Blog

  • Enrichment tip & on the benefits of sniffing for puppies

    Enrichment tip & on the benefits of sniffing for puppies

    As I was cutting up the stinky dry tripe, I thought… jeez, the things I do for my dogs. In a “wow, I’m a crazy dog lady” kind of way, because if I tried to explain this to anyone normal, I’d definitely sound bonkers. Then I thought… why not make a video about it, because Read more

  • The anatomy of a breed standard

    The anatomy of a breed standard

    The key reason why breed standards matter even when you are focused on the potential performance of a dog is that not all dogs are physically suited to the activities we want to do with them. I’ve previously written about why structure matters even for working spaniels – it’s not just about performance, unless you Read more

  • Sniffing for treats as a tool

    Sniffing for treats as a tool

    Searching for treats on cue is a very useful behaviour for a dog to learn – it’s an example of a cusp behaviour, which means it broadens the dog’s behavioural repertoire and opens up the possibility for learning other behaviours. This is why I was doing it with Grace’s puppies from an early age so Read more

  • Thoughts and tips on puppy exercise + book recommendation

    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’s Read more

  • Puppy training 101: disengaging from humans

    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, Read more

  • Training puppies to disengage and recall

    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 that Read more