The Dogs By Alex, Woodfield Recreation Ground, London (2026)

Puppy classes now available!

26/08/2026

You could look at social media as a goldmine or minefield for dog training advice. There’s SO much conflicting content and, if you’re trying improve your dogs behaviour, I get can be totally confusing.

If you’re going to take on tips and advice obviously check your sources properly, but I’d like to address the need for tailoring advice and approaches for each dog as an individual. Breed and character differences, as well as life experiences, massively influence the varied ways dogs learn, and that’s my takeaway from this reel. Tailor your training for your dog. What makes them tick, what turns them off, what triggers them or what encourages them. Changes of approach and tone, changes of the practicalities you train them with. Different rewards. It all has to meet your dog’s needs - not Alpha the Malinois from episode 32 of ‘my dog is a legend yours isn’t’.

17/08/2026

My next puppy course starts on the 5th September in Tooting, South London.

6 puppies, 6 weeks. Covering basic obedience, yes, but so much more that I consider fundamental to ensure puppies grow into calm and confident adult dogs - how to understand dog body language, what balanced socialisation looks like, formal handling, settling, getting used to distractions, recall, loose lead work. There’s a big list.

So if you’ve welcomed a new puppy into your life, congrats, and I’d love to help you set you and your puppies up for a great life together!

Link in bio for bookings and feel free to DM me with any questions, any time.

13/08/2026

I’ve had my foster dog Oz here for 10 days now. As anyone who has fostered knows, it’s not easy but so worth it. Here’s my top three tips for welcoming a foster to your life:

1) Time, patience, quietness. Let them do their thing. No forced affection, no pressure. Let them decompress. An automatic response might be to praise and coax and reassure with touch, but a dog often wont perceive it like that. Let them be and approach you in their own time.

2) Routine. Walks, garden visits, feeding, relaxing time, play time etc. Keep in consistent. Reliability and consistently helps them relax as they know what to expect.

3) Be flexible. I’ve fostered many many times and each dog is so different. Try to ignore any preconceived ideas about how long things take. For example Oz here is just a happy-go-lucky, loving and confident little chap, and seemed it right from the moment he got handed to me from the van after travelling all the way from Cyprus. So I’ve been able to move things pretty quickly with him. Others take a long time. Going back to point 1, let them be. They will settle.

11/08/2026

A lot of my summer 1-2-1s have been focused on puppies and got me thinking of my wee foster here, Oz, who I’m helping settle in the UK with Underdog Child & Dog Charity

He’s 10 months old. A gorgeous temperament. Great with other dogs, children, adults. Confident yet soft. So so personable and loving to everyone he meets. Yet, like any dog, young or old, he needs clear guidance and structure.

So it got me thinking to what I’m teaching him in relation to my puppy course. It’s so much less about obedience - teaching ‘sit’ and ‘down’ is easy tbh, but guiding a dog to help relax around busy environments, not lunge with over excitement, learn to focus and channel all that energy for good - that’s the key.

How does it happen? I think I’ve asked him to ‘sit’ three times maybe. I’ve said the word ‘heel’ once. But I’ve made myself reliable and fun, clear and easy to read through what’s right and ‘wrong’ first and foremost. And does he sit? Yep. Does he heel? Yep. That is the difference. And I couldn’t imagine feeling closer to a little dog after one week of foster.

The dog training world is SO focused on obedience and suppression, and what is being seen as the ‘perfect’ dog is generally totally going in the wrong direction I have to admit.

So, London puppy owners - new puppy classes upcoming. September 5th. As cheesy as it sounds let’s change our relationship with dogs for the better.

09/08/2026

A long time coming this one. My new logo, designed with Mark Downie (thank you again!).

But it’s not just a logo for the sake of changing simply an icon. It’s part of a bigger picture, progressing and looking at how things can improve as a brand and trainer, what my ethos is, where I put my focus.

So, a few changes have already happened, and a few more for the future (near and far):
- It’s more than a logo. The old one needed to be binned to mark change for the better. I’m glad to see it go - feels like when you hit ‘empty trash’ on ye MacBook!
- My content style will continue to change on Insta. Less polished, more insightful. My Google reviews do the talking, but I’ll do more showing on here going forward. It was actually another trainer who I have no respect for whatsoever (ouch) that sparked this direction - ‘well show us then’ he said - and as much as I have no respect for said person I couldn’t help but agree! Ha! More insightful content coming.
- I’ve made a rule for myself. Don’t engage with other trainers who just bait reactions. The world of dog training is totally messed up, and it’s easy to get caught into a back and forth. But it’s totally wasted time. I’m here to help dogs and guardians, not to have to try and justify my training to people just looking for a scrap behind the mask of social media.
- That said I’m going to be far more open to showing my techniques I’ve been previously fearful of showing, just because I thought I would be judged. Judge away!!
- New booking system in place and working swimmingly. Worth the headache…
- Next puppy course set for 5th Sep!

The centre of me and my core values remain - to help dog guardians become calm and confident leaders. To drastically improve the understanding of dog behaviour. But most of all to see happier dogs around us.

Address

Woodfield Recreation Ground
London
SW161AP

Telephone

07500067946

Website

https://www.thedogsbyalex.co.uk/

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