StressLess Dog Training & Behaviour Coaching.

22/10/2026

❤️ Zeus has been working on his muzzle training. Today we did a session with a cone as a proxy.

💪 He was soon pushing his nose in, no lure and the reward is thrown away from the cone, releasing any pressure.

🙌 Fab progress Zeus!

20/10/2026

🐾 Training Tips Tuesday: Working with Separation Anxiety 💛

Does your dog struggle when you leave them alone? Barking, howling, pacing, panting, destroying things or toileting can all be signs that your dog is finding separation difficult.

💡 The key is to change how your dog feels about being alone, not simply teach them to tolerate it.

Here are five things to remember when working with separation anxiety:

🐶 1. Start where your dog feels safe.
Begin by building the skills that your dog is going to need in order to be left alone, grow disengagement skills, optimism, tolerance of frustration

⏱️ 2. Grow their love of beds/crates/baby gates
Increase duration in those places gradually in tiny steps, watching your dog’s body language carefully. Progress isn’t always linear, and that’s absolutely fine!

🙅‍♀️ 3. Presence doesn’t mean access
Teach them that just because you are at home it doesn’t mean they can have immediate access to you. This helps prepare them for your future separation

🧠 4. Work on duration, distance, visual access, employment (chews/kongs/lickimats etc) and disturbance and make sure these are solids before you attempt to leave

🧡5. Never let your dog panic or leave them unsupported before they have the skills to cope.

✨ Remember: Separation-related problems aren’t stubbornness, spite or your dog trying to manipulate you. Your dog is communicating that being alone is difficult for them.

If your dog is struggling, work with a qualified, reward-based professional experienced in separation-related behaviours. For severe distress, veterinary support is important too.

💬 Have you supported a dog with separation difficulties? What small steps helped you make progress?

Norah and Mabel are making great progress with learning to love their beds and understand that their Mum and Dad aren’t always immediately available!

18/10/2026

17/10/2026

😃Mitch is heading into the weekend with a smile on his face!
Keep it StressLess - tell us your plans with your pup👇

15/10/2026

The girls had never had a problem with being left at home until a week ago.

​We've moved into our new home. I spend a lot of time working from home and the girls have been coming with us when we went anywhere.

​Then last week we went to go out without them and Dinks jumped up and scratched at the door.
​What did I do? Ignore her and go anyway? Open the door and tell her no before trying again or stay at home with her?

​I took her with us. She was obviously not in the right emotional state to be left, telling her off wouldn't have made her feel any more confident with being left home and we needed to go so they came along for the ride.

​It was a huge reminder that I hadn't been doing some very simple things to help skill her up and feel ok about being on her own.

​She has been spending all day and all night with me, she always has access to me, yes, she chooses to go and lay on the bed while I'm working but I haven't been restricting her access to me. She had a vet check up with our new vet to make sure there was nothing medically that was contributing to the sudden change of behaviour.

Why get a dog if you don't want them with you?

​It's not that I don't want them near me, but! There will be times when she can't come with me. I want to give her the skills to not panic when left.

​We are practicing presence doesn't mean access (PDMA). She is at the stage now where she will happily go to bed for a random hour during the day with the door closed and we are still at home.

​In a separate room behind a closed door wasn't where we started, we used baby steps to get to her there. Always at her pace.

​I can walk around & open the door without her worrying. Taking things at her pace and moving her forward the right way: StressLess 🤗

​If your dog is struggling to be left and you need help, please drop us a DM.

15/10/2026

Oba flew through his puppy training and we’ve just received this lovely review….

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Janet has been absolutely amazing with my little pup, Oba. He is 5 months old and is doing really well thanks to Janet. Training him has become a lot easier with the fun games Janet shows us, and he responds really well to them. She explains things well and thoroughly, and tells me why each technique is important for now and for the future. She’s such a friendly and warm person, which makes the whole experience really calming. Oba adores her, and gets so excited as soon as we pull up and he realises he’s going to see her! We can’t wait to continue working with Janet. X”

💪Oba’s Mum put the work in and it showed in all he achieved!

🙌We find 1:1 training so much more effective than puppy classes for so many pups.

If you want some tailored support for your pup, just send a DM or ping Janet on 07846653242.

14/10/2026

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Proud of this new 5 star review. Thank you Anita - we love having you and Meadow trailing with us!

Anita Hope

I have been mantrailing with Janet for over a year and have the most fantastic time with my vizsla Meadow. Janet is a kind and patient teacher and she sets up each challenge at the right level for each dog. I can highly recommend this activity; it taps into the dogs’ natural ability and it is wonderful watching them work. It is also suitable for reactive dogs as the dogs work one at a time and Janet makes sure that the environment is suitable.

13/10/2026

🐾 TRAINING TIPS TUESDAY-PLAY 🎾

Play is so much more than throwing a ball or having a tug with your dog. It plays a really important role in their emotional wellbeing, learning and relationship with you. ❤️

🐶 Here’s why play matters:

🧠 It builds learning skills – Play gives dogs opportunities to problem-solve, practise behaviours and learn how to cope with different situations.

💛 It strengthens your relationship – Shared play helps build trust, connection and positive associations with you.

😊 It supports emotional wellbeing – Enjoyable play can encourage positive emotional states, provide an outlet for natural behaviours and help dogs feel good.

🎯 It develops resilience – When play is safe, enjoyable and adapted to the individual dog, it can offer opportunities to practise coping with challenges and recovering from excitement.

🐕 It teaches valuable life skills – Tug, chase, retrieve and search games can help us build skills such as recall, releasing objects, engagement and handler focus.

🌿 It gives dogs choice and agency – Letting your dog choose how to play, take breaks or walk away makes play a two-way interaction rather than something we impose on them.

🎉 And the best bit? You don’t need expensive toys or hours of free time! A short game of find it, a little tug, a sniff-and-search game or a playful interaction with you can be hugely rewarding.

Remember: Play should be enjoyable for BOTH of you. Every dog is different, so find what your dog loves, watch their body language, allow breaks and never force interaction.

💡 Training tip: Try using play as a reward during training. For some dogs, a quick game of tug or a chance to chase a favourite toy can be just as motivating as food – sometimes even more so!

So, can your dog play in any environment? Here’s Dora finding play helps with distractions in the park.🐾❤️