Ep 29: The future of dog breeding Part 6 - Temperament & Personality with Suzanne Clothier

Why does my dog… Is the most common question behaviourists and trainers get asked…

Now, the serenity prayer asks God to give us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference! And Suzanne Clothier is here to save the day and give us the wisdom that is so desperately needed for so many dog owners and pet parents looking to raise a healthy puppy or rehome a rescue dog.

Suzanne and Hannah explore the difference between breed traits, temperament and personality with dogs. We talk about;

• How much of a dogs personality is flexible or set when you get your dog
• How to recognise a dogs temperament to see if they fit your family before you get them using the CARAT Clothier Animal Response Assessment Tool
• How to learn about the dog in front of you so you can adjust your expectations of what that dog can excel in or might struggle with based on who they are.

• For more information on Suzannes exceptional courses, teaching and mentorship head to:

https://suzanneclothier.com

@suzanneclothierct

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

Ep 28: The future of dog breeding Part 5 - Perfecting Puppies with Suzanne Clothier

We buy puppies because in theory they are a clean slate and easier to fit into our lives and families.

But are all puppies born equal or are some more equal than others? How much can we effect the puppies we breed and buy in the first 4 months of their lives and how much of our puppies adult behaviour is really is nature verses nurture?

Breeding great dogs as pets or working champions is both a science and an art and no-one is better qualified to teach us about how to breed and raise amazing puppies than Suzanne Clothier.

Suzanne and Hannah take us on a journey to see puppies with fresh eyes explaining;

• How puppy brains are formed and develop
• How much power breeders have to teach puppies how to be calm and confident adult dogs
• The danger of neglecting a puppies key development ages
• How the Enriched Puppy Protocol blew the minds of the American Guide Dog Breeders and produced super capable guide dogs
  
  For more information on Suzannes exceptional courses, teaching and mentorship head to:

https://suzanneclothier.com

@suzanneclothierct

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

Its a shocking fact that 80% of dogs over the age of 8 have arthritis. And 67% of dogs are overweight! Many dogs live their lives with untreated and undiagnosed pain conditions that most owners can’t spot and vets are poor at recognising in practice.

Pain conditions naturally cause serious distress to our dogs and can also cause aggression and behavioural problems too. So how can we recognise signs of dogs in pain and what can we do to prevent injury throughout the dogs life and treat pain conditions as dogs age?

In this episode;

Hannah, Hannah & Julia chat about;

• How their beautiful working relationship began
• How the dogs environment and management can cause or reduce injury
• Why ball throwing needs to stop and what the alternatives might be for dog owners (!)
• How we can set dogs up for success from a young age to protect their joints

DISCLAIMER:
1.Apologies for some of Hannah (Capon)'s expressive expletives (!!)
2. Dogs when doing scent work hit 200 breaths per minute not 300 as quoted. 200-300 million is the number of neurones in the dogs nose that connect the nose to the brain compared to a humans pretty basic 6 million.

For more information on Hannah’s work with Canine Arthritis Management
https://caninearthritis.co.uk/

And for more information on Julias work with Galen Myotherapy, pick up Julias brilliant book 'How to build a puppy:into a healthy adult dog' and get a free puppy chart head to

https://www.galenmyotherapy.com/pawstolearn

More on your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

The XL Bully was defined and then added to the list of dangerous dogs under the dangerous dogs act on 31st December 2023 becoming the latest breed of dog that it is illegal to own in the UK without an exemption certificate and that it is illegal to breed, buy or rehome following a spate of injuries and fatalities that regularly occurred in the media in 2023.

At around that time, XL Bully owner Sophie Coulthard became the lead campaigner for campaign group ‘Don’t Ban Me Licence Me’ who raised over £200,000 in a bid to take the government to court via judicial review and over turn the decision.

Now in 2025 Hannah and Sophie catch up about;

• The whirlwind of a year from 2023-2024 that led to the campaign group being formed and the future work of DBLM
• They talk about what life is like for owners of XL Bully dogs in the UK then and now.
• They talk about some of the contributing factors that can lead to dog aggression and fatalities
• And the future of breed specific legislation in the UK
  
  
  

Stay up to date with the work of Don’t Ban Me Licence Me via their website

https://www.licenceme.org.uk/

And Sophie’s work with Axio Grow

https://www.axiogrow.com/

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

With an e-petition to regulate rescue centres currently collecting over 100,000 signatures, Hannah Molloy our host, and special guests, The Right Honourable Member for Basildon & Billericay Richard Holden, and grass roots rescue warrior, campaigner and director of Spirit of the Dog Rescue Jenna Miller discuss the pressing need to regulate animal rescues in the UK.

Richard explains;

• How the campaign to regulate rescues and his private members bill was born following a recent tragedy within his own constituency
  
  
• The scale of the issue of unregulated rescues and how simple and easy bringing this legislation into effect would be as a cross party win for animal welfare
  

And Jenna talks us through;

• How large the problem of unregulated rescues really is in the UK
  
  
• The impacts it’s having on the dogs, the community and the rescue centres
• How helpful regulation could be to cut out pet peddlers and protect well meaning people from ending up in dangerous hoarding situations with multiple animals
  

Sign the petition to regulate rescues before 8th October 2025 here

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/718660

Follow Richards work here:

https://www.facebook.com/Richard4NWDurham

https://x.com/RicHolden

https://www.instagram.com/ric.holden85/

And follow the work of Jenna here:

https://www.instagram.com/spiritofthedogrescue/

https://www.instagram.com/dogrescuediaries/

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

Dog breeding is the single most powerful change agent that can shape the future of dogs. And yet we are living in a time where hundreds of thousands of pet dogs are born into bodies that make it impossible for them to breathe, exercise, avoid injury clean themselves or talk to other members of their species on a level playing field due to extreme conformation.

In this second episode of an exciting 2 parter, Dr Dan O’Neil & Dr Rowena Packer from the Royal Veterinary Collage explore a bold new solution and unveil..

The Innate Health Assessment

What is this new tool, who is it for and how do we use it?

Could this be the end of some breeds of dog or is there potential for a more inclusive future?

The new Innate Health Assessment tool will go live online on the 18th November 2025!!
....Check back here for the website link coming soon...

In association with the APPG for Animal Welfare

https://apgaw.org/

For more info on extreme conformation head to:

https://www.icecdogs.com/home/extreme-conformation

https://www.ukbwg.org.uk/

https://www.alaw.org.uk/companion-animals/extreme-dog-conformation/

And more info on breeding reforms in the UK
https://dbrg.uk/

To stay in touch with the work of Dan & Rowena check out:

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/focus/brachycephaly

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/vetcompass/audio-visual-resources/pandemic-puppies-infographics

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

Dog breeding is the single most powerful change agent that can shape the future of dogs. And yet we are living in a time where hundreds of thousands of pet dogs are born into bodies that make it impossible for them to breathe, exercise, avoid injury clean themselves or talk to other members of their species on a level playing field due to extreme conformation.

In this first episode of an exciting 2 parter Dr Dan O’Neil & Dr Rowena Packer from the Royal Veterinary Collage explain;

- What ‘extreme conformation’ and ‘brachycephaly’ mean

- How extreme conformation in dogs came about

- Why we choose dog shapes that result in this kind of suffering

- What we can do to change the future for dogs

For more information on Extreme Conformation visit

https://www.icecdogs.com/home/extreme-conformation

https://www.ukbwg.org.uk/

https://www.alaw.org.uk/companion-animals/extreme-dog-conformation/

And more info on breeding reform

https://dbrg.uk/

To stay in touch with the work of Dan & Rowena check out

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/focus/brachycephaly

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/vetcompass/audio-visual-resources/pandemic-puppies-infographics

More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour

www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy

Hannah Molloy our host, and special guest, forensic behaviourist Dr Helen Howell, delve into the world of dangerous dogs..

Helen explains;

Her extensive career working as an expert witness for dangerous dog cases

How she maintains her mental health while working with dogs that have suffered extreme cases of abuse and neglect

How dangerous, unethical and unhelpful some of the standard battery tests can be to assess dogs that have been seized by the police

And how her recent PhD project demonstrates major improvements that can be made that will improve dog welfare and keep the nation safer.

What part will you play in the changing landscape of dog ownership across the world? And what is your 'What if' question, that could change the world?

Keep in touch with Helen
@dogbehaviourexpert on socials and https://www.dogbehaviourexpert.co.uk/



More about your host:

Hannah is a qualified dog behaviour specialist in the UK with a degree in Animal Behaviour and a specialism in dog body language and pet dog behaviour. She's trained over 10,000 pet dogs in the last 10 years and written an illustrated guide to dog behaviour called ‘Whats my dog thinking: Understand your dog to give them a happy life’. She featured as one of 3 experts on the prime time Channel 4 television series 'Puppy School' and currently teaches body language and handling courses to vets, groomers and pet shops to reduce bite incidents and increase the handling and observation skills of these awesome, but often overlooked, fields of pet care. She currently works as a behavioural expert for Agria Pet Insurance and leads the campaign for responsible dog ownership with the All Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group in Westminster.

Big thanks to our season 2 sponsor Amplified Behaviour
www.amplifiedbehaviour.com

And you can train along with Hannah as a pet owner or a pet professional at www.amplifiedbehaviour.com
@amplifiedbehaviour @thehannahmolloy