This is a unique consultation, assessment and report that takes into account all aspects of your dog’s life including any physical abnormalities which can be a major contributing factor to your dogs behaviour.

If you’ve tried training before to no avail, this could be the missing piece of the puzzle.

Even without a behavioural issue present, if a dog is moving abnormally this will be creating excess wear and tear on the body leading to compensatory changes. With 40% of ‘clinically healthy’ young dogs having osteoarthritis, a thorough in-depth assessment can help to identify abnormalities before they have progressed enough become clinically apparent.

When looking at changing a dog’s behaviour it’s important to understand what may be affecting the dog's behaviour. In the simplest of terms, an underfed dog will be more likely to scavenge and counter-surf.

By identifying the reason for a behaviour we can more effectively treat the underlying cause rather than attempting to suppress or control the behaviour.

Using the underfed dog as an example, we could teach a solid Leave cue and work on impulse control, but until the underlying issue of starvation is addressed the dog will still try and meet their own needs for survival and safety.

Dynamic Dog starts with a 90-minute consultation discussing your dog's behaviour, history and daily life.

From here, specific photos and videos are gathered over a two-week period. This evidence is then analysed for any potentially painful abnormalities and comprised into a detailed report for you, your vet and other paraprofessionals.

A follow-up consultation is held to go through the report and discuss the next steps.

In addition to your dogs behaviour, evidence is gathered specially to assess your dog’s:

• Conformation: How your dog is put together, overall structure and shape.
• Posture: How your dog positions themselves in a sit, stand and down.
• Gait: Walking and trotting in a straight line and free canter movement.
• Ambulation: How your dog moves in and out of a sit, stand and down.
• Activities of Daily Living: Moving on stairs, eating, travelling, urinating etc.

It’s not just a limp and a whine. Pain is a subjective and complex experience that can be displayed in a number of different ways. Pain can be a contributing factor to the following behaviours:

• Reactivity
• Fear
• Noise sensitivity
• Frustration
• Anxiety
• Handling issues
• Resource guarding
• Refusing to perform known behaviours on cue (sit, lie down etc)
• Defensive behaviours when approached
• Defensive behaviours when made to move
• Restlessness
• Disturbed sleep/waking at night
• Avoidance of slippery surfaces
• Freezing on walks
• Stargazing
• Fly snapping
• Compulsive behaviours
• Excessive or abnormal licking
• Attention seeking behaviours
• Destructive behaviours
• Separation related distress
• House soiling

Typically, when we think of signs of pain, we are thinking of signs of acute or suddenly occurring pain; a whine, yelp and obvious lameness. However, chronic pain presents differently. Dogs are masters at adapting and limiting the physical effect any pain or discomfort will have on them.

If the issue was present from birth or develops slowly, there won’t be a sudden physical change to recognise in your dog. The maladaptations will slowly increase, as will the discomfort.

Other times, we may recognise changes or quirks in our dogs but assume these to be individual character traits rather than signs of something else.

When your dog is at the vets, they're likely experiencing a stress response, whether this is from anxiety or excitement. This stress response releases adrenaline and cortisol, both of which act as pain relief. This makes it even more difficult to accurately assess a dog for chronic pain.

In addition, dogs can mask pain for the length of a standard veterinary consult - behaviours indicative of pain may not be present for the vet to see. Pain indicative behaviours may only become apparent after 2-3hrs.

In one review of referred behaviour cases, relevant physical problems were missed by the referring vet more than 50% of the time.