The Mutty Professor

07/06/2026

Content filler piccy of the gorgeous Sunny Jim The Mini EBT! 💕

I’m working with Sunny and his family due to the behaviour he has directed towards his family (human and the other dog).

Sunny’s nervous system is completely dysregulated and this has influenced unpredictable aggressive behaviour.

When dogs behave in a genuinely unpredictable manner it is commonly due to pain or health problems, which we have explored with the support of the referring veterinarian.

For Sunny, it is clear that his tendency for 0-100 arousal elevation and how he behaves when intensely aroused is likely the main factor in his behaviour, so the focus is on supporting regulation of his nervous system using a variety of interventions.

05/06/2026

If your dog’s recall is unreliable then it’s because your cue is not conditioned strongly enough and that this conditioning hasn’t been applied around the competing stimulus.

The way I frame how my cues motivate my dogs is that they need to be more rewarding than the competing stimulus- and that the whole history behind that cue is what builds reward value, rather than focusing on the rewards themselves.

This video shows Nick’s recall cue failing. He’s not a dog trainer and only ever carries and delivers treats outside when he takes my dogs to my field when I’m working.

His recall cue will work in a lower arousal or lower distraction and less goal focused context- because Amigo has a good relationship with Nick. But off more intense goal directed behaviour- a stronger history of conditioning using a variety of rewards (toys, food, movement, praise, premack) is required for any dog with motivation to chase or predate.

In the cooler weather the rabbits were out in full force. They went undetected as we kept the dogs close and increased our distance. However, these two were more exposed and Amigo spotted them.

I would not want repeated chasing due to the risk of the dogs chaining the chase with recall. Repeatedly recalling off chasing also risks diluting the value of rewards for return, reducing the saliency of the recall cue and decreasing motivation to respond.

The vast majority of my dogs’ walks needs to be focused around measured, calm exploration behaviour - not only to support their arousal regulation but also to ensure the novelty value of my recall cue and rewards is not compromised through excessive use.

By managing my dogs exposure to things that motivate chase - such as rabbits- I can ensure their recall is reliable when they do see them!

03/06/2026

A while back Emily said to me “how do you feel about throwing a sausage party for the ‘reactive’ sausages on our books?”.

“Sure!” I said…. “What could possibly go wrong?!?” 🤷‍♀️😂

Now, anyone whose worked with dachshunds know that they can be tricky customers with their barking tendencies! But somehow- we pulled it off!

It wasn’t a silent disco by any means - especially as they all turned up in their chauffeur driven cars 😆 But it also wasn’t bark fest!

Well done to teams MURPHY, WINNIE, TICKLE, ERNIE, FRANKIE & JOHN! 💕

02/06/2026

🎉 NEW TEAM MEMBER! 🥳

Hayley's time with us has sadly come to an end and the wonderful Debs has stepped in to join us!

Debs is a Clinical Animal Behaviourist and Separation Anxiety Expert.

Welcome to the team DEBS!

You can read more about her experience and qualifications here:

Deb has completed a degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and is a fully qualified Clinical Animal Behaviourist and a full member of the APBC and ABTC. While her primary expertise lies with dogs, she also has experience supporting cats, rabbits, and other small domestic pets.

01/06/2026

The self appointed ‘stay’ happens randomly, usually in open spaces but generally as and when he feels like it 🤷‍♀️

It doesn’t happen on every walk! It’s very dependent on how into the environment he is versus how much he wants to play/train!

It happens so randomly that I can be walking along all “tra-la-la …..oh, where’s Mohawk?” and as I look behind, there he is……Grinning! My eyes meeting his then reaffirms to him…..
“yes, this is a ‘stay’“ even though HE PUT HIMSELF IN IT! 😂

‼️ It’s not pain or anxiety>fear related.
It’s important to note that stopping on walks can be motivated by discomfort, anxiety and fear. But as you can see- he always has his goofy anticipation face on. He’s feeling great!

Not boredom related - we’d done some training games on this walk (2nd walk of day).

Using a lead proactively is not really an option due to how random it can be. I don’t know he’s feeling that vibe until he’s vibing!

Clipping him on lead in response seems unnecessary when he’s having such a lovely time and causing no bother to me or anyone.

If I anticipate it in areas he may do it and occupy him with games as I navigate that space I add value to that area and simply motivate him to do it on the occasion games aren’t actioned.

If I recall him - especially if someone is heading his way (including with a dog) - he thinks I’m releasing him from the ‘stay’ and loves the running back! 🤦‍♀️

If I try put it on extinction and keep walking- he loves the running to catch up with me 🤣

I even once dived into the long grass pretending to fall over. I was down for about 20 seconds and he didn't budge. Not a single ounce of concern about my welfare.
I have proofed that 'stay' too well 😆

As far as I can tell- bar putting him on lead there’s no way round this. I’m in check mate 🤣♟️

Thankfully it’s a fun and benign behaviour and his creativity makes me laugh!

Answers on a post card if you have any 🤷‍♀️😆

01/06/2026

I woke up to find this lovely review from Team Stan this morning!

Stan was assessed in February this year for noise phobia.

He was refusing walks, panicking on walks - even escaping his harness and collar and running home. Trips to a secure field still couldn't guarantee respite- as he would sometimes panick and run back to the car.

This was despite him already being on psychoactive medication when he came to me.

Stan's behaviour was not just a training related issue. Looking at his medical history suggested that pain was potentially a factor as well as compromised gastro intestinal health.

As behaviourists are not - by law- able to give direct nutrition advice, I'm a big fan of using Biome4Pets for in depth insight and suggestions on how to support the individual's gut.

A holistic approach looking at physical health, environment, routine and training being the last step has resulted in a very different dog in a very short space of time.

Here's a video of Stan enjoying a walk with just Lynda and Millie, something he's refused to do in a long time.

We've got him through shooting / hunting/ crow scarer season- so we now need to ramp up efforts to help him cope with firework season.

He's also getting support from a colleague more local to them for recall and loose lead walking, so he can get back to being off lead again!

We didn't force Stan to face his fears.

We helped him feel strong and emotionally stable enough to cope with his fears.

Here's the lovely review ❤
Thanks so much Lynda x.........

Roz has changed our lives!

Stan, our 3 year old border collie, has had real issues with anxiety, noise sensitivity and not wanting to go for walks.

We had tried all sorts, health checks, various training methods and different trainers, calming medication - you name it, we’d tried it!

After our initial visit from Roz, we started to see a difference almost straight away. Her common sense, expert advice allowed us to see how to help Stan simply by making subtle changes to his environment and (the big one!) restricting his access to his ball plus changing what we did with the ball. Rather than just throwing it for him, we now do games such as hide and find - this works his brain and 15-20 minutes two or three times a week is plenty.

On subsequent visits, Roz has helped with getting Stan more confident about going on walks and showing us how to do ‘counter conditioning’ around his noise sensitivity.

Roz also picked up that some of his issues might be related to diet - we’ve tweaked this and seen significant improvements.

We’re making great progress and we are very grateful to Roz for all she’s done. A lot of it was training us rather than Stan!

Roz really is a font of knowledge for all things dog and we felt she had a very good understanding of breed specific issues/solutions.

We absolutely recommend her without reservation. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

31/05/2026

A little video of us training in the garden in replacement of their usual second walk of the day (due to the heat)

29/05/2026

IS IT REALLY PREY DRIVE?

Last week I uploaded a compilation of the boys showing steadiness around livestock and recalling off squirrels.

At long last, I have managed to capture a video of one recalling off a rabbit. This is despite him sadly killing one a while back as he stumbled across one in the undergrowth (no chase, no recall opportunity).

It’s a low intensity chase- but both can recall off higher intensity chase too, as featured before.

Amigo, doesn’t JUST have chase drive, but a strong grab drive too! I’m not sure if he’d eat the rabbit - as I never gave him the chance- but I suspect he would.

Just because a dog likes to chase, it doesn’t make it prey drive. The same goes for a dog that loves bitework. It’s not by default harnessing the dog’s 'predatory aggression'- despite it often being labelled as such to make it sound more sexy and dramatic.

Predation - by definition- is the motivation and subsequent behaviour that intends to catch, kill and potentially consume prey.

However the more frequently and determined a dog is motivated to do such, the higher/stronger we can likely consider their prey drive to be.

The consumption part is not black and white- as prior experience, hunger, the environment and human intervention can all interfere with a dog consuming prey!

A dog exhibiting aspects of the predatory sequence - including hypertrophied behaviours such as a border collie stalking, a malinois grabbing or a dog with a strong tendency to chase - does not immediately equate to that dog having prey drive.

A dog can enjoy chasing with no desire to catch. A dog can love biting with no desire to dissect and consume. Too often, the focus is on the dog's tendency for a specific behaviour and how rewarding that behaviour is rather than the considering what specific function the behaviour serves to the dog.

Enjoying rummaging through bushes at speed doesn’t mean a dog is looking for something to capture.

Stalking in anticipation or to control another individual’s movement is different to stalking to sneak up on prey without being detected.

Chasing for fun is very different to chasing to capture.

Biting to control another individual or because the action of biting and holding on simply feels good is very different to biting to kill and consume.

Dogs are too easily labelled as having ‘prey drive’ even though there doesn’t appear to be any motivation to engage in crucial parts of the predatory sequence or sometimes even to even seek actual prey. They simply engage in and enjoy certain behaviours.

Despite Amigo catching a rabbit before (no chasing involved, just grabbing), that doesn’t mean to say in this precise moment he has predatory motivation. To me his body language reads more like 'I think I just saw a rabbit!' rather than 'I'm going to catch and kill the rabbit'.

Either way, I didn’t wait to find out.

How often and intensely he seeks or has sought rabbits tells me whether he has prey drive or not and his behaviour when he has found them previously confirms the extent of this drive.

For me personally- prey drive is directed at things perceived to be prey and functions to catch, kill and if the dog is hungry enough and able to- consume.

Whilst prey drive and predatory behaviour is - in my opinion- often incorrectly applied as a label, it doesn’t make these behaviours any less challenging to manage. What’s undeniable is that these behaviours are often highly instrinsically rewarding to engage in and subsequently- justification for aversive methods is often used. “Not all dogs can be trained without them (aversive tools)”, apparently.

It must be quite the coincidence that I’ve had seven dogs to date- including sighthounds, Podenco Xs, Border Collies and my Thai street dog- and I’ve not needed to use aversive tools.

Almost all of them - very sadly- proved to me that they are capable of having prey drive. Yet, they spend (or spent) most of their walks off lead and we don’t leave a trail of death behind us.

So my bias is that if you put the graft in, have a high level of awareness of your environment and know how to support your dog (if they need your support) in their emotional and arousal regulation - then it’s completely doable to prevent chasing and manage what *may be* prey drive.

28/05/2026

NO CONTACT CONVERSATIONS

Not always easy to facilitate in 'the real world', as not all dogs are able to pause at a distance like this lovely Labrador- especially at this proximity.

However, they’re a great way of increasing a reactive dog’s exposure and help them revisit inter-dog communication without them panicking and reacting in the moment.

FOR CONTEXT: This dog was walking ahead and when pausing to sniff, we also paused. He’d glance at us before moving on and across 50 metres of path walking, we gradually got closer as and when both appeared relaxed (his owner appeared relaxed also).

This dog’s ability to look and move on told us this was a dog who could take or leave interactions- the perfect candidate for closer encounters.

We went to pass (a little wider than this) and the Labrador turned towards her, signalled he was prepared to engage and Kya counter approached.
As he was so measured, we were able to gently pause Kya’s approach to allow for them to ‘chat’ across space.

Now, many of you will likely think Kya is on the brink of reacting due to her tail carriage. It’s her default tail carriage so my focus is on her mouth (open), eyes (soft) and ears (not fixed in a pricked forward position).

Having integrated her with my dogs and observed her body language a lot, I can see she’s more curious/interested rather than poised and ready to react. That said, her tail in this video has a left hand bias which suggests she’s not overly relaxed - which doesn’t surprise me given her inexperience. This is new territory for her and it’s a head to head encounter which is higher pressure.

He’s looking and asking for a more clear signal that she’s ready to interact and that all will be well if they do get closer.

Had the car not turned up on this estate track (there's rarely cars travelling through here) then I think one of the dogs would have likely invited the interaction by taking a step towards the other.

Had this ‘stand off’ continued- I would have prompted Sienna to cue Kya to disengage.

It’s common for people with reactive dogs to get stuck prompting them to disengage, and early into their journey it’s usually necessary to prevent reactions. But down the line, we need to spot opportunities where they can start communicating with other dogs- having an opportunity to develop social skills.

For most, this is best initiated with helper dogs in controlled set ups. But if they're ever going to cope with dogs more on walks- the next step is identifying calm and 'measured' dogs and increasing exposure if and when appropriate.

The term I coined for this is 'no contact conversations' and they do not have to happen this close to be of benefit, nor do they have to go on for ages. You allow the dogs to start communicating, and you still bring your dog away ideally BEFORE they react.

Sometimes you can bring them away for a break and then allow a second ‘chat’. The preview and knowing the other dog lets them easily move away often promotes things to go well should the dogs get closer on round two (or three). In this instance, we moved on and ended it there.

26/05/2026

When my dogs encounter another dog and it’s appropriate for all to mingle, I do not let them all go in to sniff at once, instead creating a staggered greeting.

They (and me!) are all a little fogged over at the end of a long walk here, so this isn’t the cleanest version of a demo but it shows me ensuring Boyo the senior Corgi is easily able to move out of the interaction and get to his owner.

Even if a dog knows a group of dogs well- having multiple individuals swoop in for a sniff can be overwhelming as the dog will be well aware that they’re outnumbered and at a disadvantage.

I tend to recall two dogs, let one dog sniff and as that dog disengages release the second to sniff and repeat for the third. (Rusty the fourth dog is a friend’s dog and they’re walking with us).

In this video, Kanita (who fancies Boyo as he’s an entire male) continues her sniff and as Mohawk curves to sniff his bottom a couple of seconds after she starts- I let him continue knowing Kanita will soon disengage.

If I can observe that my dogs will do all of this without my input- I back off and leave them be whilst monitoring the situation. But when they’re all in close proximity to me a ‘trickle in’ approach is often needed out of respect for the other dog.

So often owners don’t realise what I’m doing and say “oh they’re fine” when they see me recall away. Observing their dog’s body language reassures me it’s the right thing for me to do!

Their discomfort can be discreet!
Hesitation, freezing, ears pulled back, tension in the face and tails lowering slightly are all signs they may feel overwhelmed.

But every now and then a dog’s owner thanks for as they acknowledge their dog can find it difficult to be ‘swarmed’. This is especially the case for older and smaller dogs.

Of course if a dog needs space altogether - none of my guys will be released to interact and we simply pass by!