Our Services
Barn Hunt
Unleash their natural instincts
Work as a team to find hidden rats buried in bales of straw - great fun for you and your dog!
Barn Hunt is a relatively new sport in the UK, which places rats inside specially designed tubes to let the scent out. This timed event is great for mental and physical stimulation, is a great confidence giver, and is a great bonding exercise for you both. To keep Barn Hun inclusive, I will only work with one dog at a time, so that reactive dogs or dogs needing space can take part.
There are five competitive levels of Barn Hunt trials. Instinct, Novice, Open, Senior and Master. To compete in official trials your dog needs to be registered with Barn Hunt Association (www.barnhunt.com), but this isn't necessary for fun trials or workshops.
Please note: neither you nor you dog will ever come into direct contact with the rats. All rats are sourced from reputable frozen food suppliers and are bred specifically for feeding reptiles.
Trail Hunt
A fun activity for anywhere
Trail Hunt is another relatively new sport to the UK - a blend of tracking and trailing, where you and your dog work as a team following an aniseed trail to find the pod at the end. You can work towards assessments and grade tests as a registered member.
Unlike mantrailing, you can train on your own and in any location. Once you have completed foundation workshops you can move on to component workshops, where the fun really starts!
There are three levels of component workshops -
Level 1: High Pod, Back Trails, Distractions, Gap in the Trail, Multiple Pods on the Trail, Gates/Barriers, Odour Pools, No Odour Indication, Find the start of the Trail.
Level 2: Water Finds, Second Odour, Buried Finds, Distraction Odour (Split Trails), Distraction Odur (End of Trail), Door Entries, Multi Odour Trails, Hidden Pod,
Level 3: Switching Trails, Moving Pod, Enticing Humans, Aged Trails, Night Trails, Double Odour Split Trails, Elevated Trails, Variable Odour Strength Trail, and Odour Burst Trails.
Trail Hunt is suitable for any dogs as trails and training will be adapted as necessary. Reactive dogs are welcome to take part as all dogs are worked one at a time.
Hopefully, competitive trials will be starting in 2025.
Rapid Run
Is your dog fast enough?
Rapid Run is a new sport in the UK, where your dog must run over a 100 metre course. If you wish you can earn titles for your dog, which will need to be registered with Rapid Run at a cost of £15.00 for the year. After running the course the time will be converted to mph, which then earns you points.
Rapid Run Junior -250 points
Rapid Run Veteran - 250 points
Rapid Run Open - 500 points
Rapid Run Senior 1000 points
Rapid Run Champion - 1500 points
Rapid Run Elite - 5000 points
There will also be fun events like Barrier Blitz where straw bales must be jumped whilst running the course.
Rapid Run is open to all dogs regardless of breed of size. Please note muzzles do not need to be worn.
Scentwork
The activity for all dogs to enjoy
I train Scentwork under the Enigma Canine partnership and I aim to promote Scentwork as both a fun reward based training activity and as a competitive sport.
'Pet dog Scentwork' as we know it today evolved from the specialist training that working dogs undergo, before heading out with the emergency services and armed forces.
Rather than drugs and bombs, though, we teach our dogs to search for specific scents, such as gun oil, gloves, truffle oil, and many more.
You can train as an enrichment activity, or even aim to compete. As part of the Engima Scentwork Partnership, you will get a booklet where we can sign off each part of your training, and you can work towards being assessed. You will also receive a free starter kit to get you going on your Scentwork journey.
After you have completed the foundation workshops, you can progress to the two levels of components.
Level 1 covers a range of situations - elevated hides, motivation, threshold searching, odour mixtures, close proximity hides, negative searches, confined spaces, and vehicle interior searching.
Level 2 is all about a taste of operational work - buried searching, water searching, ESD detection, route and distance searching, explosive detection, and large odour sources.
Scentwork does not have to be expensive - you can use many household items, and you can train in most places.