Bert having some fun this morning.
With the warm weather with us games like this are great for your dog, they can be played at home, in the garden, on walks (weather allowing) etc. A retrieve is not required as you can hide something your dog loves and go hunting together to find it and celebrate the find together….great for dogs with high prey drive or low in confidence as you are working with them. Keep it fun and simple, activate that seeking system and all those feel good emotions for your dog and you!
It is just a lovely game of hide and seek so keep it simple and fun.
The “Middle”
On this mornings walk with Bert we had a lot of chill out time and enjoyed just being in the moment. However we did do a little recall training, Bert has amazing recall, be it to the whistle, verbal or visual cue and that has come with time and effort.
Here we revisited an old fav of his which is “Middle”. This is a lovely behaviour and has lots of practical uses, recall, safety, reattaching the lead, sports,etc. The behaviour is where Bert is asked to do a middle and goes behind me and pops back between the legs into a sit/stand….why a sit or stand…well as long as he is in the middle position he can choose what is most comfortable. The video is a bit rubbish as did not quite get the angle of the phone right….but you should get the idea. Why did I not just refilm and make it look really slick…well real life is not really like that is it!
I should add that those with large dogs can still do the behaviour but teach the dog to come around you and stop at your side.
Just one of the things we teach in lifeskills and recall workshops.
Fun at the field last night with some of the scent squad.
Track and Trail SkellyWags Style!
Week 2 of our Track and Trail course.
All the dogs are doing an amazing job. We have a real mix of dogs attending class and we set it up so each dog has the space it needs and deserves.
I make no apology for the giddy happy voice when the dogs find me as I am having as much fun as the dogs.
Bailey the Nose
Track and Trail fun today at our meadow with Bailey the NOSE.
The Gerry
Had to share as was sent this by Gerry’s humans. Gerry is 4 and a half months old and in only 2 weeks of his scent journey is not only searching but locating the odour…way to go Gerry.
Bert
Recall fun
We have been quiet on here recently as we are just really busy and social media is always the thing that will do the least of! i was training a client yesterday and we played this recall game with them...so i decided to record Bert doing it. The idea is recall to me get rewarded and then get rewarded again at the bowl, teaching that recalling back is worthwhile. We start this game with the human and dog much closer together and on a longline if required and then build in distance, distractions, difficulty and duration etc. It is important to start with what the dog can cope with....after all we would not take a learner driver for their first lesson on a busy motorway....we would start in quiet roads and build up confidence and their skill set first!
As well as canicross at the weekend we had puppy class, scentwork for beginners, scentwork regulars, team challenges and 1-2-1’s as usual…we even had some sunshine. Apologises for those groups we did not take photos off….promise to do better this weekend.
With lighter evenings coming we will be running midweek evening sessions again, dates out next week.
What cracking bunch of dogs we had out for Canicross and Canitalk.
We had trails, beaches, woodland, frost, rain, big dogs, small dogs, puddles, sunshine and rain….but most of all we had lots of happy dogs and humans 🐾🐾🐶🐕.
No apologies for the photo spam!
So the sun has finally set on another busy weekend at SkellyWags.
Today saw the third round in our fun scent trial series for some of our Skellywags Scent squad. All the dogs did a brilliant job and the best bit is the humans know it’s all about the dogs. Dogs don’t care if they win or where they are placed….they just love sniffing and searching. Today the dogs worked so well and was so great watching the bond between dog and human grow.
So much of today’s life is measured in things that are just not important, so enjoy the moment and spend time having fun with your dogs.
Shameless photo of Bert just because I finished my day …. Just having fun in the moment with Bert.
It was a busy morning for the instructors at SkellyWags this morning, we had Canicross, Canitalk and Cani-confidence. We are so lucky that we have more classes tomorrow to come.
So many lovely dogs enjoying being with their human. There are dogs in these photos that would struggle in a normal training class environment, however by creating space for them and engaging with them they absolutely thrive.
It is all about time spent with your dog and enjoying the journey you are on.
New layout ready for the week ahead of Stable searching, each week we change the set up and the dogs love it as do the humans.
We have a couple of midweek day slots available and a couple on Sunday afternoon left. It is a great way to spend time having fun with your dog and getting that amazing nose of theirs working. This is perfect for all dogs as no scent training is required as we tailor each session to each dog or dogs attending.
Love watching the dogs grow in confidence each each and seeing them explore and search the stable.
If you want any information or want to book your dog in then please message us.
As always Bert gets to test it out and has given it the paws ups.
We are loving the stable searches as much as the dogs. This weekend we created a little maze of corridors, tunnels, hop ups, passive and active searches, switched the scent from previous weeks and had lots of fun with the dogs.
Scentwork is for everydog, these sessions have dogs that have been doing it for years to complete newbies, each session is tailored to the dogs in attendance.
Want to give it a try? If so drop us a message and we will get back to you.
Bert is happy to confirm that the SantaPaws search zones are being cleared and prepared for weekend classes and private bookings.
It’s safe to say Bert enjoys working with us and although he does not do much of the heavy lifting he does supervise and test drive the zones we set up😂
Sometimes it is easy to over egg the pudding and push/expect too much from our dogs. Today I just kept hiding a scented toy and he loved sniffing around the straw bales trying to find it. Bert is very experienced in scentwork but that does not mean we have to keep raising the bar….Bert loves it because he is using his nose and he is doing it with me, it’s a win win situation and it’s FUN.
What a lovely way to start Christmas Eve, a stable search.
The dogs had great fun and can confirm that SantaPaws has been cleared for take off and the dogs will get their pressies in the morning.
So hard to pick photos from our Christmas Scent Event today, so here are a few that hopefully capture the fun had by all.
We had big dogs, little dogs, big emotion dogs, shy dogs, experienced and new to scentwork and all smashed it.
We create the environment so that the dogs of all emotions can cope and have fun. Scentwork is for every dog.
If you would like to know how to get involved do not hesitate to get in touch.
