Parker's Canine Training

04/06/2026

Scent Work Week 4 🐾🐶🐕

What a brilliant session today!

This is the point in the course where everything starts coming together.
The dogs are recognising odour, the handlers are understanding scent movement and airflow, and everyone's body language and handling skills are improving week by week.

Watching Griff pick up odour on the confidence course, cut straight across the area and confidently indicate the correct source was fantastic. Gwenno is only 6 months she kept us guessing, looking as though she wasn't paying much attention... then went straight to source!
And Thelma continues to make my heart smile. After such a difficult start in life living in a puppy farm, seeing her outside, problem-solving, searching and genuinely enjoying herself is wonderful to watch.

A huge well done to all the handlers too. Your were excellent today and it's showing in the dogs' confidence and success.
And a little thank you to in Monmouth for the brilliant pots we're using to help shape our freeze indication—they're working a treat!

I can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring. 🐕👃❤️

03/06/2026

This is Freddie.

Freddie and I have been working together for quite some time now as part of my Reactive Walks programme. We've made fantastic progress by identifying his individual triggers, discovering which skills work best for him, and even finding the lead length that suits both Freddie and his humans. His distance to triggers has reduced dramatically.

Freddie is currently on a pain trial, and we're already seeing some positive changes. His owners are also working hard on rebuilding his confidence with his muzzle. Unfortunately, it became associated with stressful situations in the past, so he's understandably not a huge fan of it at the moment. With patience, consistency, and a little creative thinking, we're seeing some lovely progress.

One thing I always include in Freddie's sessions is searching. He absolutely loves it. It's wonderful to watch him settle into the task and find his flow; the world around him seems to fade away as he focuses on the scent.

This particular search was especially challenging due to the space we were working in and the airflow conditions. Scent rarely travels in a straight line, and air movement can create pockets and pools of odour away from the source. Freddie initially knocked the scent carried on the airflow before working methodically to locate where it was actually coming from.

I love it when they knock the scent — it's my favourite part. They catch that first whiff that's been carried on the airflow, and suddenly you can see them switch gears and work their little socks off to locate the source.

Safe to say, Freddie smashed it.

Here he's proudly modelling his harness which came from an awesome partnership between Yellow Dog UK and PerfectFit Harness.

02/06/2026

Thanks to the lovely Laszlo, who helped out yesterday with Gwenno the Collie.
Gwenno is a little lady who can sometimes feel overwhelmed and worried by things. Laszlo, on the other hand, is a very confident little character who tackled all the obstacles and even the big adult confidence course without a second thought.
This meet-up was full of information, and what we see gives us exactly what we need to help Gwenno as best we can.
Using our space worked perfectly. Gwenno was able to move around and investigate whatever interested her in the presence of Laszlo. Building confidence in this way is ideal. There's another dog there, but there's no pressure. She doesn't need to interact. She can simply enjoy the environment and spend time with her human instead.
It worked really well for Laszlo too. The flip side of having a pro-social dog who wants to greet everyone is learning how to do his own thing with his human and not rush over to say hello.
Movement can be a trigger for both of these youngsters. They are breeds that have been selectively bred to notice and respond to movement, which can make it difficult to ignore at times. So towards the end of the session, we worked on some engage and disengage training, which, if you ask me, is where true impulse control lies.
The ability to notice something, process it, and then choose to disengage is a skill worth building.

31/05/2026

A little reminder..

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY9ys5PMAra/?igsh=MWRqaW9xZjFsOHV1Yw==

25/05/2026

25/05/2026

Artificial grass..

Artificial grass can become extremely hot in warm weather, sometimes scorching to the touch.

Your dog’s paws are the first thing making contact with that surface, and paws are far more sensitive than many people realise.
Paw pads still contain nerve endings, temperature receptors, and thinner tissue between the pads, so prolonged exposure to very hot surfaces can become uncomfortable surprisingly quickly.

Artificial grass can also retain heat differently to natural grass and soil because there is less evaporative cooling and airflow through the surface. Darker colours and rubber crumb infill can make some surfaces even warmer.
A simple back-of-the-hand test is a good guide. If it feels too hot for your hand, it’s too hot for paws too.

Dogs don’t always avoid uncomfortable surfaces, especially if they’re excited, rushing outside, or need the toilet, so they may still walk across hot grass even when it feels unpleasant.

Spraying the grass with water throughout the day can help cool the surface down before toilet trips or outdoor time. 🐾

24/05/2026

Keep your doggies safe.
Ours are inside. Went down the fields first thing. We've not trained or played.
This is a message from the awesome Rachel Bean.

23/05/2026

Sadly cancelled our puppy class for today.
Im not a fan of canceling things but when its for our puppies safety it has to be done.
Puppies are more at risk due to their immature thermoregulation, they struggle to maintain a stable internal temperature.
Puppies have smaller airways, less efficient respiratory cooling, less stamina then an older dog and poorer coordination of breathing during excitement.
We are lucky we have some lovely shady spots but moving them to and away from those spots and the car journeys, its not worth the risk. They burn energy so quickly as it is without adding more.

20/05/2026

Thanks to the Unlocking Resilience Course by this extremely awesome lady I had the courage to start Safe Space Saturday.
When I first started them, they felt so different to many of the reactivity setups and group walks I was seeing and they still do.
I didn’t want dogs being marched around fields overwhelmed, unable to move away, forced into “socialisation,” or simply learning to tolerate things while stressed.
I wanted dogs to have space.
Real space.
Space to breathe, sniff, process, observe, move away, decompress, think, and just be.
That’s why our setups look the way they do.
We use our 8 acres to create calm, structured environments with:
• controlled distances
• curved walking
• decompression opportunities
• freework
• confidence course equipment and obstacles
• BAT-inspired setups
• scatter feeding
• pattern games
• choice and agency built into the session

Dogs can stay on the edge if they need to.
They can sniff instead of interact.
They can move away.
They can observe without pressure.
They are never trapped into interaction.
And I think that’s such an important difference.
Because the goal isn’t: “Just get over it.”
The goal is helping dogs learn: “I can exist around this and still feel safe.”
Our sessions look like nothing is happening from the outside because they’re calm, spacious, and often slow moving.
But internally, so much is happening.
Dogs are rehearsing:
• regulation
• recovery
• orientation
• curiosity
• nervous system safety
• and the ability to make better choices without overwhelm
That’s the kind of learning that matters to me.

17/05/2026

I would definitely say you are all winners!!!!!

Winner of the Scurry;
Enzo at 5.41 SECONDS!

Winner of the Search & Sniff;
Tigger at 4 minutes 5 seconds.

Fastest at the Search & Sniff was Echo who found all 3 in 1 minute!