The Dog Dynamic - Behaviour & Training

The Dog Dynamic - Behaviour & Training https://www.thedogdynamic.com/book

Reward-based training 💯
Scentwork 🐶
Behaviour Modification🐕‍🦺
Private Sessions
Puppies
Basic Life Skills and Manners

Today Raffy and I completed our first ever competition event together as a team. At 5am this morning we made our up to t...
17/05/2026

Today Raffy and I completed our first ever competition event together as a team. At 5am this morning we made our up to the beautiful Fonthill to go tracking. We passed our Track 1 with a score of Very Good, and Raff was delighted to find his tracklayer waiting in the paddock just for him. We took the track-on opportunity and later did our track 2 - double the distance of track 1. We passed this with a Good, which would probably have been better if his handler wasn't so thick-headed. Best of all, he had a fantastic time. And so begins our journey: Raffles AKA Wherryman I Put My Name On It has put his name on his first two official certificates.

🐾 Group classes are BACKI'm so excited to announce that The Dog Dynamic is returning to group classes, and we're setting...
13/05/2026

🐾 Group classes are BACK

I'm so excited to announce that The Dog Dynamic is returning to group classes, and we're setting up at Kingston Neighbourhood House.

Starting with The Good Dog Club: a relaxed, roll-on weekly class for dogs of all ages and stages. We'll be working on the foundations that make everyday life with your dog actually enjoyable: manners, confidence, and the kind of skills that mean you can take your dog anywhere.

Before I lock in the schedule, I want to hear from you! Vote for your preferred time here 👇

🔗 https://form.typeform.com/to/yOCDqQr3

**How to know when your dog needs behaviour support**I'll be honest. Most people come to me later than they needed to. T...
03/05/2026

**How to know when your dog needs behaviour support**

I'll be honest. Most people come to me later than they needed to. They were hoping it would settle down on its own, or they felt like they should be able to figure it out themselves.

So here are the things I'd actually pay attention to:

1. The reactions feel disproportionate. The trigger is small but the response is big, or your dog is struggling in situations that most dogs handle fine. That gap between trigger and response is worth taking seriously.

2. Progress has stalled despite consistent effort. You've been working at it, things improved for a while, and now you're stuck. That's not a sign that your dog can't get there. It's usually a sign that something in the approach needs adjusting.

3. Stress is clearly driving the behaviour. Your dog isn't being naughty or stubborn. They're struggling. There's a difference, and it matters for how you approach it.

The thing about behaviour support is that it's genuinely more useful earlier. Not because later is too late, it's not, but because the patterns are less established and there's less to unpick. You don't need to wait until things feel unmanageable. If something feels off, that's enough of a reason to reach out.

🐾 If any of this sounds like your dog, my books are open. You can get in touch via DM or through the link in my bio.

**Why basic training isn't enough for some dogs**This one is for everyone who has done all the right things. You've been...
26/04/2026

**Why basic training isn't enough for some dogs**

This one is for everyone who has done all the right things. You've been to classes, you've worked on sit and drop and loose lead walking, your dog knows their cues. And they're still struggling.

It's not because you haven't tried hard enough. And it's not because the training was wrong. It's because skills and emotional capacity are two completely different things.
A dog can know exactly what "leave it" means and still not be able to access that cue when they're over threshold. Not because they're being stubborn, but because when the nervous system is in survival mode, the thinking brain is essentially offline. You can't out-train a dog who doesn't have the emotional capacity to use what they know.

This is why behaviour work focuses on building that capacity first. Getting the nervous system regulated enough that the dog can actually think, make choices, and use the skills they have. Training sticks a lot better once that foundation is there.
If your dog knows all the things and still falls apart in certain situations, that's really useful information. It tells you that the missing piece probably isn't more training. It's the layer underneath.

🐾 That's exactly the kind of thing a behaviour consultation is designed to look at. If it sounds familiar, feel free to get in touch.

**What behaviour work actually looks like**I think there's a version of dog behaviour consulting that people expect, whe...
19/04/2026

**What behaviour work actually looks like**

I think there's a version of dog behaviour consulting that people expect, where someone comes in, watches the dog for ten minutes, and hands over a list of exercises to fix the problem.

That's not really how it works. At least not if it's done well.
The first thing that happens in any behaviour case is assessment. Not advice, not training, assessment. What's actually going on for this dog? What's driving the behaviour? What does their day look like, what's their history, what have people already tried? The environment gets as much attention as the dog, because behaviour doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Progress in behaviour cases also tends to look a lot quieter than people expect. It's not usually a dramatic before and after. It's a dog who recovers faster after a hard moment. A dog who notices a trigger and looks back at their owner instead of losing the plot. Small things that are actually really significant if you know what you're looking at.

🐾 If you've been wondering what a behaviour consultation actually involves, feel free to send me a DM. Happy to walk you through what the process looks like for your specific situation.

**Why punishment makes reactivity worse, not better**When a dog is reacting, whether that's barking, lunging, growling, ...
12/04/2026

**Why punishment makes reactivity worse, not better**

When a dog is reacting, whether that's barking, lunging, growling, or shutting down, that behaviour is the visible part. It's what we see. But underneath it, there's a whole emotional state driving it. Fear, overwhelm, stress. The behaviour is just the symptom.

Punishment can absolutely stop the symptom. A dog who gets corrected for growling will often stop growling. And on the surface, that can look like progress.
But the emotional state underneath hasn't gone anywhere. The dog is still scared, still overwhelmed, still stressed. They've just learned that showing it isn't safe. Which means the warning signs disappear, and the underlying problem keeps building.
This is where the fallout tends to show up, sometimes weeks or months later, often in ways that feel like they've come out of nowhere. They haven't. The pressure was always there.

There are safer and more effective ways to work with reactivity. Ways that actually address what's driving the behaviour rather than just switching off the symptom. They take more time and more patience, but the results are real and they last.

🐾 A dog who feels safer genuinely behaves differently. That's not a training trick, it's just how it works.

Sometimes a special dog comes along. You know the ones. The ones that just *have it*. A sense of self-possession, a conf...
08/04/2026

Sometimes a special dog comes along. You know the ones. The ones that just *have it*. A sense of self-possession, a confidence, something almost unidentifiable. These dogs are rare, as anyone who works in the canine world will know.

I'm lucky enough to have one.

After two more difficult dogs of my own, a few fosters, and working with countless dogs and puppies over the years, I can tell you it's a different sort of learning curve to raise a dog like this.
When you have sensitive or anxious dogs, or you're working with rehomes, trauma cases, or severe separation anxiety, you learn to be on the ball at all times. You learn to look out for your dog in every situation and manage their life to the minutia.
Raffles is not like that. He looks after me.If I wanted an assistance dog, he could be that for me.

Of course, he's still a baby, and I'm still very careful with who he meets and what experiences he has, but everything he comes across, he just...deals with it. No worries.

If we want to use labels: left to his own devices, he would no doubt become the leader of whatever pack of dogs he collected around himself. And he would collect them. He makes it his mission to befriend every dog he comes across, whether they want it or not. He hasn't failed yet. Not through 'dominance' or 'aggression' or 'resource control', but through sheer good social skills. Less confident dogs follow him happily, as if to say: thank god, there's someone here to make decisions. I can relax. I can already see the starts of it in social play sessions. He'll often decide which toy everyone is playing with, whether they're lying down chewing or running around chasing - and all of these dogs are older than him.
If he were human, we'd call him charismatic. Extroverted. A great leader. Self-assured, steady, reliable.

He is an absolute gift. A one-in-a-million kind of dog.

Wherryman Spaniels

**What progress really looks like in behaviour cases**One of the hardest parts of behaviour work is that progress often ...
06/04/2026

**What progress really looks like in behaviour cases**

One of the hardest parts of behaviour work is that progress often doesn't look the way people expect it to. There's rarely a dramatic moment where the dog just gets it and everything changes overnight. And because of that, it can be really easy to miss how far things have actually come and lose motivation.

Here's what I actually look for:

1. Shorter reactions. The dog still notices the trigger, still has a moment, but it's over faster than it used to be. That's the nervous system starting to regulate more efficiently, and it's a genuinely big deal.

2. Faster recovery. How long does it take your dog to come back to baseline after something hard? If that window is getting smaller, that's progress, even if the reaction itself looks similar on the outside.

3. More choice. A dog who used to go straight to their biggest response is now trying smaller things first. Looking away. Moving off. Checking in with you.

The subtle stuff is real change. It just doesn't make for a very exciting video.

🐾 If you're in the middle of behaviour work and wondering whether it's actually working, it might be worth looking for these things rather than waiting for the big moment. It's probably already happening.

**3 common myths about reactive dogs**If you've got a reactive dog, chances are you've heard at least one of these. And ...
06/04/2026

**3 common myths about reactive dogs**

If you've got a reactive dog, chances are you've heard at least one of these. And chances are it hasn't been particularly helpful.

"They're aggressive."
Reactivity and aggression aren't the same thing. Most reactive dogs are scared, frustrated, or overwhelmed, not dangerous. Slapping an aggression label on a dog who's struggling emotionally tends to close doors rather than open them. It changes how people see the dog, and not in a useful way.

"They'll grow out of it."
Some dogs do settle with age and experience. But for most reactive dogs, time without support isn't neutral. It's just more practice at the wrong thing. If the pattern is already there, waiting rarely makes it smaller.

"Firm handling will fix it."
This one comes up a lot, and I understand why it sounds logical. But a dog who's reacting from fear or overwhelm doesn't need more pressure, they need help feeling safer. Firm handling can suppress the behaviour in the short term while leaving the emotional state completely untouched. And suppressed behaviour has a way of coming back louder.

Understanding what's actually driving the behaviour is what changes things. Not the label, not the waiting, not the pressure.

**Why behaviour change happens in layers**One of the most common things I hear from people before they book in is "we've...
30/03/2026

**Why behaviour change happens in layers**

One of the most common things I hear from people before they book in is "we've already tried training and it didn't work." And I get it. You've put in the effort, you've done the classes, and the dog is still struggling. It feels like hitting a wall.

But here's the thing. A single session, with anyone, is really just the starting point. It's where we figure out what's actually going on and begin building a picture. The work that comes after is where the change happens.

Progress in behaviour cases is also rarely a straight line. There are weeks where things click, and weeks where it feels like you've gone backwards. That's not failure, that's just how behaviour change works. The nervous system doesn't update on a schedule.
Plateaus are normal. They're not a sign that your dog can't get there. They're usually a sign that the foundation needs a bit more time before the next layer can go on top.
Follow-up sessions matter because of this. Not because one session wasn't enough effort, but because behaviour is dynamic. What we need to work on in week six is different to what we needed in week one, and having someone in your corner to adjust the plan as you go makes a real difference to how things land long term.

🐾 If you've felt stuck with your dog's behaviour, it might not be that training hasn't worked. It might just be that you haven't had the right layers in the right order yet.

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