Jay Gurden

A controversial point here – I say ‘no’ to my dogs sometimes. The first thing that tends to be said when anyone mentions saying no is that no doesn’t mean anything to the dog. That is true… but then neither do ‘sit’, ‘down’ or any another of the verbal cues that we use with our dogs, until we give them meaning. Dogs don’t understand English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin etc. What they do understand is the forming of associations between sounds, actions and what follows those...

Those of you familiar with the person behind the page here at Good Guardianship will know that a new canine member of the family joined as a few weeks ago. She’s a beautiful Border Collie puppy called Freya, just under 6 months old, and a full sister to one of our other dogs, the gorgeous Rogue. She came to us much later than is normal for a puppy due to a health issue that required heart surgery. This also meant that she had to be kept very quiet during the time that most puppies are...

One of the words we see written most frequently when talking about puppies is ‘socialisation’ and how important it is for young dogs to be well socialised to grow into happy and confident adults. While socialisation is important, what some advice (and the ‘socialisation checklists’ that can often be found online) states is, sadly, a little problematic. The focus is often on having the puppy meet as many different people, dogs, animals, vehicles etc as possible. I have even seen it said that...