Pawfect Fit Dog Training

This quote really resonates with me. If I knew then what I know now I could have helped my first dog with his separation distress, recognised when he was in pain and helped him with his final struggle with canine cognitive dysfunction. I could have helped my second dog with ball obsession and have tapped into his natural herding instincts in a more positive way. I would have been able to understand how he was feeling when we rehomed him as an adolescent and helped him to settle in and understand that we could be trusted.

Many dog guardians, struggle with their canine companions, every dog is unique (even within the same breed) and it can be a steep learning curve. Every dog I have had the pleasure of living with has taught me something new and yes, knowing what I know now, I could most certainly have done better. I learned from my mistakes and put that learning into practice with my next dog, and on it goes.

When you contact me for help with your dog's behaviour, I will need to know what you have tried so far, as this forms part of the overall picture of their behaviour. I will not judge you for what you have done in the past. We all do what we think is right at the time with the knowledge we have. The important thing to me is, you are reaching out and willing to try other methods and explore ways to build a bond of friendship and trust with your dog.

Thank you Canine Bond Dog Behaviour & Training, this is the most common question I am asked in Puppy Class.

Puppy biting and chewing
A behaviour that is a completely normal process of growing, learning and a way to explore their world.

Puppies bite, chew and nibble due to lots of reasons.

Pain / discomfort / teething
Hungry / Thirst
Overtired / overstimulated / overexcited
Needing to toilet
Bored / frustrated
Exploring the world
Initiating play and social interactions to name a few

Things to think about

🩵Management
Management is great before you bring your puppy home, removing particular unsafe objects and items that you don’t wish to be chewed, either popping them away or up high this includes your garden areas, removing unsafe, poisonous plants preventing being eaten or your favourite flowers being nibbled or chewed.

🏠Set up areas of your home with stair gates and or a play pen/ foldable fencing to manage your home environment
Stair gates and play pens can create safe spaces, close to where you are, providing a resting place, with a variety of toys they can explore, chew and bite.

👀Supervise
Using play pens / stair gates allows both your pup and children to have their own space, supervision is always recommended.

💤 Sleep
Set up quiet places for your pup to rest and sleep throughout the day. Puppies need huge amounts of sleep, between 16- 20 hours a day, an over tired pup will try and tell you.

😓Pain
Relieve your pups teething with some choices around a variety of textured chew toys, prepare in advance, popping some safe chew toys, or a rolled up damp towel into the fridge.

🌳Play / explore
Enjoy spending time getting to know your pup.
Don’t feel that you have to rush, allow time for your puppy to settle into their new home with you as their new member of the family.

🌿Enrichment
Favourite things your pup enjoys, sniffing, digging, licking, foraging, exploring.

🫶Interactions
Sometimes a puppy or dog needs to process by initially sniffing their surroundings, including people, without being touched, stroked or being picked up, too many hands can feel quite overwhelming.

📋Plan
Create a daily check list to ensure your puppies needs have been met☝️
Take note of certain times, is there a pattern when they start nibbling, chewing or biting, prepare, provide outlets and nap time in advance of these times.

⛔️Things to avoid
Taking their food away, or grab objects from them.
Disturb when they are sleeping, eating and resting
Frighten or startle
Wearing particular items such as loose clothing, dangling scarves, fluffy slippers, things that might encourage your pup to bite.
Avoid reacting such as laughing or making high pitch sounds
Avoid squirting or spraying them with water
Avoid telling them off
Avoid wiggling and encouraging playing with your hands/ fingers and feet
Avoid playing roughly and notice if play is becoming too exciting.
Avoid hugging, squeezing them, one hand maybe fine to stroke them, but two hands maybe too much.

🥰Things we can help our pups when they are biting hands, feet or ankles.
Remove your hands and redirect onto something they can chew or bite.
Stand still and redirect using long tug toy, wiggling it along the floor.
Reward when aren’t biting your hands, introducing a nose touch game, cup game or calming enrichment activity with them.

👩‍🎓Learn from your puppy, ensure their needs have been met, adding in a daily routine with nap times.
Reward the behaviours you would like to be see more of, show them by teaching, offer alternatives, redirect them guiding what they can do, ignoring your pup can often confuse and cause more frustration as they are trying to communicate with you.

New Group Class Dates:

Puppy Class (fully vaccinated dogs up to 22 weeks old)
Monday 22nd July 2024
7pm to 8.15pm
£135.00 per dog, 6 week course maximum 4 dogs per class (no class on Bank Holiday Monday)
Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.

Walking at Heel and Recall Course
4 weeks focusing these essential skills
Commencing Tuesday 6th August 2024
£100.00 per dog, maximum 3 dogs.
Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.

Please contact me to book your place.

Barking is one of the ways dogs communicates with you but when your dog barks, do you listen? Have you stopped to consider what they are trying to tell you?

Are they barking due to fear, distress, frustration, excitement, to warn you of potential danger or because their needs have not been met?

Caregivers often want a quick fix to a problem which has developed over several years and resort to anti-bark collars or sprays. These outdated methods do not work long term and at best the barking will resume as intensely as before, and at worst will create fearful or aggressive responses.

When barking becomes excessive a full assessment of the dog’s type of barking, body language and movements, reactions of caregivers and neighbours and other factors in the environment is needed. The aim of any behaviour modification programme should be to allow the dogs a voice (no one wants to be silenced completely) to build trust with their caregivers and give them confidence to help them regulate their emotions.

If you are experiencing excessive barking with your dog, please choose a force free professional who will take time to understand the causes of your dogs barking and provide you with long term solutions.

Thank you to RF for the graphic.

A few shots from the last set of group classes, there is one space left on the course for puppies starting next Monday, 3rd June. If you would like to join us, please get in touch.

Thank you Donna for this great post

My dog licks me, they must love me or maybe they are trying to say something else?

If your dog licks your hands, or your face, it could mean they like the taste on your hands, needing your attention or showing you affection. BUT can also communicate for you to stop touching them, and sometimes used as a move away cue to gain more space as feeling uncomfortable and stressed from the situation.

If you think of your response when your dog licks your face, you may turn away and even look away. If they lick your hands, you might remove your hands, this increasing the distance and comfort for the dog when things are too intense, influencing you to move a bit.

A dog communicates the only way they can using their body language, showing signs they need space, or not wanting to be touched.
Displaying subtle signals of head turning, lip /nose licking, yawning, whale eye, and licking that becomes more intense and harder as if to say please stop, can you move away, I don’t like it.

If your dog starts licking you, stop, remove your hands, observe what your dog does next. Does your dog move away? Settle down next to you? Or come closer to be petted again?

Avoid situations like putting your face up close to theirs, allowing a child to crawl towards or approach your dog.
Instead use management - stair gates, play pens, foldable fencing for supervised safe interactions between children and dogs. Allowing both safe spaces.
Invite your dog to come to you when your child is on your lap, respect the answer of the invitation might still be no thanks.

Dogs are great at communication but sometimes we might misunderstand what they are trying to say.

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There is still time to book on our Puppy Courses commencing on 3rd June.

6 week course, £135.00
7pm to 8.15pm
Foxhole Community Centre.

Please contact me for further details.

There are still spaces available on the adolescent course for dogs aged 6months to 2 years, commencing on Tuesday 14th May. Please message me for further details.

I don't know who created this originally but it reminded me of the other day when I was trying to clean the rear window on the car....the nose art was very extensive!😂😂

Thank you Sally Lewis for this great post.

Did you know, dog training in the UK is unregulated?

If you were a dog, who would you choose?
Someone who:
• Understands your body language and what you are trying to say.
• Understands how you learn and can explain to your owners how and why training methods work.
• Understands how your needs change at each stage of your life.
• Understands that you have breed specific needs and that every dog is unique.
• Can work with your owners to help you feel safe and build trust.
• Only uses ethical, force free training methods and equipment.
• Will ask for a second opinion if they need to.

Or someone who:
• Uses harsh punishments or harmful equipment.
• Uses outdated methods.
• Who scares you.

Before you choose a trainer; ask questions; check qualifications; check membership organisations and membership criteria. Who you choose to help you with your dog is your decision, but if I were a dog, I know which I would choose….

Home At its heart, the UK Dog Behaviour & Training Charter™ is a code of conduct, ethics and methodology. Its signatories are comprised of many of the UK’s leading behaviour and training organisations who have come together under the Charter’s umbrella to work in unison for the benefit of dogs, dog...

New Group Class Dates:
Puppy Class (dogs up to 22 weeks old)
Monday 3rd June 2024
7pm to 8.15pm
£135.00 per dog, 6 week course maximum 4 dogs per class (no class on 24th June)

All classes are held at Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.
Please contact me to book your place.

Class Graduation Photos February 2024, and a few action shots! Group Classes aren't all about 'sits' and 'downs', it's about learning to work around distractions, remaining calm when other dogs are around and working on impulse control. For information about the next round of Group Classes, please contact me.

Thank you to Medical Detection dogs for this great reminder. Keep your dog away from Easter Egg Hunts whether in your garden or at public events. Teach a solid 'drop' or 'leave it' cue before you need it, and if you think your dog has eaten chocolate, please call your vet straight away for advice. Happy Easter everyone!

Still a few places remaining:
Puppy training course on 8th April (no class 6th May) 6.15pm and 7.45pm

Adolescent training course on 9th April (no class 7th May) 6.15pm.

6 weeks course
£135.00
Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.

Please contact me for details

Have you ever stopped to think why someone is walking their dog on a lead?

Why they try and move to the side of the path or put distance between them and you?

Why someone puts their dog back on a lead when they see another off-lead dog?

Don’t assume it’s because the dog has no recall and can’t be let off ….

Very often the dogs just cannot cope with being approached by other dogs or are unpredictable in their responses. If the on-lead dog reacts to your dog approaching this can have a two-fold effect; it can set the on-lead dog back in their training programme and depending on the on-lead dogs reaction, it could cause your dog to become fearful of other dogs, making them reactive in return.

The on-lead dog may be recovering from surgery or have a medical condition which means they are on restricted exercise. Would you appreciate a bouncy off lead dog jumping around your dog if they were not well?

The dog and owner may be working on impulse control training or even just the basics of walking calmly on a lead in different environments. If you were trying to do this, would you appreciate an off-lead dog approaching you?

The owner may not be feeling too well and doesn’t want the hassle of engaging with other dogs or people (let’s face it we all have days like this!), if this were you, how would you like your dog leaping around on the lead trying to get to a dog who has been allowed to run up to you?

Please, please stop and think. Always recall your dog and put them back on their lead when you see another on lead dog.

New Group Class Dates:
Puppy Class (dogs up to 22 weeks old)
Monday 8th April 2024
6.15pm to 7.30pm - 2 spaces left
7.45pm to 9pm
£135.00 per dog, 6 week course maximum 4 dogs per class (no class on 6th May)

Classes for dogs 22 weeks to 2 years (who missed out on puppy classes)
Tuesday 9th April 2024
6.15pm to 7.30pm
£135 per dog, 6 week course, maximum 4 dogs depending on breed. (No class on 7th May)

All classes are held at Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.
Please contact me to book your place.

Congratulations to the Puppy and Adolescent class graduates! Next class details coming soon!

Still a couple of places left for the next round of group classes:

Puppy Class (dogs up to 22 weeks old)
Monday 19 February 2024
6.15pm to 7.30pm - 2 spaces left
7.45pm to 9pm - 2 spaces left
£135.00 per dog, 6 week course maximum 4 dogs per class

`All classes are held at Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.
Please contact me to book your place.

We seem to live in the age of gadgets and easy fixes. Everything has to be instant, or it doesn’t work/it’s no good. When you invite a dog to share your life, no matter what their age, they are not preprogrammed to know what to do. They need to be nurtured and guided in their learning to co-exist with us in a way that is not just acceptable to our way of life, but also in a way that meets their emotional, physical and social needs too.

You wouldn’t expect to be able to speak a foreign language fluently after just one lesson, yet sometimes a trainer is expected to be able to ‘fix’ a dog in an hour. There are no quick fixes in dog training, despite what you see on the TV. Always remember, it takes time, patience and commitment for you to build the bond of trust with your dog, to make them feel safe and secure and allow them to grow in confidence.

Book early for the next round of training classes

Puppy Class (dogs up to 22 weeks old)
Monday 19 February 2024
6.15pm to 7.30pm or 7.45 to 9pm
£135.00 per dog, 6 week course maximum 4 dogs per class

Too old for Puppy Class?
Join the class for adolescent dogs 6 months to 2 years
Tuesday 20 February 2024 - maximum 3 dogs
6.15pm to 7.30 pm - one space left
£135.00 per dog, 6 week course

All classes are held at Foxhole Community Centre, Paignton.
Please contact me to book your place.

07790 541592

Sometimes the world is just too much for our dogs, even going into the garden can be traumatic let alone going for a walk. When I first met Ava, she was fearful of the outside world, only venturing into the garden for the essentials and then immediately returning to the safety of indoors. Ava’s guardians were committed to helping Ava, we worked on improving her mood state and building her confidence. Within a month Ava ventured into the garden for longer and started to explore. After 4 months Ava was happy to play in the garden and had built up enough confidence to walk a few steps outside. Six months from our first meeting, Ava was waiting by the door asking to accompany her guardians on a walk. This was a very emotional day for all involved. Behaviour change does not happen overnight, it takes time, effort and commitment which Ava’s guardians have in abundance.

My New Year Resolutions?
We all write a long list of things we are going to do - exercise more, lose weight, be more organised....but how long do they last?

This year, why not make one small promise to your dog, spend 10 minutes a day just hanging out with them, no phone, no TV, no ear buds. Just you and your dog hanging out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year