Category Archives: Puppies

Shaping sound minds and bodies: raising puppies with evidence-based enrichment protocols

Last year, I raised my first litter of Polish Hunting Spaniel puppies – an intensive yet inspiring project drawing on my background as a psychologist. I had immersed myself in the science of canine wellbeing for two years, so my goal as a breeder was to optimise the puppies’ mental wellbeing by using scientifically backed techniques and environmental enrichment protocols. In this post, I want to share my experiences.

Teaching a puppy to walk in a retractable leash

I’ve seen probably hundreds of claims about how flexi leashes “make your dog pull”. Unfortunately, universal statements without caveats are easily falsifiable… you only need one black swan to prove not all swans are white, so I wanted to show that a retractable lead does not automatically make or teach a dog to pull andContinueContinue reading “Teaching a puppy to walk in a retractable leash”

Thoughts and tips on puppy exercise + book recommendation

I recently started re-reading a book I bought a while ago called “How to Build a Puppy” and stumbled on some interesting stuff, so I posted about it on our kennel’s Instagram account and thought it would be useful to share on the blog too. Since I only thought of sharing it here afterwards, here’sContinueContinue reading “Thoughts and tips on puppy exercise + book recommendation”

Puppy training 101: disengaging from humans

For one reason or another, Astra has found humans mesmerising for a long time – not just hypergreeting in close proximity like Nell, but intentionally seeking them out, as you can see here. I’ve been working on this consistently on every walk, and to be honest, it’s quite frustrating for me after living with Grace,ContinueContinue reading “Puppy training 101: disengaging from humans”

Training puppies to disengage and recall

Disengaging from distractions is perhaps THE most important life skill for a puppy, and the sooner they learn, the better. Of course, their brains are not yet capable of a lot of things – impulse control being one of them, because the parts of the brain that control activation develop faster than the parts thatContinueContinue reading “Training puppies to disengage and recall”

Building curiosity and confidence in search

I’m quite opportunistic when it comes to training. What I mean is that I try to look at the environment on walks through the dog’s eyes and take training opportunities as and when I see them. In this case, our local forest is full of branches fallen after the big storm a few weeks ago,ContinueContinue reading “Building curiosity and confidence in search”

Disengaging from distractions

Disengaging from distractions is perhaps THE most important life skill for a puppy, and the sooner they learn, the better. Of course, their brains are not yet capable of a lot of things – impulse control being one of them, because the parts of the brain that control activation develop faster than the parts thatContinueContinue reading “Disengaging from distractions”

Proprioception and balance training in the forest

https://videopress.com/v/8m0udXfh?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true Forest gymnastics This is so easy to do yet so beneficial for dogs (and especially puppies) because it slows them down and really gets them to pay attention to how they navigate obstacles. That develops their proprioception and balance – abilities they will very soon need when they become adolescents. Dogs mature physically muchContinueContinue reading “Proprioception and balance training in the forest”

The risks of openness

I posted something yesterday that (in my mind) was about how I’ve realised this process of breeding dogs is full of decisions. I think about this because my day job is about how people make decisions under uncertainty and how they evaluate risk. Some are big and significant, like the choice of male, health testing,ContinueContinue reading “The risks of openness”