Training & Behaviour

You sit down with a cup of tea. Your dog starts looking for the next activity. A familiar mat can give you a place to practise quiet time together, but relaxing is more than holding a perfect “down.” Start when the room, and your dog, are already fairly settled.

Some dog tricks need a whole obstacle course. This one starts with an empty hand. “Touch” means a gentle nose tap against your palm: a small shared game you can practise in the kitchen before the kettle boils.

Your neighbour mentions that your dog howled for an hour after you left. You come home to scratched doors, a chewed cushion, or a puddle by the exit. It's tempting to read this as spite, but dogs don't plan revenge. What you're seeing is almost always distress.

Separation anxiety is one of the most common behaviour problems in dogs, and it is treatable. This guide explains how to recognise it, what to avoid, and how to build up your dog's confidence gradually.

Early experiences can influence how a puppy responds to the world. Socialisation means introducing people, animals, sounds, and places gradually and positively. It can support confidence, but temperament and later experiences matter too; a fearful dog is not evidence of an owner's failure.

This guide explains the timing, gives you a checklist, and covers how to do it safely while vaccinations are still in progress.

A hug is a human sentence. Arms close, chests meet, the world gets briefly smaller on purpose. Dogs did not invent that sentence. They invented sitting nearby, leaning, following you into rooms that do not require a second mammal, and putting a chin on your knee as if the knee had been vacant all morning.

Some dogs learn that your hug is safe and even pleasant. Many more tolerate it because they like you, which is not the same as enjoying the squeeze. The honest answer is: she understands that you are doing a people thing. Whether she files it under affection depends on the rest of her body.

A paw on your knee is easy to read as love. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is a receipt for the last time you paid attention when she tapped you. Dogs are not being cynical. They are being accurate. Behaviours that work come back.

The paw itself is not a personality. The rest of the dog is: the eyes, the tail, whether she can take the paw back, and what usually happens next.

Walking a dog who pulls is tiring for your arm and miserable for both of you. The good news: pulling isn't stubbornness. It's a habit, because it works. Every time your dog drags you toward a smell and you follow, they learn that pulling gets them where they want to go.

Loose-leash walking is simply teaching your dog that a slack lead gets them what they want, and a tight one doesn't. This guide covers the equipment, the method and the problems you're likely to meet.

Toilet training takes time, and a small dog may need frequent opportunities to get it right. Age, health, previous experience, and the household routine all matter. A missed accident is a chance to adjust the plan, rather than a reason to blame the dog or yourself.

The good news is that the method is straightforward. What it demands is frequency and consistency rather than cleverness.

Yorkshire Terriers were bred to hunt rats in Victorian mills and to tell their owners about it. Alerting you loudly to things is not a flaw in the breed, it's the job description. That doesn't mean you have to live with constant noise.

The important thing is that there's no single fix, because there's no single cause. Barking at the window is a different problem from barking when you pick up your keys, and the treatment that solves one makes the other worse. This guide helps you work out which type you're dealing with first.

Fireworks combine sudden noise, vibration, flashes, and an unpredictable pattern—a difficult mix for an animal with sensitive hearing and no way to understand when it will end. A frightened dog may pant, tremble, hide, pace, bark, refuse food, or try to escape.

The best plan starts before the first explosion. Safety and management come first; training helps over time; and severe noise fear deserves veterinary treatment rather than a test of endurance.

Dogs communicate constantly, but much of what they say happens before a bark or growl. A head turn, closed mouth, change in weight, or sudden stillness can tell you whether a dog wants to approach, needs space, or is becoming overwhelmed.

No single signal has one fixed meaning. Good body-language reading combines the whole body, the situation, and the change from that individual dog's normal behaviour.

Dogs lick people for many reasons: affection, attention, interesting taste, stress relief, or a polite attempt to communicate. The same lick can mean “hello” in one moment and “please stop” in another.

To understand it, look at what happened immediately before, whether the dog's body is relaxed, and what usually happens after she licks. Context is more informative than the lick itself.