26/08/2024
Happy from Mr Moussaka ❤️
Common Scents enrichment practice offers a unique blend of natural sensory experiences for your dog
(11)
Common Scents canine enrichment practice is managed by Lisa Edwards who has studied at Brinsbury College (Canine Care and Management) as well as completing various companion animal training programmes whilst working for the RSPCA. Lisa is also qualified in ‘Canine Communication’ and ‘Scentwork Enrichment’, and has completed a range of training programmes including ‘Enriched Environments for Professionals’.
Happy from Mr Moussaka ❤️
Friday fun
It's our wedding anniversary today, 24 years, so this seems very apt!!!
Wonderful Wilson ❤
It was so lovely to see Wilson again who came along for his second visit and did amazingly well. Also, a big well done to his mum who is working so hard to help Wilson feel more relaxed and confident about the big wide world and is doing a great job. Thank you for bringing your lovely boy.
ps It's also lovely to see Mr O's scent is still of interest on his old harness and muzzle, his memory lives on ❤
Otto ❤
Oh my, what a handsome fella Otto is, and what a delight to watch him explore with great enthusiasm. Thank you to mum and dad for bringing your super boy!
Awkward post!
I have been informed Common Scents and The Secret Dog Garden has been nominated for the Pet Hero award run by Pet Remedies 'Summer of Love Awards'.
Anyone that knows me will be aware that I am not one for bigging myself up! But I do believe my little enrichment area has given a lot of pleasure to dogs and their humans, so if you have visited with your dog and fancy adding your nomination you can do so on the link below. ❤
https://petremedy.co.uk/summer-of-love-awards/
A free webinar with Nordic Education Centre for Ethical Dog Training
Learn about calming signals in dogs, and how our own body language can help our dogs. I'll post a video in the comments section below showing our very own Mr O and how we used the universal hand signal and splitting.
Sign up below to register and I'll see you there!
https://nordicdogtrainer.simplero.com/funnel/60212/calming-signals-approach-europe?fbclid=IwY2xjawEvEttleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZtPmgyvjBdAbzpYRMlHRIe4kY0ul92LExu9wEfu5QPZlW_kedvdebWVqA_aem_XeCDy5TXLlf9nfYtWW54jw
Learn how recognizing and responding to calming signals can reduce stress and help your clients achieve better training results.
Baldrick had his bad tooth removed at the vets on Wednesday, and has been back today for a check up and all is healing nicely.
However, although our visual stress monitor ball pit (trigger stacking) had been emptying slowly, we are now back to almost full as this has obviously been traumatic for the little chap. We are taking things slowly until he is fully recovered, physically and emotionally.
Friday fun
Koby ❤
It was an absolute delight to welcome Koby and his family to The Secret Dog Garden. Koby explored immediately and checked out the whole area. He was a pleasure to watch and it was lovely to hear all about him from his family. Thank you for bringing your lovely boy.
Zola ❤
I really need to get a video of Zola's arrival, as a regular she know's where she is going so it's a case of letting her off lead and watching her run down the garden to the entrance! She is such a character and chose to bring the chicken feeder into the main building to show us her grand find, and although I had hidden the old African drums on top of the store cupboard she still sniffed them out with her super sniffy powers. Thanks for the laughs Zola, your visits always make me laugh out loud!
Daisy ❤
It was great to see the wonderful Daisy again along with her lovely mum. Daisy had a good time exploring, and was particularly interested in Mr O's old harness, and it was fun to watch her try to locate the liver paste on the licky wall!
A quick thank you to everyone who has emailed me today, or filled out a form to visit, I will get back to you tomorrow as right now I'm having a love in with Mr Moussaka and Baldrick ❤
If you live near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, then you are lucky enough to have an amazing enrichment experience to visit at Paws Explore opened by Dr Amber Batson!
I only wish I lived nearer as Mr Moussaka and Baldrick would definitely be visiting!
Lupin ❤
Love this boy, he had a good explore, including checking out the art work on the wall, plus took a fancy to the earth collected from a local mole hill!
Meg ❤
It was lovely to see this beautiful young girl again, what a super girl she is, and of course to catch up with her equally lovely mum!
Feeling a bit sad with everything that is going on in this crazy world right now so thought I would share a Baldrick update.
In the 8 weeks Baldrick has been here we have concentrated on teaching him one thing, and one thing only. And that one thing is kindness.
Forget your sit, stay, roll over or whatever, at this point all he needs to know is that we are kind, and we will look out for him as we all get to know each other.
After all, we are responsible for the remainder of his life, so building a relationship based on kindness and trust is all that really matters. ❤
Friday fact
We've had to postpone visits this week as Mr Moussaka has been poorly so instead Baldrick has been making the most of The Secret Dog Garden.
Mr Moussaka hasn't been able to go out with his friend Albee due to his sore paw, plus it has been too hot anyway. Instead Albee enjoyed a shady home enrichment visit with all sorts of goodies, plus my cat's blanket and an old cat flap which he was very keen on!
We have a poorly Mr Moussaka 🥲
We thought it was a pesky grass seed, but on examination the vet couldn't find any entry mark so we are not sure how he hurt his paw but it is very sore. He has antibiotics, painkillers, and the cone of shame. Baldrick has been so polite with his communication with Moosey and thankfully they are still getting on well (despite the look on Moosey's face).
PS we have added a couple of balls to Baldrick's (visual stress monitor) ball pit as this is another stressor for him as well as Moosey.
Love seeing regular visitor Beth and her wonderful human Hannah, who came last week. It is always entertaining, although Beth got a bit bored of us chatting when she was done!
Happy weekend all from the odd couple, Mr Moussaka and Baldrick (who are getting on very well!)
Friday fun ... Baldrick approves of this post!
Sadly, due to unfortunate circumstances, I am looking to rehome 4,725,389 slugs from my garden.
Photo of Cecil for reference, Cecil and his 4,725,388 friends are all slug friendly, sociable with people, kids, dogs, cats, easy to care for and eat ANYTHING that is growing in the garden.
Advisory note: Would recommend neutering
Free to collector. 😉
If you are looking for a professional dog walker in the Chichester area then I can't recommend Anya highly enough.
Your Pet's Second Best Friend
professional, Qualified and trained to give your pups the best care 🐶
Wonderful Wilson came for a sniff about in The Secret Dog Garden, he did so well exploring, yet it was unfortunate some random dog in the distance barking distracted him.
Never mind Wilson, you did grand, and it was a pleasure to meet you and your mum. ❤
The Secret Dog Garden in Rustington
Bookings are now being taken for August onwards. Weekend slots are all taken but we have availability for lots of week days at either 9am, 10am, or from 2pm onwards. If you would prefer a weekend visit then let us know and we can book you in for September.
The Secret Dog Garden is a safe and secure enrichment area which allows your dog to focus on their natural behaviours – sniff, search, investigate and explore, providing them with a complete …
Thank you Milo, Baldrick enjoyed sniffing your pemails! He was very inquisitive for some time and then came in and had a relaxing sleep on the sofa. ❤
(Oh, and during your visit he was happy to snuggle up on the sofa and snooze with Papa so all is good!)
Rustington
<<NOT-APPLICABLE>>
Monday | 8am - 7pm |
Tuesday | 8am - 7pm |
Wednesday | 8am - 7pm |
Thursday | 8am - 7pm |
Friday | 8am - 7pm |
Saturday | 8am - 7pm |
Sunday | 8am - 7pm |
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Common Scents posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Send a message to Common Scents:
Beach boys - Mr Moussaka and Baldrick Our first off lead walk at the crack of dawn and the boy did good!
Baldrick update We took the boys to Bridge Meadow secure Dog Field last week so they could spend some time exploring together off lead, and in peace. It was really nice to be able to just observe them as they chose to sniff around together, and they really enjoyed it too. We had a couple of recalls (after they had spent a lot of time sniffing) and Baldrick was a super star!
Pleased to say Daisy Puss has returned to her rightful place on the sofa with no issues from Badrick! Happy weekend all 🙂
Baldrick adoption update Day 1 - we did nothing Day 2 - we did nothing Day 3 - he had a sniff around outside space of The Secret Dog Garden Day 4 - he had sniff around the larger building, and rather liked it! (no food was involved, just sniffing) Day 5 - he had a sniff around the animal scent shed Baldrick has now given his approval to The Secret Dog Garden! We have gone super slowly with his introduction to our family, as he has lost his own, so he will obviously be super stressed. We haven't always got it right, and I will be honest with our mistakes (not his) and will share more updates soon. Right now he is chilling on the sofa and has no interest in the cat who is on the other sofa for the first time since he arrived ❤
Mr O is not going out so much anymore, and when he does it's for shorter periods, so little Moosey has been coming out with just me and this change in dynamics has knocked his confidence a bit. So, to help him out he had a lovely little enrichment session in my wonderful neighbours garden, just me and him, with time to explore at will whilst feeling completely safe. He had a good 20 minutes of sniffing and discovering, and most importantly, not worrying about where everyone else was. Love you Moose ❤
In between the torrential rain and today's snow me and Mr Moussaka got to enjoy a beautiful sunset down the beach.
Nothing to see here, just Mr Moussaka and his mate Crow sharing a treat search on the last day of the year!
Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you to all our supporters and your wonderful dogs who have visited during 2023. We can't wait to see you again next year in The Secret Dog Garden. We have a few visitors booked in after Christmas but will be taking a social media break and return in the New Year. Best wishes to you all.
Me, Moose and our friend the Crow. We haven't been to this park for ages as it gets too muddy, but our friend the crow still remembered us. This was his 5th fly in (as he is partial to sharing Moosey's treats!), so I thought I would film him. Corvids are exceptionally intelligent, and I am sure he will remember us even if we don't return for a few weeks.
I put a camera up when Molly came to visit, to share a couple of clips showing how dog's explore when they are: 1. Feeling safe 2. Completely free to explore without us interfering! Humans have a strange idea that dog's need to run around, chasing balls etc. to wear them out, but this is completely false, in fact they just get pumped full of hormones and find it harder to relax. When dog's come to visit The Secret Dog Garden, once they feel secure, they relax and sniff, they walk, not run, and take in information which they can slowly process, and the end result is a very 'happy tired' dog, who goes home to have a restful sleep. #canineenrichment #thesecretdoggarden
I have been a bit quiet on social media recently as so much going on! But here is a little clip of what I have been up to. The very lovely Peggy-Sue exploring an indoor enriched environment I set up for her, and she shows some lovely calming signals, love her x
#canineenrichment tip 15 Do something different with the ball! I know I bang on about the dangers of repetitive ball throwing, but that's because it is harmful, especially now the ground is so wet and slippery. So do something different ... scent discrimination. 6 tennis balls, hidden around the area, and the task is to find the one hidden with catnip. Mr Moussaka loves this job and is a super duper sniffer!
1-2-1 home enrichment visits
Lisa brings an alternative approach to care for your pets whilst you are at work or busy elsewhere, offering home enrichment sessions on a 1-2-1 basis giving your dog an opportunity to spend quality time on their own terms.
30 minute visits
These visits include a short sniff walk around your local area allowing the dog time to stop, sniff and explore, because we walk the dog for their benefit after all. This is followed by varying enrichment activities once home such as scent trails, novel items to explore and puzzle games tailored for your dog.
One hour visits
Longer visits include off-lead adventures to varying locations to stimulate interest and give your dog the opportunity to explore new smells and environments. No large group walks means less travel time for your dog, with multiple collection and drop off points, as well as individual attention and avoiding any potential stress. On return your dog will get to enjoy enrichment activities planned just for them, taking into account your dogs age, breed type and personality.
We get huge pleasure from planning the activities for your dog, and your dog gets a boredom buster designed just for them.
Providing quality mental stimulation and encouraging the dog’s natural behaviour is highly beneficial and can be just as tiring as physical exercise alone.
Contact us to find out more.
And don’t forget we provide care for your cat, your home, and you too if you are planning a trip away and will even make sure you have a fresh pint of milk in your fridge on the day of your return.
Care for your cat