Chris Taylor-Rea - Dog Training

Chris Taylor-Rea - Dog Training 🐕 Dog Behaviourist | Trainer | Human Coach
🐾 Behaviour transformation expert
✅ 10+ years’ experience
💻 Online and in person
📧 Let’s connect
(1)

05/09/2026

STOP punishing your dog for barking at the TV. 👀

If your dog goes CRAZY when they see animals on the screen, there’s a good chance it's accidentally reinforcing the behaviour you don’t want.

Animal appears > dog barks > animal disappears > Dog feels great!

Here’s what I do instead:

🐾 **Start EASY**

Put a still image of an animal on the screen.

Your dog looks → **“Yes!”** → reward.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

👀 Now stop rewarding the stare.

Instead, start rewarding your dog for looking away from the TV and back towards you.

That disengagement is the behaviour we actually want.

Then gradually build the difficulty:

➡️ Still image
➡️ Movement
➡️ Sound
➡️ Short clips
➡️ Full scenes

If your dog reacts, don't just rely on the lead or repeatedly call their name.

Make the training easier.

Reduce the intensity, go back a step, and give them a chance to succeed.

The goal isn't to teach your dog “don't watch the TV.”

It's to teach them:

“I can notice something exciting… and choose to disengage.”🧠

And that skill can be incredibly useful beyond the TV.

💾 Save this for the next time your dog spots an animal on screen.

And send this to someone whose dog thinks the TV is their personal cinema. 😂

Follow for more practical, real-life dog training tips. 🐾

03/09/2026

🥦 “If you eat your vegetables, you can have dessert.”

You might not realise it, but you were being introduced to a dog training principle. 😂

It’s called the Premack Principle.

The idea is simple:

👉 Use something your dog really wants to do to reinforce something they’re less likely to do.

Think:

🥦 Eat your vegetables → 🍰 get dessert
🐕 Recall away from something exciting → 🦴 get access to something rewarding

And you can actually train this into your dog’s recall.

Start simple:

Scatter some low-value treats on the ground behind you, then recall your dog towards you and reward them with something higher value.

So you’re teaching:

“Come away from that → something even better happens with me.”

Once they understand the game, start creating a small triangle with the treats, gradually increasing the challenge.

Then comes the really useful part…

🎯 Start removing the reward from your hand.

The goal is for your dog to learn that choosing to recall can lead to access to the things they want, rather than always needing you to produce a treat.

That’s how we start building recall skills that actually transfer into the real world.

💾 Save this and try it on your next walk.

And if you know someone whose dog thinks everything else is more exciting than their recall… send this to them!

01/09/2026

🐕 5 MINUTES. ONE GAME. TWO SKILLS.

Want to tire out your dog’s brain and work on pulling at the same time?

This simple search game combines fun + enrichment + loose-lead training in one activity.

Want to make it harder?

➡️ Walk further away from the food before releasing them.
➡️ Ask them to heel longer before searching.
➡️ Gradually increase the distance they have to work from.

You’re not just tiring them out — you’re also building impulse control and the ability to think before rushing forward.

💾 Save this for your next walk and give it a try when you’ve got 5 minutes to spare.

Follow for more practical, positive-reinforcement training tips.

27/08/2026

Stop repeating the cue. Give your dog a chance to think. 🧠🐶

A little context behind this video:

Moments before filming, we’d already done 3–4 reps of:

Sit → Down → Sit → Down

I then moved to a different part of the garden, set up the camera and changed the context.

After one good rep, I knew she understood what I was asking — she just needed a moment to process and work it out.

So I waited.

And eventually, she offered the behaviour I wanted.

That’s the behaviour I want to reinforce.

But there’s an important caveat:

❌ This is NOT about waiting your dog out when they don’t understand the cue.

You should only use this approach when you’re confident your dog already understands what you’re asking.

It also helps if you’ve done plenty of shaping — teaching your dog that offering behaviours and trying things is rewarding. This builds dogs who are more comfortable problem-solving rather than immediately giving up.

What if your dog struggles?

🐕 They walk away or give up
They’re no longer problem-solving. The task is probably too difficult, or they genuinely don’t understand in that environment. Make it easier.

🐕 They start barking at you
They may be getting frustrated. You’ve probably increased the difficulty too quickly, and continuing to wait is likely to increase that frustration.

🐕 They’ve only performed the behaviour in one environment
Don’t assume the cue is fully understood. Dogs don’t automatically generalise behaviours to new places and situations.

The golden rule:
👉 Don’t cue a behaviour unless you’re reasonably confident your dog can perform it.

Sometimes the best thing you can do after giving a cue isn't to say it again…

It’s to shut up and give your dog a chance to think. 🧠

24/08/2026

Want a lightning-fast recall? Play this game. ⚡️

You want your recall cue to mean:

“Stop what you’re doing and come and have FUN with me!”

This game taps into something dogs naturally love: chasing.

But instead of chasing deer, rabbits, or another dog…

They chase YOU.

Here’s the key: don’t stop when you reward them. Keep moving and deliver the treat as they chase you, so the game stays fast, exciting, and reinforcing.

Hold the treat between your thumb and fingers to create an easy moving target for your dog to grab as you run.

Bonus tip: Have someone gently hold your dog for a couple of seconds while they watch you run away. Then release them!

That little bit of anticipation can create even more speed, drive and excitement as they come sprinting towards you. 🚀

Follow for more simple 5-minute training games that actually help in the real world.

21/08/2026

If every walk feels stressful… the walk itself might be the problem.

One of the biggest challenges with a reactive dog is trying to avoid situations that push them over threshold. So your walks start looking like this:

walking at quiet times
avoiding parks
constantly scanning the environment
hoping you don’t suddenly bump into another dog

And when you do… your dog explodes, the stress levels rise, and both of you come home frustrated.

But here’s the thing:
If every walk feels like survival mode, your dog probably isn’t ready for that environment yet.

Instead of trying to force “normal” walks, separate your dog’s WALKS from their TRAINING.

Your dog still needs daily enrichment, movement, and opportunities to just be a dog — but ideally in a calm, low-pressure environment where they can:

sniff freely
decompress
engage with you
explore without constantly being triggered

Then separately, find ONE suitable training location where you can work at a distance your dog can actually cope with. Somewhere with space, escape routes, and enough predictability that you can manage the environment properly.

That becomes training — not your daily walk.

When you stop trying to multitask walks and reactivity training at the same time, everything gets clearer.
You make better decisions.
Your dog feels safer.
And progress usually starts happening much faster.

19/08/2026

More training isn’t ALWAYS the answer to recall issues.

Yes, training matters — but one of the biggest things owners skip is building genuine connection with their dog outside of the home.

So many dogs are constantly being walked, trained, corrected, or distracted with treats and toys… but rarely given the chance to just slow down and be WITH their owner.

Sometimes, sitting still together and spending quality 1-1 time is one of the most valuable things you can do.

It helps regulate your dog’s nervous system, lowers arousal levels, and starts building value in being close to you outside.

Because in those moments, your dog is choosing to engage with you.
Not because you’ve asked.
Not because you’ve got food.
But because they’re learning there’s someone on the other end of the lead worth paying attention to.

You just have to create the space for that connection to happen.

17/08/2026

You might be making your dog's reactivity worse without even realising it.

In this video, Sybil had just reacted to another dog, but instead of correcting or punishing her, we gave her the opportunity to make a better choice.

Notice how she chooses to disengage on her own. Even her owner's reaction says it all: "Wow."

A few things made this successful:

✔️ We kept the lead loose, so she felt no pressure or tension.
✔️ We rewarded with a food find rather than feeding directly from our hand.
✔️ We allowed her to sniff and search, which helps lower arousal and promotes calmer behaviour.
✔️ We didn't call her name or interrupt her decision-making.

One of my favourite reactive dog training tips is using food finds after a reaction. It gives your dog something natural and calming to focus on, while creating distance from the trigger and helping them reset before looking back.

When they re-engage with the environment in a calmer state, they're much more likely to make good choices.

Follow for more practical reactive dog training tips.

14/08/2026

You might accidentally be making your dog more reactive. 👀

You’ve probably been told:
“Don’t let your dog stare.”
“Use the 3-second rule.”
“If they’re still looking, call them away.”

But constantly interrupting your dog can actually stop them from learning how to regulate their own emotions.

Instead, when you’re at a safe, practiced distance where your dog can stay under threshold, allow them to look. Let them observe. Let them process how they feel about the trigger.

This helps teach emotional regulation — instead of your dog relying on constant cues from the person holding the lead.

Over time, this builds the life skill of managing their emotions without us stepping in every second.

⚠️ The important part:
Watch your dog’s body language carefully.

Signs of escalation can include:
* leaning forward
* ears changing position
* mouth closing
* tail stiffening

These signs suggest arousal is increasing and your dog may be losing control. That’s the moment to interrupt, call them away, and create more distance.

Otherwise, give them space to have that internal conversation — and you may start to see real progress in their reactivity journey.

Follow for more reactive dog training tips!

11/08/2026

Quit repeating yourself! 👇

One of the most common mistakes I see when people teach their dog to stay?

They keep saying “stay… stay… stay…” throughout the exercise.

Instead, keep it simple:

👉 Start word: “Down”
👉 End word: “Free”

Everything in between?

Your dog holding the position is the behaviour you’re rewarding.

If you’ve clearly taught your dog that “down” means get into position and “free” means you’re released, you don’t need to keep repeating “stay” while they’re doing it.

In this video, I’m showing you how to gradually add distractions and duration to build a much stronger down stay.

And this doesn’t just apply to stay.

You can use the same principle for sit, place, settle and other duration-based behaviours — anything where you want your dog to hold a position until you tell them otherwise.

Once you start thinking about duration this way, you’ll realise:

You don't need to keep repeating yourself when you’ve already made the rules clear. 🐕

📌 Save this for your next training session.

And if you know someone who keeps saying “stay, stay, stay…” — send this to them!

🐾 Follow for more practical, force-free dog training tips.

Address

St Neots

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Chris Taylor-Rea - Dog Training 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 Chris Taylor-Rea - Dog Training:

Shortcuts

Share

Category