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Obsidian K9

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Obsidian K9

UK Based Protection Dog Club Taking your dog from today, to the perfect, enriched, well rounded pet. Something the game has never seen before.

WHTE is a journey, not a destination… the goal and ethos is to make dog training something to love, not something that has to be done. Whether your dog has behavioural problems or not, WHTE is open to all. The only caveat is that you want to make a journey, not just fix a problem. Problem fixing is just a small part of a much bigger movement. The pinnacle of the movement is the Black Collar Dog. A

black collar dog is the peak of control, relationship and understanding between dog and owner. Beautiful behaviour, great life skills, lovely obedience and a keen nose.

01/08/2025

A Tricky Exercise

This exercise is the silence under gunfire and although a very boring one to watch I think it’s a very interesting exercise from a training perspective.

Often when teaching gunfire especially to dogs with thinner than preferred nerve, people will use drive and the anticipation of dopamine via reward to address the issue.

However with this exercise being part of a programme, that’s not possible. The dog most walk out, remain quiet and calm and walk back. If a huge amount of drive is used to mask the nerve from the gun shot.

With this in mind, you must think much more carefully about how to classically condition a positive response to the stimulus.

31/07/2025

The Out!

The ever mystical behaviour with so many questions surrounding it. When to teach it? How to teach it? How to proof it? How to make it reliable? Does it ruin mechanics? Does it lessen drive? The list goes on!

The problem surrounding the out is that there are so many variables at play at any one time. We have dogs in club that were taught the out almost from the off at 10 or so weeks old and we have others that were taught it much later.

There are a thousand different methods for the out but for me the most important thing is to keep it conflict free. If there’s a tonne of conflict and hesitancy in the out, that’s when it becomes sticky.

Making it the dogs idea is a great place to start. Out doesn’t mean a loss to the dog, but a win… that’s the key to keeping it clean.

29/07/2025

Searching for Keys

This is a super exercise for real life emergencies and one I’ve used myself and helped others with multiple times.

Teaching your dog some form of nose work is a mandatory part of BLCK. We want our dogs well rounded and that has to include the most powerful tool a dog has.

Of course this can be any nose work. Some members are training detection, some searches like this and some tracking!

In this video Drogo shows a search for a set of keys which can be very useful if you drop yours out training. We’re constantly trying to train things that can be adapted to have a real life use rather than just look good on a video.

Also for all members I’ve just put up a new video talking about problem solving in this behaviour and how you can analyse your problem solving in other behaviours too. If you’re a member of BLCK it’s available to watch now!

26/06/2025

Learning Together

Last night was another club night here at Obsidian BLCK and we got some great work in the bag!

This was Liam’s first ever time in the bite suit and I’m looking forward to helping him learn more and improve in all aspects.

We may not be the best team on the planet, we may not have the best dogs, we may not have the best results, but what we do have is a group of people who want each other to improve. We have a genuine team.

Everybody starts somewhere and it’s so important to nurture that and allow people to grow. Yes Drogo would get better work from a top professional decoy, but then how does Liam learn?

We move forward as a team. Trying to improve our dogs and our abilities as handlers. That’s the game.

23/06/2025

Debate Topic - Let’s Hear Your Thoughts

Is ‘Fight Drive’ an actual drive?

I think this is a really interesting debate and one that I don’t personally have a clear cut answer to.

Is fight drive a separate drive? You may also hear it called prey aggression.

So a state of drive where the dog carries intent.

Is this not true of both prey and defence too?

Prey drive is the desire to chase, catch and kill. Does this not carry intent? The desire to kill another creature?

And then we have defence. The self preservation drive. Does this also not carry the same intent when an animal is fighting for its life?

So is prey aggression or fight drive anything different than prey and defence? Is it a mix of the two? Is it something entirely different?

If it isn’t a drive in itself, what makes some dogs so much more intent than others? If it is a separate drive then what is the factor that causes it and how can it be spotted?

Look forward to hearing everyone’s view on this topic and if you’re a member of BLCK I expect answers from you for sure!

19/06/2025

Build It All

The goal for Obsidian BLCK is to build the do it all dog. There’s no set programme because everybody has a different idea of a dream dog.

Our stipulations are that the dog must have a multitude of obedience behaviours, a multitude of scent behaviours and a multitude of protection behaviours along with life skills.

That doesn’t mean any aspect should be weaker than another, and obviously it’s a long game juggling so many different aspects to the dog.

Our grading system goes white, blue, purple, brown, black and it was the first in the country to apply a graded system without set criteria.

We do have milestones though as a few examples:

Dogs at purple collar must bite passive and civil.
Dogs at blue collar must have well rounded and beyond basic obedience

This applies to our handler grades too. Handlers at purple cap and above must have begin their journey working other peoples dogs. Handlers at blue should have opinions and advice to share. This means we create a real strong team who can all help eachother.

We currently train every Saturday afternoon and Wednesday evening in Yorkshire, and every Sunday afternoon at our Coventry branch.

See you in there.

18/06/2025

It’s A Vision

Obsidian BLCK started with a tiny bunch of people who all shared the same end goal. The quest to build the ultimate protection dog.

Strong in protection
Immaculate control
Brilliant search
Perfect life skills

As it grew it became a brilliant and tight knit team and I’ve personally met some excellent friends in the process.

Every week we get together, train, exchange ideas and keep working towards our shared goal. We stay true to what we are trying to build despite the weird looks.

It’s not the journey for everyone, it’s not the goal of everyone, it’s not flashy, but it’s our goal, and we will keep working on that journey.

One step at a time, together as a team.

17/06/2025

Shoutout to Ryan

Here’s one of our students Ryan getting the work in with his dog Zuko (aka John).

Ryan came to BLCK as a complete novice. He’d never owned a sports dog, a protection dog or anything similar. He had a pet dog and was keen to learn more.

Starting from the absolute bottom, Ryan has worked and worked and worked and there’s a fairly good chance he will be the first blue cap promotion that we see. Every week he gets closer to that goal.

Although Ryan knew next to nothing at the start of the journey he had the desire to learn. That attitude means he’s absolutely flown through his training and progression.

He wanted to know the theory, the practical, the neuroscience, the psychology, the decoying… he wanted to know everything and continues with this attitude today.

Massive well done mate. Proud to have you as part of the team! You’re an asset to BLCK and I hope we continue working together all the way to black cap because there’s no doubt you’re capable of getting there.

16/06/2025

The Bitework Table

A piece of equipment you will see used a lot in the protection dog training world, for a load of different uses, is the Bitework table.

There are literally endless reasons for using this so I’m not going to dive into all of them here in this post, however we’ll look at the reason Jake is working Diesel on it.

Diesel doesn’t have genetically, mechanically perfect grips, and he’s also a dog that thinks quite a lot.

With this in mind, putting him on the table means he only has to think about his grips. He doesn’t have to think about standing on his back legs, he doesn’t have to think about finding the bicep, he doesn’t have to think about entries.

When we teach a dog a behaviour, it’s useful to remove as many questions as possible in the learning phase. When the mechanics of the grip become second nature to the dog we can ask the next question.

As stated there are thousands of reasons for table use but there’s one of them in this instance.

10/06/2025

Know What YOU Need

There’s no one size fits all in dog training and especially in more complex areas of dog training.

In this video Jodie is doing a very specific heelwork routine in order to induce more pattern behaviour into the training.

This is something we ordinarily avoid but because of some issues in Jodie’s handling, this method will help clean a lot of things up.

What is brilliant advice for one person and dog team can be awful advice for another.

This is the importance of attending club. Club sessions are far less about progress in the moment and much more about getting eyes on the training so your trainer can steer you in the right direction,

Understanding what you and or your dog needs is an absolute must to building a training programme and it’s very hard to do without another pair of eyes to spot the things you miss.

09/06/2025

Consideration Before Sessions

When training your dog, don’t just go out and train. We call this ‘ticking boxes’ when yes you can say to yourself that you’ve trained today… but did you? Let me explain.

When you go out with no intention, no goal, no process, you very often go through the motions of behaviours that your dog already understands. No progress is made.

Instead, think about your sessions backwards. Your session starts when you put the dog away. You begin thinking, you begin considering, you begin planning. This can be hours or even the day before your next outing.

When you do come to get your dog out, you’ll have a clear and considered plan in your head and make it specific.

‘I’m training heelwork’

What about heelwork? Head position? Impulsion? Distraction? Luring skills? Rear end awareness? Speed? Accuracy? The list goes on!

Consider carefully, plan adequately and gain much better results.

06/06/2025

How Much Control?

How much control should we put into our dogs and at what point? One of the million dollar questions of protection training.

Put too much control in, in the wrong way and hinder the strength of the dogs spirit… don’t put enough in and you have a rogue tearaway.

For me the key to putting control into a dog especially when young is to train in such a manner that the dog thinks it is their idea. When this is done the dog remains in control of its own reality from its perspective despite the fact you have the control in reality.

We teach our dogs in BLCK to want to cooperate with what is being asked rather than trying to force the hand. If you constantly try force the hand of a strong dog you end up with a tonne of argument and conflict.

Of course there are times this is a struggle but this fundamental philosophy has produced some beautiful control in many many dogs.

Address

Obsidian K9, The Lodge
Askern
DN60ET

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 6pm
Tuesday	9am - 6pm
Wednesday	9am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 6pm
Friday	9am - 6pm
Saturday	9am - 6pm

Telephone

+447455805065

Website

http://www.obsidianblck.com/

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Obsidian K9 Academy

The UK’s leading dog training facility based in the heart of South Yorkshire. Obsidian K9 Academy strives to help owners understand and assist their dogs. We specialise in advanced behavioural issues and high level sport. Our head trainer Jay Gray Dip.Dog.Psy, MOC, MSFTR is a qualified Canine Psychologist and has trained thousands of dogs in 30 countries around the world. He worked and lived in the USA with 8x World Champion Joeri Goedertier before moving back to the UK to pursue his passion.