Animals that are bored will get into trouble. A bored dog will bark, chew destructively, dig or try to escape from the yard. A bored cat will destroy your furniture or excessively vocalise. Both may develop self-destructive habits too, including excessive grooming or intercat/dog aggression.

Boredom can be lessened by keeping your pet’s brain busy with training, playtime and mentally challenging games, as well as making sure your dog gets enough daily exercise so that his body is tired when you leave the house and that your cat has access to the outside world.

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Do you wonder where you can take your dog for a safe play date, or want to be more productive and fun when you exercise your dog? LSPCA has a dedicated enrichment area for all of those needs.

With tunnels and hills, a swing bridge, digging pit, aromatic plants and much more our enrichment area allows your dog to see and smell the world like he never has before! The swing bridge and digging pit will strengthen his muscles, whilst the swimming pool and tunnels offer some cooler fun. This secured area is also designed in a way that if you wish to start agility with your dog, our obstacles allow you and your dog to flow accurately and between, gaining a fair amount of speed!

LSPCA offers booked group socialisation classes and dog training in the enrichment area. If you are interested in hiring out the space or coming along to one of our socialisation classes, contact LSPCA

Did you know that one hour of positive reinforcement training is equivalent to five minutes of physical exercise, which means you have a very tired dog after just 30 minutes of dog training! And a tired dog means one happy owner!

LSPCA offers basic dog training which is primarily based on positive reinforcement (giving a reward) thus producing quick and reliable skills that are welcomed by the whole family! LSPCA opposed the use of Alpha Theory and Dominance training methods (such as negative reinforcement and positive punishment) as it can pose a serious problem; if owners believe that a dog does something to ‘achieve status’, ‘control them’ or ‘be the boss’ it naturally tends to lead people to use coercive training techniques (such as shock collars and hitting with sticks).

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Unwanted behaviours are behaviours that, although are unwanted from our point of view (e.g. digging in the garden) are completely natural for your dog and can usually be “solved” through positive reinforcement and/or teaching your dog to perform an acceptable alternative behaviour.

It is important to realise that a behaviour problem is a SYMPTOM, not a cause. The cause could be a result of illness, pain or stress from the environment (either what he is experiencing now or has learnt from an experience in the past). So the first thing LSPCA recommends is to take your dog to the vet for a health check; no amount of behavioural counselling or dog training will “cure” your dog if there is a medical problem.

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