Action 4 Dogs Edinburgh & Lothians Dog Trainer

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Action 4 Dogs Edinburgh & Lothians Dog Trainer

Action 4 Dogs Dog Training founded by Max Muir is based in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Maxwell covers all of Scotland by appointment. Puppy Training.

Dog Training focusing on pet gun dogs and sporting breeds. Personal 121 private Training Sessions in the following Skill sets:

Effective Dog Handling Skills & Proper Use of Equipment. Adolescent Dog Training-Coping With Your Teenager. Behaviour Training Solutions. Online Zoom Sessions, Telephone consultations & Private Discreet Service. Private lessons and home visits are designed to suit a clien

t’s needs and they can be arranged in the home or a location of your choosing. Private one to one training service also caters for puppy training, basic obedience training, and the teaching of handling skills. Training topics include:

Handling skills with the lead. Recall- Training Levels to your recall. Retriever Training. Gun Dog foundation Training. Training good manners, obedience, and greeting behaviours. Teaching dog’s to develop self control. Effective stimulation & enrichment to deal with those dogs with excess energy. Maxwell has hosted regular seminars, lectures and workshops and been guest speakers at many canine events. Maxwell is also available for you to host for presentations and workshops and virtual keynotes and presentations on a wide variety of dog related subjects. He is also open to appearing on podcasts. Visit www.action4dogs.co.uk

11/06/2026

It’s that time of the week where I devote my time to working with our Labradors in rescue.

I’m not sure who gets the most pleasure from it, me or the dogs!

10/06/2026

Dogs are curious creatures by nature. I believe in a world of such vast variety of breeds that curiosity has developed even further as breed types, shape, facial and bone feature differences, how different breeds move, and how some smell different to others are just a few of the factors that stimulate that sense of curiosity further.

This, socialisation and the learning and development of social and communication skills among dogs takes place over a wide area of language and communication.

Social skills are exactly that, skills, and they need practise so dogs can learn from them. There are different encounters where dogs can learn from each other but I believe they learn from each other when the balance is right. That means not too many dogs present but a small group and meetings over successive periods.

Dogs should meet Indoors and out but there should be variety of meeting places and activity, and during rest periods also.

Lack of social skills results in some dogs being over exuberant, where they haven’t learned self-control (that’s a skill also). Small group social walks are likely the best way to do this.

We live in a society where there are so many rules and pressures that those outlets aren’t met.

Some young dogs don’t understand when another dog is receptive to greeting them or when it is saying no. Or they haven’t learned the necessary self-control in meetings.

It’s not only about recalls and recall training…

It is about satisfying a dog’s need to be with its own kind, to interact and mix respectively, and to learn to respect the space of other dogs, by honing their communications skills and body language.

I am all for training my dog so that I, the owner, am the main focus. But, also on those occasions when I am happy to let my dog meet another I am confident that it has good skills and intentions, and will leave another dog alone if it says ‘No!’ to an encounter and respect its space.

If dogs don’t mix they don’t learn that and for many they seek an answer to the problem of ‘How do I stop my dog running up to other dogs?’

First they need to learn about other dogs…

08/06/2026

Giving Your Dog a Job it Loves!

Most gundog breeds have an aptitude to pick up and carry, which are the initial traits of a retriever.

With some dogs we may have to invest a fair bit of time nurturing and building a dog’s desire to retrieve…and that’s a great process to work with as it’s fun, builds teamwork and harmony between owner and dog, and gives the dog an endless outlet to use it inherent hunting instincts and traits.

With some dogs the enthusiasm is high to begin with which makes things much easier from the outset.

This Vizsla puppy training session at the weekend showed exactly that. This puppy just loves to have the gundog dummy in its mouth

Now here’s a tip if your dog displays a strong early inclination to pick up and carry:

• Don’t be in any hurry to take the funny from the dog in the beginning, otherwise you may incur a trophy parade where the dog plays keep away. Simply praise the dog, turn to the side and encourage your dog to follow. Keep your arms and hands to your side showing no intention that you want what the dog has in its mouth.

• If the dog holds onto it for a prolonged period take another dummy out of your bag and let the dog see you do it. Slight turn and slowly walk away giving all of your devoted attention to the funny you have. Likely your dog will follow with the other dummy and drop it near you in interest of your one. When it does this pick the other up, praise the dog, and gently lob the other dummy out to repeat the process.

In time you will reduce your dog’s suspicion of your intention and you will get some teamwork going.

Happy training folks!

04/06/2026

The Myth of Easy to Train

It’s often a play with words that is interpreted wrongly by dog owners who choose a breed of dog to suit their lifestyle.

I mostly work with sporting and gundog breeds from working stock which include Labradors, Spaniels, Pointers, Setters, Golden Retrievers, Tollers, Sighthounds, Collies, and some dogs that are just plain good all rounders as some of the above mentioned are.

However, with the Labrador being one of the most popular breeds chosen as a pet I often ask what swayed an owner’s choice…

‘Easy to train…’ often comes up with several other reasons.

There is a big difference in highly trainable and easy to train. The former way of putting it being the more accurate.

There are no shortcuts to training. We have to show up and do the work amidst our busy lifestyles, it’s as simple as that.

It’s about developing good habits, practise, committing time to the process, and seeing it through over the first few years of life to lay a good foundation.

After that, it’s maintenance. If you don’t use it you lose it, behaviours erode.

Training your dog does make things easier. These pets from working stock don’t need to be trained to gundog level, but they do need consistent training so you can enjoy the life you imagined when you first chose to get your dog.

They all have specific breed and individual traits, they are hunters, they display those drives in different ways, but those drives and traits are powerful and understanding them is needed along with know how in the best way to channel them.

That is done through a solid training foundation, which isn’t rocket science, but it does involve dedicating time to it and learning skills to get to the level you want.

The difficulty in easy to train is in the commitment for the dog owner to invest their time and emotions into the training. All that dedicated time pays off over the longer term when your highly trainable dog has had the benefit of a sound foundation.

Labradors may be in the top 5 list of dogs to train but the key to having any trained dog is the bond that you nurture
and develop throughout the dog’s early years of life.

That’s worth every ounce of work you put into it!

02/06/2026

A Solid Foundation Solves Many Problems

Often owners come to me for help with their dogs in a specific area, most notably:

Recall difficulties

Pulling in lead

Jumping up

Hyper and energetic behaviours with general lack of focus.

A solid foundation covers everything. If there’s a problem with recall there’s more often issues in the smaller areas. There are some exercises, particularly in gundog foundation training, which cover all aspects of the above.

Take for example the retrieve:

A steady and focused dog that remains by the handler’s side and will only go out on command.

The dog learns to walk to heel, and to move and stop with the handler in position.

The dog displays self-control while the handler takes out a dummy and casts it up and outwards…

The dog learns the hand signals and body language of the handlers and the cue for release to go hunt out the dummy…

On pick up the dog is recalled and brings the dummy back to the handler where it presents it nicely…

The dog goes back into heel position and awaits the next move.

All of the above behaviours are if great benefit and use in everyday life.

A retrieve has everything and the exercise is very flexible.

This client and her dog have some recall issues they would like to work on and fine tune. So, we get to work on all the more subtle areas which improve the handler’s training skills and the dog’s overall behaviour.

What a lovely session and lovely natured dog. At 15 months of age a few challenging habits have set in the dog’s behaviour which will be adjusted through solid foundation training which improves the mental and physical skills of both human and dog.

Retrieving and recall drills were the menu of the day for this one to one training session.

01/06/2026

Building Social Confidence!

Confidence is easy to lose and slow to gain in many cases. dogs form memories of various sorts and episodic memory, which can be a salient experience, can form powerful assoications.

That is why time needs to be taken with a systematic approach if the association that is made has resulted in any type of aggressive/defensive/self protective behaviour. It takes time to change behaviour...

Dogs can de-socialize very quickly through negative experiences.

We not only have to build the dog's confidence in the environment again, but also the dog's confidence in us, and in turn our confidence in the dog's behaviour.

It also involves training reliable behaviours behind the scenes before testing them when it comes to exposure in negotiating environments that were previously problematic.

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given, 'the slower you take it, the quicker you'll get there.'

Understanding the dog, building a bond through the training, and laying rules and boundaries which are well rehearsed are the preludes to success, or how well a dog can come along.

Tally had lost confidence in people when she first came into rescue. It took me a while to win her over with a lot of behind the scenes work before I decided to take what we had trained into a testing social environment again. I started slow...and stayed systematic with the process. There were some setbacks and obstacles, that is natural...but she has come on greatly and she responds to behaviours I can safely rely on.

That's a win, win for handler and dog!

29/05/2026

Labrador Retriever Rescue Scotland Scio Day!

Tally’s confidence in water has come on greatly.

She doesn’t get herself immersed but not so long ago intimate past she wouldn’t even dip her paws in a river.

A series of exposures in small steps and incremental building of confidence helps give her a wider experience.

The refreshing feel of the water on a hot day really helps. The river Esk in Cumbria is wide but shallow in many parts when other weather has gone through a dry spell, a perfect time for exposure.

Sail on Tally, I’m proud of where this girl has come from to where she is now…which is happy!

26/05/2026

Why Recall Goes Out the Window at the Prospect of Play with Other Dogs

Does your recall fall apart once other dogs come onto the scene?

Does your dog ignore your voice or your whistle and run up to other dogs at the prospect of play?

Some dogs, especially within their first couple of years, have very strong play drives. This is normal…

Just as kids have a great desire to be in company, and mix and play with other kids, young dogs light up at the prospect of play with others.

Your recall is in no way the full article at this age in your dog’s life, and you will take the odd hit of failure when other dogs appear.

However, many of the recall failures I see are down to a lack of conditioning, and practise. Also, food rewards are flimsy and in my opinion largely impotent when something better comes on the scene.

Not enough owners learn the benefits of deep play with their dogs.

Play can provide a variety of rewards in engagement for coming back to you, and also for staying put and not running off in the first place.

Play is an art, engagement is an art, how one motivates, provides feedback, and communicates through play…is an art.

Also, many recalls are attempted only in ‘real time’, meaning they are trained only in the presence of other dogs, without the foundation of experimenting and bonding through play drills and training drills to strengthen the behaviour needed before testing.

Each dog’s interpretation of what is rewarding is different and your goal is to find what works for each dog, and then to generate what is a decent level of play drive into high drive…

That’s where the art and the skill of play come in…

Every working dog handler knows how to create higher drive play in their dog to maximise performance, so that the dog loves its work and can do it with all kinds of distractions and temptations around.

Conditioning is not just repetition, it needs a heart beat and a pulse, and as the handler/owner, you must learn to be
‘all in’ heart and soul on that level.

Learning and applying that BEFORE exposure to lots of play with other dogs will massively boost your recall and any other type of training you do.

24/05/2026

One of last week’s training sessions here at Glencorse.

I’ve always enjoyed and thought that one to one sessions are more beneficial than group classes, although they are also useful in their own right.

One on one training helps a dog focus more and a deeper bond and concentration level is reached when owner and dog work on specific exercises together.

I always ask a client what commands they use and what their dog understands. Commonly, the answer is:
Sit
Stay
Heel
Come

Then I ask the question, ‘How long can your dog do it for and in what circumstances?’

Usually, the answer is the dog does it well when there are NO distractions…

So, the skill and benefit of one on one training is to teach and train the behaviour so it is well understood, in a few locations, the we get to work on testing and proofing the behaviour.

A behaviour that has not been tested nor proofed will fall apart if the training does not transition to where other dogs, rich environments, wildlife and livestock, and any other environmental pulls challenge the training.

It is inevitable that at first when doing ‘exposure training’ and behaviour will not be as solid as it was when ‘distractions’ are not present. That is both natural and common…

It’s a step we take and build upon…

I call it taking your training on a road trip…

Exposure training is necessary if you ever want it to work…bit by bit, step by step, teaching all the way so the dog fairly learns to understand and get the proper feedback for its actions.

A behaviour performed with no distractions is a behaviour in an aquarium.

The world is not an aquarium, it’s an open buffet full of everything your dog could want. Sooner or later you need to train in that environment for any behaviour to work.

The steps of testing and proofing are a must…

Failures and setbacks are inevitable. They provide you with valuable information. They help you plan your next steps of training…

23/05/2026

A wee sleekit move from
Mr Labrador while I’m rummaging through the garden shed yesterday…

Then mischievously, he wants to play catch me if you can!!!

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Penicuik
EH260NB

Telephone

+447999866989

Website

http://www.action4dogs.co.uk/

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