Training and walking equipment

We’re always happy to offer advice if you need it, just drop us a message. 

Leads and Lines 

We’re pretty fussy about leads as they can make a HUGE difference to your walks, both for your dog and for you. We never recommend anything less than 2m in length and our preference is usually the double ended training leads as they are really versatile (can be attached to two points of contact and sometimes shortened, for example on a narrow pavement).

For long lines, we suggest starting at 5m until you’re confident with it and then increasing length if needed. The 2.5m lines are super lightweight and great for at home but also for those final stages of recall training…….

Belts and bags

Leads should never be wrapped around wrists – not only do you risk an awful injury, it creates tension for both you and your dog. If you’re worried about your dog pulling out of your hand, use a walking belt and either use a good length double ended lead which you attach to it for safety (still hold the lead yourself, but it is attached as a back up) or even use an additional separate lead which goes direct to the belt. 

If you don’t want to pop messy treats directly in your pockets or need to keep certain treats separate, these treat pouches are fab for either attaching to you or putting inside your pocket with the treats in – easy to pop your hand in to take out what you need, and easy to wash too! 

Safety and space

When walking your dog you need to be visible, especially at night or in foggy conditions and sometimes you need to ask other people and dogs to keep to a comfortable distance…..

Clickers, whistles and targets

Reward markers are really helpful when you’re training. Clickers come in various shapes and sizes and it is important to find one which you find really comfortable to hold and use. We offer a couple of different types including one which is volume adjustable – great for using outside (on a louder setting) and for sensitive dogs (on the quietest setting). A whistle can be used either as a reward marker or to teach a recall.

We also stock a couple of useful targets to help with training, physiotherapy, games, enrichment activities and exercise!

ACE Free Work Equipment

We are passionate about this – it is such an important and useful exercise which we do with every single dog that we work with and our own dogs too. You can make a lot of the things you might use in Free Work but sometimes it’s nice to just have a box of ‘go to’ thing, which you can then use at other times just as part of normal enrichment too. These are our favourite pieces of Free Work equipment.

Muzzles

Muzzle training can be really helpful (and actually we muzzle train all of ours so if there is an emergency when they have to wear one – for example with a painful injury that you have to get to the vet), it doesn’t add extra stress. But you can’t just put them on and hope for the best, they MUST be carefully introduced to give your dog time to get used to the unfamiliar sensation and to build a really positive association with having it on. Muzzle = fun! Getting the right muzzle (for fit, comfort and purpose) is essential. If you know what you need, we’ve put the ones we use most often below, but we have others too and are always happy to offer advice. 

Baskerville ultras are a general good muzzle for most dogs, the sighthound muzzles work well for pointier noses (of a few different breeds) and the classic baskervilles can be essential if you need to stop your dog hoovering up things they shouldn’t on walks (like acorns!)

Scent and nosework

Most scentwork doesn’t need ‘special equipment’, but we do sometimes use catnip and catnip toys and these are a couple of our favourites. We also have a few toys that can have rewards put inside and some key pieces of of foraging enrichment that our nosey-superstars really love.

Other training equipment

All the other useful bits and pieces we keep on hand.