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It’s that time of year again. The sun comes out, everyone is a bit happier, and we all start to enjoy longer days and walking without our coats. It’s also the time of year that people start to be silly with their dogs.

British people are slow on the uptake. Three days into a heatwave and we are often still wearing our woollies. That’s fine though, we can take our coats off, but our dogs can’t, yet we still insist on carrying on as normal with them. This week alone I have seen numerous dogs that…

“Many dogs can understand almost every word humans’ say, while humans seldom learn to recognize more than half a dozen barks, if that. And barks are only a small part of the dog language. A wagging tail can mean so many things. Humans know that it means a dog is pleased, but not what a dog is saying about his pleasedness”
—Dodie Smith, 101 Dalmatians

Do you really know what your dog needs on a daily basis, not just the walk and food but the option to chew the grass, the choice to greet some d…

Over the last few years canine enrichment has become a household term. Dogs get to play at everything from recycling boxes to a vast variety of snuffle rugs, treat dispensers to scenting sessions, which is great. Canine enrichment doesn’t need to be orchestrated all the time though, it can simply be making the most of an environment that dogs are so often rushed through.

Canine enrichment doesn’t need to be set-ups.  It simply means doing something that enriches the dog’s life. So here are some…

“Dogs’ lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you’re going to lose a dog, and there’s going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can’t support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There’s such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price.”

—Dean Koontz

As Dean…

Try as we might, we can’t deny that humas are animals too. That we are not aside from nature but smack bang in the middle of it. Not only are we nature but we are one of the most destructive parts of it. And yet, we are one of the gentlest parts of it too, based entirely how we live and what we value as individuals.

Who we become and the effects we have, that really depends on every choice we make!

Human & Nature Bond

Sir David Attenborough tells us that it was farming which transformed th…

This is something we hear and see a lot of isn’t it. A dog bouncing around at the end of a lead or jumping up at the person who is holding on to them looking fed up. This excitement is usually directly linked to the dog’s state of arousal.  Arousal though is a sign that something is amiss with the dog – something is not quite right and rather than stop the behaviour without asking any questions, our first job is to understand the dog.

Arousal itself is a perfectly normal response to something t…

“Is keeping dogs as pets ethical?”

 I asked this question in my Facebook group on Good Guardianship yesterday, and the range of answers were fascinating.

We humans are obsessed and totally invested in the animals we have domesticated in one way or another. We have taken animals who were once wild, self-sufficient and free, then made them reliant on us for most things.

It’s not only pet animals who have been tweaked, changed and used for our benefit though. Animals are farmed intensively, pigs…

Elizabeth Lo. has nailed it with the feature film Stray.

An honest and natural look at how street dogs live in Turkey, filmed over two years Stray is an enlightening observation of three street dogs protected by law in Istanbul.

Dogs are central to my life, as I suspect yours considering you’re reading this. Yet it can be easy after growing up in the West to consider our main role as one to look after them. We can get caught up in needing to keep them safe, provide things to meet their need…

Stress is absolutely prevalent in the world of the human – particularly post Covid lockdown and all the things that came with it. As people, we really have to learn about stress to recognise that we may be suffering with it. We need to learn the symptoms, what those symptoms mean and how to relate them to how we are feeling and that’s before we even start working out what to about our health if we are stressed.

When our dogs suffer with stress though, they can only tell us how they feel if we k…

Keeping dogs as part of human emotional wellbeing is common, making us responsible for their needs and freedoms while also leaving many dog guardians confused about how dogs learn and think.

Sadly, in many cases dog guardians find natural dog behaviours chaotic and difficult. While at the other side of the bond the dog is simply trying to get their needs met. They are working hard to be dogs and in many cases facing humans with poor communication, and lack of understanding. When we are dog guar…