The Canine Coach

05/09/2026

A bit of time blindness the other morning meant I had much less time than planned to walk Larry before his physio appointment—so we made the most of the 20 minutes we had!

We don’t often visit this particular park, and today we discovered that a large tree had been cut down. Obviously, I saw a tree stump; Larry saw a placeboard. Hurrah! 😂

We fitted in some heelwork, with spins and twists thrown in for fun, a little hunting, and some marked, memory and split retrieves.

It may have been a short session, but it gave him the chance to use his brain, his nose and his body—and, importantly for a spaniel, provided some lovely breed-specific outlets through hunting and retrieving.

He was nearly falling asleep during his physio appointment afterwards!

Not much time—but definitely time well spent. 💚

04/09/2026

Super training walk with Milo and his family this week.

They’ve had a few issues with him at home and on his walks and a mere 2 sessions into his training and his mum has reported ‘it’s amazing how those games make such a difference’.

And…that he behaved perfectly when visitors came around when they put in place the protocols we practised.

Hurrah-a-rama!

Go Team Milo🐾💙

29/08/2026

Oh Larry!!!

What was meant to be a straightforward retrieve became a great search when a particularly poor throw from me left the ball lodged a couple of feet off the ground up a tree!!!

Channelling his good pal Kermit he did feel the need to pause for a celebratory p*e on the return!!

Love him!

28/08/2026

Go Team Hettie! 💚🐾

5-year-old Hettie was absolutely blooming marvellous on her 121 this week!

We took her retrieving out into the woodland, adding in some natural obstacles and introducing bird-shaped dummies she hadn’t worked with before.

Very different from picking up the training dummies she’s used to — and then there was the small matter of a massive log right in her path! 😂

Hettie tackled it brilliantly, and what I particularly loved was seeing her keep hold of that dummy all the way back over the log and return it to her mum. 👏

Hettie and her mum have progression sessions with me each month, which means we can keep building on what she already knows, introduce new challenges and, most importantly, give this busy Working Cocker brain plenty of appropriate outlets for all that WCS energy.

She’s a very lucky pupster to have a mum who enjoys learning right alongside her. 💚



Go Team Hettie — fantastic work!

26/08/2026

It’s National Dog Day! No better reason needed to share a pic of my two little besties, Bonnie (who I just can’t believe will be 11 in Jan!) and Crazy Larry (now 4)!

Life would be very quiet and boring without them! Who are the four legged family members in your life?

24/08/2026

🐾 Getting ready for Wales… one bang at a time! 💥

Yesterday Larry and I headed over to Epsom Common to do some desensitisation work around the sound of gunshot.

In October, we’re off to Mid Wales for a spaniel specific gundog ‘improver’ training course. I’m ridiculously excited about it… although I suspect Larry may have his own ideas about just how much “improving” he intends to do! 😂

The course takes place during the shooting season, so one thing I really don’t want is for Larry’s first proper experience of hearing repeated gunshot to be when we’re already there.

There are a couple of gun clubs close to Epsom Common, and from one particular part of the Common you can hear the shots in the distance. As you walk towards Rushett Farm and The Barn KT9 (which is a super pit stop!) they gradually become louder — which makes it a really useful place for me to gently introduce Larry to the sound while letting his response dictate how far we go.

Because desensitisation isn’t about repeatedly exposing a dog to something until they “get used to it”.

It’s about working at a level where they can notice something without becoming overwhelmed by it, allowing them time to process it and building positive or neutral experiences around it.

And that was my only real goal today.

We walked, sniffed, did some little bits of training and gradually got closer while I kept an eye on Larry’s response to the shots.

I’d planned to stop for coffee at The Barn and have a good chill-out there, but it turned out warmer than I expected and it was so busy there weren’t any tables in the shade. So we changed the plan and found ourselves a lovely shady spot nearby instead.

And there we sat. ❤️

People walking past. Cyclists going by. The occasional dog. Gunshots sounding in the background.

And Larry?

He lay down, relaxed and watched the world go by. 🥹

Exactly what I wanted.

There was no need to get closer just because we could. No need to test whether he could cope with louder shots. He was relaxed, comfortable and completely unfazed where we were — so that was a pretty perfect place to finish.

We’ll keep gently building on today’s experience over the next few weeks, so that when we get to Wales in October, hearing gunshot is hopefully just another part of the environment rather than something completely new.

And while Larry’s challenge today was gunshot, the same applies to anything our dogs might find difficult in the environment. We don’t have to keep getting closer to make progress — sometimes giving them the space to notice, process and feel safe is exactly where the learning happens.

Because sometimes successful training looks like sitting quietly under a tree with your dog, listening to bangs in the distance. ❤️🐾

fans

23/08/2026

🐾 Is recall REALLY the most important thing on a walk? 🤔

Yesterday I had a lovely first in-person session with gorgeous Nosey, a 5-year-old rescue Labradoodle who has only been with her new family for a few weeks. ❤️

Nosey (isn’t that just the BEST name!) and her mum already have the start of a lovely relationship, but one of the things we’re working on is how to take that connection out onto walks — particularly when the environment starts becoming rather more exciting than anything her person might have to offer!

And for Nosey, squirrels are VERY exciting. 🐿️😂

Of course we want to build a reliable recall. But we also want Nosey to have lots of other reasons to check in and engage with her person without always needing to be called back.

Those offered check-ins — when your dog turns back to you on a walk without you saying a word — are absolutely priceless. ❤️

They tell us that our dog is choosing to stay connected - even when there are other things going on around them. And the more we build that habit through games, engagement and doing enjoyable things together, the less we have to rely on repeatedly calling our dog back to get their attention.

Because sometimes recall can feel like:

“Stop doing that interesting thing and come back to me.”

Whereas a good engagement game can say:

“Hey! I’ve got something fun we can do together — let’s do it!”

So we deliberately started in a quiet, low-distraction environment, where Nosey and her mum could get the mechanics of those engagement games really well practised.

We played with different games, movement and different ways of delivering reinforcement — finding things that Nosey enjoyed and giving her lots of opportunities to choose to connect.

Because before we ask a dog to do something when the world is really exciting, we need to make sure they understand it somewhere easy.

From here, we can gradually take those skills into more challenging environments, thinking about Nosey’s arousal, what the environment is offering her and how valuable we need to be in that moment.

Set them up to succeed first — then build from there. ❤️

Really looking forward to working more with Team Nosey!

Connection, not correction.

20/08/2026

Anyone feeding their dog Years? Sounds like some pretty serious issues being potentially caused hy buckwheat, please read.

Following the voluntary recall of all Years Fresh Meals, we know your first thought will be for your dog, whether they’re safe, what you should feed them and how you can continue caring for them.

To be clear, this recall is a precaution. Our investigation has identified a potential link between buckwheat, an ingredient used in many dog foods, and reported cases of dry eye. Lab testing will confirm this, but we've taken the decision not to wait.

Dogs' health & wellbeing have always driven us, and that means acting now rather than waiting for absolute certainty.

Please stop feeding any Years Signature Meals immediately, even if your dog seems well. When choosing an alternative, we recommend continuing with complete & balanced fresh food with wholefood ingredients.

We’ve paused all Years subscriptions. Upcoming orders will be cancelled and refunded automatically to your original payment method. If an order is in transit, please refuse this and contact Customer Care to receive your account credit.

Alongside our ongoing investigation, we’re reformulating our meals without buckwheat, with your dog's wellbeing at the heart of every decision, so, when Years returns, you can feel fully confident filling their bowl again.

We're thinking of every dog who’s been affected and every family caring for them through such a worrying and difficult time.

We’re deeply sorry for the worry this has caused. We know how much your dog means to you, and we want to ensure you’ve clear information, guidance and help throughout.

If your dog has experienced dry eye (KCS) while feeding Years, please let us know, even if you've told us before. The more detail you can share, including your dog's symptoms and any veterinary notes or costs, the better our team can understand what happened and respond personally. https://moreyears.typeform.com/to/bC8fm7AC

We're experiencing a high volume of emails and messages and are working our way through them as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience while we do.

For full details on this recall, including symptoms to watch for, what to do with Years meals, and how to reach our Customer Care team, please visit years.com/pages/care.

19/08/2026

❤️ This is what training is really about for me…

What I loved about Charlotte’s very first message to me about Toni was that she didn’t simply give me a list of things she wanted to “fix”.

She told me she wanted to understand more about Toni’s behaviour and what motivates him, so they could have an even happier life together and really enjoy their walks!

And that’s exactly what we’ve been working towards. 🐾

Toni is a gorgeous rescue spaniel/beagle cross and, when we first met, life both at home and out on walks could sometimes feel pretty challenging for Team Toni.

Rather than focusing on individual behaviours in isolation, we’ve worked on building communication, connection and confidence — helping Charlotte understand what Toni needs and giving him lots of reasons to choose to stay connected with her.

And little by little, those choices are becoming habits. ❤️

Charlotte tells me he’s now much calmer at home, his lead walking is improving and his recall has come on enormously.

One recent update particularly made me smile. Toni went to investigate an area where he’d previously disappear after squirrels for rather longer than Charlotte might like… 🐿️😂

This time?

He came straight back.🙌🙌🙌

He’s been staying closer and checking in regularly on walks, coming away from other dogs when asked and calmly passing distractions that he would previously have found much harder to cope with.

Is everything perfect? Of course not!

Loose lead walking is still very much a work in progress, and there will always be more to learn. But that’s dog training. We’re not looking for perfection — we’re looking for progress that makes everyday life happier and easier for both ends of the lead.

And now that those foundations are getting stronger, we’ve started the next chapter…

Toni has begun his gundog training journey! 🥰

Here he is starting his placeboard work, which we’ll use to build more fun games around focus, steadiness, communication and teamwork.

Thank you so much, Charlotte, for this gorgeous review — and for putting so much into your training between our sessions. I absolutely love the updates telling me what Team Toni have achieved. ❤️

🐾Connection, not correction.🐾