Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs Podcast, the show for dog lovers who
see dogs not as toys or tools, but wise souls worth our respect and care.
I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.
I talk to poor some humans, people who do great work for dogs and their people.
So come and join us for today's conversation.
Becky: Hello and welcome, Becky.
I'm super happy to have you here today.
Hello, thank you for having me.
A little bit nervous.
Oh, don't worry about that.
What do we need
Anke: to know?
I have treats here.
Yeah, I've got treats.
Just kidding.
Let people know where you're based and so what's your business with dogs?
Becky: Um, I'm based in the UK, in the middle of the UK, in a little town called
Bromsgrove, which is in Worcestershire.
And I left veterinary nursing after a 32 year career as I was becoming
just a little bit disenchanted with the way veterinary was going and the
corporate nature of it and whatever, and wondered what I could do.
Well, I've been doing, uh, behaviour work.
in house for 15 years, always, always had an interest in dog training
and behavior of cats as well.
So I've got a qualification in cat behavior as well, however,
and made the decision to leave.
And it was, I was getting into a little bad place in my head and
you know, what does a veterinary nurse do when they leave?
It's, it's been a passion, an absolute, um, vocation of mine all my life.
So I
investigated.
The world of dog training.
Could I do it?
Well, I've been doing it for 15 years.
I've done it with all my own.
So I started doing courses, one thing and another, and set up Becky's
Doggy Business, which is actually my initials, Becky Delibovey.
So, yeah, it was kind of a bit of a, when you say Becky's Doggy
Business, people go, uh huh.
So I put, and cat care on the end as well.
So I do pop in cat care appointments.
So yes, I do one to ones.
I don't do classes.
I go around.
And mainly for me, that's because I'd observed a lot of training classes,
um, I used to go around and observe a lot of training classes before we
would agree to recommend them from the veterinary surgery, and my word went.
It was positive, reward based, or nothing kind of thing.
And, um, hello, old girl.
The old girl's coming.
And so, um, Yeah, I took it from there, but I realized that on a one to one basis,
people were getting a lot more bespoke, concentrated, and for them, rather than,
and I'm not dissing classes, they have their place, certainly, but having watched
them, you could see that in a room of ten people, clients with puppies that four or
five of them were winging it, just getting through it, embarrassed, not doing stuff.
So I used to run across and try and help those individually and then they'd
leave knowing what to do type thing.
Um, so yeah, I do one to ones and so I'll get, well, what people
class as behavioural issues.
Sometimes it's training and sometimes it is behaviour.
Anke: So, so what's.
Well, I mean, first of all, I'm always curious, like, when somebody leaves,
like, a job to start their own thing, is it what you thought it would be,
or is it better, harder, different?
What's it like to be a boss?
I
Becky: definitely had a mourning, um, period of time, and I was missing it,
but when, and one of these, I mean, my boss just said, there's always a job
here, please come back, and I just went.
I never go back, and I went, sorry, and I was all crying, you know,
it was a big emotional thing.
Um, so I made it work.
It was hellishly stressful, because as we've already, um,
sussed out, I'm not terribly tech.
But me, you know, things like that.
Setting up a Facebook page.
People had to do it for me and whatever.
Now I just click it, you know, Instagram, that kind of a thing.
Online banking.
God, it was just, it was, it was a massive, it was like a big learning curve.
Um, and then things started to slot into place and I was absolutely astounded
when people started asking me for my services and very humble, humbled by it.
Um, in fact, the imposter syndrome, I think is something that affects a lot of
people and I was heavily burdened with it.
Less so now, it's just gone eight years in, you'd think.
Um, but in 2019, I took part in, don't even ask me why I entered, because I
trembled from the minute I pressed enter.
Dog Trainer of the Year competition, which was held, yeah, at Battersea Dogs
Home for a week, Monday to Friday, um, where we got given three dogs, well
we picked out randomly three dogs, and I got, you know, a greyhound.
You think they can't be trained?
This one could.
They didn't think it could be, but we made progress.
A very, very sad little Westie had been separated from its sibling because it
was just in season and had been placed at Battersea by the family of its owner.
That owner had gone into hospital and that just absolutely nearly killed me.
And she was almost like, Where, where, where's, where's Timmy?
Where's my friend?
And I'm going, oh my god.
And then a rampant little Paterdale Terrier who had got a cover
across the front of the couch.
She was absolutely reactive to the hilt.
Um, got a special mention for her at the end of the competition
saying she'd made the most progress.
The cover wasn't on a thing now.
She was sitting politely and whatever.
And I came like, it was like a split decision second.
Second, um, between me and another lovely, lovely trainer, who's a friend
of mine now, because of that competition.
Um, yeah, her dog had got moved from the main kennels to the
homing section on the day.
And she had to go and perform it in a new environment, so that added to criteria.
And she got there and she won.
And that was the difference.
But yeah, it came second.
So I kind of shed a few layers of imposter syndrome.
I bet.
That day.
And, um, I asked the people who organised it, I am allowed to
call myself a dog trainer or am I?
And they went, well, if you effing can't, we effing can't.
Both: So,
Anke: so when you look at across sort of your clients, like what are their sort
of typical things people struggle with?
Is there something where you think, oh boy, I wish people knew this thing?
Is there something you wish people knew?
Becky: Relationship, bonding is the singular most important
thing to have with your dog.
A dog that wants to be with you, a dog that's looking at you, not
looking at you, but looking at you, um, and that wants to be with you.
You'll never have to teach a dog recall that wants to be with you.
Simple.
Um, but in terms of issues, the ones that people have is their
dog barks at other dogs on lead.
Um, do you ever let yours off the lead?
I can't, it won't come back.
Relationship.
So how does one
Anke: go and say, if I have a dog where I'm thinking, Oh, I
don't trust you to be off lead.
And I don't trust the relationship I have with you.
So what's sort of the first step to, to build that or repair that?
Or how, where do you even start?
Because I think when somebody is at this place was like, Oh, I don't trust my dog.
My dog, my dog doesn't trust me.
You know, what's the first step to break through that?
Becky: Um, yeah.
So I always say about building up a relationship with a dog,
it's, it's, it's a mutual, it's a mutual thing and it's trust.
It's trust from them.
And you can, you can take away from that trust account, or you can add to it.
If I sit, I sit.
If the dog sits, I go, yes, and give them their dinner.
She just gone nuts because I said, yes, yes.
She was like, where's my dinner?
I'll just pay for it.
There you go, sweetheart.
So, um, so, and I always say, say it like, where's, I'll say that
to people and then they go, yes.
And I go, see the difference?
Same word.
Tone, pitch and inflection is massive.
So I always go, Yes!
Get it!
Well done!
That's lovely.
You can add all the good boys in and everything afterwards.
And you see them, they're going, Did I please you?
Did I please you?
And then you just hold the food, they sit and you go, Yes!
Get it!
That, that's how I do it.
Um, if I hold my hand like that and dogs are naturally curious and they come
and do and they go, what have you got?
As they do it, I'll say, touch.
Yes!
Nice work!
You're so clever!
And then I might add a little bit of movement into it so they want
to touch it rather than going, touch it, touch it, touch it.
What, what, what are you doing?
Yeah?
Um, house training.
For example, people go, Pick him up and put him outside.
How horrifically scary is that for a puppy?
Whereas I'm just going to go, My mistake.
Get the cloth, wipe it off.
Absolutely nothing.
But out there, when I've taken baby puppy out with the bladder the size
of a pea, It's a word that needs to go that often and they get it right.
I go, Wee wees!
And just as they finish, Yes!
Get it!
Party!
And they go, Oh my God, this is amazing!
So all of a sudden, well I say all of a sudden, Three or four weeks
in that puppy's gonna be going, I'm stood by the back door, but action,
thought and consequence is so powerful.
Little at that point, there's no control there.
If they do a pee by the back door, don't ever, ever tell them off.
Both: They
Becky: will go into the place where they knew that sparked you into excitement.
All you're ever doing, if you tell them off, is taking
away from that trust account.
We need to add to it to the point where, you know,
I reckon that I could practically stitch my dog up if she cut her foot,
conscious, because she trusts me so much.
Oh, I love
Anke: that.
Actually, it reminds me when my very first dog came, I said, like, you
know, and he was found in the street.
And I don't know, I didn't really know anything, but I
did this kind of intuitively.
I would always celebrate him when he did his business outside,
you know, and it was hilarious because it literally took a week.
Like, he got it, like, really quickly.
And then when they're five,
Becky: you're still going, Wee wee!
Now, the thing was that what I remember is
Anke: him kind of doing his business and then looking at me
like, I did a great job, didn't I?
Like, so the excitement in his little face was just like, look what I've
just done, look what I've done!
So funny, but it worked, it really worked.
Becky: Docs repeat behaviors that for them have been reinforced, albeit
intentionally, All unintentionally.
And I've had, I went last week to somebody's house, well he's jumping up
and he's jumping up, 18 week old working cocker, he's jumping up, people as we're
going in the street and everything, the husband came back from And she's
like, no, no, don't let him do it.
And I'm like,
Anke: there's your issue.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, is there something like, is there one or two people,
what is something that people are reinforcing without knowing?
Like, is there something like a part like the jumping off thing?
It's like that.
I can totally see it.
Becky: Pulling.
Pulling on the leash.
Pulling on the lead.
You know, it works.
I pull, you follow.
I try even harder, you work.
Now if you just stop.
I mustn't say, I shouldn't say this, but men are notoriously difficult
because their patience isn't quite.
People will just look at me and go, the patience you've got, I'm waiting
for the dog to make the right decision.
I'm not allowing them to make choices that are going to be detrimental to them.
You've created, the dog has, pressure on the lead.
That means that I stop.
That's negative to the dog.
So there is a consequence.
So although I say, where anyone says they're reward based or force free,
I'm not, all I've done is stop.
That's the consequence.
That's the punisher, okay?
I stop, the dog goes, what?
Why haven't we, as they look at me, I indicate, come back to my side.
As they reach the side, I go, Yes!
And start walking again.
Then I reach in my treat pouch and I reward them at my left leg.
Two seconds later, bang, they're at the end of the lead.
They've got to get to the end of the lead to realise that that, or harness pressure,
means she stops and I don't get anywhere.
So, I'm Conversely, what do people do?
The dog's under constant pressure, so that pressure anywhere means nothing
to the dog other than I'm succeeding.
And that's why they pull.
Anke: I actually had, I had a puller that was like, I had one
that was like really strong puller.
And I noticed with him, like none of that worked until he was generally, a
little more settled because where we were living, he was under like information
overload, like, you know, in the historic part of town, smells, noises,
bicycles, people, boom, boom, boom.
He was like, his stress bucket was 99 percent full all of the time, you know,
and it was almost like he wouldn't, I could stop and he'd be like pulling
and like, didn't even like, this didn't even register, you know, so it
was literally when we moved away and his, you know, the whole environment
was calmer, he started to relax.
All of a sudden he walked just fine, you know, so I thought his
nervous system was calm enough to even take anything in, you know.
So I think there's that.
But
Becky: if I lived in the middle of the town and I got to do that with
my, I would, and I know it's almost like I do this and I do the other.
In an ideal world, I'd get into the car and drive somewhere that was at the level
that they could cope with and then walk.
Both: Yeah.
Becky: And then, you know, maybe get somebody to drop me off so as I can walk.
Back and back.
And by that time, the bucket, the energy level dissipated.
So yes, there isn't one approach.
This is why I say to people quite often, I like to be black and white
to the dog, payoff or no payoff, consequence or no consequence.
The consequence being you try and barge through a door, it shuts.
You move away, it opens.
You try and barge through, it shuts.
You try, you sit there and wait, and I go, thank you, now let's go through.
Yeah?
So there's consequences, but I don't mean punitive or anything like that.
Um, oh, where was I going with that?
But I do, yeah, so black and white, Yes, and I rarely say no.
And consistency, right?
There's a lot of, because you were mentioning patience.
But for owners it's not black and white.
Because we've got to take the dog's age into consideration.
Whether they're teething, when they last had a poop, you know, are we taking them
straight to training class when you've been out at work all day and you've
just come back and it's going bad.
Boom!
You're not going to get much from that.
You need to kind of set up the dog for success.
So it isn't just, I would ever take, you know, people would say, Oh,
isn't your, isn't your puppy good?
And I went into an adult class when she was just four months old and
we were already doing scent work.
And all I wanted her to do was some scent work in the presence of other dogs.
Um, But, I've taken her for a walk.
She's only had half of her dinner.
She's working for dinner.
Do you know what I mean?
I'm setting her up for success type thing.
I'm not just taking her and fizzing.
So, yeah, it's not always black and white to the um, novice dog owner.
Really, but I love it when people get hooked and they want to learn
more and they want to do it.
Okay, right now I'm digging into my bag of tricks now.
Anke: Yeah, and it's so, I mean, it's also so rewarding when you see the
dog responds and then there's this And I think, do you find like playing
together builds relationship when you just spend a lot of time with your dog?
So what do people do when they're at work for a long time?
What do people do?
Yeah, I mean, you know, how do you build, like, if what I'm getting at is,
is will like the, or the, the, the pace or how you build that relationship,
how much does it have to do, how much time you have to spend with your dog?
Becky: A lot, a lot really, because, um, Again, even though I was only doing, I was
part time as a veterinary nurse, mainly since I had children, for 30 years, um,
yeah, um, I still had young children.
You'd get back to, to, to, to, to, on Dog the Walk, you know, and it was, it
was, it was more of a mechanical thing.
With these two, it not so much.
Flix, 14, so what my youngest would have been like 15, 16 when we had
her, uh, but the oldest one and.
This one, but I've never had a relationship with a dog
that I've got with this one.
If I'm there, she just wants to be.
But not in a clingy way, she's happy being on her own as well.
But if I'm there, it's always, you know, what are we doing, when are we
doing it, how many times can we do it?
So yeah, but it doesn't have to be hours at a time.
You know, you can just pick a baller because you're going down the garden to
And I just go, stop, wait, throw it, walk, and turn around and go, yeah, get
it, and pull, pick a couple of weeds up and do the same on the way back.
It doesn't have to be a monumental thing.
Um, you know, two minutes while the kettle boils, when you've put the spuds
on and you're waiting for the rice to cook, is better than no minutes.
Because two minutes, seven days a week, is 14 minutes that you
won't have every time you come in.
I can't be training because you think it's an hour's job.
An hour is actually way too much to actually do focused training.
But virtually everything I do when I've got a puppy from puppy
to about two years is training.
Whether it's Hand on the door, she steps back, I go to open it, rather
than the nose is pressed up against it.
Do you know what I mean?
Um, everything that I do.
And you know, if I go and touch her collar, I say collar.
If I'm looking at her ears, I'm going to go ears.
There's an expectation.
Dogs like predictability.
If I go, pass me your foot, pass me your foot, or I'm just
going to she knows it's ears.
If I say collar, she She's almost like that because it's been rehearsed
Anke: so many times.
Becky: Yeah.
So, um, everything that you do with them is training, actually.
And, and, you know, whether you know it or
Anke: not, right, whether you want it or not.
Yeah.
So tell me a little bit about where you, you hinted something before we started
recording, where you hinted at something I want to kind of dig in a little bit.
You talked about diet, you know, like when you when you say like all
this stuff to take into account.
You know, I know it's a big subject.
So, and I just want to kind of like, what, what is something, again, like what's one,
if you could, if people would take away one thing about diet and how it impacts,
you know, behavior and wellbeing, like what, what would you, what would you say?
And anybody who wants to know any more that like could get in touch with
you afterwards, but like, what's one thing you wish people knew about diet?
Becky: God, it's such a massive subject, isn't it?
Um, gut health is intrinsically related to the brain and mood and how we feel.
That's with us and it's certainly no different with dogs.
Um, yes, I was in the veterinary industry and I, Oh, this may be controversial.
I believed what I was told under the umbrella of the veterinary practice stuff.
That this diet was brilliant, it was blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,
you fed them this, you did that, they should be fed the same thing every day.
Oh my, it's true and it's what, it's what professionals
know because they're taking their CPD from the people that make the stuff,
oh dear, let's say it, or some CPD from the people that make the stuff
and the pharmaceutical companies.
So we, the fear is real.
I stepped out of that and realised that if that is the umbrella,
That is the section that I knew.
All of that, I didn't.
So, my dogs have a lot of fresh stuff.
Um, and there is, you know, you put into a search engine of Google,
anti carcinogenic veg, and it's all that dark coloured stuff.
You know, peppers and, and tomato, bits of tomato, and
leafy greens and stuff like that.
Antioxidants, clears the brain out, gets whatever.
Um, I'm not saying to people, feed raw.
I found raw magnificent for mine.
And they're on a combination actually of good quality kibble, since in the
85 percent sort of bracket, if you look on the, or believe everything you
see on the All About Dog Food site.
Um, and raw food.
And anything in between, you know, crack an egg, a whole fish.
We saw some salmon heads.
They had those deep frozen.
It's not every day.
It's not once a week.
That isn't, but it's.
It's, I have no qualms about it, and all I can say is touching wood very,
very swiftly is that Margot here at five years old, I have not yet seen
her have diarrhea or an upset stomach, and I've never seen a vomit and she's
been thus far, raw fed since day one.
Combination.
The healthiest dog we've had.
Flick by rights with the surgery and conditions.
We nearly lost her at seven following the booster vaccination.
Um, sort of an IMHA, immune mediated hemolytic anemia.
She almost died.
Has not had the booster or anything since and we switched her.
At that age to raw as well, and the combination so, and she's
still with us and living to tell the tale at 14 and a half.
So no, I'm not telling people don't get boosted, I'm saying advocate
for your dogs, do your research.
Um, you know, you get them, get them tested for the antibody,
you know, teeter tests.
Um, and, and see how you're doing with that.
But, um, yeah.
Because I think, I always say, you
Anke: know, like, whatever, because, you know, sometimes I've had, like,
I think 20 years ago, I switched my, my little Leo, my first dog,
and I, by accident, came across this ebook where somebody had lost a dog.
And he goes, like, at four years old, and he goes, that's not normal.
He started to dig in and said, well, if you only take away one thing from
this book, like, Read the damn labels.
Don't trust what it says on the front.
So it's basically saying, if you see what's in there and what isn't,
you'll never feed this stuff again.
Becky: It's supposed to be the meat, not meat byproducts,
not turkey digest, not powder.
It's not stuff that would keep
Anke: your garden alive.
Exactly.
And that's what he taught me there.
That's what I got.
It's like, Oh, don't trust the, Oh, balanced or whatever food, chicken.
And then no.
Read the label and when I feel sorry for the scent of byproducts,
Becky: like don't touch it.
Anke: You
Becky: know, it's so sorry for the consumers though, because if, if you're
on a budget and there again, I'm not saying you've got to do what you do the
best that you can with the budget that you've got, where it's not impacting,
you know, on, on your own eating and heating and electricity and whatever.
Um, but, but, but do the best that you can.
And one dog food.
Because it says balanced and it's 10 quid a bag and this one's
30 quid a bag and you're going it's all dog food, it must be.
It's not.
I
Anke: always say, you know, what I, what I spend more on dog food,
hell, I'm saving on vet costs.
And it's true.
It has been true for 20 years, you know, like these guys get old and these
guys are healthy to the end, you know.
Along the same
Becky: lines as humans, dogs are epidemically, um, Diabetes, IBS, skin
irritations, autoimmune diseases.
I have seen that there have been hyperactive dogs, dogs that can't settle,
dogs that won't this, that, the other.
And I've asked about the diet and I won't mention any, but there has been one that
sticks up like a sore thumb that isn't particularly cheap, but it's recommended.
All right.
Um, And when they've come off that and gone on to something else,
they've actually found that, oh my god, I can't believe the difference.
He's absolutely, it's not that he's suddenly become trained, but he's now able
to go, well, you want me to do something?
Now I can work it out rather than, ah, jump, bike, jump.
Doing the warn of death, you know, like concentrate.
That's massive.
I mean,
Anke: yeah, that's definitely, I mean, my experience, like, skin issues went
away, poop changed, like, a lot changed.
Demeanor.
From taking them off.
And I, I was like, I'd followed the vet's advice and they said, why this kibble?
Like the most expensive one we have, don't ever go to the supermarket, feed him this
stuff we have and nothing else, right?
And so he wasn't doing well on it, you know, he didn't have much appetite either.
And um, so when I stopped giving him that, it was like, like day
and night, and I've never looked back and the other dogs never saw.
Both: Have
Becky: you ever done the food platters where you put like, um, a cracked
egg in one, a spoonful of raw, some kibble, um, maybe some broccoli, um,
chicken, whatever, and they're almost like, oh, it's like a little, little
buffet, and they're like, oh, oh, oh.
And invariably, it's really odd.
I've seen foxes do this in a course that I've just done, where they're
doing it with urban foxes and how they choose, and they don't automatically
go for the chicken, you'd be surprised.
There was like, about 14 different food stuffs, and yeah, there
was, we did a study on it.
Oh, that's funny.
Oh,
Anke: I love that.
I love that.
So where can people go find out, get in touch with you,
find out more about your work?
Becky: Oh, that's nice.
Um, well I'm on Facebook, Becky's Doggy Business and Cat Care.
So give me a like and a follow.
That'd be great.
Um, I know that I've got a post pinned at the top of my page about socialisation,
what it is and what it isn't in my opinion, which was then heavily endorsed
by a lot of other dog trainers on thinking on doing something right.
But it's not actually what people think, hello, say hello to my
puppy, do this, do that, you know, it's actually quite the reverse.
Um, I'm on Instagram.
Again, Becky's doggy business and cat care, quite imaginatively.
Um, yeah, and, um, there's, there's contact details on both of those forums.
Both of those.
Awesome.
Anke: So obviously if you're watching the video, it's going
to be right above here above.
If you're listening on the podcast, it's in the show notes.
Obviously, we're going to make it easy to find Becky.
So thank you so much for coming.
This was delightful.
And, uh, I hope lots of people get in touch with you and
you help a lot more dogs.
Please do.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much for listening.
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That's A N k E at Soul touched by dogs.com.