🌟 WE’RE FINALISTS! 🌟 I’m absolutely delighted to share that Mutts & Mischief Holistic Education and Behaviour Services has been named an East Midlands finalist in the Dog Trainer/Behaviourist category of the UK Pet Industry Awards 2026! 🐾🏆 My work has always centred upon supporting dogs and their people with compassion, curiosity, choice and kindness, so having that work recognised means an enormous amount to me. The awards are decided entirely by public vote. If Mutts &

🐾 2am Dog Questions: Why did my dog suddenly react? “They were absolutely fine five minutes ago!” And they may well have been. But the thing immediately before a reaction isn’t necessarily the whole story. Maybe there was a noise earlier. A difficult interaction. Poor sleep. A frustrating moment. Something uncomfortable in their body. A dog staring from across the road. Then another little thing. And another. Until one seemingly tiny event becomes the moment when their syste

THE MISCHIEF METHOD™ — ADVENTURE ONE IS HERE! What if learning with your dog wasn’t about getting everything right? What if you could explore, experiment, change the plan, make mistakes, celebrate the unexpected and discover what actually works for you and your dog? Welcome to The Mischief Method™ — Adventure One. 10 weeks. One shared adventure. No perfect required. Across ten weeks, we’ll explore listening and observation, choice and agency, curiosity, connection, scent and

Something mischievous is coming… 👀🐾🔍 The Mischief Method™ — Adventure One 10 weeks. No obedience checklists. No chasing perfection. Just you and your dog learning to notice more, understand more, make choices together — and have some mischief along the way. And yes… there are Mischief Medals. 🏅 Adventure One is coming very soon. Fun, Not Formality — Building Connections Through Paws to Play. 🩵🐾 #themischiefmethod #funnotformality #cookiepushersunited #dogs #muttsnmisc

2am Dog Question “My dog can do it perfectly in the kitchen… so why can’t they do it on a walk?” Because learning doesn’t automatically transfer from one environment to another. Your kitchen and the outside world are very different learning environments — different sights, smells, sounds, emotions and distractions. Rather than thinking “but you know this!”, try asking: “Have we practised this version of the behaviour, in this environment, under these conditions?” Dogs aren’t

🏆 A rather lovely bit of news from Mutts & Mischief… I’m incredibly happy to share that Mutts & Mischief has received a @Quality Business Awards for Best Dog Trainer in Lincoln 2026, with an overall quality rating of over 95%. Awards have never been why I do this work, but I won’t pretend it isn’t rather lovely when the work is recognised. Especially because behind Mutts & Mischief are years of learning, teaching, advocating, questioning, adapting — and, of course, an awful

Behaviour Makes More Sense 🧠🐾 Prediction Error Sometimes, learning happens because something doesn’t happen the way the brain expected. That’s prediction error. A dog anticipates one outcome based on their previous experiences — but something different happens instead. That little mismatch between “what I thought would happen” and “what actually happened” can provide incredibly important information to the brain. And this is one of the reasons simply repeating an experience