During my career, I have had three super scary dog experiences. Here is one of them, grab a cuppa for a Sunday Storytime 🕮☕ It was a sunny Saturday afternoon around ten years ago. I was in Oban, The Gateway to the Isles, and the nearest town to The Isle of Lismore where I lived. I was on my way to a one to one consultation with a dog who was new to the family, and they were really struggling with her shouting at other dogs on a walk. They had only had their new dog for two weeks, but walking was impossible. She was almost 50kg bully/mastiff/corso type mix, and the family were at a loss. I was rushing. I am a late person. I actually HATE being late and feeling rushed, but I always have less time than I think is available. I grabbed a ‘meal deal’ out of Co-op (ah the days when carbs were a part of my everyday life) a take away coffee and bolted them down in the car whilst I drove around to my appointment. On opening the door, the owner greeted me like the first aider greets the paramedic at an RTA – something I have felt powerfully three times in the last 5 years. Relief, absolute relief that the professional was here and the desperation was over. She was a small lady, bird like and extremely sound sensitive and jumpy. A small Italian greyhound which would blink it’s watery eyes when you clanged the dished sprung to mind. No dog to be seen. She ushered e through to the sitting-room and there she was. Sprawled and spilling out of a single armchair at the far side on the room. She didn’t pay much attention to my arrival, she lifted her head and scented the air from across the room. We settled down, me on the three person sofa, and her on a single highbacked chair. The dog completing the triangle at the far side of the room. I organised myself, cross legged, and opened the massive leather-bound folder I heaved around with me in those days, whilst the owner made us a cup of tea. I was aware that my heart rate was up. I’d been harassed and full of adrenaline all morning, and I’d eaten carbs and sugar about 20 mins ago and could feel the effects of it all now that I was sat stationary. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. We got chatting and I asked my usual questions to relax her and get her talking so I can hear the story, listen to how she’s feeling, judge the scale of the problem and hear the goals. A few minutes in and I was aware of the dog slithering off the chair and moseying on over. She closed the gap in two strides, and began sniffing the top of my head as I was writing something in my hefty folder. It was then I made the mistake which brought my three previous mistakes into alarming clarity. I raised my head, looked her square in the face and said, “hello sweets”. Oh, how very dare I. The dog, who had played her cards close to her chest so far, quickly showed her full hand. Her first move appeared to double her in size as she jumped forward and screamed in my face. Teeth bashing, saliva flying everywhere, hot breath coming in angry poofs, blood red eyes. At a distance of about 6 inches from my face. That experience is very sobering. Her entire body was stiff, leaning forward into me, and her onslaught was continuous, rhythmic and intensifying. I lowered my gaze and tilted my body away ever so slightly and took a long slow breath. I was trapped. My legs were tucked underneath me and stuck. I had nothing to protect myself except my arms. I didn't want to risk maneuvering my folder into a more protective position for fear of escalating the situation. Once false move and I was going to take a large angry dog right to the face. Then I remembered something. There was a slip lead (standard issue back in the day) in the top of my bag. Careful to be conversational and without moving, I asked the owner her if she could retrieve the lead, and explained to very slowly and calmly pop it over her dogs head and take slow deliberate steps away allowing the lead to restrain the dog. There was no response. Painfully slowly, I turned my head (as much as I felt I could without inspiring the dog to take any further action), to locate her. The owner was halfway up the bookcase at the other end of the room. Terrified and crag fast, like a tiny startled Borrower who had been 'seen'. I was on my own. I don’t think I have ever felt such aloneness and vulnerability in my whole life. I remember weighing up where might be most able to take a serious attack with least long-term consequences. It’s not a very nice discussion to try and have with oneself. Accepting the inevitable pain to come and having to sacrifice a body part, we are to instinctive for that, our desire to survive and reserve ourselves takes over. Then something very fortuitous happened. In all her noise and anger, she disturbed a piece of paper on my folder, and it slid off and fluttered to the floor. She was so wired and tense, that she massively overreacted to it, leaping backward before snatching it up off the floor and shaking it. I used this brief interruption to whip my legs out and stand up, positioning my folder as a shield. I stood still but naturally, turned slightly away and placed my interest in the papers still in my hand and talked in a very calm rational voice to the owner, who was still half way up the book case. As if nothing had ever happened, the bomb was defused and the dog wandered back over her chair. I don’t know what went through her mind that day. She wasn't afraid and the switch from not interested to rage and back to nonchalant was remarkable. My best guess is my biological state was strange and heightened, which probably presented as threatening and this met a self-contained reasonably aloof guarding breed who is sensitive to arousal. It ruffled some feathers, and her breed specific traits came to the forefront. As Behavioural Practitioners. We are only ever making guesses. Educated guesses, backed by experience and science and body language and many more things but guesses non the less about what an animal is thinking or feeling, and I think that's ok, necessary in fact. Often my family and friends will say, “why did he just do that?” and sometimes the answer is “I don’t know!”. I was fairly convinced that this dog would be moving on after this scary display. The owners were clearly well out of their depth. We talked it over, I wanted to make sure they felt ok, and offered to help them find a more experienced plae for this girl to be. That wasn't an option. They loved this girl and despite what they just witnessed, they were keeping her. We worked on her dog:dog issues, and actually there were no more issues with people - ever. Just me, just in that moment. Granted, introductions were carefully managed from then on and the family didn’t have many visitors anyway. We later found out this was her sixth home. I would be amazed if this hadn't reared it head before, but we'll never know. My most powerful lessons have always come from the dogs. I learned some pretty important ones that day. 1. Ask WAY more questions over the phone. Owners don’t always know what they are looking at, because it’s not their job, it’s your job to build an accurate picture for yourself. 2. Dogs are all individuals, don’t ever assume you’ve seen it all and can fill in the blanks – and new dogs are an unknown quantity. Period. 3. Never work a dog in an altered biological state - ESPECIALLY with people aggression cases. 4. You are all you’ve got. Not in a doom and gloom “I am an island” kind of a way, but in a ‘you have to protect yourself, and that is no one else’s job’. 5. The set-up is everything. Fail that, and you risk the owners, the dog, other people’s dogs and yourself. What’s your scariest dog story and what did it teach you? Christina x

After many years in Search & Rescue, Skye and I have collected more dead dogs from railway lines, roads and woodland than anyone should ever have to see. It's heartbreaking every single time, and as a empath, I live that journey with them, wishing I could take the pain of loss away. But there is nothing I can do. I have just received my third desperate call this week. Let's see if your dog is in the risk category; 1. Their dog has previous. They have 'got a fright', 'chased wildlife' or 'wandered off' and gone missing, even for just a few minutes at least once before. 2. In 3/4 cases the dog was with another family member, or a dog walker with poor assessment skills and behaviour knowledge - who runs a group of dogs off lead. 3. They have a recently adopted street dog rescue with a fragile human: animal bond. 4. No formal training of a recall was ever built, managed and proofed. If you can say yes to any one of these, like it or not, you and your dog are in the risk category, the more factors apply, the greater the risk. We are now taking a proactive approach and have created The Rapid Recall Formula, so access to excellent training info is on hand to EVERYONE. No excuses, and absolutely no reason to not keep your for legged family member safe. It doesn't matter about your dogs age, sexual state, or breed. No one ever thinks it will happen to them. https://epicdog-training-academy.teachable.com/p/rapid-recalls Tag someone you care about who needs to hear a little tough love. Christina x

Your Recall Solution awaits you! ***The Rapid Recall Formula*** See you on the inside! I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS ONE!!! http://bit.ly/TheRapidRecallFormula

Are you struggling to get your dog to come back to you? You are SO not alone. http://bit.ly/earlybirdrecall Are you sick of hearing "you just have to be the most interesting thing in the park" 😠 Yuck, I HATE that phrase. What works for other dogs isn't working for yours right? AND you'd rather not feel stupid, standing there dogless and hollering with a selectively deaf pooch doing his own thing. You want your dog to have a life where they can run free, but you also need to keep them safe. You NEED your dog to come back, when called, everytime. Well fear not. You are just 2 weeks away from my Rapid Recall Formula, which I am super excited to bring you. Check it out at the link below. AND even better, I'm offering an early bird discount right now and reducing the price by 50%, just for you. http://bit.ly/earlybirdrecall The full price of this course will be £37, the offer right now is 50% off, the earlier you grab your place, the cheaper it will be. Join 3000 other owners, and get access to our Online Academy right now. There is loads of free stuff available inside too so you can get a flavour of how we work 😊 See you on the inside, Christina x

WHAT?? Please tell me why this ADORABLE boy is still in a rescue Center? Could be you his forever home? Xx ❤

Tonight my students in The Herding Game online are getting two surprise extra modules! They will be learning how a dragon can help 'unstick' their dog AND getting a behind the scenes pass to a full one to one lesson with a VIP client. https://epicdog-training-academy.teachable.com/ No editing, no cuts, real life training and problem solving. You can jump in at the link above. P.S If you own a Border Collie you MUST watch 'Your Border Collie Webinar' first... you'll thank me later 😉

I think Poppy really does want to go for a walk 😂💜 What's your dog's reaction to "walkies"??

Pain has an effect on behaviour - we know this. Seeing it in action can be a good learning tool, but not very ethical to set up. Symptoms can be very dramatic, seemingly unrelated and tricky to diagnose as pain. Take a look at this little clip. This has been happening for four weeks now. It's hard to film this and not offer comfort to my little girl, but she isn't particularly soothed by attention in this state often moving away a little for space. Look at the range of symptoms displayed by Ash, evading, scooting, frantic self-grooming, scratching, head shaking... as Ash tries to get away from the pain and calm herself. If I didn't zoom in on the tooth as the culprit would you know this behaviour was indeed dental pain? Teething is something which is often scoffed at as "tricky stage", but it is pain and inflammation lasting for months - and it's so mean that this comes at such a tricky developmental time! Your teen has 42 adult teeth to cut, sometimes the old tooth exits easily, sometimes it snaps off or is jerked out by boisterous playing or enthusiastic chewing - and it's clearly sore and maybe frightening. Ash is both a breed and an individual who loves to bite, and right now, her favorite things causes pain and that must be confusing - sometimes I spot her looking at her toys with a betrayed look, like she's questioning why they are suddenly all sharp 😥 Poor puppy! Once every few days she has a stressy experience like this so I am careful not to put any pressure on her during this time. I'm not working in any structured way on social interactions, voluntary vet behaviours or things which might make her feel vulnerable - this can all wait. I'm not to engaging in activities which will agrivate her mouth (after removing a tug toy which had four teeth attached 😮). I'm providing licking activities so she has an alternative to chewing her teething toys if she prefers, and doing lots of fun training with squishy treats to take her mind off things. Be kind to your teething pups, remember this video and even though your pup will most likely display their discomfort in a different way know that the struggle is real! ❤

❤💜💛 I love this nutter 😂🐕🐾

Jeso, who'd be a teenager again? All those hormones, all that worry, all that recklessness?!...and for dogs, they are also teething. Poor souls! This is a sensitive stage, in which our dogs are more responsive to dopamine and rewarding things, but also it merges with a fearful stage - in which novelty is met with suspicion and concern. Sometimes our dogs get a little fright - yesterday this happened to Ash as we are filming - so I caught my response to show you how I deal with this. There are mistakes, it's not perfect or a tutorial - is just an example of real life stuff. We need to be clever when or dogs get a fright, and use a technique that's right for the individual dog so we can build a resilient adult dog who feels safe and secure and had a positive response to newness. So, we were doing a little trip to Pets@Home, meeting people and dogs, trying on a new harness (because she's GROWING!) and practicing some of our behaviours in a very different environment from home or the park. At one point, we are walking past the bunnies, when one stretches up on the air... how very dare it. My roughty toughty Laki x Mali, got a fright, jumped sideways and growled. I then did five very deliberate things... 1. I did not freak out - I did not mark the event at all. No verbal/physical response at all (other than to take a sly look at what had made her jump so I can help her better). 2. Retreat to a 'safe' distance, this is the place that she shakes off and isn't looking back at the big scary monster. Reassurance that she's ok in a calm way, carry on with delivering treats and telling her she's amazing as normal. 3. I tested her response. Can she walk back with me past it? Has the experience left a legacy which needs attending to our guys something just catch her off guard and actually once she takes a second look is all cool. Again, not any fuss, nice and simple, with a loose lead in case she need to forge ahead - and we can see that she's still worried. 4. Build optimism. Give her something she's good at and enjoys, for Ash this is biting, so we have a little game of tug with the wonderful and versitile must have item that is the kong (not on commission). 5. Rewarded proximity to the item when the dog chooses to move closer - this must not be lured I'm paying no mind to the bunny, we are just training - notice I'm not bringing her closer then delivering the toy, she's allowed the toy whatever her choice. Her reward is she gets to 'possess and parade' it past the monster. Importantly, she can leave at anytime, and she'll still get rewarded - because that's true choice. Then we carry on as normal with our training, just a small blip which doesn't need to become anything important. Two things to note though: 1. Your dog decides all of it. What is scary, what is safe, what is rewarding, what helps them to feel brave... it's their choice. There is no one size fits all approach for any one person or dog. I hate it when trainers say you shouldn't pick a dog up that's frightened - sometimes a long as is used properly, it's a very useful thing to do, either as part of a modification plan, or forever if it works for everyone involved. Unless maybe you own a Great Dane 😮 2. This tiny little situation could become a big deal with this little girl, with the wrong response. She's sensitive, arouses quickly, gets frustrated - downright angry sometimes (if the last bit of her long is unreachable...ooft!) and she's at a very fragile developmental stage... ...all of that plus the fact that this is a bunny - not something I want to overly highlight of my little girls radar unnecessarily! (I'm sure we'll get to that in good time 😉). Much love, Christina x P.S, Yes I am telling her that she "has awll the smarts" 😂 It's important she hears this message ❤

So this morning I'm waiting for a VERY exciting dog training package to arrive. My wonderful neighbour kindly accepted the delivery when they couldn't find our place... ...and now she has of course gone about her normal day - like normal non-dog obsessed folks do. With my package locked inside her house 😭 I can see it through the door... **creepy me alternating between sitting on her step and pressing my face against the window, and calculating how many missed calls are acceptable per minute** ...IT'S RIGHT THERE all unopened and lonely... What if she's gone away for a long weekend?!? #AnxietyGirl #WorstPossibleConclusion #DelayedGratification #IHearItsCharacterBuilding #WhatRubbish #KnowYourLearner #Frustrated #PoorMe

You know when you see AMAZINGLY behaved adult dogs, which seem to listen no matter what is going on - well the key to achieving that covers three areas: 1. Creating a working partnership. 2. The training of a behaviour. 3. The proofing of that behaviour. Proofing is the process of teaching the dog to do a particular behaviour no matter what is going on around them, and helping them to understand that all that other stuff can be ignored. Here is a little session doing just that with the baby! Puppy licence well expired (according to sensible adult dogs - the best of teachers) we move seamlessly into adolescence and our training focus has shifted slightly. The early days were all about making sure Ash develops a secure attachment to her primary care givers, feels comfortable and happy in her environment, develops the skill to be independent and feels safe making social interactions - as well as getting used to our lifestyle, routine and habitat. Now I have a teenager! During this sensitive developmental stage, our teenagers are strengthening behaviours which lead to rewards, and turning those meandering pathways into superhighways. In short, they are learning what the love to do, and trying to find more ways to access those things. It is important that our future working relationship is crafted and solidified, and that training and play are intertwined so that a love for working can be strong. In this video Ash is learning some basics for Mondioring, a dog sport which includes themed obedience, agility and bitework tasks, and is HUGH amounts of fun for anyone with the kind of breed who enjoys protection work and is looking for a safe controlled outlet for this drive whilst building some awesome behaviours. We are working on retrieve (a range of items), down stay with distraction, body positions (stand and down and switching between them), working alongside Skye with turn taking, a send away (going round a far away object) and loads more fun stuff. The particular behaviour doesn't really matter as long as your building focus, and a love for working with you, sports, tricks, obedience, search & rescue... as long as they are loving it. We are working in a busy park, full of kids, dogs, football, birds, which interrupt us frequently, but is all part of the training plan to proof the behaviours which have been started at home, and help Ash to understand that these things will still earn rewards no matter what is going on around her. ...oh and the hat situation - Ash recalled beautifully off the chase of another playful puppy (who she later had a good ol play with), but already had her ball in her mouth - so the hat drew the short straw as a chasey reward! Shhhhh.... Skye has a secret present arriving this week which she is going to be SO EXCITED about 🐾😍 Happy Training Folks! Christina x

Reunited with my bestie Vaas in daycare😁😁

Remembering a lovely summers day in daycare - today it's snowing⛄ roll on sunshine! Good job we have awesome pooches to keep us entertained in the meantime 💜#tbt #throwbackthursday

Your first day at daycare is thoroughly tiring work when your only a baby 💛 #brusselsgriffon #puppy #sleepy #cuddles

Little Pomeranian Poppy was able to relax during our training session yesterday for the first time 💛 Poppy struggles with a high startle response, after her family were burgled during the night. She is extremely vocal when surprised, and has many triggers including novelty, sound, movement - of anything. Way to go little lady 💜

Amazing WSDA workshop today - super cool pups and owners learning fabulous new skills, for this EPIC new dog sport 💛 #wsda #manhunt #scentwork #dogsport #workingdog

Patiently waiting for some herding games please.

Manners with Lesley 😃

Me and my friend Harley making sure no bits of chicken are dropped on the floor at daycare😊

my happy place❤️

Resume Kong eating position - heads down bums up! With my daycare friends Gracie and Alba🐶

Brookey bear cub🐻

ugly jumpers and cute puppies in work today, this weather ain't bad when ur surrounded by this level of cuteness

sleepy time is what I really go to daycare for - sleeping is what I'm best at after all!😴

Duke showing us his best side #staffy #staffygram #wsda #manhunt

Drying a Vaas @artiicz #muckypup #husky #huskysofinstagram