Sal’s Pet Pals

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Sal’s Pet Pals ✨Dog trainer
✨Pack walks 🐕
✨Home boarding - license number: 105269
🐾Fully insured and First Aid trained
📍Hemlington / Coulby Newham

23/10/2026

Friday💘

21/10/2026

Never a dull moment in this job 🤣🐸! Sorry big guy it was an accident😩

Today is our last Wednesday with Abbie for a little while as she’s having surgery this week🥺❤️. I know she’ll miss being...
21/10/2026

Today is our last Wednesday with Abbie for a little while as she’s having surgery this week🥺❤️. I know she’ll miss being out with the pups as much as we’ll miss having her, but there will be plenty of cuddles & kisses waiting for her when she’s back!! Good luck gal, we all love you lots and hope you have a speedy recovery❤️! Scroll to see today’s adventures 🤪➡️

Tuesday💘
20/10/2026

Tuesday💘

20/10/2026

We didn’t start gun dog training with Wilma until she was three, and we quickly realised that some of the things we’d taught her as a puppy - such as dropping toys on command - were getting in the way of her retrieves.

She’d run out to the dummy, pick it up, drop it and run straight back to us without it! She’d learned that picking something up was followed by dropping it, so we needed to teach her a new skill: holding on to the dummy and carrying it back to us.

Here’s what we did:

- Removed her usual toys and stopped using balls
- Practised retrieves in the house and garden, keeping sessions separate from our walks.
- Introduced the hold command, rewarding and praising her for holding the dummy.
- Stopped asking her to drop it during these exercises and instead praised her for carrying it around the house.
- As her enthusiasm and confidence grew, we gradually introduced retrieves in low-distraction environments.

We still have lots of room for improvement, but she absolutely loves her dummy and loves having a job to do🧡

19/10/2026

We meet lots of pups who feel worried around livestock and wildlife, whether it’s due to their age, a previous negative experience or a lack of positive exposure. We work with each pup to help build neutrality so they can feel calmer and more confident on their walks.

This session took less than 10 minutes, and all of the dogs were able to have a positive experience. Especially Pops, who went from barking / lunging to completely ignoring them🙌🤎

Monday💘
19/10/2026

Monday💘

18/10/2026

Although both the heel and recall command require the girls to come back towards us, the purpose of each is different.

We mainly use our heel command when we need the girls to position themselves by our side. This could be because there’s an off lead dog approaching, wildlife nearby or bikes passing etc.

It’s much quicker to ask them to heel when we need them in a specific position than to recall them first and then direct them where to go. With heel, they know exactly where they’re supposed to be.

It’s also a cue we reserve for when we really need it, so no matter what they’re sniffing or exploring, they know that heel means getting back to mum’s side ASAP.

Our recall looks a little different. The girls could be quartering, flushing or generally covering large areas, so we use three pips of the whistle to call them back. This gives them time to process the cue, turn around and loop back towards us, without the expectation that they have to come straight into the heel position. Coming back close to us or stopping in front of us is absolutely fine. From there, we might keep them closer for a while or, if it’s safe to do so, give them their release cue to carry on.

We also avoid overusing the whistle and our commands. If we’ve released them and it’s safe for them to explore, I want them to have that freedom and enjoy doing what they do best.

There are lots of different ways to train recall and heel, and there’s no single approach that works for every dog. Whilst we use heel as a positional cue and recall as a return to handler cue, some people teach their dogs to return straight into heel when recalled, and that’s absolutely fine too. This is simply what works best for my two💘

We are so so sad to share that one of our gorgeous pups, Luna, has sadly passed away unexpectedly. There are no words fo...
16/10/2026

We are so so sad to share that one of our gorgeous pups, Luna, has sadly passed away unexpectedly. There are no words for what has happened and we are sending all of our love to Luna’s family and her sister Belle. Many of you will be used to seeing pictures of Luna - she was such an amazing girl and loved by us and all of the pups. We are truly devastated and it’s left a very big hole in our hearts.

Luna’s dad put it best - she had a great life in the short time she was with us. Keep living your best spaniel life over the rainbow bridge special girl - we will all miss you so so much🌈🤍

Address

Middlesbrough
TS9

Telephone

+447446886273

Website

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