Top Gunn Canine

21/10/2026

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Detection Dog Trials

21/10/2026

For the first time ever, I’ve had to find someone to walk the dogs I leave at home, after my son rather inconveniently decided to go off to university! 🙄

I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous about leaving them in someone else’s care, but I really needn’t have worried.

Luna, Layla and Toro are in the best hands with Pawfect Companions N.Devon and absolutely love the girls!

It’s such a relief knowing I can go away and the dogs at home are not only being well looked after, but are having the time of their lives too.

In fact, I’m starting to think they’d quite like me to go away more often! 😂

I honestly can’t recommend the girls highly enough. It’s a big thing trusting someone else with your dogs, especially when you’re used to doing everything yourself, but I feel completely confident leaving mine in their care.

Video in the comments of just how happy the dogs are to see their new best friends. Not entirely convinced they’re that pleased when I come home! 😂

16/10/2026

The fab 3 and I are off on another adventure ❤️

10/10/2026

And now for something completely different! 🏆

Today Goose and I (along with the cling-ons in the van, Cougar and Pippin!) headed off to our first rally show and Allbreedience competition!

In true do as I say, not as I do fashion, I went along completely unprepared. Exactly what I tell my students NOT to do! 😂

But Goose, being Goose, absolutely pulled it out of the bag!

We came away with a 3rd and 4th place, with excellent qualifying scores in both Level 1 and Level 2 rally!

Then came the Allbreedience, which was SO much fun! We even ended up in a run-off and managed to bag 2nd place at our very first show!

I genuinely didn’t expect to enjoy myself quite as much as I did, but what an incredible day!

Goose was just awesome. Is there nothing this dog can’t do?! He throws himself into absolutely everything we do together and seems to love every minute of it. I know I’m biased, but he really is an amazing little dog. ❤️

And a special mention for Cougar, who coped brilliantly with the busiest environment I’ve put her in to date. That’s a pretty big achievement for her too!

A massive thank you to Jo from Paws4Teaching for guiding me through my first ever rally show. Well, technically my second, if you count the one I did with Shadow a few years ago, where we managed to get NQ’d at the very first sign! Not exactly a promising start to my rally career! 😂

Thank you also to Sue Howlett for being such a fantastic instructor, and to Annie Hodge , Sue and Jo for being brilliant teammates and making the day so much fun.

I went along thinking we’d just have a go at something different, with absolutely no expectations, and came home with rosettes, qualifying scores and a massive grin on my face.

What a day. What a dog. And I think we might just have found ourselves another hobby! ❤️

06/10/2026

What an amazing day. Sun, sand, sea, dogs and friends. Who could ask for more? 🥰

05/10/2026

A super first day of trailing at Woody Bay Station. Off to the beach tomorrow 😍

03/10/2026

Another brilliant workshop at Torrington Station today, with plenty to get our teeth into. 🐾

The morning dogs were working on Kong and we had some really interesting searches. One search on the train was a great example of how complicated odour can be. We can’t see what it’s doing, so watching the dogs work is probably the closest we’re ever going to get. 👀

We also had a hide buried down in the gravel. One dog was initially called away because it looked like she was just having an environmental sniff. She wasn’t. She was working the hide.

It led to a really useful discussion about knowing what your dog looks like when they’re actively searching, when they’re working odour and when they’re simply mooching about. We also talked about the value of working blank areas. If we never see our dogs searching where there is no odour to find, how do we learn what that looks like?

The afternoon dogs were working on gun oil and we had some deceptively difficult hides. A couple that I thought would be fairly straightforward really weren’t!

The dogs were clearly working odour, but getting back to source was much harder than expected. That gave us loads to discuss around inaccessible hides, reading those changes in body language and deciding when to step in and help, when to wait, and when it might actually be better to take the dog away and come back to it later.

We also looked at what we’re rewarding. Does the dog always need to get their nose as close to source as physically possible, or are there times when we should recognise and reward the work they’ve done to get us there?

And, importantly, knowing the dog in front of you. Some dogs will happily climb, scramble and stick their head into ridiculous places. Others won’t, and that has to be part of how we assess what they’re telling us.

Lots of finding hides today, but actually, most of the interesting stuff happened before the find. 🐶

Which, for me, is where so much of the learning in scentwork is.

And, of course, a special thank you to Jenny for putting out a rather interesting hide for Goose and giving me a bit of a test too! 😂 Clearly I wasn’t getting away without doing some work myself.

02/10/2026

A bit of a drive from North Devon but an excellent way to start your DDT journey 😍

Detection Dog Trials Introduction Workshop including Intro Level Trial 🏆

Open to all levels, this is a perfect taster for DDT. 4 hour workshop that will go through everything you need to know about the trials and how they're judged, basic training sets up and warm up for you and your dog, before headed into an Intro-Level Trial (2 search areas), and finishing with debrief and planning for how to go forward.

Bookings via: https://bookwhen.com/mamda (just scroll down to Saturday 7th on the list to find it!) 💚

01/10/2026

Pippin may not be your typical detection dog.

She doesn’t have the same natural drive or motivation as Goose and Cougar, but what she does have is some pretty impressive problem-solving skills. And she’s brave too.

Today I put a hide inside a plant pot on top of some drawers. The bigger dogs could access it by putting their front feet up. Little Pippin took one look at the problem and just jumped straight onto the drawers 😂

Fair enough, Pip. Problem solved.

She is teaching me so much about working with your average pet dog, and I absolutely don’t mean “average” in a derogatory way. She makes me think harder about motivation, how I build value in searching and how I work with the dog in front of me.

She might be small, fluffy and slightly unconventional, but she’s teaching me an awful lot. ❤️

29/09/2026

After a crazy few weeks, I’ve had a SUPER day off today ❤️

We started with a run around Rews Views Paw Paddock which I was also sneakily checking out as a possible future scentwork location 👀

Then we headed over to Lynton & Lynmouth to scope out some potential trailing spots, with a visit to The Lyn Valley Dog House to stock up on treats and, obviously, the essential addition of a cream tea at the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway Café.

Next up was a walk around Valley of the Rocks for more trailing-location hunting, lunch at The Hunters Inn Heddon Valley and finally a walk down to Heddon Mouth.

It’s safe to say the dogs are absolutely knackered and I’m hoping this means I’m in for a very quiet evening 😂

But I’m so proud of my guys today.

Toro came along and happily walked with other dogs. For a dog who can be reactive towards other dogs, there was a time when I genuinely didn’t think days like this would be possible for him.

Pippin and Cougar were trusted off lead and DIDN’T bu**er off 🎉

And golden boy Goose was, well… Goose. He only nearly swam out to sea 🙄😂

Six dogs, lots of walking, some very good choices from everyone and quite a few potential future training locations added to my mental list.

I definitely need more days like this.

Thank you so much Kim, Marli and Otti for the company ❤️ It was a pretty perfect way to spend a day off.