Musings, tips, reviews
Blog
Dog Training Lingo: What’s the Difference Between Habituation, Desensitisation, and Counterconditioning?
You’ve heard the terms habituation, desensitisation and counterconditioning but you’re not sure what they mean or why each one is important. They seem to be flung about with abandon and sometimes combined and it’s all a bit confusing. So what do they actually mean? At...
Dog Trainer, Dog Behaviourist and Veterinary Behaviourist: What’s the Difference?
You know you need some help with your dog but you’re not sure exactly who to ask. There seems to be a lot of choice and it’s just not clear what the difference is between a trainer or a behaviourist--and you’ve just found out there are veterinary behaviourists, too!...
The 5 Best Places to Practise Dog Training at Home
You don’t have to go far to have places to train your dog. We spend the majority of our time at home so it makes sense to start there. There’s also far more to training your dog than the normal sit and down. More useful things to teach our dog are ways to behave in...
How to Make Sure Your Dog and Kids Stay Friends During Lockdown
We are all having to stay at home for extended periods of time and our routines have completely changed. It’s difficult for everyone, not least your children who now can’t see their friends. Your dog is now having to contend with a complete shift in their world and...
Why Social Distancing Will Help You Socialise Your Puppy
We're in lockdown. No hanging out with our friends. No catching a live band. No eating at your favorite restaurant. So how the hell are you going to socialise your puppy when you're not allowed to be social? Here's how. 1. Let them watch and learn Puppies need to...
Creating Calm During Covid-19 with Enrichment
We are all limited in how often we can leave the house during lockdown. No doubt you are mostly combining your once a day exercising allowance with the daily dog walk. Some days though it just isn’t possible. You feel guilty because your dog isn’t getting out and...
In an instant – everything changed
If that title had you wondered whether I'd finally gone all woo woo, you'll be glad to hear that no, I haven't. There has been no huge revelation for me, or at least not in the way that these stories usually play out. But we have had a sudden change in our lives. We...
What are your training goals for 2020?
I know, I know. Telling people your goals for your dog's training for the upcoming year smells very much like new year resolutions and we all know they suck. But I'm going to do it anyway. Why? Because accountability. Although I suspect my goals this year are pretty...
Why the John Lewis Christmas advert is a lesson in dog training
Have you seen the new John Lewis advert with the little dragon who can’t control his fire? Cute isn’t it? If you haven’t seen it yet you can watch Excitable Edgar who loved Christmas a little too much below. https://youtu.be/r9D-uvKih_k Edgar reminds me of a lot of...
What to do when your dog is being stubborn
You know when you've asked your dog to do something and he has point blank refused so you ask him again, and again, and again........and eventually he does it. Stubborn dog. Stubborn owner I say. From a training point of view there are a lot of things to think about...
Why I don’t agree with not training when you’re not in the mood
Some advice I hear often is to not train your dog when you are in a bad mood or tired, or.....fill in the reason that most applies to you..... I call bullshit Let's face it, when do you ever really feel like training the dog? Even a self-confessed behaviour geek like...
Training your dog isn’t a luxury
Training is something we should do with our dogs. Actually I'd rather we didn't call it 'training' because that kind of implies it is short lived and something the learner has to undergo. Animals, us, our dogs, horses, lizards, whatever, are built to behave. They have...
It turns out mindfulness isn’t a bunch of b*llocks
So this week I joined Thor's new fitness app. Yep the God of Thunder is now my fitness guru. OK, Chris Hemsworth, and actually it's a bunch of professionals that he has probably employed or something, I don't know. I joined because I like looking at Chris Hemsworth I...
Where did January go?
My life seems to be hurtling before my eyes these days. I get distracted by something for a second and suddenly three weeks have gone by. That's my excuse for not getting more of these posts out there anyway. So what have I been distracted by? Hang on and I'll tell...
DIY or get a builder in?
We've spent the last week doing DIY at TWW HQ aka our house. Well actually not that much DIY to be honest. Most of our time has be spent clearing out crap from a spare bedroom and a large cupboard. It's filled a skip. A whole freaking skip with just one room and one...
We did it!
In my last post I said that I hadn't heard whether I had successfully graduated from the Karen Pryor Academy Professional Course that had taken up so much of my time in 2018. Well I'm thrilled to be able to tell you that just before Christmas I found out that Flint...
Merry Christmas
I know, I know I've been MIA for ages and now I'm adding to your inbox at a time when it's already overflowing. Sorry. 2018 was a tough year for the humans at Tails We Win HQ with both my in-laws passing away in the first half of the year. That meant there was an...
How to make distractions work for you
Today's post starts with a little story about my oldie spaniel Breckin. We aren't entirely sure exactly how old he is but he's been with us for nearly 11 years and was a horrible teenager when he landed so our best guess is that he is 12+ probably. He has...