Paula Adams Dog Training

17/02/2026

🐶 Are you welcoming a new puppy — or have you just brought one home?
Then my classes are for you.
Did you know the most critical time for socialisation is between 3 and 14 weeks?
These weeks shape how your puppy feels about people, dogs, noises and the world around them.
We don’t need to be doing more.
We just need to be doing it right.
My puppy classes are relationship-led, focusing on calm, confidence-building foundations that last.
If you’d like to book your place, send me a message, email me, or use the booking link below.
📧 paulaadamsdogtraining@gmail.com
🔗 calendly.com/paulaadamsdogtraining
Paula
Paula Adams Dog Training 🐾

14/02/2026

💘 Valentine’s Day feels like a good day for this one…
This is James.
He’s 11 now. My rescue. My beautiful boy.
I never got to see him as a puppy.
I don’t know what his tiny face looked like, or how big his ears were for his body, or what he was like when everything in the world was brand new.
Sometimes I imagine this might have been him.
And if I’m honest… that’s part of why the puppy stage means so much to me. It’s not just about training. It’s about those early days. The bond. The learning together. The messy, imperfect, figuring-it-out bit.
There’s something I’m working on at the moment for puppies and their people.
I’m equal parts excited and nervous.
But today… I just want to see yours.
Show me what your dogs looked like as puppies.
Let’s fill this space with baby dog photos and a bit of Valentine’s love 🐾❤️
'srunaround

12/02/2026

As a dog trainer, I understand behaviour change. As an owner, this one is breaking my heart💔
Chance came to me from Romania at six months old, full of fear and uncertainty. He was my beautiful boy from the very beginning. We grew up together in so many ways. Everything I’ve learnt about emotional safety, about patience, about changing how a dog feels rather than just what they do… he taught me.
We worked through so much. Confidence building. Touch work. Agility. Helping him feel safe in a world that once overwhelmed him. Watching him run freely across the dunes after starting life so afraid — that was everything.
He’s 13 now.
It started with stiffness in his back end. Arthritis. We adapted — hydro, massage, vet visits. That felt practical. Manageable.
But then his mind began to change.
In the evenings he paces and pants, unable to settle. He’s started snatching at food, which was never him. He was always gentle, almost uninterested. Now it’s like a reflex — movement means grab — even when my hand is empty. Sometimes he looks at me when I ask for something simple, something he’s known for years, and I can see him trying… but it’s like the connection isn’t quite there anymore.
Scatter feeding confuses him. “Middle” feels impossible. Sometimes he just stands and stares into space.
Walks have changed too. He used to fly across the dunes, full of joy. Now he just wants to get home. The moment he realises we’re heading back, he rushes towards safety. His world feels smaller. And that’s hard to witness.
We’ve done the bloods, the checks, the medication. It’s cognitive decline. The medication helps. Routine helps. Dimming the lights in the evening helps — bright light unsettles him now, so we soften everything and that’s when he can finally relax.
But nothing quite prepares you for watching the dog who taught you so much slowly change in front of you.
This stage isn’t about progress anymore. It’s about comfort. It’s about protecting his sense of safety the way he once trusted me to. It’s about loving him for who he is today, not grieving who he was yesterday — even though some days that feels impossible.
He is still my beautiful boy. Even on the confused days. Even on the pacing evenings. Even when he forgets.
If your older dog is changing, please don’t brush it off as “just old age.” There is support. There are ways to help them feel safer.
And if you’re walking this path too, I see you. It’s the quiet kind of heartbreak that not everyone understands. 🤍

10/02/2026

When will the rain stop and the mud disapear. My dogs weren't impressed. 🤣

08/02/2026

As well as being a certified dog trainer. I'm also offering dog sitting in your own home. Not all dogs do well in a kennel enviroment or want to be with other dogs. So this is the perfect solution. Drop me a message for more information 😊

07/02/2026

I bumped in this beautiful old boy today. He was one of the dogs i picked up when I worked for a rescue. He is living his best life. So lovely to see him 💙
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07/02/2026

Morning! 👋
After lots of thought, I’ve updated my page name to Paula Adams Dog Training, as it better reflects the work I do and the services I offer.
I continue to offer 1-to-1 dog and puppy training, and I’ve also started offering house sitting again 🐾
Watch this space… some exciting new updates will be coming soon 👀

07/02/2026

Decompression is so needed for a rescue dog. Boring is good. https://www.facebook.com/share/17gSQ3kkBR/

Why?
Because there is no blank slate.

A rescued dog doesn’t arrive empty or neutral. They arrive already carrying history and recently they’ve had a lot of “new”. New for many rescued dogs is a lot to process and when every single sense they have is full trying to take in everything around them, feeling safe is very difficult to find.

New environment, new smells, new rules, new rhythms, new people. Even kindness can be totally unfamiliar to them and unfamiliar can be like a big ole hole in the “safety” bucket. We can fill it all we want with what we have read “helps”.
That security and safety is still leaking out, it doesn’t have time to sit and settle and yep, I suppose there is a safety sediment.

When we ask a dog to cope before they’ve even had a chance to settle, all they are doing is coping.
There is no settling.
Safety is what allows everything else to come later.

Safety looks like routines that don’t change, space that isn’t invaded and time where nothing is required of them.
Nothing at all.
It looks like letting a dog observe without participating and just "be" without performing.

And yes, it can feel slow. Unproductive.

It can also feel awkward.

I read a thread on a post in a rescue group and people that suggested keeping them quiet for a few days were often shut down.
“Do people do this? Why, that’s so boring for them”.
That’s the point, boring is safe and allows for stress levels to drop instead of being “topped” up.

“No way could I do that, she’s had months of living in that shelter”
That’s exactly why.
You want a dog to become part of your family, you’ve opened your heart and your home and now more hurdles are all around her. Climbing them can take a big toll.

Every single one of those people commenting had previous posts about the real difficulties they are facing and have been facing for a while.
All of those new experiences in the first few days can delay feeling safe.

You can’t rush settling.
But you can interrupt it.
Over and over again.

05/02/2026

This is what good trainers do. It’s not about a quick fix — it’s about understanding what dogs are trying to tell us. They’re not naughty dogs. There’s always a reason they feel uncomfortable with something nearby. Some dogs can’t calm themselves yet because they don’t feel fully safe or secure, so they shut down or react to cope. Our job is to listen, understand, and gently untangle what’s going on for them. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C19ha4DMn/

Dog Behaviour Recipe.

It’s not a strict formula where 1 + 2 = 3.

Most of the time it’s a plate of spaghetti… or a knotted ball of wool.

It’s completely understandable that a potential new client gets in touch expecting to “start on the problem” straight away.

“My dog barks at other dogs and pulls on the lead, so we’re going to work on loose lead walking and get him used to other dogs so they can be friends, right?”

No. Not necessarily. And definitely not straight away.

First, we look at why and this takes time to investigate.

One strand of spaghetti is: What’s your dog’s health like?

Because if your dog is barking to keep other dogs away due to pain or discomfort, no amount of training is going to work other than scary training that worries your dog into silence.

These dogs need medical support, not bullying or even training at this point

Another strand of spaghetti is sleep. Pulling on the lead often isn’t a training issue either, it’s a how the dog is processing their environment, is lack of good deep sleep contributing to that.

Where do they sleep, how do they sleep, daily routines and patterns are just the tip of the iceberg.

There are so many strands to look at when we work with every individual dog.

We also want to learn what empties or lowers your dog’s arousal bucket? What helps them regulate? We don’t know that until we do the work and start joining the dots.

And this is exactly why promises, magic wands, and quick fixes REALLY cheese me off.

Not only do they prey on people’s vulnerability and desire for fast change, but the total lack of respect what the dog is trying to communicate is upsetting, to say the least.

When you work with an ethical professional, you’ll be advised what the journey really looks like and it’s often slow.

This sometimes means the client goes to the person who have promised them thier desired result.
They were more appealing because of the promises and thats thier choice, but im clear about MY process and anyone's who language continues to focus on quick results is probably not a good match for me.

There’s no razzle dazzle. It doesn’t look like the nonsense on some popular dog TV shows.

So it might seem a little frustrating when a professional doesnt go straight into addressing the "problem" but looking at all the pieces of your dog’s puzzle will increase yours and your dogs chances of long term success.

11/09/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16wzVAPPpP/

26/06/2025

I was in the Woods this morning and I wanted to do a video explaining growling in my dog Cotton. But I always get lovely interruptions This lovely was an ex St Francis dog, he must have know that i work there. 🥰🤣

19/06/2025

Can you walk your dogs when it's hot?