About Us
We're Marco and Myrto, living in London — and BauBau started with one dog we love a lot: our golden retriever Sissi.
Our Story
Sissi is the kind of dog who wins people over in seconds: gentle, curious, and endlessly affectionate at home. But outside, something didn't add up. On many walks she was fine… and then suddenly she wasn't.
The hardest part was that it wasn't consistent. Some days she could cope. Other days a single surprise encounter — a dog appearing around a corner, a bike passing too close, a noisy moment in a tight space — could push her over threshold. And because Sissi's reactivity is mainly on‑leash, we often felt like we were doing the “right” thing (keeping her safe on lead), but it made certain situations harder for her.
We tried the usual stuff: advice from friends, random tips online, and thewell‑meaning “just distract her” suggestions. But Sissi is not very food‑driven, so the classic “treat your way out of it” approach didn't magically fix things. Off‑lead she often behaves differently — she'll sniff, then run away and re‑approach — but on lead she can feel trapped and that's when the reactions happen.
The emotional toll was real. Reactive‑dog walks aren't just exercise — they're constant decision‑making:
- scanning ahead
- choosing routes
- timing walks
- managing distances
- and coming home wondering: Was that progress? Did we mess up?
And we noticed another layer: health and discomfort can affect behaviour. When Sissi's hip X‑rays came back suspicious for hip dysplasia, it reminded us that behaviour is never “just behaviour.” Pain, stress, and environment all mix together — and we needed to understand the whole picture, not blame the dog.
That's when we realised our biggest problem wasn't effort. It was lack of clarity.
We couldn't answer the simplest questions with confidence:
- What are her most common triggers?
- At what distance does she cope?
- Are we improving over time — or just having good and bad luck?
- Are we accidentally stacking too much stress across days?
- What should we show our trainer/behaviourist so they can actually help us?
So we built BauBau — first for Sissi, and then for anyone living the same reality.
Our Different Approach
We stopped treating reactivity as a 'bad behaviour problem' and started treating it as a system: environment, emotions, recovery, and learning.
Management first, training second
We learned that a calm dog learns; a stressed dog survives. BauBau helps us make practical choices: avoid the worst conditions when needed, protect recovery days, reduce surprise encounters, and keep Sissi under threshold more often.
Behaviour science, not guesswork
We track patterns that matter for real training plans: trigger stacking (stress compounding across multiple events), recovery time (often a couple of days after big reactions), threshold distance (how far Sissi needs to be to stay regulated), and trends by trigger type.
BAT + desensitisation
We’ve used and discussed approaches like BAT (Behaviour Adjustment Training), alongside desensitisation/counterconditioning, pattern games, and structured sessions — but always with one rule: work with the dog you have, in the life you live.
Why We Built BauBau
We were tired of living in 'vibes mode.' We needed a way to capture what happens in the moment — quickly — without turning every walk into paperwork.
What we capture
- What happened (bark / lunge / pull)
- What the trigger was
- How far away it was (even approximate is valuable)
- Context (tight space, surprise, time of day)
- And how Sissi was doing overall
What BauBau does with it
- Clearer patterns — these triggers spike on these days
- Realistic training targets — stable at this distance
- Better conversations with professionals
The behaviourist portal: We built a dedicated portal so trainers and behaviourists can see structured logs and weekly summaries instead of scattered messages and half-remembered anecdotes. Because reactivity work is a marathon — and progress is often invisible until you can measure it.
What We Believe
“Reactive dogs aren't broken. They're communicating.
And owners aren't failing. They're trying — every day — in a world that doesn't always make it easy.”
— Marco & Myrto
BauBau exists to make that journey feel less lonely and more actionable: calmer decisions, clearer progress, and better support — for you, your dog, and the professionals helping you.