Much Ado About Dogs

20/10/2026

Take a look at this image. Would you let your dog off the lead here?

If you answered “no”, that is the correct answer for most people. There are two visible pathways on the right with limited visibility, not to mention an open grassy area which is also largely hidden. There is also a concealed pathway up on the left side.

The point being that you don’t have full visibility so you don’t know what might be around the corner.

There maybe another dog there.
There maybe a young child there or someone who is afraid of dogs
Maybe someone with mobility issues or a jogger or cyclist.

And since most dog charge off like idiots when the lead is removed, it’s not hard to imagine the mess that might follow.

If you cannot see what your dog is running into, you risk setting them up to fail. But people do this everyday without thinking.

The smarter course of action is to move further down the path where you can exactly what is going on.

And if you answered “yes”, that’s fine IF you have solid off-lead control which is not the case with most dogs.

19/10/2026

As the evenings get darker, don’t be too surprised if your dog occasionally behaves differently on a familiar walk.

From our point of view, nothing has changed. Same street. Same park. Same route.

But to a dog the environment might actually looks quite different.

People appear later and closer. Bikes, runners and other dogs can be harder to spot. Shadows change things. What was obvious from 30 metres away in daylight might suddenly appear from the gloom at 10.

For some dogs that makes very little difference. For others it can make them noticeably more watchful or reactive.

If that happens, don't panic. It doesn’t necessarily mean the dog has suddenly gone backwards.

Give them a bit more space and time, help them work things out and remember that familiar places can feel rather less familiar once the lights go down. Stay calm and assist them through the challenge.

If you find this kind of practical dog-training advice useful, follow Much Ado About Dogs for more.

12/10/2026

I know, I know. It’s October and I’m already talking about Christmas.

But that’s rather the point.

For our dogs, Christmas can mean a lot of change arriving in a very short space of time: visitors, different routines, more food around, children, doors opening and closing and, of course, somebody suddenly putting a tree in the living room.

A little preparation now can make all of that much easier later.

The latest Dog House article looks at some of the things worth thinking about before December arrives - from introducing the Christmas tree gradually, to practising visitor routines, helping your dog settle while the house is busy and deciding when giving them some space is actually the best option.

I’ve also included the core skills I think are particularly useful to work on before Christmas.

If you think you need some help preparing you dog for Christmas, then please get in touch. I'd love to help you out.

Have a read here:

Every year, Christmas seems to arrive rather suddenly.Obviously it doesn’t. We all know when it’s coming. But December still has a habit of becoming a rush of shopping, decorating, visiting, cooking and trying to squeeze several weeks’ worth of socialising into a handful of days.For our dogs, ...

05/10/2026

“He knows this at home.”

I hear that quite a lot, and usually the owner is absolutely right.

The problem is that dogs aren’t always very good at taking something they’ve learned in one situation and automatically applying it somewhere else.

A down in the living room is not quite the same exercise as a down outside a café.

A recall across the garden is not the same as a recall when another dog is running past.

So once a behaviour is working, start moving it around. Try different rooms, the garden, somewhere quiet outside. Change your position, add a little more distance or duration, and gradually introduce distraction.

If it falls apart, make it easier again.

That doesn’t mean the dog has forgotten the behaviour. It usually means there’s another bit of training still to do.

If you find this kind of practical dog-training advice useful, follow Much Ado About Dogs for more.

19/09/2026

What are you ACTUALLY saying to your dog?

I often hear people describe their dog as stubborn or say that they “know perfectly well” what we are asking but are choosing not to do it.

Sometimes that may be true. But before blaming the dog, it is worth checking whether our communication is quite as clear as we think it is.

Clearer cues, calmer conversations and a dog who has a fair chance of understanding youThere is a familiar moment in dog training when an owner asks for a sit, waits, asks again, and then repeats the word with rather more conviction. By the third or fourth attempt the voice has become deeper, the ow...

11/08/2026

I saw a post recently from someone whose anxious/reactive dog had a pretty horrible run-in with several off-lead dogs in a local park.

One line stuck with me. They felt that all the work they had done building their dog’s confidence had been undone in that one incident.

I can understand why it would feel like that. But I don’t think it’s necessarily true.

A bad encounter can absolutely knock a dog’s confidence. It can knock the owner’s confidence too. But regression isn’t the same thing as erasure, and sometimes the bigger challenge is what we carry into the next walk: tighter leads, more scanning, more avoidance, and an expectation that the dog is now going to struggle.

So this week’s Dog House blog is about what happens after the incident.

What do you do that day? What about the following day? And what happens the next time you go back to the same park, route or environment?

Most importantly, how do you work out what impact the experience has actually had, rather than deciding in advance that you’re back to square one?

One bad afternoon does not get to define everything that came before it — or everything that comes next.

What to do in the minutes, hours and days after an unwanted dog encounter.

13/07/2026

A lot of dog training is judged by the big moments.

Will your dog come back when called?
Can they walk past another dog without pulling?
Can they settle in a pub or café?
Can they cope when visitors arrive?

Those moments matter - of course they do - but they are the end goal not the starting point.

They are built in the quieter, more ordinary parts of daily life — the waiting, the settling, the walking past, the noticing something interesting and choosing not to react.

This month’s blog is about neutrality: teaching dogs that not everything in the world needs a response and why we train for the days when nothing happens!

You can read the full blog here:

When I talk about neutrality, I do not mean turning dogs into robots. I do not want dogs to lose their spark, their playfulness, their curiosity or their character. Most of us like dogs precisely because they are animated, social, funny and occasionally ridiculous. Neutrality is not about flattening...

23/06/2026

Cwtch is back home after having the abscess on her neck drained and treated.🙏

A week or rest and recuperation ahead of her and quite a bit of medication. 💊

Now we just need manage this crazy weather! ☀️

23/06/2026

21/06/2026

Off to the vets this morning with Cwtch. She’s been subdued for a few days and yesterday we found this lump on one side of her throat. I’ll update later!