LK9 Services

19/01/2025

Sorry for the delay with this report, I’ve been at a workshop all day….

Jen’s session on Saturday had 5 lovely teams working on different challenges that were appropriate for them.

🐾Clive has fairly recently started mantrailing and hes a natural. He worked from delayed starts and worked well across different surfaces. Great job🐕‍🦺👌🏼!

🐾Alfie loves trailing but can become frustrated at the begining so we worked on walking him about before he does his scent inventory and while the Trail Layer gets into position. We worked on delayed starts and his motivation was excellent. He worked really hard in last trail to identify his TL vs decoys. Well done team👏🏻👏🏻!

🐾Ginny is also quite new to mantrailing but she has a keen nose and trails methodically. It’s a delight to watch her as she gets into proximity because all of her body starts to move. She did really well picking her TL out in the last trail with a decoy. Execllent work🤩!

🐾 Blaze shows such dedication in his work and he doesnt stop until he has found his TL. We played around with old scent vs new scent to see which trail he followed. He used both and it was fascinating to watch him work. In the last trail we asked him to find his TL with 2 decoys (including his dad) on the trail. Although intrested in the 2 decoys he passed them by to get to his TL. Fab work team🙌🏼!

🐾 Lottie is super fast and incredibly motivated- she loves life!. We used the buildings to try and slow her down and watch her think. She had a longer trail with plenty of decision points and she crushed it👊🏻. For her last trail we wanted to see how she handled a trail followed by a back trail to the carpark where we had decoys and TL. She worked incedibly hard and we all took lots of learnings from how she worked. Fabulous work team!

18/01/2025

Saturday was a busy day with both Jen and Lisa running mantrailing sessions in different locations. Jen’s report will follow soon…

Lisa worked with four teams in the woods (unfortunately, one team had to pull out due to the lurgy 🤒😔).

🐕‍🦺 Jax had his first progression session. His first trail was a refresher to remind him what the game is all about. By the second trail, we gave him time to make his own decisions, and by the third trail, his confidence had skyrocketed! He was absolutely brilliant, guiding his mum to the ‘missing person’ without needing extra support 👌🏼👏🏻

🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 Teams Frankie, Freddie, and Mabel worked on a variety of skills, including scent transfer, gates, and walking trail layers. They all delivered some fantastic, motivated, and accurate work and we pinpointed a few areas for future practice to help them improve even more.

It was another highly enjoyable afternoon with a wonderful group of people and dogs. 🥰

18/01/2025

Friday night at Lido Park with Jen instructing🐕‍🦺

Barney, just 10 months old and at the start of his mantrailing journey, took on hunter trails and absolutely loved it! Later in the session, he showed us just how clever he is by successfully completing a longer trail with a delayed start. What a superstar spaniel! 👍

Mia, a more experienced trailer, tackled two slightly longer trails starting from scent articles in an area filled with tempting animal scent distractions. She worked her socks off to find her trail layers – such an impressive team effort! 😁

LK9’s very own spaniel, Lyra, had her first-ever mantrailing session! Having done tracking before, it was interesting to see how she worked and dealt with finding a person at the end- something that she’s not used to. She started with hunter trails from a delayed start and finished on a trail with a turn and a delayed start. She’s hooked on the game already! ❤️

15/01/2025

Love this 🥰🐕‍🦺
If you want a quiet calm lap dog, don’t get yourself a high drive working breed dog and then try to suppress their needs and behaviours.
Embrace the crazy and work with it, build the relationship 👌🏼

14/01/2025

What an amazing way to spend the evening! 🐕‍🦺💫

Despite a very last-minute handler injury leaving us with just four teams, what a fabulous group they turned out to be! 🥰 Everyone was new or fairly new to mantrailing, and the camaraderie, support, and shared enthusiasm were just lovely to witness.

Here’s a little recap of our awesome teams:

🐾 Midge had her first-ever session—and you’d never have guessed it! She was absolutely phenomenal, confidently working away from Mum and hunting down the “missing person” who’d stolen her cheese. Such a driven and confident dog with a real knack for the job. 🤩

🐾 Woody joined us for his first progression session. He’s another collie, but a much more anxious soul than Midge. For Woody, it’s all about building confidence, and the transformation from start to finish was a joy to see. 🥰

🐾 Lani, the working golden retriever, is such a super girl! With only a couple of trails under her belt, she worked brilliantly at junctions. We focused on identifying when she was truly committed to the trail versus moments of uncertainty—and adjusted her handler’s approach accordingly. 👍🏻

🐾 Little Olive, the working cocker spaniel, was… let’s say, very keen! 😂 Right up my street—she’s a classic crazy cocker who wants to do everything at 100mph! We worked on recognizing the difference between her frantically hunting versus when her body language changed to show she was on the trail. Adjusting her handler’s pace and movements made a big difference.

All of the dogs worked in the dark for the first time tonight, with trail layers hiding in new and interesting spots, and they all rose to the challenge beautifully.

A huge well done to everyone—I absolutely loved tonight’s session. 🥰🐾

13/01/2025

Clever puppy passed her first tracking assessment 🐕‍🦺🥰

It’s only the foundation level and we have a lot of learning to do still, but loving this journey and boy does pup enjoy using her nose😃

Realised that the assessment today was actually the first blind track that we have done too👍🏻

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheUKTrackingDogAssociation/permalink/3955486771359795/?

12/01/2025

What a morning! The first session back for Jennifer after the Christmas break, and we had an absolute blast. We dressed for -4 but were pleasantly surprised by a toasty 3 degrees, here’s how the teams got on:

🎀 Maisie 🎀
Maisie was on fire today, tackling trails with the speed and precision of a Ferrari. On her last trail, she took scent from the wheel arch of a car and worked through woods filled with off-lead dogs, pushchairs, and plenty of decoys. She was a girl on a mission, letting nothing stop her from finding her trail layer!

❤️ Zippy ❤️
Unfortunately, Zippy’s handler was out of action today 😥 so Maisie kindly lent her handler for the day 🥰. Zippy showed fantastic focus, navigating trails full of distractions while breaking in her temporary handler. She even acknowledged her favorite thing—a squirrel!—but powered past to reach her trail layer. Such determination!

🧙‍♂️ Frodo 🧙‍♂️
What a day for this little guy! Frodo’s confidence has come on leaps and bounds, and it’s such a joy to watch his progress. A venue like today might have been overwhelming last year, but now he tackles it with his nose down and tail held high. From pushchairs and bikes to off-lead dogs and noisy decoys, Frodo didn’t miss a beat. Brilliant work!

🩵 Jarvis 🩵
Jarvis worked like a true professional today, navigating highly contaminated areas with aged scent and heaps of distractions. His final trail took him through a busy outside café area filled with decoys, dogs, and children, but he stayed laser-focused and found his trail layer in record time. What a star! 🌟

💙 Hugo 💙
The trainer curse meant Hugo hadn’t trailed in a while, but thanks to the lovely clients, he got his turn too. Working through areas where he usually enjoys off-lead walks, Hugo tackled aged trails with enthusiasm and clearly loved being back in the game. 🥳

All the teams did exceptionally well in a high-distraction environment. Their determination and love for the game shone through from start to finish. 🌟

12/01/2025

🌟 Double Trouble for LK9 Today! 🌟

With two instructors running separate sessions, it’s been a busy day for us! Jens’ session report will follow, but here’s the lowdown on Lisa’s session in Evesham. Huge thanks to our friends at for generously letting us use their facilities 🙏🏻❤️.

🐾 Team Finn returned to Mantrailing after an 18-month break (with only a handful of trails under his belt beforehand). We started by reminding him of the game, and WOW, what progress! By the second and third trails, Finn was confidently working away from mum and showing us how it’s done. Incredible job, little man! 💪🏻👏🏻

🐾 The other four teams, with more experience under their collars, tackled their longest trails to date. Handlers also stepped up, learning how to navigate the Mantrailing App - you can see some of their trails in the photos- and managing trails packed with junctions and tricky decisions. It was hard work for both dogs and handlers, but the results were worth it—absolutely smashing it! 🎉🐶

Amazing teamwork all around. Well done, everyone! 🐕‍🦺💖

10/01/2025

Today’s Mantrailing Session

We had a last-minute venue change today due to local flooding, and it was freezing—literally! 🥶🥶 Despite the cold, the teams worked fabulously.

Freezing conditions can make trailing more challenging for the dogs, as scent particles don’t disperse as much, resulting in a weaker trail with a clearer proximity area around the trail layer. The dogs showed some fantastic work in certain areas, while in others, we can only make educated guesses as to why they struggled.

🐕‍🦺 Ginnie nailed her second trail, picking up the narrow gap to locate her trail layer brilliantly.
🐕‍🦺 Wren, at just 7 months old, had her first-ever go! I was so impressed with how she disengaged from potential triggers and got into ‘work’ mode. 👏🏻👏🏻
🐕‍🦺 Fern was phenomenal as she stayed focused even when off-lead dogs ran around her—she barely broke stride! 👌🏼
🐕‍🦺 Frankie was a boy on a mission, and it was great to see his drive and motivation returning. 👍🏻
🐕‍🦺 Kobe worked so hard to keep his cool with lots of cars going past, and he handled it like a champ (with a bit of humor)! 😂

Thank you all for braving the cold, and as always, for the fabulous company! 🥶

07/01/2025

This event was so popular that I have managed to arrange a second day 😎🤩🥳
Now also on Sunday 22nd June. Currently just three handler spaces available on the Sunday and I will run a wait list for both days, so just drop me a message if you miss out.
Lots of spectator places available on both days and I promise you’ll learn and go away with new things to think about from watching the handlers and asking questions

https://bookwhen.com/lk9mantrailing

*** HANDLER SPACES ALL TAKEN***

I’m more than a little bit excited to be hosting Corinne Wrend this summer.
Sat 21st June
Rewards and their delivery all day workshop.

This isn’t related to mantrailing, it’s more of a geeky training workshop primarily looking at how best to reward your dog, including where to give the reward, and reward specific markers so that it’s clear to your dog what they are getting and where from .

For any dog trainers, dog sports handlers or just enthusiastic owners that want to have something new to think about, I think you’ll love it!

Corinne is an awesome handler (specialising in Malis & GSDs for obedience, tracking and protection work) and was (I believe) the first to go to the IGP world champs having used only reward based training. She communicates really well with humans and focusses on clarity in our communication with our dogs. She works with the team in front of her, so will help whatever your dogs breed or training level.
Very limited handler spaces but plenty of spectator spaces- you’ll learn lots by watching and asking questions.

Available to book in the usual way:
https://lk9mantrailing.bookwhen.com/schedules/ufdtks83sq0e

05/01/2025

*** HANDLER SPACES ALL TAKEN***

I’m more than a little bit excited to be hosting Corinne Wrend this summer.
Sat 21st June
Rewards and their delivery all day workshop.

This isn’t related to mantrailing, it’s more of a geeky training workshop primarily looking at how best to reward your dog, including where to give the reward, and reward specific markers so that it’s clear to your dog what they are getting and where from .

For any dog trainers, dog sports handlers or just enthusiastic owners that want to have something new to think about, I think you’ll love it!

Corinne is an awesome handler (specialising in Malis & GSDs for obedience, tracking and protection work) and was (I believe) the first to go to the IGP world champs having used only reward based training. She communicates really well with humans and focusses on clarity in our communication with our dogs. She works with the team in front of her, so will help whatever your dogs breed or training level.
Very limited handler spaces but plenty of spectator spaces- you’ll learn lots by watching and asking questions.

Available to book in the usual way:
https://lk9mantrailing.bookwhen.com/schedules/ufdtks83sq0e

04/01/2025

👀👀🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
Mantrailing dates for February are now live for booking😀

Hopefully there is something for everyone, as we have a mix of days and times, rural and urban, 2 or 3 trails and two longer trails. Plus we are running an introduction session (we don’t hold them very often) so if you’ve fancied finding out what all the fuss is about, here’s your chance! If you’d like to give mantrailing a go but can’t make the introduction date, drop me a message and I’ll see if we can add you into another session👍🏻.

Click on this link ⬇️ for details and drop me a message if you have any questions

https://bookwhen.com/lk9mantrailing

04/01/2025

We had a wonderful LK9 (mantrailing) social walk this morning! 🥰
Some brought dogs along, some came solo, some stayed for a pub lunch, and others had to dash off—but it was lovely to see all of you.

It was so nice to have a chance to chat and catch up without my focus being on teaching, and it really highlighted how much mantrailing is about the social connections as well as working with our dogs.

Thanks to everyone who came along—I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

I think it’s been decided that a summer BBQ social is needed😀

24/12/2024

As a little thank you for their support and dedication to Mantrailing with LK9 this year, the 5 clients that have attended the most sessions in 2024 have a little Christmas gift from us.
Jane Roberta Careless, Hackett, Janice O'Hara Patricia Tuckley and Julie Bates pop me a message to receive your gift 🎁🐕‍🦺🙏🧑🏻‍🎄

23/12/2024

Christmas on the buses, afternoon session

23/12/2024

On Sunday, LK9 teamed up with Jason from Worcester Dogs to offer 20 teams a unique and festive mantrailing session on the buses. 🐾🚌🐕‍🦺

The weather was wild! While we had the occasional glimpse of blue sky and sunshine, the day was dominated by strong, cold winds and rain, making an already challenging venue even tougher for the dogs to work in.

Each dog had the opportunity to trail into buildings, explore the buses, and work with novel, Christmassy scent articles. For the humans, there were plenty of snacks, non-alcoholic mulled wine 😉, hot drinks, and festive fun. Prizes were awarded for the best-dressed festive costumes in each group, and everyone went home with a goodie bag to mark the occasion. 🎅🏼🎁

It was fantastic to collaborate with another instructor and to see so many happy dogs and owners working so well together. Jason and I were both incredibly impressed with how brilliantly everyone handled the conditions. Well done, all! 🙌🏼🐕‍🦺

As per, I took lots of photos (although less in the afternoon as it got darker) so these are from the morning and I’ll do a separate post with photos from the afternoon groups😀)