Hannah Thompson Dog Training - APDT #01423

16/06/2024

Things have been super busy here recently hence the radio silence… but this morning we had Scentwork league with and this meant a catch up with afterwards. It also gave an opportunity for Ghillie to meet his nephew and niece ❤️

Ensuring puppies have positive experiences with adult dogs is fundamental to their development. As Ghillies person, it’s my responsibility to make sure the experience is positive for him as well as the puppy, and to make sure I advocate for them both. Little Lemmy here was quite taken with his uncle and they had lovely interactions with one another 💙💛

19/05/2024

Great fun with scentwork league in the sun this morning ❤️

Well done to everyone who took part in the Scentwork League this morning! Dogs worked super hard and it was so nice to do a search outside - which everyone handled brilliantly!

Results for today are as follows:

🥇Joint First place: Sniper and Piper (15 points each)
🥈 Second place: Florrie (14 points)
🥉Third place: Skye (13 points)

4th place: Skylar (12 points)
5th place: Sammy (11 points)
6th place: Heckie (10 points)

Looking forward to the June one already 🐾
Hannah x

04/05/2024

Would highly recommend Jackie and her classes 🐕

Following lots of queries and requests (AND some slightly better weather than we have had all winter.....!) I have planned some evening canine coaching classes starting in May!

These will take place in private, enclosed woodland, so ideal for training our companion gundog, and especially spaniel, breeds (although all are welcome!) 🐾

FULL DETAILS:

Location: Private, enclosed woodland near Alverton, Notts, NG13 9PG

When: Weekly on four consecutive Monday evenings – block 1 starts 6th May, block 2 starts 10th June, block 3 starts 8th July and block 4 starts 5th August

Time: 6.30-7.15 PM – Puppy/foundation class; 7.30 -8.15 PM – improvers/intermediate/advanced class (Aug sessions start 30 mins earlier due to sunset!)

Cost: £100 per dog for each block of four classes OR £30 per session on PAYG (because spaces are limited, preference will be given to anyone booking the class series)

Ideal for: anyone living with a spaniel who would like some specialist training and support, while also working towards the APDT Good Companion awards. Other breeds/types are welcome, although please note that the sessions are designed to work specifically with spaniels and their caregivers.

The aim is: to provide hints, tips and skills to support your training and relationship with your spaniel in a way that is enjoyable and functional for you and your dog.

There is an emphasis on supporting each individual dog/handler and your ambitions, whether you would like to work your spaniel or simply want a happy companion.

Your coach: Dr Jacqueline Boyd, MAPDT (01583), Animal Behaviour and Training Council Registered Animal Training Instructor

To book your place: email [email protected] OR visit https://forms.office.com/r/T2FmKaxWey (places will be confirmed on receipt of payment)

31/03/2024

Happy Easter to all our friends, two and four legged 🐰🐣 🌸

30/03/2024

🐰 Another helpful lesson from Dr Jacqueline Boyd, Animal Scientist and Canine Consultant 🐾

🐰🐰🐰🐰Has the Easter Bunny visited you yet this weekend?🐰🐰🐰

While on the bunny theme, it's a good time to revisit the oft cited myth that rabbit ears are effective (de)wormers......

TLDR; they aren't 🫣

🐇👂'Ear, 'ear 👂🐇

Can I whisper something to you? 🤫

*hairy ears (or other hairy body parts of animals) are not effective de-wormers for your dog* 🙈

I see this being advertised and advised a lot and it worries me as parasitic worms are capable of causing significant health and welfare issues if not appropriately managed - and feeding hairy ears are not appropriate management methods! 🐰

If furry things were effective dewormers, wild and free-living scavengers and carnivores would not have the parasite burdens we know they can have 🦊🦝🦡🦅

What these chews are however, are tasty (for some dogs) additions to our dogs' daily diet and can provide enrichment and a source of animal-derived fibre that may support gut health. Their effectiveness at 'trapping' worms and microscopic worm eggs in the gut....no robust evidence at all 🪱🔬

(And honestly.... just because you never see worms or eggs, that doesn't mean they aren't there!)🫣

If you want to control parasites;
🪱poo pick regularly and keep housing areas clean - many parasites are transmitted in 💩

🪱ensure good overall health for your dog through diet, exercise, management and care

🪱use a service to know what is ACTUALLY going on

🪱treat based on need and seek veterinary advice on local issues relating to management, parasite species concerns and possible resistance problems - these differ based on geographical location, climate, vector species and a whole host of other variables!

Keep hairy ears as tasty treats (but also source carefully....remember these are by-products of animal production systems and not all are as high welfare as we might like to think 🐰)

And if you want to learn about dietary animal-derived fibre, have a look at

Depauw S, Hesta M, Whitehouse-Tedd K, Vanhaecke L, Verbrugghe A, Janssens GP. Animal fibre: the forgotten nutrient in strict carnivores? First insights in the cheetah. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2013 Feb;97(1):146-54. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0396.2011.01252.x. Epub 2011 Nov 10. PMID: 22074361. 🐆

29/03/2024

Excellent advice from my friend and colleague Dr Jacqueline Boyd, Animal Scientist and Canine Consultant 🐾 🐕

Stay safe and have a lovely Easter 🐣

🥚These are the only 'mini eggs' my team are getting this holiday weekend! 🥚

There is likely to be a lot of yummy but potentially 'nasty for our dogs' food around at the moment, especially....

🍇raisins
🍫chocolate
🧅onions
🍷alcohol

And lots of flowers too 💐 (flower bulbs? Also a potential problem!)

This is your seasonal reminder to keep these things away from your dog 🐕

If they DO get hold of an 'oopsie' your vet needs to be the first port of call - don't wait!

The scary thing is that for some dogs, only a very small amount of some nasties can be a serious problem, so.....

🚫 Keep yummies away and remind visitors to not give your dog treats of human food
🙌Have little pots of dog treats handy for easy rewards or even 'rapid situation amendment' should your dog inadvertently get hold of something!
🥚Give your dog a non-chocolate egg treat - even raw and shell too (but lightly cooked is also an option if you prefer!)

We are really lucky and have our quail produce these pretty, tasty, little, nutrient dense eggs 🥚

Some will be incubated for new stock 🐣🐤🐥

Others will be shared between me and my team 😋🐾

Have a lovely weekend friends 🐾

22/03/2024

This is written about horses, but the same applies to any animal we’re working with.

Just because we’re bigger and stronger than our dogs, we do not have the right to use physical force and coercion to make them do stuff. When we know better, we can do better ❤️

“Let’s see you do it without the treats.”

Ah, yes, a common way people try to shoot down R+ training as if this is some type of gotcha.

What about this?

Let’s see you do it without the ear plugs.

Or shadow roll. Or blinkers.

Let’s see you do it without the gag bit.

Or bit with abrasive mouth piece.

Or any bit at all.

Or any bridle at all, for that matter.

Let’s see you do it without the spurs.

Or the whip. Or the stud chain.

Let’s see you do it without any tack and equipment at all.

Entirely at liberty.

Let’s see you do it without pressure and release.

That’s your primary reinforcer, stop using that and let’s see you train.

Because that’s the equivalent of what is being asked to R+ trainers when you ask them to stop using any type of reinforcer.

Oh, is that unfair to ask you to throw out your “necessary” equipment and still maintain the same results?

Funny how that works.

And interesting how people don’t like their own attempts to derail the efficacy of rewards based training thrown back at their own training methods.

If you can’t do it without — don’t ask other people to.

Duration can be built with food and reinforcement becomes less frequent.

But, it still needs to occur intermittently to retain behaviours.

Just like with R- / pressure and release (but fortunately you can usually build more duration with food rewards).

Using reinforcers that your horse enjoys and finds valuable isn’t a weakness.

Being able to compel horses to do things you ask, without needing to coerce their response using harsh equipment, is a strength.

Let’s stop pretending it’s inherently flawed.

04/03/2024

From the 1st April I will be using an online booking system to try and streamline offering private work alongside classes with Canine Centric Coaching and Consulting and a full time job.

Keep your eyes peeled for the link which will be shared on here with details of how to book 🐾

03/03/2024

🐾 Absolutely love my Sunday scentwork groups and how committed they are to working with their dogs 🐾

16/02/2024

🐕 Progressive scent work workshop - Sunday 18th Feb 9.15-10.30am

🐕 One space remaining - £30. Max 4 dogs in a group.

🐕 Working on perfecting your dogs indication and search pattern - suitable for anyone who has already trained an active indication to any odour.

Message or email to book 📅

31/01/2024

Training hacks…

We talk about setting the environment up to help our dogs succeed, but the same goes for us as humans too. If you make training your dog an easy win, you’d be surprised at how reinforcing that is for you as a human.

If you sometimes get overwhelmed with the number of things you are wanting to work with your dog on, I have recently found this to be an effective method of helping you be accountable, and also stop you having to think on the spot when training…

In the mug are lollipop sticks - each with a behaviour written on. The mug lives by the kettle, along with a tub of treats. Every time I boil the kettle, I pull a stick out and spend the few minutes working on that behaviour. It takes away the time taken to think about what to train and means that every day I am probably doing 20 minutes of training in small, manageable sessions… and guess what… it works 😉

What are your top tips for training success?

21/01/2024

Super duper sniffers in the first league of 2024 🐾 🐕

Today was the first Scentwork League of 2024 🥳

Well done to everyone that competed - it was fab to see you all and the dogs had a great time and worked really hard!

Results as follows:

🥇 First place: Sniper (15 points)
🥈 Second place: Florrie (14 points)
🥉 Third place: Piper (13 points)

4th place: Merlin (12 points)
Joint 5th place: Dash and Tansy (11 points each)
6th place: Sox (10 points)
7th place: Heckie (9 points)
8th place: Skye (8 points)
9th place: Skylar (7 points)
10th place: Sammie (6 points)

Looking forward to the next one in Feb already - get practising! 👀🐕🐾

17/01/2024

My very best blue girl showing off her sniffing skills 💜

Scentwork league times for January have now been sent out 🥳

If you haven’t received an email but thought you had booked a place please drop us a message as it seems some email providers are screening us out when sending to multiple recipients (rude!).

There has been a HUGE amount of interest in scentwork league for 2024 which is amazing, but unfortunately due to the venue we are limited in how many spaces we can offer per session. Places are offered to existing clients as a priority, and then any remaining places will be advertised on here and sold on a first come first served basis. We do not operate a waiting list for the scentwork league for new clients.

Happy sniffing! 🐾🐕

Ps. Dotty says how many articles do you think she can find and hold at once?! 😂

08/01/2024

The lovely Elmo celebrated his 12th birthday on Sunday by completing our Introduction to Scentwork course ❤️

Him and his class mates achieved amazing things in just 3 sessions - completing blind full room searches and showing great enthusiasm and persistence. We will be advertising more scent work workshops in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled on the page 🐕🐾