Meg Ashby - Canine Behaviour Consultant

26/05/2026

This post isn’t dog related, but does provide an insight as to why I’ve had to take some time off, cancelled sessions last minute, and I’d just like to spread awareness. If you’re here just for dog stuff (I get it, scroll on 🫡) but I can’t pour from an empty cup right now, and if this helps one person get a faster diagnosis, it’s worth the slight cringe from posting 🎗️

Last week I was diagnosed with Endometriosis, after 12 years of begging doctors, nurses, and specialists to listen to me. To which, like most, I was medically gaslight and told “everyone has period pains, you’re being dramatic, you need to trust the experts”, my nurses first words when I woke up was “I’m sorry you’ve been gaslight like so many others”. My endo didn’t show up on any of the dozens of tests, bloods or scans I had, it was found in my laparoscopy.

Endo has affected me in all aspects of life for almost half of my life, it isn’t a gynaecological issue, it’s a full body chronic condition, it’s a disability, and it kills. Endo basically means that you have tissue (from the uterus) growing anywhere in random parts of your body. You can essentially have lots of mini periods from these lesions, and it can sew your organs together (it feels like it sounds 🙂).

If you feel like somethings not right, have consistent pains, chronic fatigue, or feel like your body’s trying to kill itself, PLEASE look into endo. It takes an average of 9 years to get a diagnosis, and even then, it’s missed on 50% of surgeries by the NHS as there’s so little specialists. Please message me if you have any questions or want any advice with advocating for yourself.

The biggest biggest thank you to my Mummy and Micky, without them I most definitely wouldn’t still be here. They’re currently pumping me full of meds, helping me walk, cooking low FODMAP food, looking after Fig, and believing in me. Thank you to all of my gorgeous clients that have put up with me when I get flare ups (especially over the last month), for cards and presents, kind words, checking in on me, and sending vids of your dogs (who I am very much missing). I can’t wait to be back ❤️‍🩹

17/05/2026

Enjoy some bloopers from my previous vid, of Fig being a typical Velcro dog who’s trying to worm her way into my skin 🤣

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and although this is me and Fig now, it didn’t come as easy as it looks. But, I will always stand by the statement of ‘I didn’t rescue her, she rescued me’. I adopted Fig at a really s**tty time in my life.

I’d lost my childhood dog a few months prior, who I left work for to care for her in her final months of cancer, so all of my energy was on her, and when she left, I felt like I didn’t have much left. I’d left a crappy relationship, had very little motivation for anything, and if you knew me in my teens (sorry 🤣) then you’ll know I’m no stranger the odd mental illness 😅 and it’s super easy to fall back into the comfort of giving up.

I needed something to do, a project, something to help/look after/rehabilitate, so I found a difficult dog and made it my mission. Fig has greatly tested my mental health, my knowledge on dogs, like I know a lot of your dogs do. Family’s struggling with their dogs behaviour can hugely impact relationships, dynamics & general feelings.

But once you work through those, you’re rewarded with the bestest friend you could ever ask for. Dogs keep us going, give us a reason to get outside, to get up in the mornings, to be present and appreciate the little things that you wouldn’t have noticed before.

So, thank you Fig for being the absolute light of my life. And thank you to all of your dogs for keeping you going when life gets really s**t 🫂

17/05/2026

11/05/2026

Dog behaviour med myth chat 💊🐕

06/05/2026

⭐️Waitlist now open⭐️
To be added, please use this form - https://megashbycbc.com/waitlist

01/05/2026

If I haven’t said it enough, thanks 🤭

28/04/2026

The Dog In Front of You

Post 2: When the Burden Has Nothing to Do With Behaviour.

I want to be clear about something before I say anything else.
This post isn't about the legislation itself - whether it's right or wrong, effective or not. That's a conversation for others to have, and there are people far better placed than me to have it. This is about something much more specific - the human cost of living inside it. And the broader, quieter cost of loving any dog the world has already judged before they've done a single thing to earn that verdict.

That's my lane. That's where my research sits. And that's what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about a group of dog guardians whose experience I think about a lot. It is one that I haven't experienced personally but one that I have begun to understand through those that have.

Not the guardian whose dog is reactive or anxious. Not the one managing triggers and thresholds and the complex, exhausting logistics of a dog whose anxiety makes the world genuinely difficult. I write in support of those guardians often because that's my personal experience and the heart of who I am.

This is about something different.

This is about the guardian whose Staffy, whose American Bully, whose XL Bully, whose Bull Terrier -whose dog of any breed - is gentle, well-trained, beautifully socialised and deeply loved. A dog the world has already decided something about before they've done a single thing to earn that verdict. Whose guardian has never had a moment's behavioural concern.

But who is carrying a weight that grows heavier every single day regardless.

Because the world doesn't see your dog. It sees a shape. A headline. A decision that was made somewhere far from your living room, your garden, your daily walk and which has followed you ever since.

For XL Bully owners that burden has been legislated into law. The muzzle. The lead. The insurance crisis. The landlord's breed restriction. The financial reality of hiring a private field just so your dog can run freely, safely and joyfully. The way every dog deserves to.

The legislation doesn't know your dog. It never asked to.

But the stigma that other bully breed owners carry is no less real for being unwritten. The crossed road. The tensed shoulders of strangers. The comments. The looks. The way public spaces feel hostile before your dog has done a single thing to earn that reaction.

In both cases the burden isn't coming from your dog. It's coming entirely from outside. From legislation, from public perception, from a media narrative that has never once asked what this costs the families on the other side of it.

This is caregiver burden. Not the kind that comes from managing a dog whose behaviour is genuinely challenging but a different kind. One that comes entirely from outside the relationship.

I say this as someone who works with reactive and anxious dogs every day - the dog is never the problem. Not the dog who lunges at the end of the lead. Not the dog who can't pass another dog without reacting. Not the bully breed the world has already judged. None of them are the problem.

The problem is often perception. Other people's perception of breeds. Of behaviours. Of the guardians who love these dogs and who are doing everything they can.

That perception alienates. It marginalises. It adds a layer of burden to an already heavy load and it does it to guardians across every situation, not just this one.

Sometimes we need to release the pressure by learning to live with the behaviours our dogs display and finding a way to do that with compassion for ourselves and for them. Because fault doesn't live here.

Not with the dog. Not with you.

It lives in the gap between what people think they see and who your dog actually is. And that gap - for XL bully breed owners especially - has been written into law. What it costs you, and your dog is real and largely unacknowledged.

It costs you the off-lead run that used to be the best part of the day. The café visit. The easy walk through the park where other dogs move freely and yours cannot. The simple, uncomplicated pleasure of being out in the world with a dog you love, without the muzzle, without bracing for the comment. And perhaps worst of all, the heartbreak of watching your dog question why people no longer want to approach them. That wide berth that tells you, again, that you are not entirely welcome here.

There is grief in that. A quiet, ongoing grief for the joy that should have been uncomplicated and isn't anymore. The life you chose this dog for. The life they deserve. And the gap between that life and the one the world is currently allowing you to have together.

I've looked for research that specifically examines the impact of breed stigma and breed-specific legislation on the emotional and physical wellbeing of both guardian and dog. I haven't found anything that does justice to it. Which means what you're carrying is going largely unrecorded - not just in daily life, but in the science too.

That matters. Because what gets researched gets recognised. And what gets recognised gets supported.

And you deserve to be seen. 🐾💕

If this resonates, please share it with someone who needs to read it.

28/04/2026

Dog gear I wouldn’t use & why (minus the obvious)