Meet the pack

A little about me! Most of my life I’ve had boxer dogs, and as I’m sure you know, boxers can sometimes be a bit of a hand full with their general love of life, and everything is something to play with. Training for me did not really start until Bruce came along, a lovely little brindle boy. Well, it soon became apparent that this little boy was growing. Then came lock down, Bruce was in his prime and ready to start exploring the world, but of course that could not happen. Out on our walks, we would have to cross roads to avoid people, and the social interaction he needed we could not give. Not really a problem until lock down was lifted and life returned to normal. Now with lock down lifted and the parks, fields, and walks starting to fill up, and with a 40KG boxer, this was all new to him and he wanted to see it all—other people, other dogs. He was so overwhelmed he was a nightmare to walk. So, my wife took the step and started taking him to training to help improve this. After a lot of work, she started to get this under control. Then the changing point happened. She came back from training one day and said, “I’ve booked Bruce on an agility workshop.” Well, this I had to see. So off we went to a field in the middle of nowhere. Watching my wife and Bruce training agility with the right instructor, something clicked and I was hooked. The problem was my wife would not let me run Bruce and spoil all her hard work. So, after a bit of sweet talking (well, a lot), Arabella (Bella) came to join the family, a reverse brindle girl. Well, training started for me and Bella, and off we went, coming across all the normal ups and downs of training, spending our evenings and weekends stood out in the cold. But loving every minute of it. Again, it’s amazing what a great trainer can do. Then I started wanting to learn more about the theory and science behind it all, so a few courses later and lots of training led us to today. Me and Bella love agility and are starting to enter competitions, but we’ve got a long way to go. That’s when I came across scent work. Wanting something I can do with my dogs at home in the garden or just out on a walk and not need to carry a full agility kit with me. So, after quite a lot of research, I found out about scent, but was disappointed to not find any instructors in the area.