Dun-Roamin' Specialist Dog Consultancy

09/06/2026

What is a well socialised dog?

✅ A dog who can observe without "needing" to be up close and personal
✅ A dog who gives clear communication about their feelings to other dogs / people
✅ Good socialisation includes your dog saying "no thanks"!
✅ A dog who can calmly meet, assess and coexist around another dog - think of how you observe street dogs in foreign countries
✅ A dog who can continue what they were doing before, regardless of who or what is around
✅ Dogs who interact in a range of ways, including slow plodding, sniffing, and completely ignoring one another!

❌ Dogs meeting every other dog they come across
❌ Dogs who act hyper, pushy, overzealous with other dogs, especially ones they don't already know
❌ Dogs who continually chase, run, jump on and "play" with other dogs
❌ Dogs who are completely fixated, pulling towards or wining about the presence of another dog / person
❌ Dogs who are completely overwhelmed by other dogs / people - cowering, rolling over, running away, heavily reacting (growling, snarling, barking etc)

How do we help our dogs to be well socialised?

💜 Advocate for their personal space - plan your walks accordingly
💜 Meet them where they're at - it's a marathon not a race. If they need 10ft or a whole field in order to act appropriately, give it to them!
💜 Carefully select your exposure situations - ensure you know and trust who your dog is interacting with and that the humans share your ethos on how things should go down.
💜 Provide plenty of decompression time
💜 Make their walks QUALITY and full of THEIR OWN DECISIONS AND CHOICES
💜 Use good, safe equipment - safe dog = relaxed owner = relaxed dog
💜 Be ok with saying NO! No to the petting, no to the dog coming closer, no to whatever makes your dog uncomfortable
💜 Learn basic dog body language
💜 Friendship over force. Always. If your dog doesn't trust you, you'll never see an improvement

23/05/2026

The hot weather has hit the UK very quickly, which means not only is it super warm for your dog/pets, it's also a shock to the system and they may struggle even more whilst their bodies acclimatise.
In addition to the tips pictured:

🔆 Expect lower tolerance to handling, stress, and being annoyed!
🔆 Allow plenty of fresh cold water and frozen cooling treats
🔆 Swap walks for enrichment activities

Most of all, ALLOW your dog the grace of being uncomfortable and grumpy in this heat!

13/05/2026

PERSPECTIVE means everything!

How we view our canines and their behaviour changes everything about our understanding of them;

Perspective 1:
My dog is being naughty and aggressive to that other dog and isn't listening to me.
I need to discipline them and teach them what I want them to do by making them do it by my standards.

Perspective 2:
My dog really struggles with new dogs and when I push them in to new meetings, they get very uncomfortable.
I need to work with them where they're at and show them that I'm their caregiver and advocate.

One perspective is fuelled by a sense of possession and power. One being somehow lesser than the other.

The other, fuelled by a relationship, of two sentient beings who's lives matter equally.

Once we shift from the sense of our dogs being "items" or "accessories" and recognise that they are intelligent, unique BEINGS who have no say whatsoever about the life they're taken into, and no voice to tell us what they need, we recognise how crucial it is for us to learn their language and accept them for who they are, just as we expect them to do for us, without judgement.

A simple shift in PERSPECTIVE of the situation changes EVERYTHING 👀

03/03/2026

Every day we ask our dog to be a little less dog;

STOP BARKING! Even though that's their voice.
HURRY UP! Even though this walk is the only time they get out of the house.
DON'T CHEW THAT! Even though that's how they clean their teeth and enrich their minds.
DON'T PULL ON YOUR LEAD! Even though they weren't designed to march in straight lines.
SIT QUIETLY! Even though they're stressed being in your busy local pub.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT GROWL! Even though they've communicated their unhappiness many times already and been ignored.

If you see it through their eyes, even just for a second, we see just how much we're putting on our dogs every single day. And yet, they still try and they still give us their loyalty.
We expect more and more from them, yet increasingly, modern domestication is making it ok for us to give less and less back.

Happy dogs are those who are allowed to BE MORE DOG!
Man's bestfriend?.... friendship is a 2 way street as far as we're concerned ❤️🐾🐶

Experiencing issues with your dogs behaviour?
Interested in a new behavioural approach?
Message us today 😊
(pic not our dog)

27/02/2026

I got sent this and if I was a bit more camera savvy it's along the lines of something I'd say. I've never been a trainer so I've never had the same gratification as spoken about here but so much of what she says is right there, for me

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17K9wKvWqm/?mibextid=wwXIfr

20/02/2026

So many people whose dog develops some aggression issues are embarrassed or blame themselves for causing the issue. In fact, getting an aggressive behaviour in a dog is quite often simply down to the roll of a dice, a flip of a coin

In my estimation, 6% of all dogs rebel against modern day domestication with aggression or destruction

It's a common misconception that they been abused or mistreated leading to those behaviours, they simply cannot cope with the pressures that come in the modern day

You are not alone 🐾❤️

19/02/2026

Maximum control minimal risk underpins EVERY situation where risk is present

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AdJ93mryT/

So when a dog passes on in your kennels and there is a space left, you just bring in a new dog and pop them into the vacant kennel right?

Maybe somewhere else but absolutely not here. Bringing a new personality into an established environment requires strategy and advance thinking long before the dog ever lands

Balancing the characters, personalities, behaviours & the current ambiance is a complicated puzzle that often requires moving a dog or two to achieve & maintain, especially during the most difficult early stages

You want to make the minimum amount of moves to achieve the outcome you want

That thinking has already taken place and the outcome is that one current dog will move into the currently empty kennel between two dog with which there is an established relationship and where trouble between the 3 is likely to be absolutely minimal

The space vacated by the current resident will then house the new dog who will only have one dog to one side

The layout of the kennel allows management of every situation in order to get through early days, weeks & months as all 9 dogs get acquainted and adjusted to the changes

17/02/2026

Pic is for illustration only and not of actual dog

It's been a long while since I personally embarked on a behavioural consultancy case, predominantly since COVID made me a kennel maid

With Stacey Christie being more in sync with the wants and needs of people than I, I have systematically been giving her a learning curve of jobs with a variety of ingredients but for a couple of reasons I wanted to take this on myself and possibly adapting what I used to do a little to make it more user friendly

I can honestly say that I do not recall ever having encountered a Corgi before that's exactly what today's case was with the dog having concerning behaviour that to now, have seemingly followed no set patterns in terms of cause

A quick look at my dog book to familiarise myself with the breeds history and off I set to work on an ad-hoc basis

Needless to say after a few hours grilling of the dogs owners, the breed specifics became unimportant as the reality of what I believe is going on showed itself to me in the black & white thinking that goes on in my noggin

All I can do is get the owner facing the right way having seen sense in the logic I apply. It's up to them to grasp the nettle if they hopefully see enough to warrant further exploration

Watch this space

Ian

16/02/2026

You ever been spooked by someone catching you unawares? Coming past you at speed whilst your focus was somewhere else? Of course you have, all of us have - so we know that doing the same to someone else can evoke a startled response

And yet somehow, whilst the battle between "woke" and alternative dog training rages on, on the internet, we somehow miss out the obligation that every single one of us has to risk assess, whether that be with a dog, on a bike, jogging on foot or otherwise

I see and hear too many stories about non dog walking public getting bitten by startled dogs. What a bloody surprise eh

Yes the onus is on the dog walker primarily but if you don't realise that a startled dog may bite, then you certainly should not simply assume that the dog and owner either ARE OK with it or just SHOULD BE

We all share these pathways & roads and each of us have a responsibility to risk assess for ourselves & for others

13/02/2026

Pyper is happy to learn that in 20 years of working with dogs from dog warden to rescue to behavioural consultancy to sanctuary, as both now knowledgeable about dog behaviour & also as a total naive man beginning that journey, never once have I resorted to using a prong collar, pinch collar, choker, check chain, corrective spray or anything remotely similar. Why?

At my core, I'm a decent person who started working with dogs because I actually like them ❤️🐾