You thought it was a good idea to get a puppy for Christmas? Right, well now it’s time to shape up because you have just become responsible for a life. You’ve done the jokes – “A dog is not just for Christmas, with a bit of luck there’ll be some left over for sandwiches on […]
I’m being instructed in more and more cases where people have been injured when they intervened in a dog fight. The typical scenario is that they will be happily walking their dog along, sometimes on sometimes off the lead, when another dog comes along off-lead and attacks their dog. It can happen anywhere but is […]
Hi, I’m Ted, and I’m fed up. Every day I go for a walk with Big David and we generally have a great time, sniffing around, checking out the pee-noticeboards, leaving my mark, riding in the bike basket between bridle-path and park before coming home for a good towelling down. So why am I fed […]
The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, to which I was privileged to give oral evidence back in June, today published their report Controlling dangerous dogs, calling for a full-scale review of current dog control legislation and policy to better protect the public, under the banner headline: Dangerous Dogs legislation fails to protect […]
Last year when we managed to explain to a court that a dog that bit a lady when he was tied up outside a supermarket did not constitute a danger to public safety (we think she accidentally backed him to the end of his lead and then stood on his foot when he couldn’t get […]
In these uncertain times we all have to try to scrape by as best we can and, to coin a phrase, “look after the pennies …” or as those on the Scottish side of my family would say, usually after several pints of heavy, “mony a mickle maks a muckle”. So I got to thinking, […]
There’s a bit of a furore on t’internet. Apparently “Science says” dogs don’t like to be hugged, and the face-twitter-sphere is awash with the repercussions. I like “science”. I like the way it informs and changes over time. So where did this “science” come from? It was widely reported in the Telegraph and the New York […]
Teaching your dog to make eye contact on request is extremely useful because it is an easy behaviour that you can reward with any of your reward options (food, interaction or activities – see Guide & Control for an explanation). It can be variously described as teaching a “look” or “watch me”, or simply paying […]
Those of you who have been to one of my seminars will have seen video of our last dog Fox stooging for me (that’s her on the front of the Bite & Fight book). She was a fantastic communicator and helped many dogs. When she died we knew we couldn’t replace her, and we won’t […]