Mike and TPD Ace early risers up at the racecourse practicing their tracking which is coming along really nicely. We only introduced the toy at the end of the track last week and already the focus and intensity is there.👏

GENETICS.PD Albert was 21months when he graduated as a Police dog in April 2023 and PD Bert was only 14 months when he graduated 2 weeks ago & so is still just a baby. But they both have exactly the same trait of hiding on the way back from our walk to avoid going back in the van

All the puppy walking teams have been practicing the start of article searching using an article of their choice. Most have used a metal plate. Chris was clearly inspired by the videos of Ella & PD Bert searching for a 2p piece and had a go with TPD Kilo. Great first try. 👏

TPD Ace 7 and a half months and weighing in at 37.1 kilo’s. Fine looking specimen

Mental Health is front and centre in society these days & quite rightly so. But what about our dogs. I’m convinced it applies to them also and away from training it is hugely beneficial to their mental health to be able to relax and just be a dog. Ella, PD Bert & some bird song

Beautiful sunrise in the mist at Killerton this morning. These two will miss each other in 2 weeks time when PD Bert leaves us. It will then be just me and Ella for a short while which will be quite strange.

Jill has TPD Diesel for a couple more days. She has always taken her pups into Exeter for exposure work. Here she is using a Canny head collar. Annoyingly some trainers criticise us for using head collars but when you’re nearly 80 with a large reactive GSD you need control. 👏

MY SPECIAL ELLA 👏 Firstly she found and indicated a 2 pence piece in an almost impossible place to find it. Then I had to re-task her to be more precise because I couldn’t find it in the place she was indicating. Throwing a 2p piece in an area like that was a ridiculous ask 🙈

(Search 2) A chance for Ella to equalise in their search for a 2 pence which PD Bert won this morning. Sadly for Ella PD Bert made it 2 nil. But don’t doubt Ella because on the next search she showed her class.

TPD Blue’s puppy walker is on holiday until the 10th of May. Steve Pearce who used to be a full time puppy walker & now provides short term help will be looking after TPD Blue. People like Steve means our pups rarely have to stay in kennels. TPD Blue out with Steve today.👏👍

PD Bert is starting to give Ella a run for her money. She has always shown PD Bert a clean pair of heels in search games but recently PD Bert has realised charging everywhere doesn’t always win the prize. Here they are searching for a 2 pence piece I’ve thrown into woodland

TPD Ace enjoys relaxing on the decking just like his predecessor PD Saka used to.

Caroline. I don’t ask for a position ‘Wait’ means stay where you are. So if my dog is in the back of the car or is waiting to go through a door and he gets the command ‘Wait’ he stays there until he gets the release command. Some do put in a control position but I don’t.

I’m often asked what position I teach on the ‘Wait’ and the answer is I go with what comes natural to the dog which in Ella’s case is the stand & in PD Bert’s case the down. Having said that I rarely use stopping at distance because I always prefer to recall the dog back to me

Hamish. Very impressive boy. Do you prefer the shaggy look or do you get him clipped.

Poppy. Believe it or not I saw a Bouvier and handler from France perform amazingly at a John Rumble ring sport day which was mainly Malinois dogs many years ago. I wanted to try one but couldn’t get a working line pup. If you go back 10 months on our twitter it shows Bert start

Having started PD Bert’s tracking at 9 weeks he is now obsessed with tracking anyone he can if I let him. As long as I keep him engaged he will stay with me but if I don’t he is off like a bloodhound. Fortunately his recall is bombproof.

TPD Blue says sometimes having a very long tongue can be useful for all sorts of things. TPD Blue I think we know where you are coming from.😜

Shane and TPD Jasper could never be accused of lacking enthusiasm. They are like peas in a pod sometimes they get it right and sometimes they get it wrong but they always enjoy doing it. (Stage 2 of person searching)

Fresh from running a very respectable time in the London Marathon Shane attended training with TPD Jasper yesterday. Shane tells me he used to be a reasonably footballer & demonstrated his skills dummying the ball through his legs on their first introduction to person searching