Week 2 of Scentwork classes at @thefactoryspacebournemouth and we're already doing blind searches!
The fantastic team of Milo, Dottie, Sully, Frank and Heidi worked the search area beautifully, all with unique indications too!
If you didn't know for the first time in four years I am running indoor Scentwork classes in Bournemouth. Interested? Fill out a form in the comments for details.
Well done Team!
Teddy's people were beyond anxious before his Half Day Overhaul. Especially as he wouldn't take food.
And it makes sense! Teddy would bark, lunge and snarl at any dog he encountered, even if he was an entire field away. This was proving a nightmare.
Without the use of food, it became even trickier to deal with. How do you solve a problem like this without food?
Well, we found a way!
By teaching Teddy he could safely move away from other dogs and that they wouldn't bother him, he was able to spot and process thirty five different dogs.
Thirty five.
From being reactive to every dog, to thirty five reactive free interactions.
Life changing for him and his caregivers!
Half Day Overhauls are my most comprehensive behaviour service because they change the game for dogs like Teddy.
When you're ready to have success like this for your reactive dog, fill out a contact form below.
Well done Teddy and his caregivers!
Nosework rebuilds a friendship!
Today's class doesn't have a lot of video as it was freezing cold, but this short clip will make you feel warm!
Chase and Rufus used to be good friends when they were younger. Unfortunately Chase developed anxiety around male dogs after being attacked, and Rufus' worsening intensity meant that they couldn't walk together anymore.
Now they're in the same Nosework class, with huge results. Chase's confidence has shot up, and Rufus has had his energy channelled into something productive.
For the first time in years, they went on a wander together after class.
Nosework builds confidence, reduces fizz and rebuilds relationships. Nothing better!
Well done to all the dogs today despite the weather!
If you couldn't tell by my squeaking, Hoopers was a huge success!
For the first time ever we have taken our hoops to a public place! Iford Playing Fields hosted our antics, focusing on working around distractions!
As you can see (and hear!) they smashed it!
All 'sports' we do aim to be integrated into the real world. Here the dogs practise recall and disengagement from dogs, people and cyclists who come across us working (not to mention other dogs and people in the workshop!).
Hoopers is held on the third Saturday of every month - February 15th is our next adventure!
Well done Team!
Climbing trees, charging across fields and searching outdoor gym equipment - a typical Nosework Class at Baiter Park in Poole!
We focused on in-depth searches Scentwork wise today, whether that was for clove scent or toys. Tracking and Trailing wise, we tackled multiple turns to try and stump the dogs. Didn't work though!
Here are some of the highlights - well done Team!
Nosework Classes are designed to change dogs lives. Here are some examples today.
Often when I'm sharing excerpts from class, it'll be the practical work they do. But I want to show you, today, how effective Nosework is at getting dogs working around each other. Here are multiple classes all working independently, but in the same space.
How many places can you do this? How many safe dogs and people are there to work around? How many classes change location each week to ensure the dogs are exposed to what they need to be?
Great first Sunday classes of 2025. Looking forward to more adventures soon, well done Team!
Today's Reactive Roamers workshop was, quite simply, the best one we've ever done.
Why? Because of the incredible progress!
If you don't know, Reactive Roamers is a monthly workshop designed to help reactive dogs navigate their anxiety/frustration around dogs and people. We bring along a selection of dog friendly dogs (and people friendly people) to help with this!
Today, Evie, Ted, Obi and Baxter hung out with Pudding the stooge dinosaur, and learnt some fantastic skills. They worked on dogs approaching them and their space, following dogs, and the dogs nervous of people learnt that being said hello too wasn't scary!
This year, Reactive Roamers is receiving a bit of an overhaul, with a bigger emphasis on helping dogs become more social (if they'd like to!) and reducing big feelings around things that scare them.
I've also got a fantastic practical resource cooking in the background that is going to be game-changing if you have a reactive dog.
Interested in all of this? The next Reactive Roamers is Saturday 8th February! Email me for details at [email protected]
Well done Team!
Today, a dog humped a presenter live on TV at my local beach walk. You can learn something about overwhelm from it!
Full disclosure - not watched the full segment. I'm not sure which channel this was on, as it's a screen-grab from a Facebook group. Also not shaming the presenter herself for her response, because what else can we do when our dog starts going to pound-town on our shoulder during a live broadcast?
All joking aside, it's a common misconception to view behaviour like this has funny, or silly, or harmless. But it isn't!
Things like humping, jumping up, charging around with zoomies can all actually be signs of stress.
Our dogs get so overwhelmed and wound up in certain situations, that these goofy behaviours appear. They're an attempt for our dogs to calm themselves down and regulate.
You can see at the beginning of the video the dog has wide eyes, and does a few lip licks. As the intensity of the celebration increases, the humping begins as a coping mechanism.
To be clear, I'm not implying the dog was in severe emotional distress. I'm not saying that this incident will have ruined that dogs life. I'm not saying that the presenter was wrong to put their dog in this situation (they might have been on camera multiple times, or been surrounded by that many people before - every day is a new opportunity for a problem to arise!).
But it is always worth remembering that goofy isn't always great. That our dogs can be expressing discomfort even with behaviours we find funny, or annoying.
It is also fine if you laughed. It is a funny video, the presenter's reaction is hysterical, and I'd been a hypocrite if I said I'd never been in a situation where my dog has done something on camera/in a public situation that caused me to panic.
Would say happy hump day, if only it as a Wednesday...
Casper barked at every person until today!
Being an older terrier with some issues with his eyesight, Casper would bark and lunge at most people on walks and in cafe settings.
We identified that he is social with people once he's met them, but the initial appearance causes him concern. Without clarity, we get the barking!
So we developed a new rule - when we see people, good stuff happens!
Despite being alert, Casper was able to process for nearly half an hour after some initial work. Huge progress already!
This is the power of a Half Day Overhaul. Three hours dedicated to you and your dog to create a comprehensive, effective plan to change their behaviour.
Bookings for January are open. Let me know when you are ready!
What actually goes on in a Nosework class? Let the dogs show you!
Nosework is an umbrella term used to describe dogs being tasked to locate a specific scent, and perform a specific behaviour while doing so.
In classes, we do four core types of Nosework:
🔹 Mantrailing, which is on-lead Search and Rescue. The scent is human, and they find an actual person.
🔹 Scentwork. This involves searching an area for a target scent. This could be food, cloves, kong or something else entirely. Think drug detection dogs.
🔹 Tracking. Following human scent and ground disturbance to find an article with human scent (glove, wallet, keys etc). Think a police dog hunting for stolen property.
🔹 Active Searches. Sending a dog into an area to find a toy/gundog dummy and retrieve it.
Dogs are trained in all four disciplines for the first couple of months, and then for each block of classes we focus on one/two core disciplines to build up their skills.
We're also the only class to change location each week, and the only class to accept reactive/anxious/fizzy dogs to work in public places. This is because the only way a dog is going to grow is through being tested in as many locations as possible.
This week we were at Highcliffe Castle, and you can see dogs, people and cyclists in the videos below.
For us, Nosework isn't just about sniffing - it's about building real world skills.
It might be confidence building, and massively reducing reactivity. It might be channelling all that energy into something productive. It might be learning to work around dogs, people and prey animals.
Nosework classes will be your dogs favourite hour each week, guaranteed.
If you'd like more info to get booked on for January, now is the time. Drop me an email at [email protected] or comment down below for more info.
Massive well done Team, you smashed it!
