About Town Pet Care

Call Directions Website Contact the business

About Town Pet Care Keeping Pet Care Affordable 🐶 Creating Optimistic Dogs & Pups 🐕& Cultivating Confident Owners ⭐️

About Town Pet Care is run by Sara Landricombe in the Plymouth and surrounding area, who has spent the majority of her life studying and caring for animals. With over 10 years of animal husbandry experience and a degree in animal science and behaviour, Sara has worked in several different roles from farm work, to zookeeping as well as petshop attendent and keeps an array of animals at home from dogs and cats to lizards and rabbits. Sara: 'I enjoy nothing more than walking my dogs and caring for my pets and therefore decided that if i already walk up to 4 dogs everyday and care for an array of animals, i might as well continue this over to my professional life and start my own pet care business' - 'My plan is to provide an 'AFFORDABLE' pet care service for people who would otherwise be forced to send pets to kennels or catteries. I understand that keeping animals in their familiair setting is important to most people as well as keeping their animals' welfare as a priority whilst away at work or away on holiday.'

Our customers can be rest assured that their animals are in capable hands and are recieving a high level of service for the most competative rates!.

14/10/2026

⭐I’ve never won the lottery …… but I get to hang out with these guys all day every day and I think that’s the same thing isn’t it? ⭐

12/10/2026

⭐Monday Motivation⭐ reasons why your loose lead (anti pulling) training might be falling apart- without the lead you can first start to reward eye contact / if your dog is beside you trying to give eye contact they can’t be out in front - next you will need to practice handling a longer lead because loose lead training is about timing and mechanics (how quickly you can reward in the right position and hand placement for said rewards) hand eye co-ordination is key and needs to be practiced before you add the lead. Art your dog up for success- done expect your dog to be able@to go straight from 10-20 steps around the garden to going straight back out to their normal everyday overstimulating walk you will need to proof this new skill in different environments working back up to the normal walk (think halfway places to practice like industrial estates and cemeteries) - reverse engineer the behaviour by get lots of good repetitions in on the way back from a normal walk then add more and more steps before rewarding - use my 25 percent rule once they ace that add another 25 percent to your training goal. Training takes patience band perseverance and realistic expectations but with some clever planning and a long term goals it definitely achievable - let me@know if you struggle@with your dogs pulling below👇👇

⭐Sunday Fun Day⭐ here are five things I’d do to set an adolescent dog to succeed if you gave me your dog for 24 hours….1...
11/10/2026

⭐Sunday Fun Day⭐ here are five things I’d do to set an adolescent dog to succeed if you gave me your dog for 24 hours….

1- I’d make sure that I was managing about fifty percent of behaviours to prevent rehearsal of unwanted behaviour (think baby gates/ crate training/ covering windows/ restriction of how much space they have access to) this reduces the risk of over tired over stimulated dogs from jumping up / access to the door/ allows dogs to have space in multi dog households away from exuberant teen dogs and vice versa).

2- I’d make sure I realised that dogs aged 6-18 months old have very short attention spans for a number of reasons but namely hormonal teen dogs might be able to five reps of each behaviour in trying to train or may not be able to concerntrate for more than five minutes in total initially, so I keep track of how much time or how many repetitions I can realistically expect the dog to do before they turn off from training before they revert back to previous behaviours- work smarter not harder - several short sessions are much better than trying to struggle on for 10-15 minutes without much success.

3- even teen dogs need lots of sleep especially as their brain takes longer to catch up with their bodies or if they have a growth spurt so 12-18 hours per day is sufficient for memory growth and regulation - a tired dog will have an even shorter attention span and get frustrated sooner.

4/ the number one thing people who come to teen dog class say their biggest issue is that their dog is distracted. Basic training is fine at home but become easily distracted and those distractions are mostly movement be that people or other dogs or wildlife so we need to practice disengage my from triggers separately alongside recall or loose lead and then bolt them together - find the distance you can still get their attention outside of the home and work up to getting closer over time don’t expect your at home training to stick if you don’t find a happy medium between a busy environment and at home to try and practice (remember they have short attention spans are hormonal and get bored easily) because we may be trying to do too much too soon. And is periodi

09/10/2026

⭐Friday Thoughts⭐Part 2 of why your home alone training might be falling apart is because you need to now add in phase 3 and four very gradually - perhaps you trained to sensitise the predictors now you need to add the biggest predictor of you leaving and that is always the front door hence why it needs its own phase- if it’s possible to leave by another dog you can start to reverse engineer the leaving a bit quicker but if you only have one option then this is the next phase- once your dog can do this week it’s time to phase out food in favour of minimal food rewards or praise and then once the dog shows no sign of reacting to you handling the door with your leaving predictors you can start to go outside- get used to the neighbours thinking you’re mad and also perhaps rip up your recycling so you can justify to yourself that you need to go outside again 😅👍 it’s important during phase four which often takes the longest to add time in a very systematic way and not rush - also note that progression through this phase needs to be recorded so we can look at proof to see if the dog copesnok or not alway returns whilsy the dog is under threshold or not too bothered so we can stretch the time out instead of just “going for it” - there are many reasons which this training progression might do really well and often goes up and and down with successes that is normal and this is why we need to go slowly as to not ruin your previous gains. If you would like a helping hand but perhaps don’t want to commit to online or in person training you can use@my link above to receive my separation anxiety survival guide webinar that goes in depth into the why and how of home alone training- let me know how your dog is doing with being left home alone below👇👇

08/10/2026

⭐Thursday Thoughts⭐

come on a play date with my dogs Ollie & Scout as we visit Sensory Dogs in Plymouth- run by our friends Laura and Becky if you haven’t been why not?

Originally set up as a safe space for reactive or rescue dogs to visit without fear of interruptions from their triggers of noises people and other dogs it has now become so much more. It is a space for decompression for exploration and play.

Because sniffing helps dogs to regulate and also carry out normal behaviours so dogs like Ollie can use their nose until their heart is content or older dogs like scout benefit from having a lower impact activity to do. Because dogs don’t have to go for walks every single day perhaps once a week you should give them a day off or a “lazy day” which is what we did yesterday but I can assure you that after 45 minutes of sniffing without any food prompts they were shattered and ready for their nightly snooze.

Laura has thought of everything from giving dogs space with thoughtful 15 minute overlap with sessions so reactive dogs don’t meet other dogs or people on arrival and exit to adding touches like treats toys blankets snacks and books for the owners to relax too. It was a lively way to spend a Wednesday evening and I highly recommend you check them out but especially if you have a hyper vigilant rescue dog or reactive dog that might not be able to go about the world like other dogs do.

I will pop a link above so you can find them in Plympton Plymouth

07/10/2026

⭐What’s Up Wednesday⭐ Let’s talk about why your separation anxiety/ home alone training might be falling apart. It’s very common for people rush portions of the training required to get your dog to the point that they can genuinely be ok with being home alone. I often train for this scenario based upon what type separation distress we are dealing as well as portioning it up into four phases 👇

1- microabsemces building pockets of time where the dog can take themselves away and not be stuck to you like glue in the home then we train a waiting on a mat as a simple task - settle is even better - gold standard the dog learns that you go away and always come back - or waiting for waiting sake whereby the dog simply has to wait in a mat as you move away and come back for the reward on the mat

2- we then add in to this game the things that often predict that you’re going to leave (shows keys wallet/ hat bags) those kind of things working on adding these to your training lots of times so that they no longer produce the response they used to these two phases alone can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to roughly 2 months if you are doing it thoroughly so if you find yourself at the next phase 3 a week in I’d argue you’ve rushed it and the behaviours have not been practiced or “proofed” for long enough.

Let me know if you are struggling to get started with home alone training below & be sure to follow along for part 2 of this video👇👇

But if you can’t wait that long you can watch my full webinar on the topic using the link above 👆

⭐Tuesday Tips⭐ Five things I would do immediately if you gave me your brand new puppy for 24 hours…..1- I cannot stress ...
06/10/2026

⭐Tuesday Tips⭐ Five things I would do immediately if you gave me your brand new puppy for 24 hours…..

1- I cannot stress enough how much sleep new puppies need and therefore if they don’t have a safe space away from the busy-ness of your home maybe with a cover over a baby gate to reduce visual or auditory stimulus you will have a cranky puppy who teeth’s harder or cannot concentrate even if you attempt some play or training - puppies need as much as 18-20 hours of sleep in the first couple of weeks so prioritise this over anything else and create your routine accordingly )sleep helps everything else memory pain digestion literally everything so let them sleep 😴

2- take into account what the puppy was on diet wise and change them on the highest quality food (gradually weaning their tiny tummies from what they are used to) it is well known that a puppies gut biome changes drastically from weaning to whatever the breeder puts them on to their new home and this quality drops by about 25 percent even by the time they reach their new home- not to mention vaccinations and flea an worming in such a short amount of time can compromise their delicate digestion so if we start with the very best quality food (take into consideration that chicken beef and turkey are the most common allergies so even the best quality food won’t stop your dog from a reaction to an ingredient) so if we can support your dog as they transition from weaning until 6 months old alway try to buy the best you can afford because their gut health will directly effect their behaviour and ability to settle going forward.

3- a bit like the previous post even at such a young age puppies can have underlying conditions or not be putting on condition - think funky eyes ears nose (look at diet for those allergies I’ve mentioned) a**l glands toes nails teeth can all cause odd behaviours and mostly check to make sure if your puppies stools are normal or if their skin is flaky- this can be an indicator that something else is going on. Think colitis Giardia (which can reinfect your puppy if they were previously kennelled) or even if your puppy was born via caesarean (frenchie bulldogs and daschunds I’m looking

05/10/2026

⭐Monday Motivation ⭐

following on from yesterdays post about the reasons why your recall might be falling apart - here are five recall games you can use to keep the dogs engaged in the 6-10ft in front of you - each dog I walk leaned all of these through repetition and social learning so that I can use it for rocket recall even if they are still on a long line.

1- “what’s this” I use this about fifty times a day and I’m not kidding😅tossing a treat from side to side waiting for their head to come up before saying it again

2- Ready Set Go! I use a large raised hand as a visual signal with the word Ready! They run all the way back to me as they look up at my hand I ask for Set or sit whatever you like then they each get rewarded on the word “go” this acts as a release cue you could also add find it in here too.

3- to make your walk more interesting and engaging we do a bit of puppy parkour - paws up and up up are my go to - if you’ve done this enough you should just be able to point at things and the dog does the action (like Luna in this video)

4- creating a jackpot - used sparingly for a big payout - I may only use this once or twice per walk as I don’t want to over do it and when they return to me they just ALWAYS receive their jackpot (a few more treats than normal) otherwise it fails to mean jackpot- can later be used as an emergency recall

5- last one is the difference ebteeen a dog that runs away when you put them on the lead - practice “here” this is when I place treats by my feet and they have to come all the way in for multiples so I can practice clip on and clip off we do this way before we need it and if you’ve got a dog prone to keeping away the last repetitions when they stay on the lead but I always give them a little on lead game to finish so it’s not boring. Which of these five games do you already do with your dog?

Games that encourage recall at all times and should be done way before you start dropping the long line so that the transition isn’t such a big deal when you do 👍👇

04/10/2026

🍁Happy Sunday🍁 patiently waiting for all the dog owners who want to train their dogs using positive reinforcement methods to find my page 😋

03/10/2026

🚨 Slightly controversial recall opinion…
I think some dogs are being let off lead before their recall is actually ready. 👀
Before ditching the long line, I want that recall cue to feel almost like a reflex — and I want a BIG history of:
🐾 Rewarding automatic check-ins
🐾 Playing recall games within that 6–10ft bubble
🐾 Making coming back exciting AND rewarding
🐾 Practising in predictable environments
🐾 Gradually allowing more freedom
Then we can start dropping the long line for short periods and use the 25% rule to gradually increase freedom, distance and distractions.
New environment? Make it easier again.
Other dogs? Make it easier again.
More distance? Make it easier again.
Your dog needs to learn not just what recall means, but why coming back to you is ALWAYS worth it. ❤️
The long line isn’t holding your dog back from freedom.
It’s helping you build the skills that will eventually give them it. 🐕💨
Save this if you’re working towards reliable recall! 📌

Address

Plymouth
PL23QN

Telephone

+447731768610

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when About Town Pet Care posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to About Town Pet Care:

Shortcuts

Share

Category