Homefield K9 Training

16/09/2025

Highly recommended!!😊

14/09/2025

I don’t do many recommendations on social media, but if you’re looking for great value bedding for your dogs, check out Oakswarren. I get all my mats for classes from them, they’re a really good price and wash well (extra important when I’m using them for clients’ dogs).
They recently emailed about these comfy beds so I decided to treat mine - amazing value and after checking out the new smell, the girls seem to approve!!😁🤩🥱🛌

11/09/2025

11/09/2025

🎆 If you have a dog - then please take this as your sign to start prepping for fireworks night! 🎆

Have you ever lived with a dog that is terrified of gun fire, fireworks or thunderstorms?

I have and I can categorically tell you its the most horrific experience to watch an animal go through that. 💔

One of the kindest things we can do is prepare our dogs for these events.

We have an ebook (your new BFF if you will), that will offer advice on how to prepare for the big night, a 12 day pre event training guide and a variety of different training methods for you to engage with your dog or new puppy!

Grab your copy here (your dog will thank you for it!) 👇

payhip.com/b/dwZN0

06/09/2025

This show has been great fun in the last few years - do support if you can!😊

Join us THIS SUNDAY 7 September from 10:30am to 4pm for the ultimate tail-wagging celebration — Paws 4 Fort 2025! 🐕

Enter your dog in our Family Dog Show for a chance to win prizes!
£2 Entry for first category entered, and £1 Entry for subsequent categories entered – pay on the day. Registration will start from 11am.

Dog Show Judging Categories:
🥇 Waggiest Tail
🥇 Golden Oldie
🥇 Fun Trick
🥇 Cutest Puppy (up to 1 year)
🥇 Assistance Dog
🥇 Young Handler
🥇 Most Beautiful Eyes
🥇 Rescue/Rehomed Dog

With thanks to local businesses, Dorwest Herbs, Hewlett’s Pet & Country Store, Bertie and Wilf Pet Care Services - Weymouth, and Lead On Dog Shop for kindly donated prizes for the 1st place winners in each category, and to Love Dogs West Dorset for providing dog treats for 2-4th plus rosettes.

30/08/2025

Sad that I can’t be involved this year due to health, but it’ll still be a great day! 😊

The countdown begins! Just one week to go until 'Love Dogs West Dorset Fun Dog Show', where compassion meets celebration! Thanks to the generosity of local businesses, we're thrilled to introduce two new categories: Rescue/Rehomed Dog and Beautiful Eyes. Get ready to be inspired by the incredible bond between humans and animals! 🐾in partnership with Nothe Fort Weymouth Betsy Barnes' Diary Therapy Dogs Nationwide Roger Rafa and Andy, Dorwest Herbs Hewlett’s Pet & Country Store Lead On Dog Shop Bertie and Wilf Pet Care Services - Weymouth

30/08/2025

Generalising your training!

I shared the start of my new training plan last week, starting with some duration stays in the garden.

Clients in class often say they can get a great stay at home, but it’s completely different in a class setting - and that’s entirely normal. There are all sorts of distractions that you don’t have at home. If you think you’ve cracked it, you might be disappointed in a new environment!
Here we’re taking the stay out on a walk - I’m not asking for 60 seconds here, as we’ve added the distraction of a change of location, sheep in the field and the chance of people or dogs appearing. Reducing the duration and just working on coping with distance and distraction for the time being means that we are still making progress!
How’s your training going this week?😊

26/08/2025

Hormones!

Ember is now 18 months old, and has just come to the end of her second season. If you have a female, you may have noticed quite a few changes during oestrus, besides following her around with a mop for the first couple of weeks.
A reliable early sign for me is an increase in short wee-stops when on walks - if, like me, you have girls who already scent mark (in Ember’s case, literally cocking her leg up fence posts like a boy 😱😆) then it can be harder to spot but it’s usually noticeable.
We have continued to walk, but with sensible precautions in place: avoiding other dogs, mostly staying on lead and sticking to places where we can see a fair distance ahead.

The really interesting change this time though has been Ember’s reaction to other dogs. When we moved house recently, barking in surrounding gardens predictably set off a response in my two - I worked on this straight away and reminded them that, as in our previous home, we don’t need to shout back. All fine until week two of the season: suddenly, hearing another dog barking sent Ember into a fury of retaliation. She also struggled with seeing other dogs on walks, and if they made a sound then we had a reaction. This isn’t something she would normally do unless she felt threatened so it was a significant change.

If we think about how much hormones contribute to our mood and feelings, it’s pretty understandable that they affect dogs in similar ways. Ember will have been feeling quite conflicted, urinating everywhere to advertise her availability but not actually wanting anyone near her for the most part (we were even more careful to avoid others at the most crucial stage when she stopped bleeding, the most fertile point of the season).

Thankfully - and very clearly - as she reached the end of the cycle, these changes disappeared and she is now, once again, able to generally ignore barking in the garden and show a friendly disposition towards others on walks.
If I hadn’t considered the possibility of hormonal changes causing her grumpiness, I might have been really worried; it’s well worth thinking about what’s going on if you see a new or different behaviour in your dog.

20/08/2025

So what can I do with the dogs while on crutches?

What with moving house and feeling a bit despondent while waiting for news on surgery dates, the girls have, it’s fair to say, been a bit neglected. I feel quite strongly that I haven’t been meeting their needs, something that I believe to be really important. A bored dog can become a problem dog - not always, some are real couch potatoes, but I like to make sure they get some mental exercise alongside the physical.
So, since last weekend, I’ve made a conscious effort to incorporate a training plan each week. I’m still working hard on recall and walking on lead when we go out, but it’s good to do some other stuff as well.
The danger is, I’ll feel lazy and not get round to it, or I’ll put it off until the evening then not bother. So I’m re-starting a weekly schedule: I’ve done this before and it does help keep me on track.
It doesn’t have to be every day, and it doesn’t have to take up much time - in fact, shorter training sessions are often more effective and I’m much more likely to find the time for them.
Today we spent about fifteen minutes working on our 60 second stay, adding distractions to shorter reps in between - I’m really pleased that despite the gaps in practice, they both coped fine!🥰

15/08/2025

Sadly, the last classes have finished and I’d usually be booking up the September groups but I’m pretty much ‘off sick’ instead while I wait for surgery (which should be in the next three months 😩). I want to try and post something relevant from time to time though, so you don’t all forget me!
I’m still hobbling round a short route with the girls most mornings, but we are all missing the long walks we used to enjoy; I will just have to be patient and look forward to them next year, but it’s not fair on the dogs to have to wait that long. I’ve been lucky enough to come across the wonderful PawsNfur Petcare who braved the first expeditions this week (I’m so jealous!!😩😆) and the pups had a great time. What made me particularly happy was watching Sonnet trot off down the road, tail wagging - she’s been known to bolt home if someone else takes her out so this was just lovely to see!❤️
I’m so grateful to have found someone who can give the girls the sort of exercise they love while I can’t. 🥰

31/07/2025

Dogs and Babies

I love this recent photo of my baby granddaughter interacting safely under close supervision with Sonnet, and it gives me an opportunity to write a quick post about dogs and babies.

It’s such an important topic and there are still a vast number of pictures on the internet that just horrify anyone who has a bit of understanding of canine body language, yet people are sharing them as cute.😳

Babies clambering over dogs, pulling ears, tugging in handfuls of fur; toddlers sitting on them, dogs licking faces - none of this is safe.

When Lottie arrived, it was a first for all our current pups, as none of them has come across a baby before. Introductions were carefully managed at a suitable distance and Sonnet, who is generally scared of lots of things, was predictably worried about the small bundle that smelled different to anything she’d encountered before.

She kept a fair way away to begin with, but over the last four months she has become interested and then really fond of her new tiny family member. Unlike Ember, who is a total hooligan so is kept well away to avoid any accidental injury, Sonnet is super-gentle and loves saying hello.

Baby Lottie is fascinated by the dogs and is just beginning to reach towards them, so it’s just as vital to make sure she doesn’t grab them as it is to ensure that Sonnet is happy to be this close. It goes without saying that there won’t be any climbing on or pulling about - apart from being very unfair to dogs, it’s so easy for small children to get bitten by pups that have reached the end of their patience.
This looks like the start of a great friendship!❤️

25/07/2025

Look beyond the obvious!

Snoozing girls after a much-needed canine massage with Phoenix Canine Therapies! I’ve been really pleased with how they’ve coped with the house move - they seem to have settled well and accepted our new home.

However, this isn’t the whole picture. Ember, in particular, is showing signs elsewhere that it’s not been without its stresses. Bearing in mind that she is now 17 months old, so right in the middle of adolescence with all the challenges that brings, and she’s also quite possibly approaching her second season so may be a bit hormonal, it’s perhaps not surprising that I’m seeing some tricky behaviours in settings away from home.

Walks have been variable - sometimes fine, but she’s much more fixated on any other dogs she sees, and although her recall remains good when there’s no one about, I wouldn’t be confident that she’d come away from another pup. She struggled to cope with Scent Club this week, lacking focus and acting like she’d never seen a hide before, and rampaged around Jo’s tiny pod before being able to settle and wait for her massage treatment.

At first glance, it might seem like she’s being naughty - but shes not; she’s finding things difficult. All the changes, at such a tricky age, can be a lot to deal with. So my plan now is to slow everything down, avoid putting her in situations that she is likely to find hard, and to go right back to basics with short training sessions at home each day so that she has a chance to succeed.
Wish me luck!😁