food
* A toy
* Praise
* Freedom
* Access to something they want

Reinforcement isn’t bribery.

It’s communication.

Catch your dog making good choices.

You’ll be amazed how quickly those choices become habits.

4. Keep Training Sessions Short

The best sessions often last just a few minutes.

Five minutes of focused training is worth far more than forty-five minutes of repetition until everyone is bored.

Always finish while your dog still wants more.

Leave them thinking,

“That was brilliant! Can we do it again?”

5. Train in Different Environments

A dog that sits perfectly in the kitchen hasn’t necessarily learnt to sit.

It has learnt to sit…

…in the kitchen.

Generalisation doesn’t happen automatically.

Practise in:

* The garden
* The park
* The high street
* Woodland
* Car parks
* Outside cafés

Real-life dogs need real-life training.

6. Be Clear

Dogs don’t speak English.

They read:

* Timing
* Body language
* Tone
* Movement
* Patterns

Keep your cues simple.

Avoid giving five commands when one will do.

If your dog looks confused…

Ask yourself whether you’ve been clear.

7. Allow Your Dog to Think

Don’t micromanage every step.

Give the dog opportunities to solve problems.

Confidence grows when dogs discover answers for themselves.

Training isn’t simply teaching behaviour.

It’s developing thinkers.

8. Be Patient

Learning isn’t linear.

Some days everything clicks.

Other days it feels as though your dog has forgotten its own name.

Progress often looks like this:

Two steps forward…

One step back…

Then suddenly five steps forward.

Patience nearly always wins.

9. Finish on a Success

Never underestimate the power of ending well.

Even if the original exercise isn’t going to plan, make the final repetition something your dog can achieve.

Success builds confidence.

Confidence builds future success.

10. Train the Dog in Front of You

Perhaps the most important lesson of all.

Don’t train:

* Your neighbour’s Labrador.
* The dog you saw on YouTube.
* The police dog on television.
* The world champion’s Malinois.

Train your dog.

Every dog has different:

* Genetics
* Motivation
* Confidence
* Experience
* Learning speed

The best trainers adapt.

❌ 10 Things You SHOULD NEVER Do

1. Don’t Compare Your Dog to Others

Comparison steals enjoyment.

Every dog develops at its own pace.

Some mature quickly.

Some take years.

Your journey is your own.

2. Don’t Repeat Commands

“Sit.”

“Sit.”

“SIT.”

“SIT!”

Congratulations…

You’ve just taught your dog that the first three requests are optional.

Say it once.

Help the dog understand.

Reward success.

3. Don’t Train When You’re Angry

Dogs don’t understand bad days at work.

If you’re frustrated, stop.

Have a cup of tea.

Reset.

Come back later.

Training should improve relationships, not damage them.

4. Don’t Expect Perfection Overnight

Social media has created unrealistic expectations.

Many videos show the finished product.

They rarely show the hundreds of mistakes that happened beforehand.

Progress beats perfection.

Every single time.

5. Don’t Ignore Genetics

Training matters enormously.

So do genetics.

A Border Collie may naturally notice movement.

A Beagle is likely to use its nose.

A Labrador often enjoys carrying things.

Good training works with genetics rather than pretending they don’t exist.

6. Don’t Be Inconsistent with Rules

Today’s “No.”

Tomorrow’s “Maybe.”

Next week’s “Go on then…”

Dogs love predictable rules.

Humans are often the unpredictable bit.

7. Don’t Forget to Reward Yourself

Seriously.

Training dogs takes effort.

Celebrate the small wins.

Every improvement matters.

You deserve a biscuit too.

(Tea is also acceptable.)

8. Don’t Assume Every Problem Is Stubbornness

Very few dogs wake up each morning plotting world domination.

Behaviour usually has a reason.

It may be:

* Confusion
* Fear
* Pain
* Stress
* Over-arousal
* Lack of understanding
* Insufficient reinforcement

Before labelling a dog as stubborn…

Ask why.

9. Don’t Rush the Process

Foundations matter.

Skipping them is like building a house on wet sand.

Take the time to build:

* Engagement
* Focus
* Motivation
* Clarity
* Confidence

Everything else becomes easier afterwards.

10. Don’t Stop Learning

Dogs continue teaching us every single day.

The moment we believe we know everything…

…a clever Spaniel, determined Terrier or mischievous Labrador will politely remind us that we don’t.

The best trainers remain students forever.

Stay curious.

Read books.

Attend seminars.

Watch experienced trainers.

Ask questions.

Keep learning.

Final Thoughts

Dog training isn’t about domination.

Nor is it about becoming a vending machine that dispenses treats every five seconds.

It’s about communication.

It’s about understanding.

It’s about fairness.

It’s about building a relationship in which both dog and handler enjoy working together.

When training is done well, it strengthens the bond between you and your dog.

When it’s done poorly, it creates confusion, frustration and conflict.

So the next time you head out with your dog, remember these simple principles.

Be consistent.

Be fair.

Be patient.

Keep learning.

And perhaps most importantly…

If your dog has just performed the most spectacular zoomies known to mankind immediately after you proudly removed the lead…

Take comfort in this:

Dogs have an incredible talent for keeping us humble.

That’s probably why we love them so much.

27/07/2026

My close friends know I am not a hugger. In fact I probably display many of the same stress signals dogs do. So the post below is something I really relate to. It's important to be aware of whether or not that hug is welcome. Many dogs tolerate hugs but don't get as much pleasure out of the hug as the hugger.

Would your dog CHOOSE that hug?
That’s a hard question to hear.

We need to be honest for a second.

I get it. We hug who we love.

But for a lot of dogs, a hug isn't affection.
It's restraint.

If they're yawning, wriggling away, flicking their tongue, turning their head, or freezing?
They could be trying to tell us that what feels like affection to us, feels like restraint to them.

They wriggle.
We pull them in closer.

They turn away.
We tell them not to be "silly".

They try to leave.
We hold on even tighter.

Tolerance is a big step away from enjoyment.

And while we're doing this.
Our children are watching.

They're learning that when someone says "no" with their body, we can simply ignore it.

That's one lesson we never want to teach.

Choice matters.
Freedom of movement matters.

Teaching our children to recognise and respect a dog's body language?

That absolutely matters.

26/07/2026

Sadly this is what I am seeing too! Get your puppies into puppy school early, 9 weeks is great. You will give them a far better start in life.

I wonder if people will ever understand the importance of early socialisation?

I've been running my own puppy classes for 16 years and was a puppy class instructor for 10 years prior to that.

Puppy classes used to be the "fun" part of being a behaviourist. We'd get to work with puppies in the socialisation period, where introducing them to new things would be pretty easy. Puppy classes were fun for the puppies and their families. Lots of smiles, lots of laughter, lots of cute moments and the joy of watching pups happily interacting and playing with their own kind.

I'm not saying that every puppy was easy, that there weren't some pups who were shyer and took a while to feel comfortable with new things and others who needed careful management to prevent them being too much for other pups and learning bad habits.

We have always carefully managed interactions and carefully matched puppies for the best outcome. We have always ensured that play was only one aspect of class and plenty of time was spent on building a strong bond between pups and their human parents and developing other skills for healthy emotional and social development. But we have nearly always been able to integrate puppies into some enjoyable play time to develop their canine social skills and meet the very real need for conspecific play which most young dogs have.

Yet this is sadly changing. This year for the first time, I can count on one hand the number of lessons where we have been able to let puppies interact at all off lead. It's not because we don't want to or because the puppies' guardians don't want this - it is because a very large proportion of the puppies we are getting in our classes are unable to interact with their own kind even remotely competently. Instead of outgoing puppies with a natural affinity for their own species, we see:

❗️Fearfulness
❗️Reactivity
❗️Over-arousal
❗️Complete lack of communication skills
❗️Approach-avoidance conflict
❗️Confused body language
❗️Inappropriate behaviours

The average age of puppies when they began classes used to be 9-12 weeks. Sadly, we are now lucky if we get them by the age of 16 weeks. And even then the socialisation period is largely OVER. If these puppies have been out and about with their families, then they are still okay. Unfortunately many have not been anywhere.

Do you know what the most common answer to the question on our enrolment form "how often do you walk your puppy" is?
Sadly, it's "We don't yet - too young" or "Not fully vaccinated". Literally people are still being told by certain vets, breeders and even some rescue organisations that their puppies cannot leave home until they have had not 1, 2 or even 3 vaccinations, but 4 or 5 of them🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ This means that most puppies will not leave home before they are 5 months of age.

I saw an old clip of Dr Ian Dunbar earlier today where he spoke of the leading cause of death in dogs. It's not Parvo. As he said, viruses like parvo kill a fraction of the amount of dogs that die as a result of behaviour issues.

Why have we gone backwards in this regard? Why are we sabotaging a puppy's only chance at an emotionally and socially healthy life for unrealistic safetyist nonsense? It's not scientific. It's not logical. It's not reasonable.

While we do have a cut-off age for puppy class, I'm getting to a point where I want to insist that all pups begin before 12 weeks . And if you wake up too late, tough. It's not our problem. Because for the one or two pups whose guardians did start early enough, it's not fair for them to be subjected to what ends up being a socially frought environment with the best we can hope for being desensitisation and counter conditioning, as opposed to genuine socialisation.

Puppy classes should not need to be remedial classes. Puppy classes should not be stressful for puppies or people.

I get that many people are adopting puppies these days and they can't help the age the puppy was upon adoption. But in most cases, people have puppies for a month or more before they bother to do anything. And if puppies do end up not being homed timeously, then the rescue organisations need to be actively providing for their socialisation in the meantime. Homing an unsocialised puppy is as bad as homing a puppy they didn't bother to vaccinate. Socialisation is emotional vaccination. And it's even more important for a healthy long life.

This post may seem blunt, but I won't apologise for that. What is happening right now is absolutely catastrophic for so many dogs and their human families. Things need to change.