Action 4 Dogs Edinburgh & Lothians Dog Trainer

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Action 4 Dogs Edinburgh & Lothians Dog Trainer

Action 4 Dogs Dog Training founded by Max Muir is based in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Maxwell covers all of Scotland by appointment. Puppy Training.

Dog Training focusing on pet gun dogs and sporting breeds. Personal 121 private Training Sessions in the following Skill sets:

Effective Dog Handling Skills & Proper Use of Equipment. Adolescent Dog Training-Coping With Your Teenager. Behaviour Training Solutions. Online Zoom Sessions, Telephone consultations & Private Discreet Service. Private lessons and home visits are designed to suit a clien

t’s needs and they can be arranged in the home or a location of your choosing. Private one to one training service also caters for puppy training, basic obedience training, and the teaching of handling skills. Training topics include:

Handling skills with the lead. Recall- Training Levels to your recall. Retriever Training. Gun Dog foundation Training. Training good manners, obedience, and greeting behaviours. Teaching dog’s to develop self control. Effective stimulation & enrichment to deal with those dogs with excess energy. Maxwell has hosted regular seminars, lectures and workshops and been guest speakers at many canine events. Maxwell is also available for you to host for presentations and workshops and virtual keynotes and presentations on a wide variety of dog related subjects. He is also open to appearing on podcasts. Visit www.action4dogs.co.uk

27/11/2025

Recalls and the Leap of Faith: When do I try my dog completely off lead?

You may have been practising your recalls in a relatively secure area, or widened out to other more challenging areas with the use of a long line as you build up your foundation…

The dog knows it is on a long line, it certainly knows when it is off lead, so when is the right time to test and begin to proof your recall completely free of the line?

Is it a risk?

Yes! Absolutely it is…

But, it is not a risk done randomly. It is a calculated risk based on the reliability of your training to that date and your familiarity with the ground. Calculated risks are measured risks where you have done everything in your favour and you are confident enough to test it and work with it where the dog has full range of freedom.

It is also a self-confidence issue. No one can tell YOU when the right time is, you must take that leap of faith yourself, that is your decision. And often, that is the issue because there are no guarantees where risk is involved.

Intelligent risk taking is training with the goal in mind that you have done everything you can to that point and that you have the answers you need to minimise any major fears or concerns and are willing to go a step further.

Choose your ground carefully as you do so…

No one ever got anywhere by playing safe, but you can play smart. That is the goal of your training.

Calculated risk outweighs random risk any day of the week!

If your foundation is solid the risk is as minimal as you can make it.

Only you can decide when and where to take it.

26/11/2025

A looker!

A lovely session working with this show stock spaniel. Often the body types can be quite different to working line dogs.

The general consensus is that show stock display LESS drive than working stock…

And generally that can be the case…but not always.

I’ve known quite a few show bred dogs with high drives and instincts…

The training in such cases is the same.

Does your show dog display strong hunting instincts?

Show stock or working stock…it pays to train your dog!

There is so much you can do to provide stimulation and variety in your training toolkit.

Get in touch if you need help!
www.action4dogs.co.uk

25/11/2025

Going through Gates and Doorways first

Or going on command...

It is not about being the boss, or being the Alpha...

Pure and simple it is about teaching safety, guidance, and care.

Good leadership is about guidance and direction, and support from the one in the partnership who knows better.

It is the same with teaching your dog to not bolt out of the car when you open the boot. Safety is training your dog to wait until you release them.

That is just good practise!

23/11/2025

Recalls are great but…

I believe we can also do too much! I like to allow my dog to hunt without any real interruption unless it is needed.

Dogs easily pick up on our insecurities and that can irritate them when they’re immersed in hunting.

There’s a fine line between practise and maintenance and too much control just to satisfy ourselves.

I love to watch them hunt, confident that they can return if needed, otherwise I love to watch them hunt uninterrupted and watch them live fully in the moment being a dog!

22/11/2025

Foundation training is fun but it should begin the moment you get your dog.

Start in small ways, forming good habits in easy to apply and understand exercises. Work in a very focused way to draw your dog’s attention to you wherever you go…

That bond you make, is through exposure and working closely with your dog.

Closenesss, being significant, where it matters…is the goal.

It takes effort in small and focused ways for the world and everything in it is stiff competition if you tend to let your dog do its own thing…

Foundation training IS bonding!

That is the most important of the early steps you can take.

17/11/2025

A throwback picture from some years back on a workshop I organised in Scotland for raising and training the border collie with author and trainer Barbara Sykes.

14/11/2025

Master the Walk!

Dogs will instinctively pull towards the environmental buffet you lay out before them.

If that buffet is abundant with other dogs, people, scent, and wildlife…

Your dog grows stronger and those muscles develop, the anticipation of what stirs their arousal is the focus of every time you go out…

The walk on lead will become a struggle.

Do not stop, wait, and move on when the lead is slack….you will be old, gray, and on your third dog by the time that works…

Do not yank and change direction all the time. You cause frustration to both of you.

Your dog doesn’t know. Teach the concept of walking to heel and remaining at heel. Teach your dog when it is released from the position.

Repetition plus variations…

Always small learning curves…

If you get a pup, go and find 2-3 locations you will use as a training base and teach the foundation of engagement through fun obedience, the walk, and play…before you widen out to the bigger world.

If you acquire and older dog 6 months plus do the same….

Spend a few months working on each other, and bonding through learning sessions that set you up to move your training on…

Don’t compete by training in environments that buzz with stimulants for arousal.

It may take several sessions in one area before your dog anticipates you take it there to train and learn. That’s okay, it is part of the process…

Making yourself interesting, fun, relevant, significant, and a teacher and mentor to your dog in the process

If your aim is to have your dog accompany you in a certain lifestyle you want to share, you must invest your time in teaching it the skills you want to have.

If you do get an older dog you will likely have to take a step back from busy environments and work on those foundations if it has not had the benefit of early training.

You don’t fix it…

You build it…

You work with it…

You carve it into your relationship so that the building blocks of your foundation set your dog up to reach its best.

Don’t rush it…

Don’t skip it…

Forget the walk…

Your dog will get all of the exercise it needs through well planned training…

Build skills…

Build rapport…

Build confidence…

When you are satisfied with your level and your dog is emotionally equipped to progress…

You can take your training on the road.

That is and will always be my advice and how I will work with my own dogs to set up our lives together.

12/11/2025

A dog that loves to be out there…

That loves to be with you…

A loyal companion…

And a dog I have invested in all areas to give him the quality of life he deserves…

Love, structure, routine, adventure, education, and outlets for being the dog that he is…

When a dog has all of that provided through his early years of development you will encounter little in the way of problems.

It takes discipline and planning to set aside the time needed to raise a dog with those goals in mind.

11/11/2025

How well some of the dogs blend into the autumn fall…

For those dogs that love movement where leaves are whisked up into a swirling vortex it provides great stimulation for a dog, and the enticement of woodland squirrels is never ending in the forest.

This lovely spaniel is captured beautifully in the autumn backdrop during one of our training sessions here in the Glencorse wood.

Does your dog come alive in the forest?

10/11/2025

Your Dog wants to Play its Heart Out!

Dogs are generally playful creatures, particularly when young, they are heavily motivated to play...

Play is at the core of many of a dog's intentions, ranging from object play, enticement to play with your dog with an object, social play, prey play, and mischief play. Most dogs will play or attemp to generate play in one form or another, and even blend them together.

Play is at the core of their very being...

When an owner encounters challenge in getting their dog to come away from other dogs what they are dealing with is the dog's motivation to play with others, which may have been reinforced with previous meetings that have resulted in play. Some dogs are more play motivated than others but generally play is a huge motivating factor and intention in meeting other dogs.

This is where recall training involving the use of treats fails or falls flat when the dog has the choice of play with another, there is no comparison and the treat ceases to be a reward or anywhere near being one. The power of play takes over...

Humans have a concept of play with their dogs and some do it very well, but others find it difficult to take it up a level or two. In sports training for dogs and other working disciplines, levels can be reached call sky high drive where a dog's motivation and drive to play is maximized and taken to the limit where a dog's play drive is on a super level. It means forming an emotional attachment to a toy and a certain type of play.

Therefore, I encourage you when you begin to train your dog to discover yourself through play and learn to play your heart out. You will mean much more to your dog and your dog will entice you to play on a deeper level. The benefits are increased focus and a dog that loves to be with you when other temptations are around.

During search work over the years dogs are taught to persistently stick at a job with the hope of engaging in a highly satisfying and rewarding play activity with their handlers. As much time is spent teaching and engaging in play as is spent teaching the job itself.

For domestic non-working dogs the utilization of play by owners is highly beneficial in the recall foundation if they want it to work where a dog's motivations lie elsewhere. Building up a play rapport and bond through play will super exceed any tasty morsel you have in your pockets if the dog finds the opportunity to play elsewhere.

Learning to play is a skill and focused and beneficial behaviours are most effectively taught through play. Any obedience training without play is boring for a dog unless the obedience transitions towards something that works a dog's play or working drive.

In short, play is where it is at if you want to generate a functional and high powered reward. The 'feel good' drugs released by the brain during play or hunting are not superceded by anything else. Play has so much variety and dimensions to it that the bounds of play are limitless.

Often we will buy a toy, something as simple as a ball on a string, and our expectations will be that the dog naturally wants to play with it and be excited by it all on its own but eventually the play will phase out. Some dogs will naturally be excited by it but...in some cases it needs a little injection of charging it up. It is not what you have, but what you do with it that counts.

Building play drive involves working with a dog's arousal levels and being able to take them up and bring them back to a focused level which can eventually be paired with specific behaviours such as recall and obedience commands.

Play your heart out!

Learn to do so!

Your dog's level of enthusiasm and drive to play can go well beyond what you imagine and it will power up those responses you need in front of the challenges you face when the prospect of food treats become redundant!

Learn to play! There is power in it!

Book yourself in a motivational session for your dog to discover how play can change the situations you are challenged in!

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Penicuik
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Telephone

+447999866989

Website

http://www.action4dogs.co.uk/

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Our Story

Action 4 Dogs Dog Training founded by me, Max Muir. I am based in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

I am proud to be Labrador Retriever Rescue Scotland Scio Behaviour Consultant & Trainer for the past 17 years.

I cover all of Scotland and the north of England by appointment.

Personal Training Sessions Empowering You With Amazing Skills Effective Handling Skills & Use of Equipment Puppy Training & The Ultimate Start-Up Guide Adolescent Training-Coping With Your Teenager Behaviour Modification & Problem Solving Solutions Online / Telephone consultations Private & Discreet Service Mentoring-Supervision & Guidance to bring the best trainer out in you! Private lessons and home visits are designed to suit your individual needs and they can be arranged in your home or a location of your choosing. Private coaching training service also caters for puppy training, basic obedience and response training, and the teaching of handling skills. Training topics include: Recall Training Specialist Obedience Training Training Impulse Control / Steadiness, and Self Control Daily Stimulation & Enrichment Canine Handling Skills and Use of Equipment I hosts regular seminars and workshops with guest speakers which are held throughout the year. A am also available for you to host for presentations and workshops on a wide variety of dog related subjects. Give me a call or please visit my website www.action4dogs.co.uk