Dog Smart

16/11/2025

Met some gorgeous dogs yesterday to help them with their confidence.
The Dalmatian is nervous in new environments so we focused on counter conditioning, pairing the scary thing with something good.
The cavoodle is very anxious which has caused him to be reactive but by the end of the session he was able to show some great progress.
Looking forward to helping these two dogs to feel more confident out in the big wide world. ❤️

05/10/2025

🙌🏼 Another great weekend of training 🙌🏼
Is your dog pulling you on the lead?
Reactive on walks?
Not settling in the house?
Barking at everything?
Please get in touch, I would love to help.

22/09/2025

These two handsome boys came to see me today to practice their loose lead walking skills.
Both dogs were very quick to understand what we were asking from them and did some great work.
Is your dog pulling you everywhere? Please get in touch I would love to help.
❤️

12/08/2025

Beautiful Awhi and her person joined me for some loose lead walking training on Sunday.
These two did some great work and I can’t wait to see them progress, well done 👏
If your dog is pulling your arms out of their sockets on walks then please get in touch, I’m happy to help 🐕

06/10/2023

I am busy busy with rescue rehab & training but now we have some more daylight I am starting to take on a few more private training sessions for dogs & their owners.

I met this girl and her mum today to work on her reactivity towards anything that moves, especially things with wheels.

She did very well and was able to engage with me and disengage with the triggers by the end of the session.

If you need help with your reactive dog or have anything else that you want to work on then please get in touch 🐾

28/08/2023

This little beauty is Luna and she is deaf 🥰
She is a ball of energy so I am teaching her to settle which will help her on her way to finding a new home.

28/10/2021

Some great advice on how to manage your puppy when you first take them home 🐶

Puppies - how much freedom should we give them?

When we first brought Monster into our house, we had expectations for him. However, he had no idea what these expectations were.

We didn’t want him chewing our sofas. We didn’t want him annoying our other dogs. We didn’t want him chasing and annoying any of our other animals. We didn’t want him using us or our clothes as tug toys. We didn’t want him sh****ng in the kitchen. We wanted him to chill when we were chilling. We wanted him to become independent and cope with us not always being there.

All of these expectations do not come naturally for puppies. They don’t understand our rules. We can only expect them to behave like puppies and all the things we usually don’t want them to do, they want to do.

We set up an area for him. A place where he couldn’t do anything ‘wrong’. If we weren’t with him, that’s where he went. For the first 3 days he had almost zero freedom. We were constantly supervising him. After a week he became more comfortable alone and ‘asking’ to go out to the toilet. After two weeks he would actively chews his toys to chew on as opposed to us or the sofas. And now after almost 3 weeks he’s choosing to settle on his bed when we aren’t interacting with him.

He now spends very little time in his area (unless he takes himself there which he does regularly for naps - it’s open for him to go or leave). He has access to the deck and the garden. He’s out with us in the evening and with our other dogs. We still supervise him as he’s still under 10 weeks but he’s a very easy guy to have about the place.

He hasn’t had the opportunity to develop bad habits. He’s had lots of opportunities to develop the ‘good’ habits. This now allows him the freedom we want our dogs to have.

The biggest mistake new puppy owners make, is they give their pup too much freedom too soon, which helps them develop the bad habits and then remove that freedom as they get older (because they are so ‘naughty’). This will then be a big chase for behavioural issues down the line.

Do the opposite. Give less freedom early on and as the good habits develop, allow them more and more freedom as they start to learn what is expected of them.

To get help with your pup, you can follow along here:

www.thinkdog.no/members

19/10/2021

This pup is a typical teenager and loves nothing more than annoying her older sister on walks. We are working on interrupting and redirecting the play when she gets to rough and will be working on her recall.
Do you have a troublesome teen that you need some help with? Then get in touch 🐾

21/09/2021

There is a lot of misleading information out there for dog owners. If you wouldn’t want something done to you then don’t do it to your dog, simple!

There is a lot of talk about the ways in which the dog behavior field and the shelter/rescue field are not functioning the way they should individually and in the places they intersect. It’s true. There are a lot of important conversations to be had and positive changes we’d love to see made.

A massive foundational issue driving the dysfunction is bad information.

Bad information is everywhere. It’s prolific. It’s repeated so much it *feels* true to people. It is hurting dogs. It is hurting the people who care for them. And it is making qualified behavior professionals exhausted.

We are having the same conversations over and over in an endless loop. It’s information the dog’s caregiver was given by another trainer, by the shelter or rescue they adopted from, by their breeder. They saw it on tv where unqualified men are given shows to make behavior modification look flashy and revered as experts while peddling damaging misinformation. They read it on the internet or saw it on YouTube or a self proclaimed expert told them so in a Facebook comment.

They’re told not letting the dog sleep in the bed and making them work for their food will fix fear aggression with strangers. (It won’t and has nothing to do with that behavior or any number of other behaviors it’s tossed out as advice for.)

They’re told their dog needs a heavier hand. That they’re not being the alpha and that’s why their dog is doing X. (No, this is not the case. Ever.)

They meet with “trainers” who have made up all manner of ridiculous advice that has not a thing to do with behavioral science but because the trainer is in a position of trust, the client believes them.

Dogs need qualified professionals guiding their caregivers and care plans. They need humans to have an accurate understanding of dogs, their needs, and what sharing a life with them looks like. They need behavior modification grounded in behavioral science, ethics, and compassion. They deserve it to be as competent and effective as possible.

Dogs and the humans who love them need a regulated dog behavior field.