The Dogs Blog......Two Ends Of The Leash

The Dogs Blog began in 2025. There’s a short story behind how it started, and if you haven’t already read it, you’ll find a link here along with all of last year’s posts. Those early pieces were born in the quiet gaps between puppy feeds, long days, and even longer nights, when odd questions, frustrations, observations, and moments of humour had a habit of appearing uninvited and refusing to be ignored.

What started as a few scribbled notes quickly turned into something more structured. The 2025 posts covered a wide range of subjects, some practical, some behavioural, some scientific, and some simply calling out the strange things we accept as normal in the modern dog world. They weren’t written to preach or to claim ownership of “the right way” to live with dogs, but to encourage people to stop, think, question, and maybe look at their dog from different perspectives. If even one owner came away with a better understanding of their dog, or a stronger relationship because of it, then the time spent writing them was worth it.

This page marks the start of the 2026 The Dogs Blog. The aim moving forward is simple: regular, bite-sized posts, ideally one a week, where I’ll continue to share thoughts, ideas, experiences, and knowledge gathered from years of living and working with dogs. The subjects you’ll find here are just honest reflections with the hope that somewhere along the line they help deepen understanding, improve communication and take the relationship between people and their dogs to another level.

03/05/2026 Rise Of The Infographics

Scrolling through social media, you’ll come across them. Bright colours. Clean fonts. A cartoon dog with a speech bubble. Five quick tips to fix separation anxiety. Three steps to perfect recall. A neat little diagram explaining “how your dog thinks.” Easy to read, share and digest. That’s the whole point. But that’s also the problem.

Dogs are not simple. And they are certainly not five bullet points on a pastel background and what we’re seeing at the moment is a shift away from understanding and towards consumption. Information is being packaged to be quickly agreed with, not properly understood. The goal isn’t depth, it’s engagement. A post that takes twenty seconds to read will always outperform one that asks you to stop, think, and question what you’re doing. Not in terms of training dogs, but in terms of attention, reach, and sales. Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are built to reward that kind of behaviour. The quicker someone can look at something, feel like they’ve understood it and move on, the better it performs. That’s what the algorithm pushes. So if you’re a business trying to get seen, you adapt to that environment. You don’t write something that takes ten minutes to read, you create something that takes ten seconds to like. And that leads into the real payoff: visibility. More visibility means more followers. More followers means more perceived credibility. And that, eventually, turns into enquiries, clients, product sales, courses or whatever that person is offering. But for the readers of the infographic the payoff isn’t better-informed dog owners or better trained dogs.

Take something as basic as recall. An infographic might tell you: “Use high-value rewards,” “Be consistent,” “Make it fun.” All true, in isolation. But what does “high-value” actually mean to your dog in that moment? What happens when the environment is more rewarding than anything you’ve got in your hand? What does “consistent” look like when your timing is off, your marker is unclear, or your dog is already halfway through a chase sequence?

These bite-sized pieces of advice create the illusion of understanding from the creators. People read them, nod along, and feel like they’ve learned something. But when they go out and try to apply it, it falls apart because the information was never deep enough to be useful in the first place. Real training lives in the grey areas. It’s in the timing of a marker. It’s in knowing when to apply pressure and when to remove it. It’s in understanding what your dog is feeling in that moment, not what a diagram says they should be feeling. It’s in repetition, mistakes, adjustments, and doing it again tomorrow slightly better than you did today. No infographic can teach you that. That comes from time with dogs, the successes, the failures, and the ability to read what is actually in front of you. Without the fundamentals being in place, none of it sticks anyway. A clear communication system. Consistent use of marker words, both positive and negative. Timing that actually means something to the dog. Structure in the home and of course clarity. Understanding arousal levels and how they affect learning. Knowing when to guide, when to step back. Building behaviours in low distraction before taking them into the real world. Generalising those behaviours. These are just a few of the things that make training work. None of them fit neatly into a coloured box with a catchy heading.

Without true knowledge and understanding it leaves owners trying to follow advice that was never designed for them or their dog in the first place, wondering why it’s not working, and often blaming themselves or the dog when it inevitably falls short.

But there’s a deeper problem developing underneath all of this. A growing expectation of quick fixes. Solutions that take minimal time, minimal effort, and cost as little as possible. What many people are really looking for is a “take the headache away” answer, not a permanent fix. Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, rather than teach him to fish, and the market has responded.

Sell them something quick. Something simple. Something that looks good on a screen. Online courses, pre-recorded webinars, neat little systems that promise results without ever showing the messy reality of working through a problem dog in real time. Because how many of these actually show live case studies? Real dogs, real issues, real mistakes, real adjustments as they happen? Very few, if any, and the reason is firstly real training isn’t neat, it isn’t predictable, it doesn’t follow a script. The moment you put real dogs into the equation, the cracks in a “one size fits all” approach start to show. The diversity of behaviour, temperament, environment, and handler ability means that no single method, no single system, and certainly no single infographic can hold up under real-world pressure. And Secondly these people are trying to sell you something and without a script they cant function because truly wanting to help you and your dog does not come from a "One size fits all dogs" approach. It never has. It never will. But infographics will keep pretending that it does.

12/04/2026 How Much Research Did You Do

It happens from time to time that we get enquiries about puppies from one of our litters, and within the first couple of minutes of the conversation it becomes blatantly obvious that little to no research has been done. Simple questions about work–life balance, how a puppy will fit into that, or even why they have chosen the breed are met with silence… followed by “we’re not sure” or a very limited response.

There was one case in particular where a woman rang wanting to buy one of our puppies as a surprise gift for her parents. The problem was, they knew nothing about it. When I suggested it might be a good idea to discuss it with them first, she became quite short-tempered and said, “I just want to buy a puppy for them are you going to sell me one?” When I said “no”, she put the phone down.

In a number of these cases, they are first-time dog owners who simply haven’t thought it through properly. But today’s call caught me a little off guard. A couple rang asking if we had any Welsh Springer Spaniel litters due. They had previously owned one that had recently passed away after 11 years. Almost immediately, the woman said, “We want a working line one, not a show line one.” That took me back a bit, because, unlike some breeds there aren’t separate working and show lines in Welsh Springers. A short time later she added that she wanted one from “Welsh lines,” to which I replied that they all come from Welsh lines… that’s why they’re called Welsh Springer Spaniels. I politely suggested they needed to do a bit more research, ended the conversation, and put the phone down.

Someone who had owned the breed before, yet didn’t understand some of the basics about it and it got me thinking about how much research people actually do before getting a dog. In reality, calls like this are quite rare for us. The vast majority of people who contact us come armed with questions and we really welcome that. So I went looking for some data and what I found was a little surprising.

A UK study by the PDSA (their PAW Report, one of the largest datasets on pet ownership) found that a significant proportion of dog owners admitted they did little to no meaningful research before getting their dog. Depending on the year, roughly a quarter to a third of owners said they either did minimal research or relied on very basic sources like a quick internet search or advice from friends and family.

Dogs Trust found similar patterns. In one of their National Dog Surveys, around 20–30% of owners said they spent very little time researching before acquiring their dog, and many admitted their choice was influenced more by appearance, popularity, or social media than actual suitability.

The University of Bristol highlighted something even more interesting. It’s not just a lack of research. People believe they have done enough, even when their understanding of breed traits, health issues, and behavioural needs is objectively poor. It’s not just that people don’t research… it’s that they don’t realise they haven’t.

Across all of this, a few consistent themes keep appearing. People rely on “my friend has one and it’s lovely.” Breed traits like drive, energy, and temperament are poorly understood or simply ignored. Health issues are barely considered beyond surface-level awareness. Training and behavioural needs are often an after thought. And perhaps most importantly, people massively underestimate how much a dog will actually impact their daily life.

Reading through this validated a lot of what I’ve seen and heard over the years. If roughly a quarter to a third of people admit to doing very little research, the real number is probably higher. When people don’t realise they haven’t done enough, they’re still likely to tick the box that says they have. There’s a built-in bias there, something we touched on in a previous post.

That said, it also left me feeling fairly positive. Because while the data might suggest one in three people are underprepared, that’s not what we see. The number of people who contact us with the kind of complete lack of understanding shown by that Welsh Springer Spaniel couple isn’t one in three, it’s closer to one in twenty.

But the statistics from the Dogs Trust and PDSA are, quite frankly, frightening. Because if breeders are willing to take the money rather than turn people away, what that says to me is that there are a huge number of dogs being placed into homes where the fit simply isn’t right. And when the fit isn’t right, it’s the dog that pays the price. I would be very surprised if a fair number of those dogs don’t eventually end up in rescue centres. At that point, the responsibility is handed over, the problem passed on for someone else to deal with all because the groundwork was never done in the first place.

Not everyone who wants a dog should be allowed to own a dog…..

04/04/2026 When Punishment Becomes Rewarding

I had a conversation this week about a dog that was jumping up at its owners. They explained that every time the dog jumped up, they would turn away. As a side comment, I said, “So you’re using punishment.” Straight away, their tone changed and they became a little defensive. “No, no you’ve heard us wrong. We’re not using punishment.” I replied, “explain it to me again.” They did and it was exactly the same, “no, I heard you right the first time. The dog jumps up, you turn away, and you’re hoping that will reduce the behaviour.” “Yes.” “Well then, by definition, that is punishment.”

Punishment, in behavioural terms, is not about being harsh or cruel. It is simply anything that reduces the frequency or intensity of a behaviour. That definition comes straight from learning theory (Skinner, 1953). It’s not emotional it’s functional.

There was a pause. “Oh… okay. But it’s not working.” I said, “Let me guess, your dog is either jumping more, circling around you, or even faking a jump and then rushing in front as you turn?”

“Yes that’s exactly what’s happening.”

At that point, I couldn’t help but chuckle, because it is slightly ironic, the very thing you are doing to reduce the behaviour is actually making it more enjoyable for the dog to perform. From the dog’s point of view, it’s become a game. You move, they chase. You turn, they re-engage. It’s interactive, stimulating and rewarding. So the behaviour increases.

You’ll often hear trainers say, “I don’t use punishment.” The reality is: yes, you do. You just don’t realise when you are. Then there’s another group: “Punishment doesn’t work.” That’s not what the science says. When applied correctly and consistently, in a contingent manner, punishment absolutely can reduce behaviour (Azrin & Holz, 1966). The problem isn’t whether it works the problem is whether you actually understand what you’re doing and how the dog is experiencing it.

If you are trying to reinforce a behaviour, but the dog experiences it as punishment, that behaviour will not improve. The dog believes it is being suppressed, while the trainer believes it is being encouraged. Throw in a load of treats and that mismatch creates hesitation, conflict, and in many cases a nervous or uncertain dog.

On the flip side, if you are trying to stop a behaviour, but the dog experiences it as rewarding, as in the jumping example then the behaviour will grow. It becomes stronger, more rehearsed, and more ingrained because, from the dog’s perspective, what's happening is enjoyable, exciting or a whole load of other reasons.

Then as the training is seen not to work frustration builds, and instead of stepping back and analysing what is actually happening, people start looking for bigger solutions to a problem they don’t fully understand. Something’s wrong with the dog. They’re getting worse. And the next thing you know is you are at the vets collecting your dogs Prozac prescription.

All because the original mechanics weren’t understood and if you don’t understand whether what you are doing is actually reinforcing or punishing, then you are training blind and the dog ultimately pays the price.

28/03/2026 What Are You Going To Do With BST ?

This Sunday the clocks jump forward an hour, and almost everyone’s first reaction is the same, complain about losing an hour in bed. This whole clock-changing idea, which came in during the First World War to improve productivity and reduce fuel use, gives us something far more useful… an extra hour of light in the evening. And most people, after that initial moan, do exactly the same thing every year. They use that extra hour to do more to be more productive.

Where dogs are concerned, that usually means longer walks, more places, more exposure. But if your dog struggles in certain areas, all you’re really doing is giving them more opportunity to practise getting it wrong. Sometimes the better option is to step back and fix the problem properly in an environment where the dog can actually learn.

Take the classic example of a dog pulling on the lead, barking, lunging at other dogs or people. Every time you go out for a walk like that, the dog gets another repetition. Another chance to rehearse the exact behaviour the owner doesn’t want. And the more they rehearse it, the better they get at it. It’s common to hear people say, “they’re getting worse.” They’re not getting worse. They’re getting more experienced.

So instead of using that extra hour of daylight to drag your dog back out into the same situation, flip it. Stay in the back garden. Cold beer optional. Take ten minutes of that extra light and actually teach the dog what you do want instead of constantly reacting to what you don’t.

Loose lead walking can be started in your garden.
Engagement can be built in your garden.
Calm behaviour around you can be developed in your garden. This is where clear communication begins. No distractions. No pressure. Just you and the dog working things out at a pace that allows them to succeed and is enjoyable for you.

And it doesn’t stop at lead work. If your recall needs improving, add a whistle and get it working in the back garden first. If your dog is constantly picking up “stuff” on a walk, teach “leave it” where you can control the situation. If they jump all over people, practise calm greetings before you meet anyone.

Trying to fix these things out on a walk, when everything is not going to result in success. Take a dog that barks at other dogs. In that moment, you’re trying to fight against adrenaline, movement, noise, and a behaviour that’s already in full swing. It’s not the place to teach something new.

Much better to build an alternative behaviour beforehand. Teach the dog to play tug or to carry a toy in their mouth. Then when you do find yourself in that situation, you can tell them to “knock it off and that's something you don’t want to see”, but hey you can get the toy out and show them what is a good thing to do rather than your dog reacting and you apologising.

26/03/2026 When Opinion Becomes Fact

If you haven’t seen the recent headlines about poodle mixes (doodles) being badly behaved… untrainable… “vets say”… prattle prattle prattle, then you’ve probably been lucky enough to avoid the latest inflammatory pile of nonsense reporting on dogs. As usual, it’s set two sides against each other in a flood of comments.

On one side, you have the pure breed enthusiasts piling in, laughing and saying they always knew this would be the case, throwing in every negative they can think of…. yadda yadda yadda. On the other side, you have doodle owners taking it as a personal attack, rushing to defend their dogs and explain how theirs is nothing like the article suggests…. blah blah blah.

What’s most concerning is how quickly people accept this sort of thing as fact, rather than recognising it for what it is, peoples opinion. Not controlled studies, not long-term behavioural data, not anything you would call robust evidence. Just a collection of people’s views gathered through a survey and despite how official it might sound, is about as scientific as me putting my finger in my mouth, holding it up to the wind for three seconds, and declaring it’s going to snow tomorrow.

Surveys are simply questionnaires. People tick boxes based on how they feel at that moment in time. And how we feel can change wildly depending on all sorts of factors, lack of sleep, a stressful day at work, a bad walk with the dog just before filling it in. On top of that, surveys are highly prone to bias. You get self-selection bias, only certain types of people choose to respond. You get response bias, people answer in ways that reflect what they think or feel in that moment rather than objective reality. You can even get leading questions, where the way something is phrased nudges people towards a particular answer. There’s an entire field around this, questionnaire design and when done poorly, or deliberately, it can steer results in almost any direction you want. So when you see headlines built on this kind of data, what you are really looking at is structured opinion, not scientific evidence.

Then, to give it weight, something like “vets say” gets dropped into the title. It sounds authoritative, but in reality, vets aren’t making a clinical or scientific claim here. They’re often just reporting what has come out of that same survey. Opinion, repeated with a professional label attached to it, suddenly starts to look like fact.

And this is where it becomes a bit embarrassing in my opinion. As a species that prides itself on intelligence, we are remarkably quick to get pulled into this. People get worked up, stressed, even upset over what is, at best, loosely put together commentary dressed up as journalism.

So if I were to give dog owners one piece of advice when it comes to reading this sort of thing, it would be this: before you read ask a simple question. Is this based on proper, peer-reviewed scientific research… or is it just opinion?

22/03/2026 The System Is Broken But Does Anyone Notice

You have almost certainly seen the problems and sad situations surrounding animal welfare coming out of this year’s Crufts. I said to myself I was going to stay out of it, because in my opinion nothing will change.

Some of you may disagree with that, but let me explain why I think this way.

One of the things that continues to frustrate me in the dog world is the huge gap between what people say about caring for dogs and what actually happens in breeding and in training, but that’s a subject for another post.

Take the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that won Best in Breed at this year’s Crufts. The dog was four years old, and it has come to light that he has already sired at least 40 litters of puppies. That sounds like a big number. When you break it down, it works out at roughly one mating a month from around ten months of age, when he first started siring litters.

Cavaliers have a well-documented problem with a hereritary heart disease, specifically Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease (MMVD). It is incredibly common in the breed. Many Cavaliers will develop a heart murmur during their lifetime, and in some lines it appears far earlier than it should. Because of this, responsible breeding programmes involve regular heart testing by specialist cardiologists and careful selection of dogs that remain clear for as long as possible. It is widely recommended that dogs should not be bred from until they are at least two and a half years old and have been tested and confirmed clear of this condition. This dog was already siring litters long before that point, before any meaningful heart testing could have been carried out.

And here is the reason I say nothing will change.

We have a dog being used for breeding in a breed known for a serious, life-limiting condition. Statistics suggest that by five years of age, around half of Cavaliers will have a heart murmur, and by ten years old the vast majority show progression of this disease. By the age of two, the dog was tested and was not clear of the disease yet he continued to sire litters. Despite all of that, this dog went on to win Best in Breed. How can a dog that showed early onset of a known, life-limiting heart condition be classed as the best example of the breed? If the very top level of the dog world is meant to be protecting the future of the breed, why are these decisions still being made?

And how many owners of Cavaliers, Cavapoos, and Cavapoochons from these litters are now living with a young dog that may be a ticking time bomb, without even knowing it?

Over the years I have taken a number of calls from people asking if I have a stud dog available for their female. Cocker Spaniels, Labradors, Welsh Springer Spaniels it doesn’t matter the breed, my first question is always the same:

“Is your dog fully health tested?”

Over 90% of the time, the answer is no.

And at that point, the conversation ends.

If breeders like myself are refusing to take part in this kind of breeding, why are we still seeing examples of it at the very highest levels of the dog world?

What message does it send? If a Crufts winning dog does so without proper health testing, why would anyone else feel the need to do it properly?

14/03/2026 Why So Many Dogs Can't Walk Nicely on a Lead

There is a growing problem in the dog world, and it has become so normal that most people no longer question it. Walking a dog calmly on a lead something that should be simple and enjoyable has turned into a daily struggle for a huge number of owners.

Head collars, figure-of-eight leads, front-clip harnesses, dual-clip harnesses with one lead on the chest and one on the back so the dog can be “steered” the market is full of solutions. Take the Halti Headcollar and similar designs are often marketed as humane alternatives to traditional collars, they are not they are aversive tools and more importantly they deliver a non contingent message to the dog leaving them confused and stressed but that's a different story. Harnesses, particularly front-clip versions, are promoted as kind and pressure-free. Some owners now walk with two points of contact, guiding their dog from the front and back as if handling a small child. But how can these be pressure free when we are using pressure to guide the dog in the right direction?

The problem is not that these tools exist. The problem is that they are being used instead of education. Most dogs wearing this equipment are under constant physical control throughout the walk, yet they have no real understanding of what behaviour is expected of them. They are redirected when they pull. Their heads are turned. Their bodies are steered. The lead tightens, loosens, tightens again. But at no point has the dog been clearly taught what “walking nicely” actually means.

That lack of clarity is the root of the issue.

I once saw a post from someone I knew showing his dog in a head collar because it “couldn’t walk calmly without one.” I messaged him privately and explained that the equipment wasn’t addressing the underlying problem. I even offered to fix the pulling for free. In most cases, I can show an owner how to begin resolving lead pulling in under fifteen minutes. He declined, saying he didn’t have the time. Are you serious!!!. Many people will spend years managing a problem, but they will not spend half an hour to properly understand the solution.

So why is lead walking such a widespread difficulty?

In many cases it begins with puppies. When a dog is small and light, its meandering is endearing rather than inconvenient. It zig-zags, sniffs, forges ahead slightly. Owners allow it because it causes no real discomfort. The puppy is not strong enough to be a problem. In some cases we are told that we should let our dogs walk where they like its their walk!! So we let it persist...until it is a problem. However, behaviour that is rehearsed becomes behaviour that is ingrained. A few months later the same dog is larger, stronger, and confident in the pattern it has practised hundreds of times. The only thing that has changed is the force behind it.

With rehomed dogs the dynamic can be different but the outcome often the same. Owners are cautious. They do not want to “upset” the dog. They fear applying clarity because they believe the dog is fragile. Rules are softened. Expectations are unclear. Boundaries are delayed. The intention is kindness, but the result is confusion. The dog still has no clear picture of what walking alongside a human actually involves.

From the dog’s perspective, it is often their walk entirely. The excitement begins the moment the lead is picked up. The dog rushes the door. Once out, the dog moves from scent to scent while the owner follows. If the dog stops, the owner stops. If the dog pulls, the owner resists. One of the most revealing signs I see with clients who struggle with lead pulling is that their dog rarely looks at them during the walk. There is no check-in, no shared focus. That absence of engagement speaks volumes.

When I use the word “heel,” whether on or off the lead, the dog I am working with will come to my right-hand side and stand there waiting to move. That is not achieved through steering or constant pressure. It is achieved through teaching the behaviour in a controlled environment before expecting it in the real world.

Many owners attempt to fix pulling during the walk itself, surrounded by distractions, competing motivators, and environmental stimulation. It is the most difficult place to try to install a new behaviour. Instead, the skill should be built in low-distraction settings first. The dog must learn precisely where you want it, what earns reinforcement, and what the criteria are.

So here is a test for everyone who has problems walking their dog “nicely”. Stand still with your dog close by, put your hands in your pockets and say whatever your “heel” command is to your dog. Where is your dog now? My guess with the vast majority of you is that your dog is now not at your right or left side waiting for you to move forward. If your dog doesn’t understand the basic command of “heel” why on earth do you expect them to understand how to walk “nicely” at your side?

15/02/2026 Is Playing Fetch Dangerous

Some of you may have come across information saying that playing fetch is bad and dangerous for your dog. I’ve heard it from a few different angles. Some people are genuinely concerned and asking sensible questions. Others are simply repeating a narrative because it sounds progressive and they enjoy a bit of virtue signalling without really understanding what they’re saying!!!

There are two main reasons people claim fetch is “bad”. Let’s start with the ridiculous one and get the crackpots out of the way early.

Playing fetch is apparently dangerous because it engages the dog’s predatory drive and takes them into high arousal. Arousal is not dangerous. In fact, I would argue that suppressing arousal is far more dangerous. Dogs are predators. They are designed to experience arousal. Denying them appropriate outlets builds frustration, and when frustration has no release, something eventually gives. That usually shows up later as uncontrolled reactivity at times you didn’t expect.

So why do some trainers push the “never let them get aroused” narrative? My honest view is when dopamine and adrenaline enter the system, their handling, timing, and reinforcement structures fall apart. Rather than improving their skill set so they can guide the dog through arousal, they simply try to remove arousal altogether. Keep the dog under threshold at all times and you never have to develop proper control within drive. That’s not training the dog. That’s managing your own limitations.(Training in drive is a subject of a future post, something called state-dependent learning.)

Now, onto the second argument, the one that at least has some mechanical logic behind it. The concern is that when you throw a ball a long distance, the dog accelerates to full speed, the ball lands and becomes stationary, and the dog then has to decelerate rapidly to collect it. Repeated fast stops, tight turns, and explosive direction changes could theoretically place stress on joints and soft tissues.

There is some research showing high-impact, repetitive exercise can be associated with joint issues in growing puppies. But anyone repeatedly sprinting a developing puppy up and down a field needs to give their head a wobble. That’s just common sense. For adult dogs, there isn’t any strong evidence showing that games of fetch cause joint problems. However, I wouldn’t dismiss the biomechanics entirely. Basic physics shows rapid deceleration does create higher forces than continuous movement.

Where I do think people get it wrong is how they’re playing the game. The chuck-it launcher make it very easy to send a ball to the other side of the county. The dog hits full speed. By the time they arrive, the ball is dead still. That’s where the potential issue lies: sprint, brake hard, grab. Sprint, brake hard, grab. Repeated over and over.

In my opinion, launching the ball into orbit often serves one purpose, exhausting the dog as quickly as possible and this is not what play with your dog is about. What I use are the yellow or green Starmark ball on a rope. I’m sure a quick Google will show you what I mean… but finish reading this first.

Because it’s on a rope, you can’t throw it to the other side of the planet, which is a good thing. The pendulum effect still allows you to generate decent distance without dislocating your shoulder, but the game stays closer, more controlled, more interactive. More importantly, the ball is often still moving when the dog reaches it and that changes everything. Instead of sprint–brake–stop, the dog runs through the catch. Momentum is conserved rather than abruptly killed. Turns tend to be wider. Deceleration is spread over time instead of spiking at one instant. Mechanically, that’s a very different movement pattern.

It also keeps the game more personal. You can build rules. You can add obedience. You can switch into tug. Don’t get me started on the people who say tug is bad because it engages drives that make your dog aggressive. Pleaseeeee. You can teach impulse control. It becomes a structured outlet, not just a cardio session. However too many owners use balls that are too small for their dog. A lodged ball in the throat is rare, but it absolutely happens. With a rope attached, you at least have something to grab if things go wrong.

So while there may not be definitive science proving that fetch destroys joints, how you play fetch absolutely matters.

Change the mechanics of the game, and you change the forces involved. Make it interactive instead of exhausting. Keep movement flowing instead of forcing repeated dead stops.

That alone is reason enough to ditch launching the ball as far as humanly possible.

08/02/2026 Take My Bark Away....

I was asked to go and see a local family the other day. They’d contacted me via a farmer I know and the opening line, once I rang them back, was fairly direct.

“We’ve got a four-year-old Cockapoo and he’s out of control. We need some help.” As they only lived five minutes away, I skipped my usual load of questions and just arranged a time to pop over and see things for myself.

Monty was a beautiful Cockapoo boy. Full of life, bright, friendly, and very excited to see me walk through the front door. Excited in the sense that he was bouncing up and down, whining, throwing himself at me in a way that would have given Tigger a run for his money. I started chatting to the family without acknowledging Monty at all. After a few seconds the lady said, “If you just give him some attention, he’ll stop jumping.”

“No,” I said. “I’ll wait until he decides to stop, then I’ll say hello.” And that was the first lesson of the afternoon. “So this is the problem you are having” I asked.

“Oh no, its the walking,” they said. “The moment he realises we’re going out, he starts barking and doesn’t stop for the first five minutes of the walk.” They explained they’d tried everything. Harnesses. Different collars. Food. Even giving him a toy to hold so he couldn’t bark. That worked right up until the second Monty realised a walk was actually happening, at which point the toy was spat out and the barking took over.

“Show me,” I said. “Show me what it really looks like.”

The husband walked towards the lead hanging on a hook by the door. Instantly, the barking started.

“Put it back,” I said.

He did. The barking continued.

“We’ve tried this before,” they told me. “It didn’t work.”

“Let’s try again,” I said. “But this time, we will do it properly.”

I asked them to lift the lead again. The moment Monty barked, I told them to say a clear, calm “no”, put the lead back on the hook, sit down, and completely disengage. No eye contact. No talking.

Once Monty stopped barking, we moved again. We didn’t even get as far as the lead this time before the barking kicked off. “No.” Sit back down. Seven attempts later, we were able to walk all the way to the lead without a sound. Then, predictably, the barking started again as the lead was lifted. So back it went. Sit down. Reset. A dozen or so repetitions in, you could see the penny starting to drop. Monty wasn’t being shouted at. Nothing unpleasant was happening to him. But the thing he wanted most in the world at that moment kept disappearing every time he barked.

Shoes went on with only a couple more resets. We went to let him out of his crate and the barking flared up again. Clear “no”, everyone sat down. This time, Monty stopped almost immediately. He was beginning to understand the rule.

We managed to get him out, put the lead on, and walk to the door with only a bit of what I call “vocal leaking”. I let that go on this first attempt.

Once outside, the barking started again. “No.” We all turned around, opened the door, and went straight back inside. Even though Monty stopped barking on the “no”, the consequence still happened. The walk vanished. We stood inside for twenty seconds. Monty sat quietly, staring at the door as if he could open it by sheer force of will. When it opened again, he walked out calmly with us, quiet as a mouse.

The walk wasn’t perfect. There were a few barks here and there, but compared to what they’d been living with, it was a massive improvement. As we walked, I explained what they’d just seen was called Negative Punishment and it wasn’t about being “strict”. It was a real-world application of something called the Premack Principle.

David Premack showed that behaviours a dog really wants to perform can be used as the reward for behaviours we want to see. In Monty’s case, the walk itself was the reward. Not food. Not toys. Not praise. Every time Monty barked, the reward disappeared. Access to the walk was what he really wanted. Every time he offered calm, things moved forward again. Loud or wrong behaviour was clearly marked, and we returned to a reset point. Calm behaviour reopened the possibility to what he wanted. No treats. No complicated theory. No gadgets. Just clear rules and consistent consequences.

By the end of the session, Monty wasn’t “fixed”, and that’s important to say. But the family finally understood why nothing else had worked. They’d been trying to override the most powerful reward Monty had with things that simply didn’t matter to him in that moment. They now had a simple clear technique that they could implement to take control of the walk and lots of other areas as well including the jumping up.

01/02/2026 Whistle For a Recall

I’m often asked what I think about using a whistle for recall, and my answer is that I use a verbal cue, a visual cue, and a whistle. Each has its moment, each has strengths, and each can fail if it’s used badly. But yes, there are certain situations where a whistle simply performs better, and there are very good reasons for that.

The most practical and slightly British reason of all. If your dog is a hundred yards away and heading enthusiastically towards something it really shouldn’t be heading towards, it is far more civilised to use a whistle than to shout your dog’s name at the top of your lungs. Your neighbours, other walkers, and anyone quietly trying to enjoy nature will thank you and we all remember “...F E N T O N…”, not a good look that one.

This reason isn’t new. Search and rescue services talk constantly about the importance of carrying a whistle because it cuts through distance, wind, and background noise. Even the police of old, the peelers, carried those large silver whistles to call for backup. They didn’t shout each other’s names down the street; they used a clear, unmistakable signal that meant one thing and one thing only. Dogs, it turns out, aren’t that different.

When you raise the volume of your voice, it distorts. Words stretch, clip, wobble, and pick up emotional baggage. Your calm “come” at ten feet sounds very different from your panicked “COME!” at a hundred yards when a deer has just appeared. To us it’s the same word. To a dog, it can be an entirely different sound. Add in stress, frustration, or urgency and now the recall cue carries emotion as well as instruction, which can cause hesitation rather than speed.

A whistle doesn’t do that. It produces a perfectly consistent sound every single time. Same tone, same pitch, same pattern. From a learning perspective, that consistency makes it much easier for the dog to lock that sound to one behaviour: turn around and get back to me now. There’s solid learning theory showing that consistent signals are learned faster and responded to more reliably. A whistle is a textbook example of consistency. Human speech, on the other hand, is wonderfully expressive but an absolute mess from a training point of view.

The next advantage is meaning. When you train a whistle recall properly, a toot-toot means one thing and one thing only. The dog never hears it in casual conversation. It’s not used when you’re chatting to a friend, muttering to yourself, or asking what’s for dinner. The whistle stays clean. It stays important. Your voice however does not. Your dog hears it all day, every day. Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t. They hear words like “come” or “here” dropped into conversations that have nothing to do with them at all. Over time, those words can fade into background noise.

This leads neatly into one of the biggest recall problems I see. People using the dog’s name as the recall cue. For many dogs, their name means several different things. It can mean “come here”, “stop that”, “are you okay?”, “pay attention”, or just “hello you”. By the time you actually need a recall, the dog’s name is so muddied that it’s no longer a clear instruction. It’s more of a conversational filler.

None of this means a whistle is magic. It won’t fix poor training, lack of practice, or a recall that’s only ever tested in the garden. Whether you use a whistle, a word, or both, clarity is everything. One cue, one meaning, practised regularly, and rewarded properly. That’s it. No shortcuts, no gimmicks.

So if your recall isn’t working, the question isn’t “should I use a whistle or a word?” The question is “have I been clear, consistent, and fair with the cue I’ve chosen?” Get that right, and the tool becomes far less important. Get it wrong, and even the fanciest whistle in the world won’t save you from shouting your dog’s name into the wind.

18/01/2026 You Wouldn’t Buy the Car, So Why Buy the Puppy?

I recently needed to get a new car. I saw one online and rang the dealer. That was the first red flag. I arrived at the dealer’s location, second red flag. Then I was told the vehicle wasn’t actually there, but would be back in five minutes. Twenty minutes later, it still hadn’t arrived. That was the third red flag, and I left knowing full well something dodgy was going on.

On the drive home, it got me thinking about how often people buy dogs from less than reputable breeders after being shown exactly the same warning signs.

I speak to people about their dogs every day. And the phrase I hear again and again is this: “I didn’t think it was a good place.” “Something just didn’t feel right.” “The dogs were in bad condition.” And then comes the line that undoes all of that common sense, “So I just couldn’t leave the puppy there. I had to save it.”

Is this rescue? Or is it emotional self-protection? It’s avoiding the discomfort of walking away. Or, occasionally, a nice bit of virtue signalling. “Oh yes, we just had to bring the little guy home, we couldn’t leave him in that horrid place.”

By handing over your money, you’ve just sealed the fate of the next litter, and the one after that. Oh and the one after that. You may have helped one puppy, but your money has told that back-street breeder exactly what they needed to hear, this works. The operation continues, the conditions don’t improve, and dozens more puppies are born into the same or worse situation. All because the business model remains profitable.

I understand emotions are involved. Of course they are. Dogs press every emotional button we have. But it’s remarkable how all the logic we show at a dodgy car dealer evaporates the moment the product on offer has four legs and a wagging tail. People walk into places they’d never tolerate if they were buying anything else. Dirty pens. Poorly conditioned dogs. No paperwork. No health testing. No questions asked of the buyer. Puppies that look exhausted, withdrawn, wildly over-handled, or completely overstimulated. And instead of walking away, we leave with the puppy.

Bad breeding survives because buyers keep paying. And the problems that come with badly bred dogs don’t magically disappear once the puppy leaves. Poor health, unstable temperaments, anxiety, reactivity, shortened lifespans, these don’t vanish. They come home with you. Along with the vet bills, the stress, and the heartbreak. I’ve heard those stories time and again, usually from people who say, “It didn’t feel right”.

If no one bought those puppies, those breeders would stop. Not because of awareness campaigns, or because of angry comments online. They would stop because breeding dogs would no longer make money.

Every pound handed over is a vote for continuation. Rescuing feels good, but preventing suffering is far more effective.

Walking away doesn’t give you a warm glow or a heroic story. There’s no “before and after” photo. No grateful eyes looking up at you on the drive home. But it’s the only decision that actually reduces harm.

The consumer controls the market. Bad breeding exists because people keep paying for it. And it will continue until buyers are willing to tolerate the discomfort of saying no.

You wouldn’t buy the car.
So stop buying the puppy.

Not because you don’t care but because you care enough to think past the moment… and past your own feelings.

18/01/2026 Why Biology Trumps Your Recall

One of the hardest things to train reliably is recalling your dog away from something they want to chase. It might be leaves, squirrels or bikes. And despite what you’re often told, this isn’t about how many times you’ve practised your recall or whether you’ve upgraded from kibble to roast chicken.

This is about biology or more specifically, it’s about how your dog’s nervous system works and something hard-wired into their DNA called predatory motor patterns.

Let me set the scene. You’re in the park. A squirrel appears. Your dog spots it before you do and launches into action. You notice the movement a second or two later, shout your recall, and… nothing. Your dog has already gone... absolutely committed to the chase.

At this point, trainers will often tell you that you need to practise more, improve your recall, or use higher-value food. Unfortunately, none of that helps in this moment.

Predatory motor patterns are automatic responses baked into your dog’s nervous system. When a prey-like stimulus appears and moves, the brain doesn’t stop to weigh up options. It doesn’t think, “Shall I have chicken or shall I chase?” Instead, arousal spikes, stress and motivation chemicals flood the system, and the dog drops into what is essentially autopilot. The chase is on.

Latency is the time between the stimulus appearing and the behaviour starting. In chase behaviour, that delay is measured in milliseconds. By the time you see the squirrel, process what’s happening, and open your mouth to call your dog, the decision has already been made. Not consciously, but neurologically.

Food can’t compete once the chase has started because the comparison never happens. By the time food becomes relevant, the chase is already self-reinforcing. The movement, the speed, the dopamine hit all of it is far more valuable than whatever you’re waving around in your hand like a desperate street magician.

Counterconditioning and differential reinforcement don’t solve this either. They can help change how a dog feels about a stimulus at a distance, under controlled conditions, but the automatic motor pattern is still there, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

Now, there is an important exception here, dogs with very low arousal and reduced prey drive, often through selective breeding or individual temperament can have longer latency. Their chase motor patterns are weaker or never fully engage. In those dogs, food can still matter because the system never truly switches on. This is why some people can stop chasing with positive reinforcement alone.... they are working with a very low drive dog.

So how do you actually get on top of this issue with a dog with normal drive?

Option one is to spot the stimulus before your dog does and recall early. In the real world, this is extremely difficult and often unrealistic.

Option two is keep your dog on a lead or long line, but a life spent permanently tethered isn’t great for a dog’s physical or mental health.

Option three is the use of an aversive. An aversive doesn’t have to mean pain, force, or “lighting a dog up”. Aversives exist on a spectrum and what matters far more than intensity is timing. Poorly timed aversives cause confusion and stress. Well-timed aversives interrupt behaviour at the exact moment it matters.

And then there’s option four: say screw it and chase the squirrel with your dog. Which, while emotionally satisfying, does at least have the potential to become a long-term fitness plan.

But seriously, if you want to genuinely get on top of recall issues by working with your dog’s biology rather than pretending it doesn’t exist, spend time finding a properly competent trainer. One who understands what’s actually happening inside your dog, isn’t tied to slogans, and is realistic about what can and can’t be achieved with your dog and your specific abilities.

This isn’t something that gets fixed with a quick tip, a higher-value treat, or a catchy Instagram reel. It requires a structured training plan, good timing, honest assessment of risk, and an approach that is matched to the dog and owner.

When recall fails in the real world, the consequences can be seroius and they’re paid for by your dog.

11/01/2026 Howl at the Moon...Or Anything Else in Fact

05:15 this morning, as with every morning, the house dogs and I headed out for their early walk. The world was quiet and then from somewhere across the fields came a sound, that for me is instantly recognisable.

A fox calling for a mate. It’s not exactly subtle. I can only really describe it as a cross between someone being brutally murdered and someone being emotionally devastated about it. If you haven’t heard it, the internet is full of helpful descriptions and my personal favourite is “a horror film sound effect designer showing off.” But that vixen got me thinking.

If this call is essentially a fox saying “anyone fancy a date?”, how does that link into domestic dogs and wolves and their tendency to howl? Wolves live and mate within a defined family group, so their howling must serve some other purpose entirely. And dogs? Well, they’re domesticated, and from my experience as a breeder I’ve never observed an increase in howling from females when they come into season.

So why do dogs howl at all?

One of the most popular, well-meaning explanations is that dogs howl because they’re lonely or unhappy. But again, that’s not something I recognise from real life. Dogs howl when they’re content, when they’re with other dog. In fact, one dog howling can quite happily set off a full blown chorus from the others around them, something so familiar that even cartoons show it.

Which tells us straight away that howling isn’t a simple sign of distress, isolation, or hormones. It’s something far more social, far more communicative, and far less tragic than we’re often led to believe, and is far more layered than most people realise. In wolves, howling is primarily a long-distance communication tool. It helps coordinate pack members, reinforce social bonds, and announce their presence to others in the area. It’s not howling at the moon.

Domestic dogs inherited this vocal behaviour, but like many inherited traits, it’s been reshaped by selective breeding and environment. Some breeds are far more inclined to howl than others. Dogs of working breeds often keep a stronger connection to this kind of vocal communication. Other breeds have had it mostly bred out of them.

When dogs howl in response to sirens, music, other dogs, singing or wildlife, they’re not usually distressed. They’re communicating. Sometimes they’re replying. Sometimes they’re practising. Sometimes they’re simply saying, yes, I heard that too, and sometimes as happens with a group of our dogs one starts and the rest join in, copying behaviour or just lending their support in the same way as if someone sings “just one Cornetto” we have to join in and sing along with “give it to me” (if this makes no sense to you in dog terms you are still a pup).

Studies using MRI scans, have shown that dogs process human vocalisations in similar brain regions to humans. Dogs are particularly sensitive to pitch, tone, and emotional inflection. When a person sings or plays a violin, the dog’s brain doesn’t interpret it as a song it interprets it as an emotionally loaded sound.

That explains why dogs are far more likely to howl at singing, violins, or sustained wind instruments than, say, a drum kit or a piano. Percussive or broken sounds don’t resemble a howl. Long, drawn out notes do.

Research into group behaviour in dogs shows that one dog vocalising increases the likelihood of others joining in. This isn’t distress contagion its social participation. In simple terms, one dog says “I hear this”, another says “me too”, and suddenly you’ve got a choir. This is why dogs often howl more readily in groups, and why a single howler can set off the whole neighbourhood.

Finally, we have behavioural observations rather than lab studies but they’re consistent in their results. Dogs howl when relaxed, when excited, when engaged, and when socially connected. They howl with owners they trust, if any of you have seen the Cocker Spaniel on the internet “Shoutout2myRex” you will know what I mean. They howl with other dogs they feel comfortable around. They rarely howl when shut down, frightened, or emotionally suppressed. That alone challenges the idea that howling is a distress behaviour.

It’s a behaviour shaped by genetics, learning, confidence, and context. So if your dog occasionally howls at strange noises, wildlife calls, or questionable singing, it’s not something to panic about. It’s one of those little reminders that there’s still a communication system ticking away that predates domestication.

04/01/2026 Emotion Drives Behaviour

I’m reading a book at the moment by Temple Grandin, and in it she talks about emotion driving behaviour. She describes an experiment involving burrowing animals in captivity. These animals were showing an unwanted, persistent behaviour: digging.

The animals were split into two groups. Group one was placed into an enclosure that already had ready made burrows. Group two was placed into an enclosure with no burrows at all, but soil they could dig. The first group barely dug. The second group dug persistently. The behaviour changed not because it was corrected, discouraged, redirected or trained out. It changed because the emotion driving it was no longer present. The digging wasn’t about digging. It was about feeling safe.

Remove the need for safety and the behaviour evaporates. Leave the emotion unresolved and the behaviour becomes relentless. This is where dog owners with “problem behaviours” should probably pause for a second, because when a dog barks excessively, chews the skirting boards, paces the house, digs holes, lunges on the lead or explodes at the window every time a leaf moves… our attention goes straight to the action.

How do I stop the barking? How do I stop the chewing? Etc. If you focus only on stopping the behaviour and ignore the emotion driving it, you’re not fixing anything. You’re just dealing with the symptom, not the cause.

Dogs may be performing these behaviours responding to internal states, fear, frustration, insecurity, over-arousal and conflict to name a few. A dog that chews when left alone may not have a chewing problem. It may have a safety problem. A dog that barks at every noise may not be territorial. It may be overwhelmed and unable to switch off. A dog that pulls on a walk may not be badly trained. It may be emotionally flooded before it even leaves the house.

When we focus only on the visible behaviour, we tend to reach for visible solutions. Tools. Techniques. Corrections. Distractions. Management. Sometimes these help, sometimes they don’t, but very often they miss the point entirely. The more useful question isn’t “how do I stop this?” It’s “what does my dog need right now that it isn’t getting?”

Just like the burrowing animals, dogs will keep repeating behaviours for as long as the emotion driving them remains unresolved. You can suppress the behaviour for a while, but the pressure causing it doesn’t disappear. It just leaks out somewhere else. So it’s worth remembering your dog isn’t being difficult for fun. No animal burns energy for no reason. If they’re doing something persistently, their nervous system believes it matters. So if you’re living with a dog that’s driving you up the wall, try this small mental shift. Instead of asking how to eliminate the behaviour, step back and ask what job that behaviour is doing for the dog. Because once you address the emotion, the behaviour often stops being a problem at all.

The Dogs Blog 2025

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