Ditch The Food Bowl

August 26, 2019 Alexandra Nelke

Provide daily enrichment for your dog by ditching the food bowl and feeding them from stuffed toys, snuffle mats, chews, puzzle toys, 'find it' games or scattering the food in your garden.

Whatever age your dog is, providing daily mental enrichment and a ‘job’ to do will pay hugely into your overall relationship account, with you becoming the centre of all things fun and exciting.

Licking, i.e. from a lickimat, is incredibly soothing and calming for a dog and can be a great tool to settle rescue dogs into their new life or keep puppies occupied for longer (for example during absence training).

If you are feeding from a puzzle toy or a Kong, make it easy for your dog to begin with to avoid frustration and potentially build a negative association with the toy.

You could also use your dogs meals for training practice both at home and out on a walk.

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Five Quick Tips....Recall

January 10, 2019 Alexandra Nelke

1. Take the time

To generate reliable recall, it’s important to take the time to build a 100% positive experience with your chosen recall cue (command) with high value rewards (such as chicken or hot dog). If your dog’s recall isn’t rewarded often and well enough then your dog will be more likely to continue to do their own thing, i.e. playing with other dogs or sniffing something of great interest which is terribly reinforcing in itself, and ignore your call.

Happy Holidays xxx

December 4, 2018 Alexandra Nelke

PREVENTING SEPARATION ANXIETY IN YOUR PUPPY

March 1, 2018 Alexandra Nelke

Your puppy will have spent his entire life so far in the company of his mother and litter mates and arriving at his/ her new home can be a bit of a shock to the system. However, one of the kindest things that you can do for your puppy is to start to introduce him/ her to spending time away from you at a very early age to avoid separation anxiety from developing at a later stage. It’s important that this is done at a pace that the puppy can cope with. The goal is to teach the puppy that when you leave, you will always return and so there is no need to worry when you leave the room/ house....

Farewell to puppy biting

February 18, 2018 Alexandra Nelke

First things first, there’s no quick cure for puppy biting. But if you’re consistent with your messages and, at the same time, teach your pup what to do instead of nipping or biting, your little friend will stop this inappropriate behaviour, well, as soon as his or her personality allows.

There are various reasons why your puppy nips or bites:

Puppies use their mouth to explore and interact with their surroundings.
They play bite or nip out of frustration, over-arousal or fatigue.
Teething/ sore gums can be the reason behind a puppy bite or it can be a defensive or offensive reaction (more often it’s a defensive one!).

House training your puppy

February 11, 2018 Alexandra Nelke

Most puppies are house trained by around six month of age but of course every puppy is different; from size to breed to personality. The more consistent you are in providing your pup with what s/he needs to learn the right behaviour, the quicker s/he will understand.

While being house trained your puppy should ideally be either: outside while you actively look for and reinforce elimination, inside with your constant supervision, or crated/ gated off in a puppy-proofed room...