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Box 🌿 Tiny Toxins: Paws Off Plants 🐾 (A little series combining my love of plants and pets 🌿🐶) Today’s tiny check: Box — also called boxwood or Buxus. This small-leaved evergreen is often clipped into neat hedges, borders and topiary. Very smart-looking. Ideal salad? Not so much 😅 Box contains naturally occurring alkaloids. If a dog eats part of the plant, it may cause vomiting, diarrhoea and tummy discomfort. Before anyone panics — many dogs live happily alongside box h

Progress isn’t always a changed behaviour. Sometimes it’s you recognising the early signs sooner. Noticing the hesitation. Seeing the weight shift. Recognising when your dog needs distance. Realising today’s plan needs changing. Your learning matters within the relationship too. #dogs #dogbehaviour #cookiepushersunited #gentlereminder #themischiefmethod

If your dog functions better when they’re further away from something, that’s useful information. Distance can change intensity, increase opportunities for observation and make other behaviours more available. We don’t have to repeatedly find the closest point a dog can tolerate. Sometimes creating more space is exactly what allows learning to happen. #dogs #cookiepushersunited #funnotformality #themischiefmethod #dogbehaviour #worthknowing

Dogs aren’t tiny furry computers retrieving the same behaviour file wherever we take them. Environment, arousal, competing stimuli, previous learning and emotional state all influence what behaviour is available. A dog being able to do something beautifully in the kitchen but struggling outside is incredibly common. It doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t. They may not be able to yet, here, under these conditions.

Your dog’s chosen resting places can tell you something. Perhaps they seek somewhere cool, somewhere enclosed, somewhere elevated, somewhere close to you — or somewhere completely alone. Rather than immediately changing it, spend a few days simply noticing. Observation before intervention is one of my favourite little pieces of behaviour work. 🩵

🌿 Tiny Toxins: Paws Off Plants 🐾 (A little series combining my love of plants and pets 🌿🐶) Today’s tiny check: Rhododendron — including azaleas. Those spectacular clusters of colourful flowers can brighten up a garden beautifully. But every part of the plant contains toxins called grayanotoxins, including the leaves, flowers and stems. If eaten, rhododendron may cause drooling, vomiting, diarrhoea, weakness, wobbliness, depression or changes affecting the heart and circul

One difficult walk doesn’t erase three lovely ones. One bark doesn’t erase twenty calm observations. One moment of fear doesn’t undo months of growing confidence. Learning isn’t erased every time life gets difficult. Zoom out before deciding you’ve gone backwards. 🐾 #dogs #dogbehaviour #cookiepushersunited #gentlereminder #themischiefmethod

Where learning happens matters. The sights, smells, sounds, surfaces, distance, people present and emotional state of the dog can all become part of the learning picture. That’s one reason “but they know this!” can be such a frustrating idea for both dogs and humans. Sometimes they do know it. They just haven’t learned that it applies here too. #worthknowing #dogs #dogbehaviour #themischiefmethod #funnotformality #cookiepushersunited

The physical cause may have improved while the dog’s learning about that experience remains. If something hurt, predicted pain or repeatedly felt uncomfortable, a dog may continue approaching that situation differently afterwards. Behaviour doesn’t necessarily reset the moment the body heals. Their experience still matters.

We talk a lot about the reaction—but what happens afterwards matters too. Recovery gives us valuable information. How long does it take for your dog’s body to soften? Can they sniff, eat, rest or reconnect? Do they need more distance, quiet or time? A reaction still happening doesn’t mean that progress hasn’t been made. Sometimes progress looks like recovering a little sooner, seeking support or finding regulation more easily. Instead of asking only, “Did my dog react?” try

One small thing you can try this week: when it’s safe to do so, wait an extra few seconds before encouraging your dog away from something they’re investigating. Sniffing isn’t wasted walking time. It’s information gathering, exploration and part of how dogs experience their world. Sometimes connection looks less like asking our dogs to follow us — and more like waiting for them. 🩵🐾

🌿 Tiny Toxins: Paws Off Plants 🐾 (A little series combining my love of plants and pets 🌿🐶) Today’s tiny check: Cherry laurel. This glossy evergreen shrub is an incredibly common choice for garden hedges. Those thick green leaves may look harmless—but cherry laurel contains cyanogenic glycosides. When the plant is chewed, crushed, wilted or digested, these compounds can release hydrogen cyanide. Thankfully, severe cyanide poisoning is uncommon in dogs. Most reported plant

We sometimes measure success by how independently a dog can do something. But needing a little less distance, slightly fewer prompts, recovering a little faster or seeking support before becoming overwhelmed? That’s progress too. Support isn’t something dogs have to graduate from to prove they’ve learned. 🩵 #gentlereminderaboutprogress #dogs #dogbehaviour #themischiefmethod #cookiepushersunited

🌡️ HEAT WITHOUT SHAME #16 — Rest Isn’t a Debt Your dog doesn’t owe you a longer walk tomorrow because they rested today. They don’t need to get up earlier to “make up” for the walk you skipped. And you don’t need to cram twice as much activity into the next cool day. Rest isn’t a debt. Dogs don’t have an exercise account that slips into overdraft every time we choose to stay home. Rest is a normal, necessary part of life. During hot weather, sometimes doing less isn’t the co

Yesterday they managed beautifully. Today everything seemed difficult. And suddenly you’re wondering whether you’ve gone backwards. You haven’t necessarily gone anywhere. Sleep, pain, excitement, previous experiences, environmental changes, stress and countless other factors can influence what a dog is able to manage on any particular day. Learning isn’t erased because today was difficult. Progress doesn’t mean your dog will never struggle again. It means we’re gradually help

Set aside five minutes today to do absolutely nothing productive with your dog. Yes. That’s the assignment. 😂 No cues. No training plan. No trying to squeeze enrichment into every available second. Just sit somewhere together and see what happens. Does your dog come over? Bring something? Lie beside you? Go somewhere else entirely? We spend a lot of time doing things with our dogs, but relationships are also built in the moments when nothing particularly exciting is happenin

Just because your dog is comfortable with one person, place or situation doesn’t mean that learning automatically transfers to every similar one. Different movement, distance, smell, location or context can matter. Categories are convenient for humans. Dogs experience the details. 🩵 #dogbehaviour #dogs #themischiefmethod #behaviourmakessense #cookiepushersunited

🌿 Tiny Toxins: Paws Off Plants 🐾 (A little series combining my love of plants and pets 🌿🐶) Today’s tiny check: Yew (Taxus). That familiar evergreen hedge with its soft-looking needles and bright red berries? Beautiful. Snack? Definitely not. Yew contains highly toxic compounds called taxines, which can affect the heart and nervous system. Most parts of the plant are toxic, and poisoning can be extremely serious. Signs may include: 🐾 Vomiting 🐾 Weakness 🐾 Trembling 🐾 D

🌿 Tiny Toxins: Paws Off Plants 🐾 (A little series combining my love of plants and pets 🌿🐶) Today’s tiny check: Elder — the shrub that produces elderflowers and elderberries. Those clusters of tiny flowers and dark berries may be familiar sights in hedgerows and gardens. But they aren’t something we want our dogs helping themselves to. The leaves, stems, bark, roots and unripe berries contain naturally occurring compounds called cyanogenic glycosides. If chewed and digeste

Your dog absolutely smashed it. And it’s incredibly tempting to think: “Right! Let’s make it harder!” But you don’t have to. You can repeat the easy version. You can keep the same distance. You can finish while everyone is still having fun. You can let success simply… be successful. Learning doesn’t require us to continually test whether our dogs can cope with something more difficult. Repeated experiences of feeling safe and successful are valuable in their own right. There’