Acorn Dog Training Club

21/10/2025

Something a bit different this week.... looking at conditioning and body awareness to help the dog become fitter and stronger in themselves

19/10/2025

Following on from my last post.

Do you recognise how hard it is for your dog to understand and remember what our words mean??

Well in our sessions last week, the handlers got an insight into how their dogs feel because I changed all the words for their normal heelwork and they had to remember what the random words meant!!!

Here's what the handlers found out:

- It was hard!

- They looked around at what others were doing

- it was easier with repetition

- the word which was easiest was Whizz which meant to resume Heelwork normal pace (and the reason it was easier was because it was the only obvious next move)

- words and actions which were closest to each other were the hardest .. ie. About turn, and left about turn (lots of confusion as to which way to turn)

- if I said a random word, they wouldn't have known what to do as they wernt told what that word meant

And guess what... it's exactly true for dogs too!!

So when your training your dog....

-allow them to learn from others

- keep words clear and concise and different sounding

- repeat, repeat, repeat

- don't change your words!!

- keep the desired action as the easiest one for the dog to do

AND FINALLY.... GIVE THEM A BREAK... ITS HARD FOR THEM TO WORK OUT WHAT WE WANT AND THEN TO REMEMBER OUR RANDOM WORDS AND WHAT THEY MEAN

Here's skyla demonstrating her 4 words she knows with 1 pole... note how I help her with my body language still so she succeeds ... in time that will fade but for now that's what she needs

19/10/2025

Last week's exercise... changing all the commands so handlers realised how hard it is for their dogs working out what we want!!!

Check out the next post for more insight!!!

19/10/2025

Poor skyla is feeling sorry for herself.... last Tuesday I noticed her top eyelid was puffy but nothing too bad. Wednesday it was red and sore but by the evening seemed to have gone down. It continued to get better so I thought she'd been bitten and it was healing... but this morning it is angry again.. and the bottom lid is swollen too. So we will be off to the vets tomorrow hopefully . For now she is having it bathed with warm tea water(an old trick I learnt a long time ago and always seems to work really well on eye problems).

I have a sneaky feeling it might be related to her itchiness which comes and goes and all of it might relate to the hay up the yard!!

So until we can get her seen by a vet she is having cuddles and lots of love

18/10/2025

The next walk is up... and this one was at needham lakes

Todays walk was one for the folk 'the other side of Ipswich' as we went to good old Needham Lakes.Our walk started early as I wanted to combine it with some foraging around the car boot sale with Skyla. Apparently they hold them every week, but next week is the last one before winter (*mental note m...

18/10/2025

I couldn't not share this 🥰🥰🥰

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FzEA58wBp/

18/10/2025

Curiosity got the better of me!!!!!

For a while now, I've been wondering if I use my time effectively - what with the horses, training others dogs, admin, my own dogs and chores etc, I often feel pulled in lots of different directions.

So I decided to stop wondering and work it out!!

So I worked out what an average week looks like for me - and well - here it is.....

My conclusions :

- My poor dogs ! No wonder I don't get as far with them as Id like

and it looks like if i want to do more , i need to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Anyway - there's an insight into what my week looks like, not sure I can do much more unless I can buy more days in the week????

17/10/2025

Congrats to Carolyn and rolo on bagging a 1st place on their level 6 today in SWUK

17/10/2025

Well today took an unexpected turn.....

I was meant to be going for a walk but was feeling a bit under the weather so I spent the morning not doing a lot.

Then... after a few cuddles with the dogs.... I felt like a bit of retail therapy.... with a doggy twist of course....

so my bank balance has taken a bit of a hit, but a worthwhile one I'm sure, because I've just bought:

- a 4 day training experience at Jimmy's farm next year

- a scentwork uk trial managers course which I can complete online

- a scentwork uk judges course booked for early 2026

- And a scentwork uk trainer course to redo my certification for March 2026

Which means in 2026 I will hopefully be holding some competitions for scentwork uk..... it's been on my list of things to do for a year now but being a 1 man band it just never made it to the top of the priority list!

So folks... time to get them noses sniffing ....

16/10/2025

Huge congrats to all those fabulous puppies who finished their puppy foundation course yesterday. Such a shame to the 2 who couldn't make the last session and receive their certificate and handouts.

I very much look forward to carry on working with those who are staying on!!

16/10/2025

Are you struggling with your dog? Maybe recall? Or lead walking? Or perhaps you want to improve your relationship and want to learn some fun games to play... then read below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

1-1 sessions available on:

⏩️. mondays at 4pm at Tunstall community centre.

Or

⏩️. Thursday mornings at Kembroke Kennels and Cattery

We are really lucky to have indoor venues at both locations so no matter what the weather, we can go ahead!!

1-1 sessions are £45 a session or 4 x sessions for £160.

Please email on [email protected] for further information or to book

16/10/2025

Obedience doggies learning to ignore the tempting distraction of the fluffy ones!!!