Sits n Wiggles: Glasgow Dog Trainer

04/01/2025

How lovely to see blue sky while trailing recently! Clare/Kaleo and Janette/Penny did a fab back to back rolling pet trail session the other day. Both dogs were super, locating each other in turn. It was incredible to see the difference between their first trail and their last (4th??) trail. First trails were ultra fast, no hesitation, very high motivation, and the last ones were much slower, you could see the dogs were feeling very tired after working their brains so hard! Sniffing is amazing for tiring out dogs, especially working breeds.
If you fancy trying man trailing/pet trailing, get in touch! I have a few spaces remaining this month 💕

08/12/2024

Feeling like a very grateful dog trainer this morning! Not only did all of the teams absolutely ace their trails, THE SUN WAS OUT!!!! Fabulous!

Team Laura and Dutch: Dutch was off on his own adventures to begin with this morning, but once we reined him in a bit he was smashing them out with his usual skill and enthusiasm. It was a particularly difficult area as the rabbits were rife and let’s be honest, if you’re a dog rabbit scent is probably more appealing than human scent! But nevertheless he rescued everyone he set out to rescue!

Team Liz and Phoebe were truly impressive today, Phoebe has made huge progress in the past few sessions, and you can really see her wee brain ticking over and solving problems. Was great to see her body language changing as she got closer to the scent. Fab work!

Team Mairi and Ollie were brilliant today, whilst Ollie isn’t too bothered about food, he loves to find his ball as a reward. He gets bored quickly and is easily distracted by more exciting smells (rabbits etc!), but by keeping trails short and interesting for him, he succeeded every time.

Team Amber and Abbie…. Well I couldn’t even keep up with them!!! If you’re ever lost on a mountain Abbie’s the dog you’d want to come searching for you! She worked on a double blind trail across incredibly difficult terrain today, and she smashed it. Actually it barely challenged her at all! She is a true working dog, and she absolutely adores this job!

08/12/2024

Fab fab FABULOUS trails from these teams yesterday in a super location!

Team Lesley and Moose: our lovely Moose grows in confidence with every trail, he searched for his first man (he’s wary of men), and although got a wee fright when Allan unexpectedly moved in a bush, his recovery was super fast and he continued with his day just like that. So nice to see this boy increasing in resilience! We also have a new term for when he goes off trail on one of his adventures: that’s called a Wild Moose Chase 🤣

Team Sian and Maizie: wonderful trails as always, despite distractions such as lots of excited off-leash kids and dogs! Maizie is super methodical and never skips a beat, and I must also mention how brilliant Sian’s line handling was yesterday; they really are a pro team at navigating junctions!!! Maizie also used a very impressive scent article yesterday: she took scent from a handshake!!

Team Allan and Kai: Kai was brilliant yesterday, he is normally a dog who 100% air scents, but due to the weather yesterday he totally changed his technique and was ground scenting all the way. I think it’s so cool to see the dogs changing their techniques to suit the conditions, they’re so clever! Kai was also working on challenging scent articles yesterday; the runner held his toy, then put his toy on the ground, picked it back up, and the spot where the toy had touched was where he took scent from. A real challenge but he made it look easy!

07/12/2024

Teams were on FIRE in Oban this morning and so was the wind! Challenging conditions for the dogs to work in, although it was dry so we had no complaints 🥳

Team Sian and Casper hadn’t trailed in around 2 years but this lad did not disappoint! Super problem solving, Casper used lots of ground scenting and following walls to locate his missing people, which was lovely to see as he usually prefers to airscent, which was damn near impossible with the high winds today!!

Team Jane and Blossom, new to trailing but totally smashed it! Blossom needed a bit more excitement and thrill to ramp up her motivation, but the great thing about trailing is you can adapt it to all dogs. Once she realised there was guaranteed cheese at the end, she was off like a shot! An excellent first session under challenging conditions!

Team Moira and Stella, also new to trailing and also totally smashed it!!! Stella was super focussed and even managed to ignore all the rabbits, which would usually be a major distraction for her. Her wee nose was stuck to the ground on every trail and she navigated without hesitation or assistance. Super first attempt!

30/11/2024

Dogs are just amazing! If you fancy learning the basics of scent detection with your dog, my new block of beginner classes start on 9th January!!

A six-year-old cocker spaniel-labrador cross has been trained to find a deadly pathogen that can damage more than 150 types of plant.

24/11/2024

Awesome trails from these teams!

Kaleo and Clare, new to trailing but not new to scentwork, Kaleo absolutely nailed his first session. His ability to switch off from distractions when he’s working is just insane. He’s a smashing wee dog!

Team Caroline and Rocky have done a few sessions now, and they are FAST! Rocky wastes no time solving his mysteries, he’s a very promising lad and I’m excited to see where his trailing takes him.

Team Sarah and Della (and a wee guest appearance from Rodney), as always were on fire. Della is crazy fast and even managed to trail through the long grass which is something she finds super exciting and distracting. Yes, there was a little zooming, but also yes! She found her human!

Team Fiona and Petra, again, smashed it! Petra is super enthusiastic and like a true spaniel she zig zags all over the place, sometimes doesn’t look like she’s doing the thing she’s meant to be doing, but she always succeeds! She absolutely adores finding a human for a cuddle at the end of each trail.

24/11/2024

The next set of super qualified sniffer dogs have been released from class! Watch out guys, lock up your kongs! Fantastic work over the last 6 weeks from Auggie, Wesley, Millie and Mungo 🐾

17/11/2024

Happy birthday my wee Crumpy Pumpy! 3 today! Where did those years go?!

16/11/2024

I saw beautiful boy Holden again today! I first met him at 4.5 months and now he’s 7 months old! He’s typical teenager now, gets super excited when he sees other dogs, so we’re working on engagement on walks. Apart from that however, he is PERFECT! Such a lovely, chilled boy 😍 and super cute!!! He’s a staffy husky cross, but looks like a mini Akita. So sweet.

12/11/2024

My best gals out looking for new mantrailing spots near Oban with me today 🐾💕

06/11/2024

Remember that what you do the couple of days after bonfire night is just as important as the night itself. Maya and Crumpet had a particularly bad night thanks to the eejits in Pollokshields shooting fireworks in the streets until gone 2am, so we’ll be taking it easy for the next couple of days with lots of proven stress reducing activities such as snuffle mats/balls, lickmats, stuffed Kongs and other scentwork/enrichment activities.

It takes up to 3 days for a dogs cortisol (stress hormone) levels to return to baseline after a stressful experience, which means if we take them out and they have another mildly stressful experience (e.g. if Maya were to hear a car backfiring while out on a walk today) after the original stressful experience, their reaction can be severe and fire up their cortisol again. If cortisol levels remain high, this can result in other stress related behaviours such as reactivity, hyperactivity, compulsive behaviours and even aggression.

We don’t like to live in a stage of elevated stress, and neither do our dogs, so please look after your wee ones appropriately today! If your dog had a particularly stressful time last night, you might want to consider skipping their walk today and replacing it with brain games indoors.

05/11/2024

Scenes at Sits n Wiggles HQ tonight. Classic FM playing in every room, dogs all chomping down on buffalo and pigs ears. Only one dog is actually phased by the fireworks but apparently we all have to get an ear otherwise it’s not fair 🤣 My sofas are going absolutely stink by the end of this, but we gotta do what we need to do to get through it! How are you all getting through this evening?

04/11/2024

And that’s a wrap! What a weekend!

Team Steve and Rascal back for their second session. Rascal was a different dog this time! Last time she would NOT search for or take food from a stranger. This time she had the confidence to do both!! This is a huge step for a wee timid thing like Rascal, so we are super proud of her progress. Can’t wait to see how much more confident she becomes through trailing.

Team Beth, Connor and Frankie, brand new to trailing. Whilst Frankie thought people crouching in bushes was weird to begin with, she was UNSTOPPABLE once we increaseD the value of the reward they were hiding with. She was incredible at following the exact footsteps of the runner into the forest, no cutting corners at all. Top tip for mountaineers: carry a tub of meat paste with you for best chance that the mountain rescue dogs will be able to find you 🤣

Team Amber and Abby, also brand new to trailing but took to it like they’d been doing it for a million years! Abby is a natural and within 3 trails she was taking on junctions and changes of direction without hesitation. A dog who truly trusts in her doggy instincts!

And lastly, Team Fiona, Ben and Wilbur! Wilbur was also new to trailing, but like the others, picked it up quickly and easily. He was a little unsure about people hiding in bushes to start with, but as soon as he realised there was chicken at the end he sure picked up his pace. He was excellent at airscenting, which meant he was very good at finding shortcuts to get to his missing person faster. A very promising start for this lovely wee Team!

03/11/2024

These teams were on fire today in Oban!

Team Lesley and Moose were back for their second session. Moose found his starter trails FAR TOO EASY, so we ramped it up for this third. We added in a huge backtrack, which was enough to confused any dog, but he remained focussed, and once he’d explored all options on the backtrack, he was off like a shot to find his runner. Excellent decisions were made, and he was able to zone out from some things that would usually trigger him such as a golf trolley and an off leash dog! Outstanding work from this wee guy!!

Team Laura and Dutch back again for another session. We went straight into longer trails for Dutch and he did not disappoint. He was incredibly fast and focussed, and found his human in record time, barely taking a second to process his junctions. In his second trail we had a road crossing and a junction, which slowed him down a little but certainly didn’t put him off. Super proud of this lad!

Team Liz and Phoebe were back for a second session. Phoebe is only 9 months old and she’s only been in the UK for a month, so the world is still a very new and exciting place for her. We kept trails short and fairly simple, and as the session progressed so did her motivation to search. We always expect puppies to be more easily distracted, but Phoebe was always able to switch back to the task in front of her after distractions, which is amazing, and an excellent life skill to have!

Looking forward to seeing these guys progress over the coming months!

03/11/2024

Yesterday afternoons lovely trails in Oban!

Team Colin and Kai back for a second session, Kai could barely contain his excitement when he arrived! His first couple of trails were very enthusiastic, he absolutely loves trailing and can’t wait to get out of the car and get going. He tried his first pet trails, tracking down Monty, and was just as good at this as mantrailing.

Team Sonja and Monty were brand new to trailing. Monty is a dog who never steps one step ahead of her owner, so asking her to pull towards a scent was a new kind of challenge for her. She needed a wee bit of extra encouragement, but she was SUPER happy when she got there! With practice, Monty will grow in confidence and she’ll only get better and better at her new found skill!

Team Sian, Maisie and Shadow were on fire today!! The beach with all the seaweed was a tricky area to navigate as the smells were incredibly distracting and the target scent draws in towards any water, but Maizie never gave up! She also tried her first pet trail and absolutely aced it. As for Shadow, he was ON FIRE yesterday, he was highly motivated and although it was only his 3rd session, he did a double blind search where I also had no idea where the runner was hiding (albeit by accident!). His double blind search was across a wide open area too, with lots of opportunities to change direction, so the fact he managed to locate the runner as quickly as he did was very, very impressive.

Looking forward to seeing these teams again in a few weeks!

02/11/2024

Wonderful (wet!) trails from these teams in Oban this morning!

Team Dan and Fudge back for their second session. Fudge is now 15 weeks old, and smashing out super trails. For a young pup, he’s truly amazing at ignoring distractions and focussing on his tasks. We added in a couple of difficulties today, which were enough to confuse any dog, but he powered through and figured it out all by himself!

Team Karina and Coco were brand new to trailing but this girl is a natural!!! She totally aced her first couple of starter trails, so we ramped it up for her third, and had her trailing across the golf course. There were unlimited ways across the course, but she followed the trail with expert precision and nose to the ground. There was no catching her out at all! She also gets super cute zoomies at the end of each trail because she’s so happy to finds her missing person, which is just so bloody adorable!!

Team Lee and Murphy, also brand new to trailing and also naturals! First trails were just too easy for Murphy, so we ramped it up and added in a couple of junctions and even a road crossing! They made an excellent team, with Lee giving Murphy time to process and make his decisions. When he was sure about his trail, we struggled to keep up with him!!! Brilliant first day!

Team Allan and Kai! Kai has done a little trailing in the past but nothing in a couple of years. I loved how his style is totally different to the spaniels, rather than going in all guns blazing he took his time to carefully and methodically work out where his person was, wasting no time or energy going the wrong way. He uses air scenting exclusively, and demonstrated brilliant problem solving skills. What a superb dog!!