Walk & Train Edinburgh

Before contacting Walk & Train my walks with my 3 year old cockapoo Archie were STRESSFULL! He would lunge and bark at people, dogs and at times even his own shadow.In my head I thought Archie was being aggressive towards everything which was rapidly changed after my initial consultation with Linnea. She helped me understand that Archie was coming from a place of fear, frustration and anxiety which then allowed us to put in place the right tools and techniques to try and reduce these elements.We proceeded with follow up 1:1 sessions, working on distractions, building confidence (for both Archie and ME!), introducing fun interactions with nature and ultimately being able to read his behaviour so I could distract/correct before something becomes a trigger.We also joined the group walk sessions which were an absolute dream and allowed me opportunities to put all the hard work into practice in a setting were other dog owners were understanding of owning a reactive dog.Walks with my Archie are now a much better experience. He no longer reacts to people and I’m able to offer him reassurance if he’s showing signs of anxiety when passing other dogs. He’s now a much more relaxed boy both inside and outside and it’s all thanks to Linnea and her extensive knowledge and patience. Thank you from the both of us!Natalie

Max, a cockapoo, came to join us when he was 5 months old. He was a lockdown pup and I soon realised he had lots of issues. Inside the house he would bark at myself or my husband if Max deemed we were doing something out of the ordinary". He would bark at the TV

I adopted Luna, a little black dog, around 10 months ago. She was 2 when she came to me and had stayed in a couple of homes while looking for a forever home. We have been having one to one sessions with Gregor and she spent over two weeks with Linnea and Gregor as a boarder while I was on a pre-planned holiday. The sessions with Gregor have really helped with her walking on the lead and recall. She is social dog and loves the long walks with Becks which again have really helped with her recall and socialisation. I’m so pleased I found Walk & Train and would highly recommend the training and walks.

I first got in touch with Walk & Train for help with my 1.5 year old Cardigan corgi Merlin, after being recommended them by a friend.Merlin used to overreact to everything. He wanted to say hello to every person he saw, play with every dog, bark at every noise near our flat, and eat literally anything within grabbing distance on the ground. All of this was making him really difficult to walk and I felt like I'd missed something in that he wasn't able to be calm like other dogs.In our initial consultation and 1:1, Linnea opened my eyes to the fact that he was actually feeling frustrated, and there were things I could do to work towards keeping him within threshold.Linnea truly treats each dog as an individual. She saw right away that Merlin is high-energy (a real party boy) so showed me lots of games to make things like recall training fun, and different styles of rewarding to keep things interesting.We regularly attend group classes and I can already see such a difference in Merlin. As we've progressed through the levels the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place, from his basic lead walking and obedience to being calm around other dogs. I feel better equipped as a handler too, and am able to recognise and address triggers much earlier.Another thing I love is the Walk & Train community. You are among likeminded people who want the best for their dogs, and are always ready to share a tip or meet up for some extra practise.I honestly couldn't recommend enough, thank you!

Having a highly dog reactive GSD, I got in touch with Linnea seeking help and I'm extremely glad I did. While we're not at that stage where he doesn't react at all, Linnea has helped me tremendously with management and things I can work on to counter condition my best friend when there are other dogs around.You're not alone when you take Linnea on as your trainer as she is very accessible and communicates her thoughts and ideas clearly and in language anyone can understand.You and your dog couldn't ask for a better trainer and friend. Thank you Linnea, Gregor and Ida.

We are the owners of a very sensitive Border Collie who can struggle with dogs, people and certain environments. We had got so far with her with our previous trainers help. Our gut feeling was Cass still had potential in growing her confidence, but we’d need to look for something specific to help push her and us on. It turns out this does exist, it’s just we would have to go to the other side of the country for it, and we are so glad we did.With Linnea and Gregor it never felt like training, it felt like hanging out with your friends that love your dogs as much as you do. What’s more Linnea didn’t stop with Cass, she worked on all our dogs as a group. We were struggling with not making our training mechanical and were beginning to lose the relationship aspect. We don’t know how Linnea does it, but she tunes you into your dog, so that you can support them so much better. Working with them is holistic, no stone is left unturned, working as much on our day-to-day interactions within the house as those behaviours outside.We also had the privilege to join Gregor on a social walk with Cass. This was invaluable! His ability to work with so many dogs, all with differing personalities and bring balance to the group is an art. Seeing him integrate Cass into the group was so useful. He read her perfectly, and proved with the right support she has so much more potential if nudged in the right way.So how good are they? Well we have done two holidays to Scotland to work with them. That’s how good they are! We will continue with everything Linnea and Gregor can throw at us. We just need to move to Scotland!

We have a two year old mixed breed (Springer Spaniel X Border Collie X Australian Kelpie) dog Angus, who we have had since he was 9 weeks old. As well as being super active, at the age of about 5 / 6 months we noticed that he started to struggle with interactions with unfamiliar dogs, occasionally resorting to aggression when overwhelmed or really frustrated (particularly walking on a lead). We also noticed he was struggling at meeting new people, often barking when strangers entered the house or if we spoke to people he didn’t know when out and about.We were very active with Angus’s training from the get go - having taken him to a couple of puppy and training classes and groups, as well as some 1-1 sessions with some other really excellent trainers in Edinburgh. He knew loads of party tricks, and his recall was really good (especially if there was a ball involved). However, we still felt useless at handling situations where he became overstimulated or overwhelmed and we were struggling to build his confidence in such situations in a controlled way.We first approached Linnea at Walk & Train after a recommendation from one of her other clients. After an initial ZOOM consultation, where we talked through our situation, Linnea helped us come up with a new structure / routine to help Angus change his mindset - creating a foundation to better prepare him for these challenging situations out on walks. From here we have had several 1-2-1 lessons to work on our leash handling, general communication and long line work. We have also attended weekly group walks directed by Linnea, with other owners going through a similar process. Through this process, we have been given loads of feedback on how to handle Angus around other dogs in different environments and get a weekly opportunity to practice our skills and see how Angus copes with both the dogs in the classes, and all the other dogs we see out and about. This exposure has been invaluable to Angus, but also to us, to build on our own confidence week on week. Getting to meet and work with a group of dogs and owners who are having similar experiences to us, and learning and discussing experiences has also been a massive positive for us.In little under a year of working with Linnea and Walk and Train, we can now confidently take Angus to busy places in city centres, bars, cafes, hikes with other dogs, all activities which we found unmanageable before Walk & Train. We are partaking in the Level 2 Sunday classes, and have recently just started GRC training with Linnea, and cannot wait for Angus' confidence (and ours) continue to grow. We could not recommend Walk & Train more highly.

We love the walks & love knowing that our dog Norma gets a good few hours out & about in doggie company. Becks is absolutely awesome & we all love her, especially Norma of course! Becks sends us photos & always lets us know how the day has been & we really couldn’t be happier.I would highly recommend walk & train for absolutely anything doggie related but especially the doggie day trips/walking service. They are professional, friendly & a good price. We are so pleased we signed up.