Dogwood Adventure Play - Dog Walking Fields & Training Centre
Dogwood Adventure Play has two purpose built secure fields available to hire on a sole-use basis. As Welcome to the North East's first Dog Adventure Park!
An enriching environment for your dog to run, play, sniff, discover and learn. A place for you to relax. Dogwood Adventure Play is set across seven acres of countryside with two secure fields and a training paddock. We’re between Darlington and Stockton and easily accessible from both - though we serve clients from all across Tees Valley and the North East and Yorkshire. Our purpose-built parks ar
e available for you and your dog to hire on an individual basis all year round, seven days a week. Ideal for dogs that can’t be let off lead in public places – perhaps because they don't enjoy meeting other dogs, or for those that don’t have great recall skills, puppies or adult dogs who need to work on training in a secure environment, owners of rescue dogs who need to bond with their new companion, or anyone else who enjoys watching their dog run free. You have exclusive use of the park during your booking. The coded double-gate entry system and carefully timed slots mean you won’t be disturbed. For extra peace of mind, in-field parking allows you to lock the gate before letting your dogs out of your vehicle. Adventure Play® frames increase confidence, range of motion, strength and balance, while the Sensory Gardens are made up of a variety of smells, surfaces and textures to engage all the senses and reduce stress and anxiety, encourage dogs to be more secure in their surroundings, and provide mental stimulation and enrichment. Dogs love exploring the fascinating environment rich with scent, while their happy humans sit back on a bench and relax. Where would Dogwood be without Scentventure®? Well, just another field. Dogwood is a SCENTVENTURE PARK where your dog can sniff, climb, stretch and develop strength and confidence - all the components needed for calm, relaxation and focus. Enriched environments like Dogwood are well-known by behavioural experts to reduce behavioural problems such as reactivity. Dog Trainer, Scentwork Instructor and Canine Enrichment Specialist, Katie created Dogwood Adventure Play when she needed a safe space to exercise her own reactive rescue dog Lao. Since then, Dogwood has hosted thousands of off-lead adventures, helped hundreds of reactive and distracted dogs and their owners enjoy stress free walks via Katie’s signature training system Scentventure, and created an international community of Club Dogwood members who are enjoying calm walks and adventures, no matter where in the world they live. Katie brings over a decade of experience at Dogs Trust, qualifications, accreditations and hundreds of hours of learning from the top minds and organisations in the industry to ensure you and your dog always benefit from the latest scientific research and behavioural studies. She also offers a consultancy service to help other people open their own Dogwoods around the country. Community is at the very heart of everything we do. Dogwood advocates for rescue dogs, donating Adventure Play sessions to local rescues every week and hosting fundraisers throughout the year. Now you and your dog can enjoy the same fear-free, off-lead experience as Katie and Lao at Dogwood Adventure Play, the North East’s first dog adventure park. Your dog was born to sniff, discover and play, and at Dogwood you can give them exactly what they need whilst you enjoy a relaxing, stress-free adventure walk with your best friend. Get in touch to find out how you can join our exclusive dog adventure community. As seen in The Times, Edition Dog, BBC, Puppy Post and more.
''We've tried other secure fields in the area but they're not a patch on Dogwood. Our dogs cry with excitement when we say 'Dogwood'. The original and best!''
- Sue Green
23/08/2025
High fiving you if you are making mistakes in dog training 🙌🏻
Today’s brand new episode of The Stress Free Dog Walks Show just dropped and I’m covering 4 training mistakes we all make now and then.
Before you go off and listen though, you know how I feel about mistakes - love ‘em! Love failures, mistakes and training disasters.
As Elbert Hubbard said:
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” 📣
I love this for dog training, because if you’ve made a mistake with your dog: brilliant. That means you’re actually trying.
The only dog owners who never make mistakes are the ones who never train at all.
So when I talk about 4 common mistakes that might be slowing your progress, I’m not saying “shame on you.” I’m saying: well done. You’re in the arena.
Go and give it a listen, and as you do, give yourself a high five for every mistake you’ve made 🙌🏻
21/08/2025
If I was your best friend, here’s what I’d say over coffee…
Your dog doesn’t ‘need more socialising’, and park free-for-alls aren’t the answer. I’ve made every mistake in the book so you don’t have to.
I’ll spill the hard truths (with love) so you and your dog can ditch the drama 🧡
17/08/2025
It’s easier than you think! 🫠
If you’ve accidentally ticked a few of these already, don’t worry - most of us have!
We’re told that more socialising is the answer, but for reactive, anxious or over-excitable dogs, it usually makes things worse.
In this week’s episode of The Stress Free Dog Walks Show, I break down the ‘socialisation’ myth and share 3 effective alternatives - one of which you can do on your very next dog walk.
Listen or watch now on YouTube or your favourite podcast app.
16/08/2025
When I first brought home pulley, barky, bitey Lao, I was determined to fix him.
I spoke to my old colleagues from rescue, dog trainer friends, Google, and the advice was unanimous:
You need to socialise him 📣
Ok! I thought. Makes sense! He’s terrified of dogs so he just needs to learn they’re ok.
Thankfully I was too terrified of his reactions to even go *there*.
The fatal error in that socialisation strategy?
Lao had never been short of dog company.
He was born and raised in a hunting kennel with goodness knows how many other dogs.
I pulled him out of a pack of 40 dogs living in a field at the rescue centre in Milan.
It wasn’t dog company he was lacking - it was safe experiences of them.
I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that's probably what will help your dog too - if they’re reactive, anxious or totally OTT with other dogs, that is.
I wish I’d known then what I’m sharing with you in today’s episode (sorry Lao), but at least you can benefit from my mistakes.
In the latest episode of the Stress Free Dog Walks Show, I’m sharing:
🐕 Why “socialise them” can make reactivity worse
🐕 What a dog’s natural social life looks like (and how different it is from the park)
🐕 3 proven alternatives: real-world strategies my clients use
🐕 How to set up safe, calm, confidence-building dog interactions
Listen now on YouTube or your favourite podcast platform.
14/08/2025
Brutally honest truth from someone who built a legacy on discipline and knows better than anyone how to rebalance. It’s the resting, recovering and recharging that allows you to do the repeating.
There’s that other saying, isn’t there: ‘If you don’t pick a day to relax, your body will pick it for you.’
I think the dog version of that is: If you don’t pick a walk to relax, your dog’s behaviour will pick it for you.
Meaning if you don’t find a nice quiet walk where your dog doesn’t kick off, you’ll be forced to find that kind of walk anyway. Because the pulling, barking and lunging will only get worse.
Not quite as eloquent but you get the point!
High performers know this better than anyone: rest isn’t lazy, it’s an essential part of the strategy. And yet, when it comes to dog training, and dog walking, we are sooooo hard on ourselves!
We think it’s giving up to avoid triggers (even though it’s temporary), or time wasting if we take a day off (there’s too much to do!).
So we push through the barking. Expose them to the triggers. Practise the recall. Reward, correct, repeat.
Want to walk like the happiest dog owners instead?
Step one: stop doing what’s *not* working, and make Decompression Walks a regular part of your routine.
10/08/2025
If, like me, you also have a ‘do’ and ‘achieve’ mindset, it feels SOOOOOO counterintuitive to slow down to speed up.
Yet that is exactly what most reactive, anxious and easily-distracted dogs need. It starts with a good Decompression Walk strategy.
That’s exactly what the newest episode of the Stress Free Dog Walks Show is about. The approach that changed everything for me and Lao, and the reason I still use it today with foster dogs.
31/07/2025
This month felt like three months squeezed into one thanks to The Walk Your Dog With Confidence Challenge and a rare holiday!
Highlights: sunshine, street dogs, and surfing ☀️🐕🏄🏻♀️
I left a huge piece of my heart with the street dogs I met on holiday. What an absolute joy they are to spend time with, and learn from. They are such pure souls. They have so little yet they are so optimistic.
Surfing is very humbling and reminds me so much of the highs and lows of dog training! It’s also a tonne of fun, and a healthy break from thinking about dogs 24/7 😅
A beautiful foster dog is snoozing beside me. Justine nailed our new Scent Detector course. And someone emailed to say ‘your podcast is the first thing that’s made me feel hopeful in months.’ Which gives me goosebumps.
⭐️ Scentventure Superstars! Watson enjoyed a holiday in Devon - his first ever! - and blew Rebekah away with how well he coped! Scooby proved to Sharon just how far he’s come when they celebrated a stress-free visit from the gas engineer! A delightful day out for Marj and Ollie recently really highlighted just how far they’ve come together. Katy and Bamboo totally kept their cool on a VERY rabbit-filled walk!
Lowlights: sunburn, scheduling and shoulder injuries! 🗒️🎙️
Released only 2 new Stress Free Dog Walks episodes this month instead of the usual weekly schedule, one of which made me cry while editing (Trilogy, so Fifi and Lao. I miss them every single day and some days I still find it incomprehensible that I’ll never see them again).
August Outlook: It’s silly season in Club Dogwood! The Trilogy is ON! Club Dogwood, see you at 6.30 to send this thing LIVE 🕵🏻♀️
22/07/2025
22/07/2025
🌟 It was so lovely to see Reina and her humans, Stephanie and Charlie, again after her summer break. What made it even better was that her wonderful humans felt ready to take the next step by moving sessions into public spaces and starting to build confidence around new environments and triggers. Not only did they smash Scentwork, they also made great progress building confidence around other dogs.
Reina has come so far, from a dog who only relaxed in the comfort of enclosed fields to this. It truly is beautiful to see. Reina loves the great outdoors when she feels confident to explore it.
I’ve been using a mixture of Scentwork and targeted behaviour training to build success step by step, building solid confidence and key skills ready for the outdoor world. Reina speaks for herself how successful this method can be. I can’t wait to continue building that confidence to open up her world for more exploring, which I just know the whole family can’t wait to do. 🙌
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Contact The Business
Send a message to Dogwood Adventure Play - Dog Walking Fields & Training Centre:
Welcome to the North East’s first Dog Adventure Park!
Dogwood Adventure Play is set across seven acres of countryside and comprises of two enclosed fields and a training paddock. Our purpose-built fields are available for you and your dog to hire on an individual basis all year round, seven days a week.
Ideal for dogs that cannot be let off lead in public places – perhaps because they do not enjoy meeting other dogs, or for those that don’t have great recall skills, puppies or adult dogs who need to work on training in an enclosed environment, owners of rescue dogs who would like to bond with their new companion, or anyone else who enjoys watching their dog run free.
Bring a ball or your dog's favourite toy, make use of the Adventure Play frames or just relax while your dog sniffs and explores the fascinating environment rich with scent.
You have exclusive use of the field during your booking. Our coded double-gate entry system and carefully timed slots mean that you won’t be disturbed. In-field parking allows you to lock the gate before letting your dogs out of the car.
Adventure Play equipment is provided to increase confidence, range of motion, strength and balance in dogs, while the Sensory Garden is made up of a variety of smells and textures which reduce stress and anxiety, encourage dogs to be more secure in their surroundings, and provide additional stimulation and enrichment.
After an initial Introduction Session, the facility is self-service and you will be sent a code to unlock the gates, along with full instructions.
Your dog was born to run and play, and at Dogwood you can give him what he needs whilst you can enjoy a brand new, relaxing, stress-free adventure walk with your best friend.
Contact us to find out how you can join our private and exclusive dog adventure community.
About Katie
Qualified Dog Trainer, Scentwork Instructor and Canine Enrichment Specialist, Katie Guastapaglia created Dogwood Adventure Play because she believes that all dogs deserve to be Dogwood dogs. In her previous role as Campaigns Officer at Dogs Trust she travelled across the North of England delivering training, behaviour, enrichment, health and legal advice to hundreds of dog owners every week and developing new campaigns for responsible dog ownership.
A strong advocate of rescue dogs, Katie joined the Dogs Trust Head Office team where she helped deliver the campaign to parliament for compulsory microchipping. At Dogwood she organises charity events to support rescue dogs.
Katie specialises in helping reactive, distracted and bored dogs via her signature training system, Scentventure® and works hard to improve the lives of the dogs and people in her community. She believes that reward-based training and enrichment are key to a strong and long-lasting relationship.
Katie is qualified with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (high distinction), an associate member of Pet Dog Trainers of Europe and a qualified Scentwork Instructor with the UK College of Scent Dogs and WSDA The Man Hunt instructor and judge. She has launched a consultancy service to help other people open their own Dogwoods around the country.
