Grey Matter Dog Training

09/13/2026

09/05/2026

And this is a great example of why we don’t recommend training or working service dogs on an empty stomach!

New research! 🔥
Excited to see new research from Jade of Animal Behaviour Matters out this week! These two studies were undertaken with the Scent Detection Research Group at the The University of Waikato in New Zealand.

🦴 Dogs were given breakfast before or after completing a scent-detection task.

❌ When working prior to eating, dogs made significantly more false alarms.

🐺 Being hungry may cause a mild increase in frustration-related behaviour during scent work for some dogs.

🐕 Dog’s hunger state can influence both scent-detection performance and behaviour.

Yee et al. (2026) found that dogs working before breakfast produced more false alarms, suggesting hunger may increase dogs' tendency to respond to non-target odours.

Fountain et al. (2026) found that unfed dogs showed more whining and interaction with the equipment, indicating mild frustration associated with hunger. However, frustration behaviours were generally infrequent and varied between individual dogs.

Links to both of these open access articles will be in the comments or search them on google scholar/research gate.

Fountain, J., Yee, J., Hazel, S. J., McWhorter, T. J., McNutt, T., & Edwards, T. L. (2026). Effects of feeding on dogs’ frustration-related behaviours during a laboratory-based scent detection task. Behavioural Processes, 105430.

Yee, J., Downie, I., Fountain, J., & Edwards, T. L. (2026). The breakfast effect revisited: Dogs’ scent detection performance before and after a meal. Learning and Motivation, 95, 102328.

08/15/2026

08/14/2026

Chronically ill people get a lot of "advice."

Some of it is helpful, but a lot of it deserves to go directly into the mental spam folder. 😅

"You just need to exercise more."

"Stop taking so much medication."

"You need to be more positive."

"Just push through it."

"You talk about your illness too much. That just gives it power"

When you live with a chronic illness, you get to know your body in ways that most people never do.

You learn what makes symptoms worse.

You know what helps.

Random advice rarely outranks lived experience.

You can ignore suggestions that shame you, dismiss your symptoms, question your treatment, or tell you to ignore what your body needs.

You do not owe everyone an explanation.

You do not have to try every miracle cure someone sends you.

You also do not have to prove that you have tried hard enough to deserve compassion.

Sometimes, the best way to respond to unwanted advice is to say, “That doesn't work for me."

No debate required.

💬 What is one piece of "advice" you wish people would stop giving?

Image Description: A pastel graphic with abstract shapes in pink, yellow, blue, and taupe. Large text at the top reads: “‘ADVICE’ YOU CAN IGNORE”

Around the graphic are five colorful speech-bubble-style shapes containing examples of unsolicited advice often given to chronically ill people:
“You just need to exercise more.”
“You should stop taking so much medication.”
“You need to stop talking about your illness so much.”
“You need to think more positively.”
“Just push through it.”

At the bottom center is an illustration of a person using a wheelchair.

08/13/2026

Think your dog can tell when you’re angry rather than sad? New research inside dogs’ brains suggests the answer might be more complicated than you think.

08/06/2026

This might sound harsh.
It's not intended to make anyone feel guilty.

But sometimes we become so focused on stopping the behaviour, that we never stop to ask why it's happening.

We're trying to stop the fence running with the neighbours dog.
The destruction.
The shadow chasing.
The barking.

Meanwhile, the behaviour may be serving a purpose for your dog.

If we don't understand that purpose, we're often fighting the “symptom” rather than addressing the reason it popped up in the first place.

Of course, not every behaviour happens because a dog's needs aren't being met.
Pain, fear, genetics, learning history and medical conditions can all intermingle and play their part.

But sometimes the answer is much, much simpler.

A dog still has behavioural needs whether we recognise them or not.

When appropriate outlets aren't available, they'll likely find alternatives.

That's why understanding the function of behaviour is one of the most important parts of changing it.

So here's a question.

Without any judgement.
Which behaviour on today's graphic does your dog do most often?

What need do you think it's meeting?

08/06/2026

Socializing a puppy isn’t letting them say hi to every person and pet they see it’s building neutrality around everyday stimuli and positive associations to novel stimuli that can make a dog feel big feelings through repeated exposure.
If you need help socializing your new puppy or litter DM us for booking!

08/06/2026

I see this mistake constantly. Well meaning owners (and even some trainers) focus on obedience behaviors like sit before the dog has any sense of safety or trust in their environment. And then they wonder why the dog "isn't listening."

A fearful dog can't learn, process, or make good choices when they're flooded with stress hormones and scanning for the next threat. Safety comes first. Always.

Once a dog feels safe, learning becomes possible. There's no other way around it.

This week on the blog, I'm breaking down five cringe worthy training habits that actually make fear and anxiety worse, even when they come from a good place. If you've ever wondered why your fearful dog isn't progressing the way you hoped, this one might help explain why.

Read it here: https://rescuedbytraining.com/2026/07/20/5-cringe/

08/01/2026

Why do I need to work on this, won’t my dog just grow out of it? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Sometimes people think that a puppy or adolescent behaviour will simply disappear as they get older, so they don’t need to train or prevent the behaviour right now. However, even if a behaviour has started due to the dog’s particular life stage it will often not disappear after that life stage has passed - but why?

Well, once a behaviour has started it is simply another behaviour that has been added to the dog’s repertoire, and now, just like any other behaviour, if it is practised it will get stronger and more established.

For example, if you have a young puppy who is chewing your table legs, that may start because of sore gums from teething, BUT once they realise that chewing table legs produces a positive and soothing outcome for them, they will go back to them again and again to get that same effect. Dogs of all ages enjoy chewing, so if as a puppy they discover a preference of your wooden table legs, this behavior will continue on into adulthood.

So what CAN you do about it? 🤔

Firstly, put a management plan in place so the dog cannot practise the behaviour. For the table leg chewing this could be we put a barrier around the table legs so the dog cannot get to them to chew them. This prevents them practising the behaviour and establishing it as a habit.

Next, figure out why the behaviour is happening and address the need in a more appropriate way. For a puppy chewing table legs, we would give them an appropriate safe chew to have instead. Then without table legs as an option anymore, they will instead practise chewing the appropriate chew creating a new habit.

This means when they are older you can remove the barrier to the table legs, and as your dog will never have had the opportunity to practise the chewing table legs behaviour, they will stick to their more established behaviour of appropriate chews.

It is far easier to put these training plans in place now than undo a tricky habit later. So if you don’t want a behaviour to continue into adulthood - don’t just rely on waiting it out! 👍