LK9 Services

21/10/2025

🐾 Tuesday Teatime Trailing! 🐕‍🦺

Five teams of mixed experience joined me for two trails (and I even got finished before it got dark 👊🏻).
This venue is fab — big open grassy areas, tarmac and gravel sections, and lots of buildings with narrow gaps that create some really interesting wind (and therefore scent!) movement.

After the first trail to get everyone’s heads and noses in the game, we switched things up for the second trail by changing the context of the scent article. The trail layers were each given a gauze wipe when they arrived, to keep on them, which I then presented to the dogs using tongs. It’s not a massive difference from a fabric article, but for one dog it was enough to make him go, “Wait, what’s this?!” 😄
But, as soon as we popped the gauze on the floor, he took scent and got straight into work mode — trailing beautifully.

Sometimes it’s those little changes that make the dogs stop and think, helping them build confidence, resilience, and independent problem-solving skills.

It was lovely to see Jarvis back in action after a few months off with injury — and he certainly hadn’t forgotten what to do!

Fantastic effort from everyone — another fab session doing what we love ❤️

21/10/2025

I am hosting Gerry Moss, this Friday in Tewkesbury- urban. Having been fully booked for months, someone now can’t make it and is prepared to sell their space for just £80 (ticket price is £110)
Message me if you’re interested and I’ll sort payment details

(Photo just so it doesn’t get lost!)

21/10/2025

If anyone fancies having a go at scentwork, dont delay! Lucy has a couple of spaces left and EVERY dog enjoys using their nose🤩
Open to all dogs, with no previous experience needed and small groups, these courses are a great way to start your scentwork journey. Even if you only do this course, it’ll give you skills and exercises to take and practice at home that are great enrichment for your dogs - think horrid weather & short walks, so do some scentwork instead 😉

Another lovely review from Lisa from LK9 Services

I did the Bronze course with my working cocker when she was just 4 months old. Lucy gave clear instructions & adapted to suit each dog. We knew what to practice at home& enjoyed seeing progress. She loves to work & learn & scentwork is such an innately rewarding activity for her. Give it a go! - Lisa & her dog Lyra

Couple of spaces left on our November courses

https://bookwhen.com/sweetpeask9scentworkschoo

20/10/2025

🌟 HPR Special Event! 🌟

Those of you who trail with us will know that I love my spaniels, and Jen loves her pointers and big high-drive dogs 😄
We have quite a few clients with Vizslas and Pointers, so Jen decided to put together a special all-day event just for the HPR breeds (Hunt, Point, Retrieve).

There was a lot of planning and prep that went into this one — in fact, she had so much planned that she had to cut some out because she couldn’t fit it all into one day! (So watch this space for another session 👀).

The feedback from clients so far has been absolutely fabulous, and I’m so proud of how well Jen did 🥰

Here’s her write-up from the day:

⸻

HPR Special

We started the day with a warm-up trail, followed by some theory looking at the history of HPRs and their natural instincts.

The second trail focused on reading the dogs’ body language using McKenzie’s 8 Things to Consider When a Dog is in Scent — watching nose height, tail carriage, gait, breathing, and so on.

For the third trail, we introduced scent from breath! 😳
At the start of the day, handlers put on rubber gloves and breathed into jars containing gauze, which were labelled and set aside until the afternoon. The trail layer hadn’t touched the jar at all — only breathed into it! When presented with the jar, the dogs then went on to find the trail layer. This was a brand-new challenge for everyone, and the teams smashed it in record time 🤩

Our fourth and final trail was all about fun — dogs worked through the barns, around machinery, and near the big house, finding trail layers and finishing the day on a high.

Sometimes owning an HPR can be challenging and emotionally draining😩, but seeing them work happily makes it all worthwhile. Having five handlers together who shared similar experiences with their dogs made the day feel like therapy — lots of learning, support, and laughter (even in the pouring rain!).

Every single team was fantastic 💪🐾
An awesome day all round! 🤩🥰

19/10/2025

Sunday Mantrailing 🐾
I (Lisa) was working with five teams today who have either passed or are working towards their Level 1 assessment. Whilst the L1 trail isn’t massively long, things can and do go awry, so it’s great to build some resilience and stamina in the dogs by practising longer trails.

For some dogs, keeping focused and working when they’d usually have found their person can be a challenge. With a trail of around 700m, most of today’s teams managed to show real determination to just keep going and keep problem-solving. A couple of them were running out of steam towards the end but it was tough conditions and we know what to practice.

There was some fabulous handling too — giving dogs time to process, cast around, and clear areas, waiting for traffic before crossing roads, etc. 👏

We all got to test whether our waterproofs actually are waterproof (not, in my case 😩)🌧️.

Huge thanks to Signs R Us for letting us shelter from the rain in your building — and for the all-important toilet! 🚽

One very chuffed instructor here, seeing how far you’ve all come. 😊

19/10/2025

Sunday Mantrailing Fun! 🐾💦
Worked with 5 fab teams today, all smashing their longer trails 💪🔥 Building stamina, focus & resilience on a soggy 700m challenge! 🌧️

So proud of how everyone kept going and supported their dogs 👏❤️

Huge thanks to Signs R Us for the dry spot & the all-important loo stop 🚽😂

One very happy (and slightly soggy) instructor! 🥰🐶

18/10/2025

This weekend I’m working with some of our more experienced mantrailing teams 🐾

Today we focused on single blinds — and for a couple of dogs, double blind endings! Tomorrow we’ll be stretching things out with longer trails 💪

After a warm-up trail, everyone took on a decent-length (around 400m) single blind where one of the biggest challenges was for me to stay quiet 🤐😂 No hints or guidance from me this time — instead, handlers were asked to give feedback on what they were seeing: is the dog trailing or searching? What behaviours make you think that? The third trail was either another single blind or the second half was double blind- I don’t know where the trail layer is either.

Today was all about encouraging more independent thinking from handlers when they don’t have instructor input. There were some tough trails, but loads of great learning to take forward into future sessions 🙌

Such a pleasure to work with you all — well done everyone! 👏🐶

18/10/2025

Friday evening saw 5 awesome teams take on a Droitwich Tunnel Challenge with Jen! 🐾

Each team started with a warm-up trail before moving on to trickier challenges — the more advanced teams tackled walking trail layers or worked older trails, while others focused on surface changes from grass to tarmac and road crossings 🚶‍♀️🐕

Fantastic effort from everyone — amazing teamwork and determination all round! 🤩👏

17/10/2025

🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺👁️👁️
Jen is running an all day HPR Special mantrailing session on Sunday. This has been fully booked for months but a space has just become available😳

This is solely for those Hunt, Point, Retrieve breeds, your viszlas, Weimaraner, pointers….and their crosses. Including a mix of theory and trailing, she has some challenges planned so teams must have some trails under their belts already (not suitable for complete newbies I’m afraid).

More information and booking here ⬇️⬇️
https://bookwhen.com/lk9mantrailing