Sian Ryan At Developing Dogs

Crowd-sourcing dog friendly gravel / stones ideas for the holiday cottage gardens (this will be the garden for Dragonfly cottage). The gardens have patios, large astroturf area, and then gravel around the edge with tubs and pots of plants. The current cottage has limestone which is soft underfoot / paw but does create a lot of dust / pawprints. My dogs hate walking on pea gravel so that's not an option. Have anyone got something their dogs are happy to walk on, that's comfortable to walk on barefoot and low dust?

Spot the Buzz, Day 2... This one is a lot easier - I was actually trying to get a photo of the barn owl in the distance but it was beyond the capabilities of me and my phone. For those of you who have subscribed to our newsletter, keep an eye on your inbox as one is going out this morning.

Spot the Buzz! If you're of a similar age to me, you might remember the Pools man coming round once a week, and part of the the Pools was a Spot the Ball competition. Of course, we never won; the ball was always somewhere completely random in the photo. Here's the Developing Dogs version. Where is Buzz? And do you have any similar photos of your dogs being hidden in plain sight in the snow?

Happy Burns Night to our Scottish followers! And remember, the Haggis Hunting season is now closed...Keep your dogs on lead around all livestock:
https://www.dgwgo.com/…/haggis-worrying -an-offence-dog-own…/

It's all Greek to me! Although I have had one lesson in the Greek alphabet and can now recognise a few letters at least. All set up for the first of three days in Althens. Thank you Pets Pro Academy

We have a new class starting on Tuesdays from 3:30 - 4:30pm with Louise: Developing Dogs Fit 'n' Fun! This is a drop in class welcome to any and all abilities and will be a mixture of hoopers, parkour, dynamic dogs, proprioception and more! To book your place go to: https://www.developingdogs.co.uk/…/deve loping-dogs-fit-n-f…/

Cooper, Riley and a field of sheep. What's the cue for them to recall to me? Is this impulse control, self control, habitual behaviour, contextual cue? What's the difference? And how can this help with your dog and your training? To discuss this, and more, around Impulsivity and Control, book your place on this seminar on 7th Feb in Essex now: https://www.dog-and-bone.co.uk/…/self-c ontrol-with-sian-ryan

New Year, New Cover Photo? Do you have a photo of your dog(s) that you'd like to see featured as the cover photo on our page? Ideally landscape - add yours below...

Christmas is over, and seminar season is kicking off again! I am off to Athens for three days of teaching prospective dog trainers this weekend and then have at least one seminar a month across Britain and mainland Europe for the rest of the year. This is the first chance this year to attend my day on Self Control - updated and revised from previous talks, reflecting how we can help our dogs learn to manage themselves, respond calmly, and make choices that meet our needs and theirs. Book now :-)

FOUND! Have you lost a necklace in our field? Drop us an email if you think it could be yours.

If you ask me for help on what breed to choose to suit your lifestyle, you'll often get an answer which includes comments along the lines of: breed tells you what the dog will look like; each individual will have their own personality and temperament. Generalising by breed can do more harm than good. This is a brilliant essay from Marc Bekoff which expands on why I believe that to be true: https://www.psychologytoday.com/…/dog-b reeds-dont-have-dist…

Are you looking for a new activity to take part in with your dog? Why not come to our Hoopers for Beginners workshop with Louise Bater this Saturday 12th January from 13:45 - 15:15? Hoopers is a great agility based sport that is suitable for dogs of all ages and capabilities; you can book your place by going to this page on our website:
https://www.developingdogs.co.uk/workshop s/hoopers/

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from all of us at Developing Dogs on this (almost) white Christmas. Thank you for giving us the honour of being part of your life with your dogs. See you in 2019.

A message from Calum: Hello all, this is our last training day of 2018 here at Developing Dogs, which means, come January when we reopen, I will have been working at here for a year! The first thing to say about that is: where did that go? The saying "work doing something you love and you'll never work again" has never been more true, I have had an absolutely phenomenal year working at Developing Dogs and I would like to start my thank yous to all of the wonderful clients I h...ave worked with throughout the year; I have met so many fantastic dogs (and the people that come with them!) that have taught me so much and made every moment of my time here such a joy. I would like to give an extra special shout-out to Graham and Jo Fisher who have helped out with photography throughout the year, you will be familiar with their work! My next thank you is of course to Sian for offering me this wonderful opportunity, I have learnt so much in a year and I already cannot wait for 2019 to start, I couldn't ask for a better employer, friend and mentor! Many thanks to Paddy for letting me loose on the strimmer for keeping the weeds down in the field, and also for letting me use all your other tools, they're much better than mine! Thank you to Jennie for help with admin and cleaning the barn, always a good way to start the working week with some laughs when I see you on a Monday morning! Big thank you to my partner in crime, Louise, running workshops and classes with you is so much fun, 2019 will be filled with so much more! Thank you to Sally for making Saturday scentwork workshops so fun, and for making my immune system work overtime trying to fight off your recent colds! 😂 Thank you to the team at Isle of Pets for being supportive of everything we do here and also having a great pet shop! My last thank you goes to my fiancé, Vicky, thank you for upping sticks from London and moving to this strange, flat, yet beautiful land they call the Fens (big thanks to Yvonne for housing us, no one else would have us and our army of dogs!). You have been so supportive and understanding; some of you may know that our first child, Amélie, came into our lives at the end of October, what a wonderful experience it is being a father.
I look forward to working with you all in 2019 and meeting new clients coming through the Developing Dogs doors! I have been saving these images from the Strike a Festive Pose workshop that we ran in November, enjoy some of the best pictures!
Have a great Christmas, see you next year!
Calum
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Last weekend we had our first two Escape from Barkatraz doggy escape room. Both days were an absolute blast, Louise and I had great fun working with all the participants and both teams on each day managed to free Pip! We will be hosting more in 2019, stay tuned! Many thanks to Graham and Jo for the pictures on the Saturday!

Louise has the lurgy so, like Buzz, she's spending the day in bed and wrapped up warm. All her classes are cancelled today. We have emailed everyone to let you all know but can you comment here or reply to our email (if you haven't already done so) to let us know that you've seen our message. Thanks, and get well soon, Louise.

It's amazing what you find in our field... #nospoilers Our first Escape from Barkatraz day is over and we're all set up for the second group of intrepid travellers tomorrow. If you missed out this weekend, don't worry as we're doing it all again on Good Friday 19th April 2019 :-)

Who recognises this? It's now the car park...

We have had 3 sessions of beginners life skills so far and they are amazing- not only is our pups confidence growing, ours is too!

Dougie our 7 month old goldendoodle loves every minute of them.

We have a fair way to go with him but I couldn’t ask for kinder and more professional trainer in Gemma and the rest of the team!

We have received a great deal of support since day 1!

Thank you Developing dogs!

Thank you for a wonderful day of beginners parkour. We loved it and now have loads of ideas for things to practice when we are out and about. We hope to be back for advanced parkour when we have done more practicing!

Just had first Life Lesson with Sammy our Border collie we have had for only 9 days, although he is a three year old rescue dog we have a way to go with him, but already we have have picked up tips to get him to focus more on me although he does think every other dog is wanting to play with him, with more lessons at Developing Dogs and patience we will get there, looking forwards to the rest of the Life Lessons course.

I've had a great time on the Bark Run course with Sian and Michelle from Bodymode Fitness. I've learnt a lot about how to improve my running style, my breathing and reduce the risk of injury for both me and Freddie. I've learn a lot about how to work more effectively with Freddie to get the most from both of us, while having loads of fun. Bark Run is excellent for all levels of fitness and Sian is excellent at building confidence with your dog - can't recommend enough :o)