My Dog Is

A beautiful shot caught from one of last weeks sessions with Miss Kiya 💜

The energy that this lady brings to each of her walk & trains is something else, always ready and eager to go, with one of the happiest faces.

Its been wonderful being part of her journey so far, helping her owner prepare for vet trips, making her more reliable for off lead freedom, and teaching her some alternative behaviours.

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The first month of the year is almost over, Crazy!!!

I know quite a few of us like to set ourselves goals for the year and whilst the the first week or two we can be full of motivation, it's hard to keep up that momentum sometimes. So to keep you going, keep track of and plan all of your doggy goals we have a quick weekend sale on all of our downloadable planners & trackers.

Use code ✨ Motivation50 ✨ at checkout to get your discount.

This will be available until Sunday, so get it today to work on it across the weekend ready to take Monday on with a clear and more motivated mind.

Possibly my favourite of our trackers & planners, the: Proofing Pyramid.

Training a dog shouldn't be overly complicated, BUT trying to remember all the environments, distractions, locations and so on you have worked on your dog's behaviour around isn't easy!

The proofing pyramid helps to plan and keep track. Slowly guiding you to proof the command and level up the environments and distractions, whilst still being able to go at your dog's pace. Also giving you prompts and ideas, as we all know its easy to get stuck with the same location 😅

A handy little gimmick to remember is ABC. These 3 things can work wonders in many aspects when it comes to your owning a dog.

🐾 Access - Access comes through you. Whether it's a threshold, whether it's a toy, whether it's food, whether it's greeting another dog or person, and so on. By putting in the effort that your dog gains access to these things, especially good rewarding things, you will start to notice that more frequently they look to you for guidance and access. Rather than rushing out the gate, rather than rushing to pick up food you've dropped, rushing another dog leaving you trailing behind trying to catch them.
🐾 Bonding - Bonding with your dog is always a focus. Whether it's through play, training, grooming, hiking, problem solving. Continuously building on your bond can reap rewards in so many ways, from their want to work and train with you, to trusting you when they feel uncertain.
🐾 Confidence Building - Building your dog's confidence not only helps strengthen your bond, but it can help your dog lead a happier life. Being able to take them to more places, and sharing more of your world with them.

Even when you've been having a continuous chain of success it can take one 'bad' episode to quickly bring you to feeling low.

Whether it's a bad day, a couple of days, a week or more it's important to reach out to your support network, rather than letting it bottle up.

When your dog starts displaying reactive behaviour your first point of call wants to be getting help, reaching out to a trainer and behaviourist.

But these are 3 areas you can start looking at yourself;

✨ Safety - safety should always be considered with any dog, but when you start to notice reactive behaviour this needs to be at the forefront of your mind. Ensuring your gear is safe, with no wear and tear and not likely to break. Muzzle training. Place Training. Ensuring you have appropriate awareness gear, and gear to advocate for your dog.
✨ I cannot express this enough. looking at building your relationship, bonding, building trust, building confidence together. Dogs have an amazing ability to read us as owners (and humans). Playing, exploring new walks, training, trying a new activity, tapping into breed fulfilment. not only will this help your dog, but it will help you.
✨ It's so easy to want to hide when your dog displays reactive behaviour, and whilst taking a step back to focus on the basics, and to gather yourself is a good thing, getting out there and exposing your dog, to all different aspects of the world can do wonders in building their confidence.

So a lot of us shared our training goals for 2024.

Our training set is perfect for helping you tackle those training goals.

We have had a few new followers recently so I wanted to say hi 👋 and also let you know why I started My Dog Is.

I have a large breed dog, and when we bought him home, at 8 weeks, he was already bigger than the majority of the dogs in our village. Although obvious to most that he was a puppy, to some they thought he was older than he was purely down to his size, resulting in a lot of inappropriate and unwanted greeting and meetings.

We put a lot of time into his training, and in all honesty, we were so fed up with the people coming up and disturbing him (without consent) or allowing their dogs to rush us and him. So we wanted to find some training awareness gear. The products we found didn't offer much visibility, he could only wear them during certain parts of the year, the quality wasn't very good, and the actual awareness/information was minimal.

With that I thought about what we actually needed and came up with the idea of My Dog Is, only having the courage to start it a year or so later.

Until you have a reliable recall with a dog the safest and kindest thing you can do is have them on a long-line.

Whilst there are some training methods for recall or building pack mentality that involve being off lead, you can always use a dropped lead instead, to ensure you keep your dog safe, and respect those around you.

I hate conflict, not only that but I'm such a huge people pleaser, and I like to ensure people are happy and everything is okay!

But the reality is sometimes I have to do things that make me feel uncomfortable to make my dog feel comfortable. I need to advocate for him, whether that's by blocking a dog, wearing bright colours, shouting at another owner to put their dog on lead, or simply putting my hand up at someone to stop them from petting my dog.

It shouldn't result in conflict, but sometimes it does, but.... those 5 minutes of me feeling uncomfortable because i have said 'no' to someone is worth it in order for my dog to feel okay.

As an individual I know I am a worrier, however, in some aspects, I don't think that is a bad thing.

When it comes to my dog's safety I see it as one of, if not the, most important aspects of having him and caring for him.

His happiness is key, but if his safety is compromised through something that is bringing him joy, I will evaluate how I can bring that happy 'thing' into his life safely.

If he thrives off lead but has no recall, I would hire secure fields until I we have a solid recall.

I don't know who needs to hear this but.... 💁

The amount of people who say they get abuse when they ask another owner to recall their dog, or get their dog away from theirs is crazy!

Some owners seem to get incredibly defensive of this, and it's something I can't quite get my head around. A dog does not need to say hello to every other dog, nor is there any benefit from them doing so!

If someone asks you to recall your dog, to get your dog away from theirs, or is even just making it abundantly clear in any shape or form that they do not want to interact with your dog, the only thing you should be doing is keeping your dog away from them. You don't need to know why, you just need to do it.

It can be so easy to lose track of the training with your pup, especially when it comes to proofing commands.

The Proofing Pyramid gives you a place to not only plan locations and distractions but allows you to track how you are getting on. Working your way from top to bottom, solidifying the command in low to no distraction environments to proofing them in busy spaces, giving you guides and pointers of environments to try.

🐾 Whatever works 🐾

Possibly one of the best pieces of training advice I have ever seen in the dog world.

There is always much debate online about how to train a dog. This way is right, they're doing that wrong, you have to use this method, this style, these treats and so on.

With consideration that the dog/owner/handler is safe, the public's safety and space are considered, the dog's best interest is at hand, and progress is actually being made then brilliant ✨ Whatever Works ✨

For my own dog, we have had to implement many different styles, different techniques, methods and so on in order to train, and care for him. For certain fears and phobias we had to allow independent study and self-reward, for grooming and certain touches we had to use bribery in order to get to a point where he voluntarily offers (and even asks), for some behaviours we have had to correct, and for others, we have had to ignore. And to add to that in order for us to get passed certain behavioural issues we were given advice that even the trainer said they would not advise for the majority, but in our case it was advised (and it worked).

No dog is the same, and not even with one dog may the same style work in training them in different areas. Be open to trying different things, looking at the dog in front of you, the situation at hand, and what they respond to!

'Whatever works'

Whatever style, whatever method, whatever tools.

The dog world is, ALWAYS, full of debate on people's training styles. For me, standing by the methodology that 'whatever works' allows one to focus on what the dog in front of you needs in order to make progression in their training and/or behavioural modification.

So long as the dog is being kept safe, the public and handlers are safe, the public's space is being respected, the dog's best interest is the driving factor, and progression is being made then 'whatever works'.

Whatever works does not mean limiting that dog to that one method. For example I use different methods and styles for my own dog, dependent on the situation and what we are doing. For my own dog I found that care duties required a lot of bribary to start with in order to get to a point that he now of offers it freely, thresholds and boundaries required spacial pressure, certain phobias required independent study and reward based efforts, mouthing reaquired corrective.

We were at Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens on Sunday 🐾

The perfect opportunity to wear the Training Hoodie.

Exposing our dogs and enjoying a fun day out with friends, it was the perfect ✨Reactivity Activity✨

Each month Tactical Paws and My Dog Is will be running Reactivity Activities, whether its a trip to the zoo, picnic at the beach, or a day in London. Taking on the those fun days out in a more confident and comfortable manner.

Reach out if this sounds like a bit of you 🙌

Whether you use the Reactivity Reviewer to document your journey and training advice with a trainer/behaviourist or you want to go through it yourself, it can offer you a place to get all the information down and work towards achieving your goals.

Evaluate the areas you and your dog are struggling with, what actions you are taking that are helping to progress, activities you can do with your dog, and of course reviewing alternative behaviour that you can teach.

The Reactivity Reviewer was created based on my own experience with my dog's journey. The need and want to note down all the jumble in my head, and create a clearer path of action to tackle his reactivity.

✨Giveaway✨

We're in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year's, and the New Year always brings about many goals. To help you achieve your 2024 goals we are giving away 3 separate prizes to 3 separate people.

🐾1st Prize: My Dog Is Training Hoodie
🐾2nd Prize: My Dog Is Training Hi-Viz
🐾3rd Prize: My Dog Is Reactivity Reviewer (e-document)

To enter the giveaway:

1. LIKE this post
2. FOLLOW this account
3. TAG 3 friends
4. SHARE to your stories

Open to the UK only. The giveaway closes Saturday 18th November 2023, and the winner announced Sunday 19th November 2023.

If your dog isn't listening to you and runs up to another person, or dog, it is unfair to put it on that individual to control your dog, and to keep your dog safe.

Last week a video of an off-lead dog was going rather viral, this dog was following an owner and her nervous dog, who were heading towards a road in order to escape confrontation (and protect her dog) from the off-lead dog.

The irresponsible owner blamed the lady for risking her dog's safety, by walking towards the road, yet she was the owner allowing her dog off lead without a solid recall and was allowing her dog to run up to and react towards others🤯

It's unfair to expect anyone to control or keep your dog safe if you aren't doing that yourself!

Have you checked out the new products?

Our Daily Training Planner is the perfect document to quickly schedule your plans for the day, highlight your training focuses, and to mark down any behavioural responses you have seen.

🐾We have some new faces and paws to our My Dog Is ambassador team 🐾

The Beautiful Skye, and Gorgeous Nala.

Skye Purdy's Paws ✨ SKYE10 ✨
Nala ✨ NALA10✨

Both have different goals for themselves and their dogs, but it so lovely that My Dog Is can be a part of their journey to them 🧡💜

These are a few of the goals I have with Kenai, and I would love to know what goals you have with your dog.

Swipe to see the blank template for you to share to your stories and fill out, or write down your goals in the comments ✨

✨ Exposure over socialising ✨

Essentially they are the same, but, more often than not, people translate socialising to mean interacting with, and this is where things can go wrong. Whilst you do want your dog to get used to being around and experiencing as many things as possible, they do not need to interact, nor should they, interact with 'said thing' every time.

This is why I say exposure, I'm not looking for my dog to interact, but instead just be exposed and amongst the object/person/environment. He is taking in the noises, the sounds, the smells, the movement of what he is surrounded by but he doesn't have to do anything other than just be.

The training Hoodies, Sweatshirts, and Tees are such a rich blue and I am all here for it 🤩

I love bringing colour to the greyer days with it on, and also getting our message noticed 🙌

There is nothing better than spotting a responsible dog owner.

An owner that takes it as a priority their dog's safety and the public! 😍

Handsome Bear and wonderful Jade 🧡

Product: Orange/dog reactive set - Hi Viz

Often when telling someone 'no, I don't want you/your dog to greet my dog', we feel obliged to tell them why. Why my dog is reactive, why they may bark, cower, hide, lunge.

You don't need to justify it. Your dog, your space, your choice.

It can feel awful sometimes that people are judging you by not allowing greetings, and justifying why seems to help reduce the feeling of judgment.

Sometimes explaining to other owners why can prove to be beneficial and actually raise awareness of the importance of permission-based greetings, but sometimes simply saying no and walking away is okay.

Either way, you do not need to justify why.

As a dog professional, you will be coming across many shapes, sizes, behaviours and needs of dogs, and I appreciate that one message won't fit all!

We offer discount packages on our dog pro bundle, ensuring you can advocate for all the dogs you are walking, training, and caring for.

Just reach out if you're a dog professional and want to enquire about our dog pro bundles and get your discount.

✨We have some new products arriving soon ✨

Join the mailing list to get updated on the release, be the first to know once they've launched and receive an exclusive discount on them 🤗

To get on the mailing list either head to the website and subscribe or send a message saying 'email'.

For me it's the sounds, whenever I am on a walk it's like I have bat hearing 🦇

What have I missed, what do you find as a reactive dog owner you do and know like second nature?