Dog Trainer James

Dog Trainer James Dog Trainer & Behaviourist, based in Tunbridge Wells.
(3)

Life with a reactive dog isn’t easy. And some of the things we have to accept in order to make progress with our dogs ar...
05/09/2026

Life with a reactive dog isn’t easy. And some of the things we have to accept in order to make progress with our dogs aren’t easy either.

Reactivity doesn’t just ‘go away’ - change something to change something. You can’t just keep avoiding triggers either; it might not be an every day thing, but sometimes we’ve got to get out there and face it head on.

If you haven’t investigated your dog’s health and wellbeing THOROUGHLY then training might be a waste of time. In a non verbal patient a behavioural problem needs to be viewed as medical and investigated fully.

Reactions will still happen during training, and that may be embarrassing at times but I’m afraid that’s something we have to get over. Behaviour change isn’t a flick of a switch. It’s a process and in order for it to be robust and lasting we can’t rush it or jump to quick fixes.

You can’t outsource your dog training. You live with your dog day in and day out. You need to know how to handle them and to train them and to work as a team through these issues.

That’s why I work the way I do; I coach you to be able to best support your dog now, and for the rest of your lives together.

If you want to know more, comment ‘Go’ below and I’ll send you a DM and a personalised voice note with initial advice and guidance.

And on your next walk with your reactive dog pay really close attention to your lead; specifically the length and any tension. Short and loose is your goal. Loose is often harder to achieve but whenever possible try your best to remove any tension - especially when your dog is processing their trigger.

You got this.

04/09/2026

Play with your dog. BUT…

Play how your dog wants you to, and play what your dog wants to.

Play is like a having a poo; you shouldn’t have to force it.

Just because every other dog trainer on here is playing tug with their Mali (with about as much fun and personality as that aforementioned poo btw…) doesn’t mean you or your dog have to do the same.

The objective of play is for your dog to have fun, you to have fun, and to strengthen your bond with your dog. In that order.

So play games that they choose to play and in ways they enjoy.

Mac likes ‘guarding’ his toys from me (PLEASE NOTE- see how I approach in a very specific way so he knows how to respond; do not do this and send me a DM if your dog actually guards their toys!) and games of tug.

In both instances my objective is to make him feel strong, for him to win. So when he guards I scream and move away, and when he brings a toy to me I play tug and let him win.

As for Kiya…her play preference is usually trick training but with toys she likes to destroy them and I’m on clean up detail.

That’s ok because that’s what matters - she’s doing what she enjoys the most.

So play lots but play what your dog wants. And have fun and don’t be even remotely serious about it!

02/09/2026

Behaviour is communication; dogs deserve us trying to listen to them.

Once humans have the option of punishment to just stop a behaviour, they will too often take it.

Punishment is reinforcing; that is a fundamental issue for me, and one that should dictate that we don’t use physical corrections, grots, prongs and e collars to train dogs.

When a puppy in pain is being physically corrected to stop unwanted behaviour, we are in a bad place as an industry. I just cannot wrap my head around not wanting to try to understand what the dog is ‘saying’ through their behaviour.

I understand what’s going on through; humans and punishment aren’t a good mix.

And that’s why I love how I train and another reason I’ll always train this way. I want to listen to and understand the dog I am working with - they deserve that at the very least.

If that resonated with you, if you want to understand your dog and not just to ‘stop’ their unwanted behaviour regardless of how, hit follow.

If not, off you pop.

Sometimes small changes can have a big impact on your reactive dog and their behaviour. Reward more of what you like, mi...
28/08/2026

Sometimes small changes can have a big impact on your reactive dog and their behaviour.

Reward more of what you like, mix up where you walk sometimes, change their diet, give them more freedom, follow me (obvs) and most importantly;

Work around their triggers (because you’re doing that right?) when you feel up to it. They know when you don’t. So don’t force it, but don’t avoid it either.

And RIP Dolly. Legend.

24/08/2026

Teaching the hand touch with duration!

People seem to like this one so here’s a couple of ways you might teach it.

One is to teach a duration based behaviour like a freeze indication in scent work, or do some box feeding; these are straightforward to teach and dogs are often great at generalising concepts like this. So once they’ve got duration in other areas it is more likely that they will offer it for touch too.

The other way is not to reward what you’ve rewarded before. So if you’ve been rewarding as soon as they touch your hand, don’t…

That can lead to frustration which can lead to a more intense version of the behaviour being offered. Marking and rewarding that leads to more duration due to that increase in intensity.

Obviously if your dog has no frustration tolerance tread carefully with this approach!

Have a go, video it and tag me; let’s see how you get on!

21/08/2026

Luring; the easiest way to teach your dog so many things.

We often make a mess of it because of 2 main reasons.

We hold our hand too high, and we move it too fast.

Low and slow.

Keep your hand with the food at the height of your dogs nose,
even if this means a little bit of nibbling, and start by moving your hand very slowly.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I think that’s what they say…

Have some fun with it, start with really small movements of your dog struggles and enjoy some luring training with your dog.

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Royal Tunbridge Wells
TN1

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