Dog Minds NZ

So many dogs we see today have trouble settling, resting, and not doing anything because of all the extra exercise and stimulation we think we need to give them to "tire them out". Don't get me wrong, we think stimulation is fundamental, and so is exercise, play, etc. But some days, we do absolutely nothing. We rest - well, they do, we do admin 😆
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She walked, she ran, she rolled, and she ran some more. 😆 💫🌀💨
This week, we explored the industrial area of Te Rapa and saw some big machines, workers, trucks, and even some police dogs. Then we recovered from all of that with a few runs, sniffs, and rolls at the park.
Sage can be a bit sensitive to random loud noises and strange things moving around and she displays some mild stress signs - freezing, yawning, avoidance - but these days she can handle a lot more, and she recovers so much quicker. We always make sure that she stays under threshold and that she has a blast after doing something a bit challenging.
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For some reason, this seems to be a controversial topic among some pet dog owners. For us, it's simple, sniffing is fundamental for our dogs' and to fulfill their needs, and they should be allowed and encouraged to do so whenever possible.
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We understand that there are exceptions and there are specific situations, but the majority of the time, sniffing is a definite yes!
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The exceptions could be if there is a safety/health issue; if we are doing strict obedience work or leash where the dog is learning to wait to be released to go sniff or learning to "Leave" things alone; etc. Other than that, go for gold!
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After a few days of wild wind and heavy rain, he was finally able to go for a hoon and forget all about it for a bit.
Elven is terrified of the wind, and he has always been since he was a pup. He also associates wind with slamming doors, which he absolutely hates. At the sight of a slammed or moving door, he is out!
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The last few days brought very strong gusts of wind and rain, which caused heavy stress panting, restlessness, and hiding under/in small spaces.
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What do we do?
We make sure he is safe and as comfortable as possible. We close doors and windows and try not to let them slam. We reassure and provide comfort or give him space depending on what he needs to help him reset. We turn tv or music on, offer chewables if he us in the mood, and try to keep stress levels low. This time, we also used his jacket almost as a "thunder shirt" for extra comfort and gave him some "Drama Queen" drops.
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Yesterday afternoon there was a break in the rain and we went for a fun run. No real training, just treat tossing, sniffs and happy runs. He was a lot better afterwards and he has been since then.
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Last week, we caught up with Rose and her humans. We had a follow-up session to see where things were at, assess progress, and discuss the next steps.
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The first photo shows Rose in her safe bed/corner, where she spends most of her time when at home and where she stayed the whole time we were there. She didn't move or make a sound. She still doesn't want to be touched, nor does she like to have human attention.
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Some people have said that is not 'normal' dog behaviour and that Rose is very sad and doesn't have a good quality of life, but we disagree.
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Her behaviour may be very different from what many dog owners are used to, but it is 'normal' for Rose considering her early life experiences and possible level of trauma.
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But Rose is incredibly loved by her humans who have done everything to help her feel safe and to better understand who she is and what she needs. She is safe, and she has had huge breakthroughs recently! She has adventured to the garden a couple of times, she loves her walks and even engages in play time with her dad when out and about.
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We have spent a lot of time thinking about and analysing her behaviour and reactions, and we now all better understand the potential reasons for it, which has helped establish realistic expectations.
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Rose joined our social walk last Saturday, and she was in her element! We even got a bit emotional because it's so heartwarming to see her happy, bouncy, and enjoying her walks. 🥰
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Miss Pippy has arrived, and she will be spending the next few days with us. This almost 16yo girl is full of life, and she absolutely loves her adventures more than anything, so we will be making sure she gets them 💗
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Friday outing with Zeus exploring new places. We went to a dog park 😱............... and worked outside the fence 😊 it eas perfect! We watched the dogs, said hi through the fence when calm, and practised engage-disengage, down-stays and recall.
There was so much space on the outside area we even had play time and fast races (he was fast, at least 😅). Then, we head into town and explored the streets on a short lead.
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Doing the best we can is all we can do. Sometimes it's not perfect, and that's ok. There are great days and not so great weeks, and that's ok.
Just remember to be gentle and kind to your dog and yourself. Ask for help if needed.
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Super Sage reporting for duty! She's got her on and she is ready for it!!! We have decided that orange is her colour and let me tell you that she was feeling frisky this week.
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Training walks with Zeus are so much more relaxed now. He has become a lot more responsive and engaged, which allows us to explore new things and expose him to new places. He can still be very suspicious and sentive to certain triggers, but he is able to handle so much more, and he can now watch dogs without freezing or lunging. In the last few months, we have been working hard on decision-making and engagement, relationship building, pushing thresholds, and very clear communication.
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Obedience work is often limited with him as he quickly disengages, loses focus, and he becomes very frustrated, so we met halfway and made it work for both of us. It's taken time, but we can see it now.
So proud of this boy!
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Just another reminder to celebrate every win, no matter how small they may be because they may be huge for your dog.
Today, we celebrated the fact that we walked along the river at rush hour, and Elven handled it very well and didn't freeze 😀

Porter loves coming out on walks with us! He loves running 100mph, sniffing every little bit of grass and p*e on every little bush. That's what life's all about if you ask me! Recall is still a work in progress, but he is improving 😉 slowly but surely 👌
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Walks with Azul are always an excitement! He goes from 0 to 100 in no time. He likes to go fast at the start, but he slows down halfway. We give him tons of slowing down and reset time because he can't handle going too fast for too long anymore. He is not the young teen he used to be 😅
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He can't have treats due to his sensitivity to all sorts of food, and he can't get that many pats or praise because he loses his tiny mind and gets all racked up if we show him affection 😆 - never thought positive reinforcement could be such a challenge 😂
For him, it's all about balance. We use soft praise, freedom, play time, and the odd belly rub to let him know he has done well.
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He is such a happy boy and such a cool dude!!!
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We don't know if you remember, but we posted about Tommy a few months ago after he was attacked by 2 dogs off lead, which caused an awful amount of physical damage, vet bills, but particularly emotional trauma to dog and human.
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Since that incident, Tommy's outings and walks have been challenging, and most of them cut very short because at the tiniest sight of a dog, he will bolt to the car or home and it's all over. Not to mention that the amount of off leash dogs on the street can make it hard for them to feel safe.
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This week, we met with Tommy and his mum to mainly assess and see what we can try to put into place to help him. The place and time we met at were very important so that we could keep stress levels to the minimum and help this big boy enjoy the outing. The leash was kept loose at all times as he is very sensitive to pressure, and he will 'pump his greyhound breaks' if he feels a bit unsure.
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But as we walked back, a couple of dogs behind a fence barked at him. Tommy sped up, and we trotted with him, but instead of going straight back to the car, we gradually slowed down and stopped when the dogs were not in sight anymore. We stood still and helped him self regulate, calm down, and regroup.
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Guess what?! He recovered. He kept on sniffing and wanted to continue our walk instead of going to the car! So we did! Words cannot express how excited we all were!
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Safety, distance, and time will be key factors in Tommy's rehabilitation, and we will be here for him!
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Sorry, it's a tough reminder, we know. We have been there, but if there is something that the dogs in our life have taught us, it's that life (especially with them) is short and they deserve our love, our help, our commitment, and our attention. Remember to have fun and enjoy your time together as much as you can ❤️ 🐾
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As we got out of the car, he heard a loud motorcycle noise...he froze. He thought about going back to the car (safety).
But we have worked on this a lot and I now know he can get past it and push through. I also know he trusts me.
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I said: "You're ok, let's go."
I kept walking. He followed.
He pushed through.
He had a great run around.
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She is wild. She is crazy. She is Luna. And we love her to bits! Her thought and decision-making processes aren't always the best as her instinctive reactions are often stronger. But there have been a few moments recently that she surprised us all and decided not to bark and lunge at other dogs, and instead she even engaged with us, and those were very special proud moments that we celebrated together 😀
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🐾 DEXTER 🐾
This girl was born to be a queen! She likes to make her own rules and decisions and live life her way 😅 but as we know, without some human guidance, dogs can often make "poor" decisions (just like kids tbh).
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Dexter is a 6yo rescue mixed breed who had never had any real behaviour issues until she recently started to chase, lunge, and bark at cyclists and runners. It started just as "sometimes" until it became more common and unpredictable.
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Dexter was used to being completely free to do what she wanted on walks, and her engagement with her human was non-existent, which meant that her recall and response to being called was also non-existent.
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Our first session was all about going back to the basics of obedience: listening, waiting, staying close, recall foundations.
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In the last few weeks, she has already improved so much!!! Our second session was all about proximity and heel, adding distance to recall, and creat fun opportunities to engage during the walks (hide and seek, find it).
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She is soooooo smart (almost too smart for her own good 😁), and we can't wait to see her again and up the challenge.
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This program is amazing! Maybe your dog would love it too 😁🐾💙

🐾 LOUIE 🐾
This adorable little guy is Louie. He may look like a puppy, but he is 10yo and he has recently been rehomed/adopted.
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We recently met Louie because his humans realised that walks were a bit of a challenge for their little guy. He was lunging and barking frantically at anything that moved outside, especially cars, bikes, and dogs. And settling wasn't an easy task.
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After our assessment session, we quickly noticed that Mr Louie is very unsure and fearful, and the world outside makes him feel very nervous.
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So where to now? First, we will avoid as many triggers as possible for a bit. Shorter walks, away from roads and in quieter areas. We will work on building his confidence and trust in his new humans, and we will find the best interruption & distraction strategies.
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He is such a sweet boy, and we can't wait to see him again.
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Going for walks is fun and exciting for many dogs. But at times, going out the door is too exciting. The issue is that sometimes it isn't just about "happy excitement". It can actually be fueled by frantic arousal, stress, adrenaline, etc. The dog may seem very "pumped" and "happy" but is it a good thing?
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Rafa, for example, absolutely loves going for walks. Loves walking, sniffing, and exploring, but as soon as he got to the door, he would be ready to bolt outside and just take off 100kmh. We also noticed that if he caught a scent of some sort, he would become very frantic and completely disengaged. After a quick stop to reset and a (stress) shake off, he would then calm down again.
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Being in that 'Go! Go! Go!' mode isn't helpful for him and it can actually lead to other behaviour and even health issues in the long run. He is now practising calming down more often, waiting until released and enjoying calmer walks with a few stops to regroup.
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After a whole week of no dogs and no sessions due to a nasty flu 🤧 we finally felt a tiny bit of energy to attempt a walk. It was good to be out in the sun with Zeus and Elven (who had also missed out on adventures and walks).
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Walks by the shops followed by a run and recall practice at the park. These two are so similar, but so different at the same time.
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Lola has the biggest fomo when Frank is working and she is not. Frank just chills when Lola is working without him.
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He is all about sp*ed and going away just to come back again. She is all about staying closer just in case the treats come.
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Both very demanding with their treats, and both all about sniffing around the bushes.
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We love them 💙

Rainy day walks with the handsome Shepherds: Zeus & Zeus 😊
Gumboots, raincoat and beenie, and off we went! The boys didn't care about the rain. They actually like it, especially when it means that there are a few less 'triggers' around.
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Oh Puppies! 🥰 We just love them! For us, when it comes to puppy training, it's not only about the pups. It's mainly about teaching the humans about how their pups learn, how to condition wanted behaviours, and capture them during their daily life (not just in class), what kind of needs their dogs have and how to establish realistic expectations of what puppies and young teens can do.
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Thank you for having us 💙🐾

🐾 ALFRED (aka Alfie) 🐾
This adorable little boy is Alfie, and he is a 3yo Cavoodle. We recently met him because he had been showing signs of fear, nervousness, and even some aggressive behaviour towards strangers who came too close.
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He is a very nervous and unsure pup who hides under the couch when things get too hard or he needs a safe space. But he was very brave and ended up coming quite close to me. When he goes outside, he gets excited, but that excitement is a big mix of arousal, stress, uncertainty, and more. How do we know? He wants to go fast, he scans the environment, he yawns, shakes off, and scratches his collar often.
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He is small and cute, and most likely, his body language and signals asking for space weren't recognized, leading to intensified behaviour.
Almost like: "If no one can see my low tail and body, I will have to just start lunging and growling."
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This happens more often than we think, especially with smaller dogs whose signs of fear can be more subtle and also because they are the ones that strangers like to approach and pat.
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Alfie did really well in our session, and he is a very smart boy, so we are confident that this boy's behavior will quickly improve. First step: no strangers are allowed to approach him!
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When we go out, we like to jump and sit on things, and we like to put paws up on things 😁
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Dealing with reactivity these days isn't an easy task! For us, this is mainly due to busy lives, busier streets, "overly friendly" dogs off leash being allowed to rush up to other dogs, kids running towards dogs, e-bikes, scooters, strangers who think all dogs are for petting, unrealistic expectations of what dogs should be/do, and so much more... it's hard.
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We take our hats off to all owners who find secluded areas and quiet places, go out very early or late in the day, cross the road, turn around and do all they can to avoid putting their dogs in difficult situations until they are ready for it.
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We know exactly what it's like. We have been there, and we deal with it every day. It does take time and a lot of commitment to get to that stage where things get better. They do. We promise.
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📷 of Loki and his mum learning to work together and navigate this journey of having/being a big dog with big feelings and big reactions.
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If you see a dog reacting, please don't stare, give recommendations, or criticize. 🙏
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🐾 MAY 🐾
Meet little miss May, a gorgeous Poodle x Spitz who has energy for days and a very busy brain.
She is only 14mo, and she is smart, very affectionate, a little bit sassy, and extremely food driven.
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May is very playful, but she doesn't really have an 'off switch' and struggles to settle down by herself, so she needs a bit of help with that. She also needs a lot more mental stimulation through games, tricks, sniffing, obedience, etc, to help her put that brain to work and consequently help her feel more tired and fulfilled.
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We fell in love with her because she is the kind of dog that loves to work, but also tests your training skills, your mechanics, your patience, and your ability to stay calm 😁 🧘🏻‍♀️
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Zeus (The I) doesn't mind our short leash street walks, but what he loves is the long line bush adventures. He loves running and sniffing, and we want more proximity, recall, and ability to focus even when excited or when dogs are around, so we try to incorporate a bit of everything during our sessions. Hide & Seek is his favourite game 😁
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