Completely Canines Dog Training

21/10/2026

Today I met 9-month-old Labrador Trixie and her lovely human for a 121 session.

We had LOTS to chat about because adolescence is a big old learning curve for everyone involved! 😂

Here’s what we got started on:

🐽 Enrichment: Labradors need more than just a walk! We talked snuffle mats, scent games, food puzzles, Kongs and plenty of opportunities to use those wonderful noses.

🦮 Walking equipment: Why a well-fitted harness can be a great alternative to a collar, plus my go-to recommendations: Perfect Fit and TrueLove.

👀 Engagement: Building those little moments when your dog chooses to check in with you, even when the world around them is far more interesting!

🔔 Clicker training: Introducing the clicker and teaching Trixie that the sound means she’s got something right and a reward is coming.

🐕 Loose-lead walking: Forget expecting a 9-month-old Labrador to walk perfectly to heel for an entire walk! We’re starting with short bursts of lovely walking, rewarding check-ins and building success gradually.

🍗 High-value rewards: Because let’s face it, when you’re a Labrador and there’s a whole world of smells to investigate, a bit of boring kibble might not cut it! 🤣

🌿 And most importantly… sniffing! Walks don’t have to be military marches from A to B. Dogs need time to explore, investigate and just be dogs.

We also chatted about adolescence and why Trixie might sometimes seem to have forgotten everything she’s ever learnt. Spoiler alert: she’s not being naughty! Her brain is still developing, and our job is to help her succeed rather than expect perfection. 💛

The aim isn’t to create a robot dog who walks in a perfect heel. It’s to build a dog who feels fulfilled, enjoys learning and chooses to engage with their human.

Small steps, realistic expectations and lots of reinforcement. That’s how we build lasting skills! 🐾

And we’ll be working with Trixie’s housemate Indy at a later date, too!

Got a teenage dog who’s forgotten their manners? You’re not alone! Drop me a message to find out how 121 training can help.

📍 Completely Canines Dog Training | North Herts

20/10/2026

🐶 LAST PUPPY CLASS OF 2026! 🐶

Got a new puppy? 🐾 Or bringing home your little bundle of chaos soon? 😂💛

✨ This is your LAST chance to join the Practically Perfect Puppy Programme this year! ✨

Let’s be honest… puppies don’t come with an instruction manual. One minute they’re adorable, the next they’re biting your ankles, eating your slippers and pretending they’ve never heard the word come! 🤦‍♀️🐶

That’s where I come in! 🙋‍♀️

My 8-week Practically Perfect Puppy Programme is designed to help you build the foundations for a happy, confident dog-without shouting, punishment or expecting your puppy to be perfect overnight.

🐾 We’ll work on:
💛 Loose lead walking
💛 Recall (yes, even when there are distractions!)
💛 Puppy biting, jumping and learning to settle
💛 Confidence and positive social experiences
💛 Handling, grooming and everyday life skills
💛 Enrichment and understanding your puppy’s needs

🎓 AND THERE’S MORE!

Your course includes online learning to support you at home, goody bag, certificate and rosette! 🎁

🐶 Small classes mean your puppy gets individual attention in a friendly, supportive environment.

📅 7/11/26
⏰ Saturday at 1:30pm
📍 Dog & Whistle Dog Field, Henlow
💷 £175 for the full 8-week programme

⚠️ Once these spaces are filled, that’s it for puppy classes until next year!

If you want to start 2027 with a puppy who has the foundations to become a brilliant companion, let’s get started now. 💛

📩 DM me to book your place or book online!

Because you don’t need a perfect puppy. You need the knowledge, skills and confidence to help them thrive. 🐾

19/10/2026

A big big welcome to Willow, Winnie, Bonnie and Rosa who all started their Practically Perfect Puppy Programme with me yesterday! It was flippin freezing 🤣🤣 a great start 😁
Looking forward to meeting Kacey next week, as her mum was poorly 😷

16/10/2026

Great work from Kieran with Bonnie who passed their Bronze award last week!! Great teamwork 👏👏👏🎉🎉

16/10/2026

Awesome work by Sam, James and Benji who passed their Silver award last week!!
Great work guys, keep it up!!

08/10/2026

Had a lovely session with Mabel and Naomi today 🐶

Mabel is a one-year-old GSD x Husky and she is GORGEOUS. She’s also extremely friendly 😂

Naomi’s biggest concern was Mabel lunging towards other dogs on walks. Not barking, not growling, not being aggressive-she just REALLY wants to go and say hello.

Mabel has lived with various family dogs, so she’s basically grown up thinking that dogs = friends = playtime. Which is lovely… until you’re trying to walk past another dog and she’s launching herself towards it 😂

So today we worked on teaching her that she can see a dog without having to go and meet it.

We started with engagement, rewarding Mabel for checking in with Naomi, and then moved onto engage/disengage around some of the local dogs.

Engage/disengage is basically:

👀 “Oh look, there’s a dog.”

👀➡️ “Yep, I’ve seen it.”

🙋‍♀️ “And now I can look back at my human.”

That last bit is the important one.

Mabel was able to work at around 15–20m from the other dogs, so that’s the distance we’re going to stick with for now. There is absolutely no point getting closer just because we can if she’s then too excited to think.

If she stops taking food or can’t disengage, you’re too close. Simple. Create some distance and get her back into a place where she can learn.

We also worked on some loose lead walking, engagement and using the behaviours she already knows when there are distractions around.

And Naomi has done a BRILLIANT job teaching Mabel loads already. Now we’re just making sure all those lovely behaviours she knows actually work when the world gets more exciting!

We also started teaching crawl and tap tap because apparently we need to make this dog even more talented 😂🐾

The aim isn’t to make Mabel less friendly.

It’s to teach her that not every dog she sees is available for a playdate. 😂

30/09/2026

Rufus is an adolescent Schnauzer, and his family came to me with a few things they’re struggling with:

🐶 Jumping up at the grandchildren
🐶 Lunging and barking at dogs on walks because he desperately wants to get to them
🐶 Jumping up at the kitchen table -especially when the kids are eating
🐶 Avoiding having his harness put on

None of these behaviours happen in isolation.

Rufus is a frustrated greeter. As a puppy, he had lots of opportunities to greet other dogs, so he’s learned that seeing a dog = I should get to that dog!

Now he’s an adolescent, those feelings are BIGGER, his impulse control is still developing, and when he can’t get what he wants, the frustration comes out as barking and lunging.

We also talked about the jumping at the table-because if the behaviour has occasionally been rewarded with food from the table, it makes perfect sense for Rufus to keep trying. Dogs are very good at remembering the one time something paid off! 😂

We started by introducing a “yes” marker, so Rufus and his humans have a really clear way of communicating when he gets something right.

From there, we’ll be working on:

✨ Building calm behaviours around people
✨ Teaching him what to do instead of jumping
✨ Changing his emotional response to seeing other dogs
✨ Making the harness a positive, predictable part of his routine
✨ Giving the family practical strategies that work in real life-including when the grandchildren are around

Adolescence can be HARD.

But it’s also a brilliant opportunity to teach your dog the skills they’ll need for adulthood-rather than simply trying to stop the behaviours you don’t like.

And no, your adolescent dog hasn’t suddenly forgotten everything they ever learned. Their brain is just currently running approximately 47 tabs and none of them are responding. 😂

14/09/2026

Mouse is NOT a natural retriever… 😂

So teaching her to pick something up, remove it from a stack AND put it in a tub has been a bit of a project!

This hasn’t been a case of simply saying “fetch it” and hoping for the best. We’ve built it through shaping, breaking the behaviour down into loads of tiny steps and rewarding Mouse for each little bit of progress.

And because she doesn’t naturally offer retrieving behaviours, I’ve had to get creative with how I teach each stage.

We’ve finally got her removing a cup from the stack and putting it into the black tub 🙌

Now the next challenge…

Can we get her to stack the cups INSIDE each other? 👀

I bloody love shaping because you’re not just teaching a behaviour-you’re teaching the dog to think, problem-solve and work things out for themselves.

And watching Mouse figure it out is pretty bloody satisfying. 😂🐶

10/09/2026

10/09/2026

🐶 PUPPY CLASSES ARE BACK! 🐶

Got a new puppy? Now is the perfect time to set them up for a lifetime of good habits. ❤️

Our next 8-week Practically Perfect Puppy Programme starts Saturday 17th October, and we’d love to help you build a confident, happy companion using kind, reward-based training.

Over the 8 weeks we’ll cover:
🐾 Loose lead walking
🐾 Recall
🐾 Calmness around distractions
🐾 Puppy biting & jumping up
🐾 Confidence building
🐾 Social skills
🐾 Handling & grooming
🐾 Enrichment and so much more!

You’ll also get access to our online home-learning programme, so you can revisit everything we cover between classes and train at your own pace.

Small classes mean plenty of individual support, and there’s always time to ask questions-because raising a puppy doesn’t come with an instruction manual (although ours comes pretty close! 😉).

📅 Starts: Saturday 17th October
📍 Limited spaces available
📩 Send me a message to book your place!

Who else is in the land shark phase? 🦈😂