Perfect at Home. A Nightmare on Walks.
Pulls like a train, won’t come back, drags you towards every dog and every scent. You’ve tried everything and nothing’s sticking. You’re not doing it wrong - there’s a reason it’s happening, and there’s a way through it.
1-2-1 Dog Training in Reading, Berkshire & South Oxfordshire
Your dog was doing so well - then adolescense hit
You’ve done the work. You went to puppy classes, you practised, you did everything you were told. At home your dog is brilliant. Then you walk out the front door and it’s like you have never taught them anything.
This is the most common thing we hear, and it’s not a sign you’ve failed. It’s often a sign your dog has grown up.
Most of the dogs we see for 1-2-1s are adolescents. Somewhere around a year old, everything you’d built seems to come undone. The recall that was rock-solid evaporates the second there’s a scent to follow or spot another dog on the horizon. The lead walking falls apart. Your dog starts noticing how exciting the world is, and how much fun they can have away from you.
Spaniels and HPRs are the worst for it. They’re little angels as puppies and lull you into a false sense of security, then social maturity arrives and the hunting brain switches on. Suddenly your sweet puppy is halfway across a field with their nose down, completely deaf to you.
The other big group we help is rescues, or dogs who came to you a bit older with no training behind them. Different starting point, same feeling: you love this dog, but you don't know where to start.
We’re a behaviourist-led training service specialising in gundogs and their crosses - Labradors, spaniels, cockapoos vizslas and other working breeds.
Our 1-2-1 training work happens in the place where you struggle the most.
That means one of two places: our own training grounds, a 15-acre secure field in the South Oxfordshire countryside between Caversham and Pangbourne, where a dog who isn’t reliable off lead yet can still work off lead safely.
Or your home and your regular walk, the real route with the real distractions, when that’s where you’re struggling. We’ll talk through which suits your dog when you call.
“Tash is an expert on helping us humans to understand our dogs - to view the world from their perspective. I thought I had a reasonable understanding before I adopted my rescue but I really did not. The support has genuinely been life changing for both of us.” - Claire and Barkley
Recall and pulling on the lead could be part of the same issue
Most people come to us with two complaints: my dog pulls, and my dog won’t come back. They think of them as two separate things to work on, and brace themselves for months of drills.
They’re often not two problems, but the same one, just dressed differently.
Both come down to a single question your dog is answering all day long: is it worth being near you, or is everything else more interesting? When the answer is “everything else,” you get a dog dragging you down the road and ignoring you in the park. When you flip that answer, the pulling and the recall start looking after themselves, because a dog who wants to be with you doesn’t need hauling back or shouting at to return.
So that’s what we build first. We’re not interested in a dog you have to recall a hundred times a walk. We want a dog who chooses to check in with you, who treats the space around you as the best place to be. Get that, and the rest follows.
It helps to think about the lead differently too. A lead isn’t a steering wheel - it’s there to keep your dog safe near roads and livestock, not to physically hold them next to you all walk. The same goes for recall: yes, we want a solid emergency recall, the one that brings your dog back off a deer if it ever comes to it. However, if we have to rely on that excessively, something earlier in the chain is missing, and that’s what we go after.
It’s a simple idea, and we keep the training simple too. We could make it really complicated, but choose not to.
“We learnt so many tips on how to recall Winnie from distractions, and it’s really built my confidence in walking with her off the lead.” - Lucy and Winnie
The dog who jumps up the second someone knocks at the door
Some of it has nothing to do with walks at all. Your dog is lovely - until the doorbell goes, and then it’s paws on chests (spaniels can jump surprisingly high!), no listening, and you apologising to your guest over the top of a dog who’s completely lost the plot.
You’ve stopped having people round as much as you used to. You hover by the door when the postman comes. It’s embarrassing, and you’re tired of it.
Jumping up isn’t your dog being rude or dominant - it’s most often an excited dog who’s never been shown what to do instead.
So that’s what we do: we work out what your dog should be doing when someone arrives, and we make that the easy, rewarding choice. We come to your home for this one, because the front door is where it happens and the front door is where it needs to change.
“We’ve had 1:1 support and learnt many techniques to use with our very excitable Labrador. Friendly, interactive, and personal guidance to individually support you and your dog.” - Emma and Bentley
We don’t train the dog. We train you
Here’s the part that surprises people: the sessions are really about you.
You’re the one who’s with them every day; we’re with you for a handful of sessions. So that’s where the work goes.
We teach the owner, so the change actually lasts.
By the time people come to us, they often love their dog but are finding them hard to like. They feel a bit deflated, a bit embarrassed - they did all the right things and it still went sideways, and that stings.
We get it, we will never judge, and it’s a far more common place to be than anyone admits.
What we can tell you is that it shifts. When you understand why your dog does what they do, the frustration drains out of it, and you start enjoying them again.
1-2-1 here goes deeper than a quick win: we’re working out why your dog is doing what they’re doing, not just managing the symptom.
We use rewards based methods, and focus not only on training, but helping you to understand your dog better, build a stronger bond and tap into their natural instincts, not fight against them.
“Such simple, easy steps to follow that make a huge difference. He’s now 16 months old, and while he isn’t perfect - who is? - he has improved 1000%. Everyone who knows him comments on it and it brings me such joy.” - Ruby and Ted
Before we start working together, we will have a quick 10 minute call. It gives us an opportunity to find out more about what challenges you are facing and book a training package.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between 1-2-1 training and a behaviour consultation?
A 1-2-1 is for specific training challenges - recall, lead pulling, focus on walks, jumping up, the everyday things that have stopped working. A behaviour consultation is for issues with a deeper emotional root, like reactivity, anxiety or guarding. Not sure which you need? That’s exactly what the call is for, and we’ll point you the right way.
Do you come to us, or do we come to you?
Both. We can come to your home or join you on your usual walk, or you can bring your dog to our secure, fully enclosed field between Caversham and Pangbourne. We’ll help you decide which works best for your dog during the call.
What is the cost of a 1-2-1 session?
Individual session is £100, packages are also available.
My dog is an adolescent and suddenly impossible. Is that normal?
Completely normal, and it’s the single most common reason people book a 1-2-1. As dogs reach social maturity their instincts kick in and training that felt solid can come undone. It’s a stage, not a lost cause, and it responds well to the right help.
Do you only work with gundogs?
We specialise in gundogs and their crosses - Labradors, spaniels, cockapoos, doodles and similar - because that’s where our expertise runs deepest, however we work with other breeds too.
Will my dog be there after one session?
We won’t pretend to wave a magic wand. Some things shift fast; however the most important thing is consistency from you between sessions.