Bark-Ology

04/10/2026

🐾 It’s been a super busy few weeks at Bark-ology! 🐾

And honestly, it’s been wonderful. I’ve met lots of new people and their amazing dogs, all needing support with very different things.

There have been a couple of new separation anxiety cases — always quite intense — including one very handsome sighthound (I do love a super snoot! 😍) who was so distressed when left that he ate the sofa.

I’ve also met an Labrador who is worried by lots of sounds around his home, a new reactivity case, loose lead walking for a very excitable spaniel, welcomed some newly adopted rescue dogs, and met the cutest little spaniel who is coming along simply to play and learn — hoopers, scentwork and some general foundation skills. 🥰

Do I have photos of any of them?

Of course not. 🤦‍♀️😂

I did, however, remember to photograph the very handsome Walter, a Portuguese Water Dog who has been struggling to settle and LOVES to bark. At home, at visitors, in the car, at work… Walter has plenty to say about pretty much everything!

I asked him to sit nicely for his photo. Apparently I took too long because he couldn’t resist barking at me too. 😂📸

But underneath all that barking is a really super dog who is already making progress.

In our first session we looked at the whole picture — his routine, lifestyle, rest, enrichment and what might be contributing to his arousal — and started building some useful foundation skills.

This week we began working on settling and switching off, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how he progresses. 🐶💛

Changing behaviour is rarely about fixing one thing. Sometimes we need to look at the dog’s whole day and make lots of little changes that, together, can make a really big difference.

Anyhoo… I’m now taking a week off! 🙌

A little life admin, lots of walks with my own dogs, some reading 📖 and, most importantly, a chance to recharge my batteries.

See you all in a week!

Karen 🐾🐾

03/10/2026

Huge congratulations to everyone who took their Kennel Club Good Citizen exams last week — we had passes across the board! 🎉🐾

🥉 BRONZE
🐾 Bailey
🐾 Bodie
🐾 Nell

🥈 SILVER
🐾 Fable
🐾 Stanley
🐾 Mollie
🐾Wilma
🐾 Monty — aka Montysaurus 🤭🦖

🥇 GOLD
🐾 Frank
🐾 Ziggy

We are so proud of every single one of you. All the practice, perseverance and teamwork paid off! ❤️

But we have to give a special shout-out to Monty, who finally decided that staying still for a full TWO MINUTES was actually possible! 😂👏 Quite an achievement for Montysaurus!

And, of course, a huge thank you to our wonderful judge Yvonne Green, who is always so fair, encouraging and incredibly generous with her time. We really appreciate you. 💛

Congratulations everyone — what a fantastic result! 🥳🐶🏆

Karen, Julie & Jen 🐾🐾

03/10/2026

🥳🏆 A CLEAN SWEEP! 🏆🥳

Huge congratulations to everyone who took their Kennel Club Good Citizen exams last week — we had passes across the board! 🎉🐾

🥉 BRONZE
🐾 Bailey
🐾 Bodie
🐾 Nell

🥈 SILVER
🐾 Fable
🐾 Stanley
🐾 Mollie
🐾Wilma
🐾 Monty — aka Montysaurus 🤭🦖

🥇 GOLD
🐾 Frank
🐾 Ziggy

We are so proud of every single one of you. All the practice, perseverance and teamwork paid off! ❤️

But we have to give a special shout-out to Monty, who finally decided that staying still for a full TWO MINUTES was actually possible! 😂👏 Quite an achievement for Montysaurus!

And, of course, a huge thank you to our wonderful judge Yvonne Green, who is always so fair, encouraging and incredibly generous with her time. We really appreciate you. 💛

Congratulations everyone — what a fantastic result! 🥳🐶🏆

Karen, Julie & Jen 🐾🐾

01/10/2026

🐾 Golden Oldies 🐾

I’ve been noticing the grey faces a little more lately. The slower walks, the extra naps and the fact that Rupert now regularly ignores squirrels — something I spent YEARS trying to teach him to do 😂

My dogs are getting older.

I’m not going to lie, it makes me a little sad. They’re both happy, well and still very much enjoying life, but there’s something about watching your dogs grow older that makes you appreciate the ordinary moments a little more.

Rupert and Mila have taught me an incredible amount. In fact, these two challenging overseas rescue dogs are a huge part of the reason I became a dog trainer in the first place.

So my latest blog is a slightly more personal one — about my Golden Oldies, slowing things down, adapting what we do and enjoying the dogs who are still very much here. 💜

🐾 Read the full blog here: www.bark-ology.co.uk/blog

And let’s celebrate those beautiful greying noses 🥰

Show me your Golden Oldies! Add a photo in the comments and tell me their name and age. I’d love to see them. 🐾💜

Dog training, home alone support and separation anxiety programmes.

28/09/2026

🎉🐾 Congratulations Bailey, Rowan, Lola & Daisy! 🐾🎉

A huge well done to our latest Scent Academy graduates for completing their 4-week Beginners Scentwork Course! 👃🐶

Over the four weeks we explored scent identification, indication and searching, starting with foundation exercises to build confidence in both dogs and handlers before progressing onto pipe searches, chairs, blind searches and even cars!

And everyone did brilliantly! 🥰

One of the things Julie and I love most about Scent Academy is watching the partnerships grow. Dogs start to understand the game, handlers learn to trust those incredible noses, and everyone cheers each other on along the way.

We’ve built such a lovely, friendly community around our scentwork classes, with lots of familiar faces coming back for improvers, workshops and trials. It really is about having fun with your dog, learning together and celebrating everyone’s successes — however big or small. 💛🐾

Congratulations Bailey, Rowan, Lola & Daisy — we hope to see you back for more sniffing very soon! 🥳

Fancy joining the Scent Academy family?

Our October course is FULL, but our next Beginners course starts in November and spaces are available now.

Scentwork really is for everyone — any breed, any age and any experience. You might come along to try something new and discover your dog’s new favourite hobby… and yours too! 🥰

⬇️ Book your place here:
https://www.bark-ology.co.uk/book

Come and join us — we’d love to welcome you. 💛

Karen & Julie 🐾🐾

28/09/2026

🎉🐾 Congratulations Bailey, Rowan, Lola & Daisy! 🐾🎉

A huge well done to our latest Scent Academy graduates for completing their 4-week Beginners Scentwork Course! 👃🐶

Over the four weeks we explored scent identification, indication and searching, starting with foundation exercises to build confidence in both dogs and handlers before progressing onto pipe searches, chairs, blind searches and even cars!

And everyone did brilliantly! 🥰

One of the things Julie and I love most about Scent Academy is watching the partnerships grow. Dogs start to understand the game, handlers learn to trust those incredible noses, and everyone cheers each other on along the way.

We’ve built such a lovely, friendly community around our scentwork classes, with lots of familiar faces coming back for improvers, workshops and trials. It really is about having fun with your dog, learning together and celebrating everyone’s successes — however big or small. 💛🐾

Congratulations Bailey, Rowan, Lola & Daisy — we hope to see you back for more sniffing very soon! 🥳

Fancy joining the Scent Academy family?

Our October course is FULL, but our next Beginners course starts in November and spaces are available now.

Scentwork really is for everyone — any breed, any age and any experience. You might come along to try something new and discover your dog’s new favourite hobby… and yours too! 🥰

⬇️ Book your place here:
https://www.bark-ology.co.uk/book

Come and join us — we’d love to welcome you. 💛

Karen & Julie 🐾🐾

19/09/2026

I think we tired Bracken out yesterday… 😂🐾💤

Of course, I completely forgot to take any photos during our session 🤦‍♀️, but her person sent me this afterwards — Bracken clearly needed a well-earned snooze!

Bracken is a super little dog, but she finds loose lead walking tricky and likes to shout at cars 😇🚗

We’ve spent time building the foundations first — working on focus, pattern games, loose lead skills and helping her feel more confident around traffic. Yesterday it was time to take those skills out of my field and into the real world.

And she did brilliantly! 🥰

Lovely lead walking, lots of sniffing, great focus on her person, and several cars and vans passed without any reaction at all. 👏

On our way back home, unfortunately a few more cats appeared one after another and that proved a little too much for her. Bracken did react — and that’s okay. She recovered quickly once they’d passed and carried on walking home beautifully.

Because that’s real-life dog training.

Progress isn’t about expecting a dog to suddenly be perfect or never react again. It’s about gradually building skills and confidence, improving recovery and helping both dog and guardian cope when things don’t quite go to plan.

Bracken has come on leaps and bounds, and her guardian is really pleased with how much she’s improved. They now have lots of strategies to continue building her confidence around cars and developing those lovely lead manners.

Changing behaviour takes time, patience and consistency — but Bracken is well on her way to her ultimate goal…

🍻 A nice walk to the local pub! 😂🥰

Great work Team Bracken! 🐾🐾

Karen x

14/09/2026

Meet Milo — another overseas rescue with some big feelings 🥰🐾

Milo pulls on the lead, can be reactive on walks and has a lot to say at home — particularly when visitors arrive! 🏠😂

We met a few weeks ago for an assessment, looking at his daily routine, previous training and what might be contributing to his behaviour.

I also noticed that Milo’s gait looked a little awkward, so I recommended a physio assessment.

While that was being investigated, we got to work on his foundation skills — teaching him the “how to” before expecting him to cope in more difficult situations.

A home visit then gave me the chance to see Milo in his own environment. He did really well! We made a few adjustments to what his people were already doing and added some new strategies.

And things are moving in the right direction. ❤️

Walks are improving and we’re starting to get on top of the barking at home.

His physio assessment also confirmed problems with his back legs, which will undoubtedly have been contributing to how he feels and potentially his reactivity. He’s now receiving treatment alongside his training, which is another important piece of the puzzle.

Milo has struggled with these behaviours for years, so this was never going to be a quick fix.

But he is improving. 🥳

With the right training, some changes at home, his physical needs being addressed and lots of work from his guardians, those little wins are starting to add up.

He’s an absolutely wonderful boy and did brilliantly during my visit…

Although he still couldn’t resist barking at me occasionally. 😂🐾

Well done Team Milo! ❤️

12/09/2026

Beautiful Bella – week 3 of her training package 🥰🐾

Bella is a Podenco x Lab from Spain who has only recently been adopted. She is bright, sunny, intense, oh so clever… and just a little bit of a handful! 🤭

I often start my 1-1 packages with routines and foundation skills — basic obedience, focus, lead walking, settling etc.

But Bella had other ideas! 😂

Week 1 we worked on lots of foundation skills and fun games to build focus and engagement.

By week 2, Bella was finding things a bit more frustrating. She was struggling to engage, biting the lead and generally telling us that we needed to rethink things.

So we did.

We brought in toys and tug, taught a “take it” cue and started using play much more within her training. We still worked on some of our basics and introduced a settle excercise with her guardians continuing those exercises at home.

And this week? What a difference! 🥳

Bella was able to pause and wait while her person held out her toy, wait for her release cue ‘get it’ and then grab it for a game of tug.

We’ve also added a “Do you want to play?” cue, encouraging Bella to bring the toy to us and invite us into the game.

It might sound like we’re just playing — but we’re actually building impulse control, communication, teamwork, trust, focus and engagement. And, importantly, Bella is having FUN.

We also introduced scentwork this week.

Scentwork is fantastic for building teamwork and giving dogs an appropriate outlet for using their brains and noses. It can be wonderfully tiring without necessarily adding more physical excitement.

Of course, Bella wasn’t going to make this straightforward either. 😂

We start by introducing red Kong as our target scent. Bella’s response was basically:

“Excellent. I’ll take that, thank you very much!” 😂

Given half a chance, I’m fairly sure she’d have grabbed it and disappeared with it!

So we adapted again.

The Kong went into a large container with holes in the top so Bella could investigate the scent but couldn’t grab it. Food isn’t her biggest reward when she is excited either — tug is — so instead of insisting on food, we used the reward that actually matters to Bella.

And it worked.

She successfully completed a few scent identification games 🥳 and then we called it a day while she was doing brilliantly.

That’s probably my favourite thing about working with Bella.

Each week she’s calmer.
Each week she’s more focused.
And each week she makes me really think about how I’m going to work with her.

Dog training isn’t about having one method and making every dog fit it. Sometimes we need to change the exercise, change the environment or completely rethink the reward.

At home, her guardians are putting lots of work into her foundation exercises too. They now have access to my online course to work through alongside our 1-1s, and I’m told her settle training is coming along really nicely. ❤️

She’s an absolute cracker of a dog and I’m thoroughly enjoying figuring out what makes that clever Bella brain tick!

Can’t wait to see what week 4 brings… 🐾

Need some support with your dog?

Get in touch at [email protected] or book a FREE 15-minute discovery call using the link below:

https://calendly.com/info-bark-ology/15min?month=2026-09

Karen 🐾🐾

11/09/2026

🐾 Beginners Scentwork – Week 2 already! 🐾

I can’t believe we’re on Week 2 already! 🤩

I genuinely love teaching Beginners Scentwork. One of the best parts is watching the partnerships develop as the dogs start to realise what the game is all about — and seeing their handlers learn to trust those amazing noses! 🐶

Such a lovely group of dogs and handlers, and already some brilliant searching. 🥰

And some exciting news…

🥳 Our October course is now FULL! 🥳

If you missed out, don’t worry — we have new Beginners Scentwork dates coming in November, which will be released very soon.

👀 Watch this space!

Karen & Julie 🐾🐾