Me and Ozzie hope you all have a wonderful bank holiday weekend! 🐾
🐾 Out of Office 🐾
I’m on annual leave now until Tuesday the 2nd of April.
Any enquiries and messages will be replied to as soon as I can after this time.
Me and Ozzie hope you all have a lovely week! 🐾
🐾 Let them sniff! 🐾
This was on our evening walk. As you can see Ozzie spent a good 30 seconds sniffing this lamp post. I always allow him to sniff spots that he needs to and allow him to take his time doing so, he is never rushed.
✅ Mental stimulation/enrichment
✅ Gathering information
✅ Calming
✅ Species specific behaviour
✅ Can help to slow down busy breeds and help with loose lead walking
Walks should be about quality, not quantity 🐾
Did you know, not only do I offer puppy and adolescent classes and 1-2-1 courses, but I also offer sessions for other training such as scent work and modern gundog training?
Training dogs isn’t just for a course of 6 sessions, it’s something you need to keep topping up for the whole of the dogs life. I therefore have lots of different options for this!
1️⃣ I offer pre-puppy consultations. Helping you with any questions you may have prior to your new puppy’s arrival and providing you with all important support for bringing them home!
2️⃣ I truly believe that starting puppy training should be done as early as possible. Sometimes due to when classes start, it might not be possible for you to join a class until your puppy is a little older, however, my individual 1-2-1 sessions and hybrid puppy package are a popular choice to give you all important support right from 8 weeks old and start your training off on the right paw!
3️⃣ Individual 1-2-1 sessions which are discounted by 10% for the first 3 months on completion of your puppy class or 1-2-1 puppy course. These can be very valuable after this period to top up your training and help with any behaviour sticking points that may creep up!
4️⃣ Adolescent/young dog courses, 1-2-1 and in classes, helping you to top up on the skills such as recall, loose lead and self-control that your young dog may be struggling to remember.
5️⃣ Sessions to help your dog with outlet skills such as scent work, modern gun dog training & games. I love tapping into what dogs were bred to do and giving them a way to express this! This also helps you as the owner understand why your dog may do certain behaviours and what you can do to help them out, as well as improving general relationship and having fun with your dog!
6️⃣ Life skills training. Yes, obedience is important, but I think life skills is one of the most fundamental skills we can teach our dogs. How to process, cope and thrive in a human so
What training classes/services would you be interested in?
Would you be interested in any workshops and if so, what skills would you like covered?
I could run:
💚 Loose lead walking
💚 Recall
💚 Confidence building
💚 Social etiquette
💚 All things puppy
💚 All things rescue dog
💚 All things adolescent.
Please let me know what you’d like me to run!
🐾 ✨ A wonderful review ✨ 🐾
This week I’ve received the most wonderful review from my lovely clients, Eve and Winnie with Rudi. I cannot them thank you enough for your kind words, it made me a bit emotional as it means so much to me. I love helping dogs and their owners, especially nervous dogs, to find their confidence and to blossom in this world 💕
“Zoe (Sound Hound Dog Training) has been an integral part of our journey as first time puppy owners almost a year ago. Through Zoe’s influence, dedication and passion for animals and training she has helped our girl go from a shy, timid pup to a vibrant dog who loves to play, is curious of her surroundings and building her trust towards situations – and through meeting Zoe has also met a friend for life in Lyla.
We started puppy classes in which our dog was withdrawn and nervous, while the other dogs were engaging in play and enthralled with learning new tricks. Soon the decision was to change to one to one sessions where Zoe even paid us a home visit to see how our dog was in her comfort zone. Our main goals were to be able to achieve sit, recall and walking on the lead – but be the happiest and content version of herself. Zoe worked with us to ensure all the commands could be inclusive to all members of the family and accommodate them. Within a few weeks our dog began growing in confidence, attending a puppy club at a local pet shop and mingling with other puppies, but still retreating when she had enough.
Earlier this year Zoe introduced us to the world of agility; a place where our now lively, bouncy girl could thrive. Her jumbled limbs soon took to jumping over jumps, even if it was having all feet off the floor together (and still is a lot of the time, so much energy to get her reward). It was then the ‘Terrible Twins’ met and a bond like no other was created!
This once shy, timid girl has relished in new found friendship with Lyla, with them needing time to greet and have a ru
Ozzie has had a bit of a tough time recently for various reasons so I’m building his confidence back up slowly with a few confidence building exercises and games that we can play in our training sessions.
Here he is having 5 minutes of sniffing in the garden which he thoroughly enjoyed.
✅ Confidence building
✅ Calming
✅ Breed specific mental enrichment
✅ Boosts his feel good hormones
#dogtraining #thenoseknows #confidencebuilding #scatterfeeding #spanielsofinstagram #scentwork
I hope you have as much fun this weekend as Roxie is here 🐶🐾😁🤩❤️
*please note she wasn’t yanked at the end of the lead, she was very good at stopping before she got to the end*
#dogtraining #dogtrainingwalks #runintotheweekend #reactivedogtraining #yellowdogproject #runlikethewindbullseye
Even now it’s a bit cooler don’t be afraid to carry on taking it easy on walks with your dogs - especially older dogs and puppies.
Ozzie went out this morning for 15 minutes and came back tired. So the rest of the day has been spent chilling, sleeping and now he is sniffing and snuffling for his tea.
The heat saps all of our energy levels and dogs are no different. They find it harder to sleep as it’s so warm and any energy they do have his expended quickly. This means they may sleep more than usual. It can also result in restless behaviours as they are over tired and irritable.
#dogtrainingtips #dogtrainingtipsandadvice #spaniel #sniffyspaniel #hothothot #dogsofinstagram
This is a video I took of Fizz whilst out walking her last week.
There were numerous hay bales around the field we walk in. I don’t know if she has ever seen one, but she certainly wasn’t sure what to make of it!
This gives a good example of how when a dog is unsure we need to:
✔️ Be there as a safe space to run back to should they be scared.
✔️ Know when to move them on from the situation.
✔️ Allow them to work through the situation.
❌ Don’t speak to them too much as this will only provide information overload and they won’t be able to process what is going on.
Fizz was really curious of what this mysterious shape was and you can see from her body language that she wants to investigate but she is ready to run if needed - this keeps her safe! She is stretching with her front limbs and her nose to investigate whilst keeping her back legs steady so that she can shift the weight at any time and run away.
I stayed quiet to allow her to work through it whilst giving her a long loose lead so not to add any tension. The only verbal you hear from me is encouraging and reassuring her once I could see she was quite happy that it wasn’t a threat. She then ‘shakes off’ to release the stress that she would have felt from investigating this novelty item!
We then went around the field and saw a few more hay bales that she was much more confident with!
I had a similar situation to this with Ozzie during the snow we had when he encountered half a snow man! I did exactly the same thing and he moved forward and retreated a few times, each time learning that he could come away but each time wanting to still investigate as nothing bad happened each time he came away. After a few minutes he sniffed the half snow man, shook and came away happily.
Please 👍 if you like what you see and found this helpful! Liking posts helps to boost our ratings and means I can give more wide spread advice!
#dogtrainer #dogsofinstagram #noviscotiaducktro
Ozzie enjoying a sniff now it’s cooled down!
Wearing his Ruffwear cool coat to keep him nice and cool! He’s been wearing this at home too as he won’t lie on wet towels 💧🌿
#sniffydog #ruffwearcoolcoat #spaniel #summer #sniffingfortreats #dogtrainer #dogsofinstagram
🐾 Easy ways to enrich your dog! 🐾
Ft my invasion of Ozzie’s privacy for him relieving himself at the end 😂
✅ Scatter feed their meals, (if they are on dry food), here is Ozzie enjoying his tea scattered over our lawn!
✅ If they are on a wet food, put this into a Kong, Licki Mat, Toppl or a puzzle feeder.
✅ Put meals into puzzle feeders!
✅ If your dog won’t consume bits of cardboard (shredding this and spitting it out is fine but monitor to make sure they don’t consume pieces) putting their food into cardboard boxes with paper in it or empty egg boxes is good! You can make this easier or more challenging depending on how savvy your dog is!
✅ Additionally, using items from the recycling such as plastic bottles is a really easy and fun way to create enrichment!
#sniffyspaniel #dogtrainersofinstagram #enrichmentfordogs #canineenrichment #happydog #scatterfeedingdogs
This weekend I’ve done some work with Ozzie’s sit and wait with the distraction of throwing treats. He had become very good at this, however recently it become apparent that we needed to strengthen this as he has been not waiting for me to release him and just releasing himself! 😆
I started off with holding the lead so that it would provide tension and stop him from going early if he chose to (setting him up to succeed and not be rewarded for failing the exercise).
Then when he was more reliable at waiting for me to release him I dropped the lead again, to test this (knowing that he had a much better chance of succeeding) and he did really well.
We need to practise this more as his body language shows that he is still anticipating the release cue, but this is a good start and there is always more practice to be had! 😄
How important is sniffing to dogs? (Featuring one very happy spaniel!)
I always incorporate some scent work into my walks with Ozzie, even if it is just for a couple of minutes and I always allow him to sniff. This may mean we don’t get very far, but I think the quality of the walk for him in terms of scent, is of more value than the distance we have covered. He doesn’t mind if we have only made it to our local field or woods, if he gets to sniff every scent along the way! I also encourage my clients to do the same, mix slow sniffy walks in between more active ones. This can really help the young energetic dogs with their calmness!
Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their nose compared to our 6 million receptors, and their olfactory bulb (where all of these smells get processed) is 40 times bigger than ours! They also have the Jacobsen’s organ (also known as the Vomeronasal organ) situated inside the nasal cavity, opening out into the roof of their mouth, just behind their upper incisors. This is specifically designed for processing chemical communication such as pheromones. Their noses are amazing!
So how can you create scent opportunities?
🐾 Scatter treats on your walk in places where there are no other dogs nearby. Stand back and let your dog sniff out those treats! It’s important here not to say anything and allow them to work this out, as our input can be very confusing. If they are struggling after a few minutes, pointing to the treat may be helpful with lots of praise afterwards, but try to avoid repeated ‘find it cues’. I set Ozzie up in a sit and wait, throw the treats out and then say ‘find it’ to release him onto the treats.
🐾 Hide treats around the house and in your garden. You could also use part of their meals if they are fed kibble. If they are fed on a wet food, part of their meal could be put in a kong for them to sniff out.
🐾 Roll treats or kibble up in a tea towel or cardboard box for your dog to
Throw back to splashing in the sea with Ozzie in early June, take me back! 😁
I don’t think Ozzie had ever been in the sea when I first got him, we spent lots of time at first just pottering on the beach and helping to reassure him it’s okay.
Fast forward and he loves a splash! 💧😄
Libby and Smudge showing off their loose lead walking in their session last week 😁
🐶 The aim of loose lead walking is to be able to keep the lead nice and loose, and have them walking nicely but be allowed to sniff. If they pull towards something and the lead goes tight - we stop, call them back into us and reward for being close to us again.
🐶 I recommend practising this on walks between two points such as between two trees or goal posts. Here we tried practising with cones but this was too exciting! So we practised between two trees instead.
🐶 This is covered in my 6 week puppy course and my 6 week dog/adolescent course but can also be the topic to work on in 1-2-1s if needed! Get in touch if you would like some help with this!
