Greetings Dogsters,

We have several events coming up October and November as the year draws to an end.

New Classes kick off on Saturday November 7th, in Ridgeways.

The Tigoni Dogwalk and the Shaggy Dog Show.

Stay tuned for Santa Paws photos for Dogs and Family, the talented professional dog photographer, Liza Walker will be doing photos for donations to KSPCA. Dates and locations to be announced.

The October Dog Walk

The Monthly Tigoni Dog Walk is scheduled to take place again on
25 October.

Please make payment to MPesa till 4907868 to find out the exact starting location! 

The KSPCA Shaggy Dog Show

As always at this time of year, the KSPCA Shaggy dog show is coming up! Be ready to strut your stuff on 8 November! This year the theme is Dog's on film! Time to get your costumes ready!!

What Your Dog Trainer Wants You to Know

I wish people understood the dangers of letting their puppies and teenagers greet and play indiscriminately with every dog they meet at the forest, out walking or at dog friendly restaurants and bazaars.

Dogs that are allowed to greet every dog by pulling or charging over to them are at risk of a bad experience that may scar them for a while or in some cases permanently. You must be very careful choosing who your puppy interacts with at a young age. Not all dogs are friendly, no matter what the person holding the leash says.

Dogs get more dog selective as they get older, puppies may want to greet and romp with all dogs, (even unsafe, puppy intolerant dogs) but adults carefully choose buddies to play or hang out with, but its not every dog. The best outcome is a neutral dog that can ignore and give signals that they don’t want to engage with another dog, and the other dog can read the body language.

For a great read on canine body language, I highly recommend

On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Ruugas

It’s a short book with many bullet points, lots of good photos, so download to a tablet or computer to see the photos well.

Most dogs are mature mentally and sexually, by about 2 years of age (can depend on the breed and size of the dog) so they are less likely to want to meet or play with every dog, however, if the norm has been to greet every dog everywhere by pulling you over to the dog, then you have made a dog that expects at least a sniff and a little rough and tumble on the leash, resulting in a frustrated greeter. Frustrated greeters can look aggressive; barking, pulling, lunging and growling. Some dogs that have had bad experiences are fearful, that can also look like aggression, it’s your dog trying to warn or scare the other dog out of their immediate area because they are on a leash and they can’t remove themselves from the situation, they feel defenceless.

It’s best to have a cue for greeting and not greeting a dog that they encounter out on walks, the forest etc. Then YOU can figure out if and when it’s safe to greet, using the 3 second rule, for a quick sniff before tension builds up, resulting in safer, more calm greeting when they are given a cue to greet.

I hope to see some of you in class or at the dog walk!

If you have a new friend or colleague with a dog, feel free to share this email for amazing dog events, and classes..

Happy Training!

Amy