Lapwing Dog Training

05/01/2025

I cannot wait to go on Kathryn's Body Language, Behaviour and Restraint of "Aggressive Dogs" course in February.
She takes dogs who have been written off under her wing and they help to illustrate the body language we learn on these courses.

23/12/2024

This is Banjo.
Banjo ripped his dew claw this morning. Banjo is the dog who could injure himself in a padded cell 🙈
Banjo doesn't enjoy visiting the vets. We have worked in two things in the last year:

1. We have worked on stress levels at the vets through desensitisation and counter conditioning.

2. We have been muzzle training. Banjo is not an aggressive dog, he doesn't eat things he shouldn't, there's no particular reason to muzzle train him but it's good practice.

This morning Banjo had to wear a muzzle at the vets to have his nail clipped off. He was stressed, he didn't enjoy the experience and he very much expressed his pain, but he coped. All that training helped him manage the unavoidable visit.

Remember that any dog can bite, we expect a lot of our dogs - particularly at this time of year. Please advocate for your dog and consider their needs 🙏🏼

If I can help you with reducing stress levels and management for unavoidable situations like this, get in touch!

12/12/2024

Everybody wants Christmas to run as smoothly as possible and managing a busy household and your dog can at times be challenging.

19/11/2024

19/11/2024

Having a fantastic time on day 1 of a 2 day seminar learning all about Predation Substitute Training - Simone Mueller
I'm finding it so relevant to me and my dogs who just love to hunt! Do you dogs enjoy exploring so much they forget they're with a human?!

20/10/2024

This weekend Morgan and I took 3 of the 5 elements of the Human ID-Tracking Certification by K9 IlMa Global Training with International Instructor Ilkka Hormila.

We passed 2 of the 3 elements, and hope to retake the part we failed and take the two tests we didn't try sometime next year, in order to pass the certification. Unfortunately Morgan injured herself and we couldn't take part in the third day of testing.

Morgan is a great scent dog. According to Ilkka she's thoughtful, considerate, calm and calculating. She's steady and sometimes lacks confidence, plus she has a handler who was rather terrified of failure and ironically that probably caused the failure of the element she was most confident with.

Once we had failed the first test I totally relaxed and she absolutely smashed the other two elements - the scent discrimination tracking and tracking from a bus stop.

We started learning with Ilkka in February and I was immediately out of my depth, I was the least experienced in scent detection, the least experienced in tracking and the least experienced in trailing, and rather than run away, we put our all in. We did all the homework and more and learnt a huge amount.

Our bond has grown exponentially (my husband is Morgan's human, I'm certainly the spare!) and as we've learnt to trust one another her confidence without Banjo has grown too.

I have met so many skilled and generous people I hope to stay in contact with and whilst I've learned an enormous amount, the network will probably be just as valuable, if not more.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me with this - those I met along the way, those who donated their time and/or scent so I could practice, Georgie at Endeavour Canine and Kathryn at Trailing K9s for organising the course, and also to Ilkka for taking the time to come to the UK to train us!

07/10/2024

Hello!
I'm Mary, the trainer behind Lapwing Dog Training and these are my dogs, Banjo the Weimaraner and Morgan the mix!
I am a full member of The IMDT having passed their rigorous assessment. I train with kindness and understanding towards both dog and owner.

I love learning and I've done a wide range of courses covering dog first aid, body language, gundog exercises, rescue dogs and puppies! I'm currently studying a diploma in canine behaviour and psychology. I'm also a student on Ilkka Hormula's 8-month course on Human scent ID tracking and trailing.

I volunteer as a rehomer with a charity who rescue ex-hunting dogs from Spain and this has widened my experience of dogs with a strong prey-drive, rescue dogs and offering remote support to adopters.

If you want to strengthen the bond you have with your dog, learn a few tricks together or get on top of a niggling behaviour you'd rather your dog didn't do, get in touch!