Reactivity rehabilitation and breed-specific training — in person or online
If your dog barks, lunges or shuts down at other dogs, bikes or people, you've probably already tried three methods off the internet. Big Feelings Academy is four weeks of real work — done in person in your own streets, or fully online with me coaching you live on your own walks. Either way it's built around your dog's breed, history and actual threshold, not a group obedience curriculum.
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The part nobody posts about
Almost every owner who contacts me does so after one specific moment. A reaction in public that felt out of control. A stranger using the word aggressive. Or the quieter one — sitting on the sofa realising you don't want to spend the next ten years arranging your life around this. That's the point where managing stops working and you need someone to look at the dog in front of you.
You've mapped your neighbourhood by which streets are empty at which hour. You cross the road before the other owner even notices you. It works, and it's also slowly shrinking your life.
Every walk is spent scanning for the next dog, bike or scooter. Your shoulder hurts. You've been pulled off balance more than once and you're quietly afraid of the day your dog reaches someone.
Balanced trainers say one thing, purely positive accounts say the opposite. Slip lead, front-clip harness, Gentle Leader. You've tried pieces of all of it and the behaviour got noisier, not quieter.
No friends at the flat, no dog-friendly terrace, no weekend away. Leaving the dog alone means coming home to a scratched door frame.
In the park, out loud, in front of other people. You defended your dog and then went home and wondered if they were right.
You love this dog. You also sometimes resent the walk, and then feel awful about it. Most owners I meet think they're the only one who has that thought.
The programme
Four weeks, online or in person. It's called Big Feelings Academy because that's what reactivity is — a dog with feelings bigger than the situation and no idea what to do with them. We're not teaching your dog to ignore the world. We're teaching them a different response to it, and teaching you what to do with your hands, your feet and your leash while that happens.
Each group has limited places and every plan starts with breed and history, because a herding breed chasing scooters and a fearful rescue barking at men in hats are not the same problem. You get weekly sessions, written notes after each one, and messaging support in between for the days it goes sideways.
Week 1
We stop guessing. You learn to read the small stuff — the lip lick, the head turn, the stiffening two seconds before the bark — and we build a written profile of your dog's history, triggers and threshold distance.
Week 2
Handling and management first, because you need walks that don't fall apart while the training work happens. Equipment, routes, timing, and what you physically do with your hands and feet when a dog appears around a corner.
Week 3
Structured exposure at a distance your dog can actually think at, then closing that distance in steps we decide together. This is the slow, unglamorous part where the real change happens.
Week 4
We train where you actually live: your street, your tram stop, your local shop, your park at 6 PM on a Wednesday. You leave with a written maintenance plan and a plan for setbacks, because setbacks come.
You leave the flat at 10 AM instead of 6. A dog comes round the corner and you turn, feed, carry on — no adrenaline, no dragging. You sit outside at a café and order a coffee while the dog settles under the chair.
And on the bad days, because there will be bad days, you know what to do in the first three seconds instead of the tenth minute. That's the actual outcome I'm aiming for.
Real owners
“Two weeks in, Nala walked past a dog on the pavement without a sound. I actually cried in the street. Em never once made me feel like I'd ruined my dog.”
Camille
Malinois cross, 3 yrs, in-person programme
Passing dogs at 3 metres by week 3
“We'd done two obedience courses. Nobody had ever asked about his breed. Once Em explained what a herding dog does with movement, half of what he was doing made sense.”
Thomas & Ruben
Border Collie, 2 yrs, online programme
Stopped chasing bikes and scooters
“Honestly, week 3 was hard and I wanted to quit. Em told me straight that we'd gone too fast and we went back a step. That honesty is why it worked.”
Sofie
Rescue from Romania, 5 yrs, in-person programme
First relaxed evening walk in 18 months
“I no longer plan my day around avoiding other dogs. We had coffee on a terrace last Saturday and she slept under the table the whole time.”
Nadia
Staffordshire cross, 4 yrs, online programme
Café visits without reacting
“My husband and I were handling him completely differently and that was half the problem. Em trained both of us, not just the dog.”
Elise & Bram
German Shepherd, 18 mo, in-person programme
Consistent handling from both owners
“He still has bad days. The difference is I know what to do on a bad day instead of dragging him home in a panic.”
Jonas
Beagle cross, 6 yrs, Anderlecht
Recovery in under a minute after a reaction
How this differs
Before you apply
This is for you if
This isn't for you if
What you won't be asked to do
Without tools you are not comfortable using
Without flooding your dog at the dog park to 'socialise' them
Without hunting the city for ever-higher-value treats
Without a PhD in learning theory to follow the plan
Without another six-week group class in a rented sports hall
Without pretending the breed in front of you doesn't matter
My focus is on building connection and understanding between you and your dog — not on finding the magic tool, because it doesn't exist. No piece of equipment teaches a dog what to do when the world gets loud, and no gadget teaches you what to do with your hands, your feet and your leash in the first three seconds. We work with the equipment you're comfortable using, and we spend our time on the relationship and the plan instead.
Same dog, different Tuesday
Cold hard facts
No packages of forty sessions. No claims I can't back up.
4
One structured programme. Weekly sessions online or in person, in the places you actually walk.
1
No group classes for reactivity work. The plan is written for your dog, not adapted from a curriculum.
0
The work is connection and understanding, not a gadget. We use the equipment you're comfortable handling.
48h
You hear back within two working days, including a straight no if I'm not the right fit.
The application takes about ten minutes and tells me what I need to know: breed, age, what happens on walks, what you've already tried. If it's a fit, we book a free call. If it isn't, I'll tell you and point you somewhere better.
No payment now. No obligation after the call.
Who you'd be working with
Hi, I'm Em — and I specialize in dogs with a lot of personality.
If your dog is a bit extra, prone to big meltdowns, or secretly a high-octane drama queen, you're in the right place. I help owners navigate the stress of living with spicy, sensitive, and overstimulated dogs through judgment-free, real-world reactivity rehabilitation.
I know how exhausting it is to feel isolated, embarrassed, or entirely out of control when your dog's feelings get too big for them to handle. That's why my programs aren't about rigid perfection or cookie-cutter commands. They're designed to lower the volume on the chaos, build real confidence at both ends of the leash, and turn your spicy companion into a calm, reliable partner.
You don't have a "bad" dog — you just have a sensitive one who needs a better roadmap.
Em — Em's Pups Behavior Solutions
Reactivity rehabilitation & breed-specific training, online and in person
Where the training comes from
I spend part of every year in seminars and workshops rather than repeating what worked in 2021. Behaviour work moves, and the dogs in front of me change.
More reviews
Questions I get asked
Ten to fifteen minutes of deliberate practice on most days, plus the way you already walk your dog. It's less about long sessions and more about not undoing the work on the walks in between. Owners who skip the daily practice see slower results — I'd rather say that upfront.
That's not a scarcity tactic, it's the maths of doing this work properly — whether we meet in person or online. When the current group is full, applications go on a waiting list and I'll tell you roughly how long. Here's how it goes from here.
01
Ten minutes. Breed, age, history, what happens on walks, what you've already tried. The detail matters — it's how I decide whether I can help.
02
Twenty to thirty minutes, free. I'll ask about the last incident and tell you honestly whether Big Feelings Academy fits or would I recommend a different approach or service.
03
If it's a fit, we book the first session — at your home or online — and get going. Each group has limited places.
You'll hear back within two working days — including a no, if that's the honest answer.
