Lyttelton K9 Academy

11/10/2026

This week at Lyttelton K9 Academy

In Puppy Foundations, we introduced DOWN and FIND IT and showed Piper's hoomans some safe, appropriate outlets for his natural chewing and shredding instincts. 🦴🐾

We all missed Ollie and his dad and look forward to seeing them both again when they're able to join us. 💜

In Basic Obedience we worked on gradually shrinking our personal-space bubbles, helping our doggos become more comfortable around one another at closer distances. 🫧🐶

All 3 doggos made super progress, managing much smaller bubbles by the end of the session. Well done guys!

Our Intermediate crew are getting very comfortable with their mini pack walks. They even settled themselves, so we added a little extra challenge this week: generalising cues in different environments!

We practised PAW, SHAKE and even DOWN on some rather impressive boulders. 🪨🐾
(While Princess Phoebe found herself a nice, relatively flat spot for her DOWN... Lexi and Axel had to contend with rather less accommodating terrain. Let's just say their DOWNs were a little less relaxed lounge and a little more extreme sports.)

09/10/2026

Feel-Good Friday 🐾 😁

Feed the things that bring you joy!

(Great advice from We Love Pets SA)

They sure are joy bringers

07/10/2026

What The Woof?! Wednesday 🥸⁉️

“Why does my puppy get sick in the car?” 🤢

Because apparently, cars aren't universally enjoyed by the entire canine population. Who knew? 😅

Motion sickness can affect puppies and older doggos too. Puppy Culture shares some insights into why it happens and what we can do about it. 👇

Puppies who get carsick 🐶🚗🤢. I did a helpful podcast on this - link in comments 👇. Short story, it's usually an immaturity of the inner ear that will improve as your puppy matures, but there's a lot you can do to help in the meantime.

Breeders, getting your puppies out in the car early and often is one of the best things you can do for your puppy owners. Doesn't have to be a long ride and you can start as soon as the puppies can be safely separated from their mother. Training that inner ear from a very young age can avoid a world of suffering later.

If you have a breed that's really prone to carsickness or a puppy that really suffers badly from carsickness, make sure you set up good associations with the car by having lots of play sessions in the car when it's parked and not moving!

05/10/2026

Myth-Busting Monday ❌ 🗑️

“Your dog is eating grass because they have an upset tummy.” 🌱 🤢

Not necessarily! 👀

While some dogs may eat grass when they aren't feeling well, for many others, it's simply something they enjoy. The taste, the texture... or perhaps they just like a little salad with their dinner. 😋 🌿

Grass-eating can be perfectly normal doggo behaviour, but it's still worth keeping an eye on how much they're eating, whether they're showing any other signs of being unwell and what exactly has been sprayed on the lawn.

A little reminder from The Renew Centre that we thought was worth sharing again. 👇

03/10/2026

This week at Lyttelton K9 Academy

We kicked off our final Puppy Foundations course for the year and welcomed sweet little Ollie and not-so-little Piper to school! 🥰🐶 We introduced the marker and the concepts of loose-leash walking and PLACE, giving our new pups and their hoomans plenty to practise during the week.

Over in Basic Obedience, Bandit and Shenzi worked on handler focus in a high-distraction environment, with our Intermediate crew stepping in as today's doggy distractions while taking part in an on- and off-leash mini pack walk. 👏🐕

A special thank you to Stephanie Kachelhoffer for volunteering as our official puppy photographer! 📸🐾 Having an extra pair of hands means teacher can stay focused on the pups and their training instead of trying to juggle the camera too. We really appreciate you! ❤️

28/09/2026

🐾 World Rabies Day 2026🐾

One vaccination can make the difference between life and death.

Know the facts. Have your doggos vaccinated. Share the knowledge. ❤️

27/09/2026

Somepuppy celebrated his 12th Birthday (and 10th Gotcha day) with some hooman and furry friends! Happy Birthday Keiko 🎉

26/09/2026

This week at Lyttelton K9 Academy

We welcomed back our newest Basic Obedience students for another busy session.

Little Bella is still finding all the other doggos a bit overwhelming, so she spent some time working away and out of sight of the rest of the class 🤗, while her brother Cooper was quite happy to get stuck in. 🐶

Meanwhile, Bandit left his sister at home today and absolutely shone like the star he is! ⭐️ He and Cooper tackled some obstacles and worked on staying neutral around other dogs.

And Miss Phoebe stepped in as today's resident distraction... because apparently we needed to make things just a little more interesting. 😉🐾