I have a young, very exuberant Dobermann who has from day 1 struggled with calmness and anxiety in general, especially around other dogs manifesting in frustrated lunging/barking, separation anxiety - all the good stuff. Echoing all the other reviews - Linnea is fantastic, and has given me a lot of confidence in my handling. Rhum came to Walk & Train when she was at the beginning of her recovery from a pretty scary and ongoing health issue. Linnea has taken all of this in her stride, her knowledge and experience has really helped us. I feel safe knowing that Linnea truly cares about Rhum's wellbeing and is considerate of her health when designing our training plan, looking at the whole picture with regards to her behaviour. We are loving the classes we currently go to alongside the 1-2-1 sessions which are building together nicely. Linnea's training style and techniques are genuinely addressing the issues and aren't just managing them endlessly. I'm hoping that we will also be able to join the GRC sport classes at some point to take her training even further! It's like a family, no judgement amongst other class members and so much support. Thanks so much!!!

-Rosie

We originally booked in with Linnea to learn more about the “sporty dog” classes at the start of the year and have been attending their classes ever since! My dog Lonzo is a Doberman and we have been working through some reactivity/ aggression issues. I had been searching for the right trainer for some time that would prepare us for “real life” and to help Lonzo actually overcome these issues. I’m so glad we came across the Walk & Train website! Linnea has been invaluable to our progress and her wealth of knowledge in dog training shines through in everything she does.

Lonzos engagement with me is much higher on our walks with all of the practice we get in the real life scenarios set up at classes and what I’ve learned about play & building strong relationships. We have now signed up to the level 2 reactivity classes for the next step in Lonzos training and we can’t wait to see where we can get to with the help of Linnea.

-Hannah

Since we got our rescue Doberman cross, Daisy, as a young puppy she has struggled reactivity towards people. After trying other training classes and behaviourists, we got in touch with Linnea soon after her anxiety also began to be directed towards other dogs. Without any judgement of ourselves or our much-loved dog, Linnea identified the fear and stress at the root of Daisy’s behaviour, and, from our very first consultation, has helped us to build a training framework that has really built Daisy’s confidence and ours as owners. With lots of hard work, her weekly classes, originally so stressful and tough for us, have become an absolute joy as Daisy learns to relax around the other dogs and owners, and the socialisations with the rest of the weekday walking “pack” have given us a chance to work on her stress around other dogs that I don’t think we could ever have had without Linnea’s amazing support. Daisy actually played with another dog for the first time in over a year and a half at our last one – it’s just wonderful getting to see her relax and grow into being the happy, playful dog that we know she is! Daisy has always been a very loving dog with her family, but the training ideas and videos which Linnea provides have helped us to mentally stimulate and fulfil her while building a bond and a trust with our girl that is just so lovely! The ongoing and consistent support provided by Walk and Train has been truly amazing, we can’t thank Linnea enough for the change it has made to our lives!

-Anna

I contacted Linnea at Walk and Train in April last year when Scooby, our delightful miniature schnauzer (MS) was 15 months old. We were at the end of our tether with Scooby. Although much loved, we were not coping with his behaviour which had escalated gradually over a few months. We could not let him off the lead as he would chase like a rocket after runners, cyclists, and would bark ferociously at other passers by whether on or off the lead. The only people he would not react to were people who were with other dogs. He would also want to play with ALL other dogs so would try to race over to every dog he saw. I approached several recommended and highly rated dog behaviouralists in the area. One in particular said that she was aware of many other MS in Edinburgh with similar issues which she thought is probably down to breeding, and that she would try to help us but she didn’t hold out much hope. With this in mind, I was sceptical of Linnea being able to help us at all.

Linnea spent an afternoon with Scooby and our family at home in April. She chatted to us all and quietly watched Scooby. She ascertained pretty quickly that Scooby is a dog who is by nature a calm animal who is not able to cope with excitement and is unable to calm himself down easily. She also warned us of the risks of letting him approach other dogs freely as different dogs can react in different ways to this, and some may become aggressive. She worked with him immediately demonstrating to us a bed-stay where he can relax in his own safe place. Then she took us out into our garden and local park and showed us how to recognise signs that his excitement was escalating and how to correct this gently before it got out of control with a slip leash. After this single 3-hour session, we all breathed a massive sigh of relief. For the first time in months we had been able to walk down the street with Scooby on lead, without him barking or lunging at all.

It sounds too good to be true, but this is really what happened. We have been working with Linnea since then both in 1-1 lessons and in group lessons. Scooby’s behaviour is not perfect but is vastly improved, and we have a much better understanding of how to be dog owners. We have much more insight into why Scooby behaves as he does and have strategies to deal with this. We can now walk down the street with Scooby on a loose lead without him barking and lunging at passers-by which a few months ago seemed an impossible task. Scooby is much better at being able to stay calm passing other dogs. With Linnea’s help, we are working towards being able to let him off leash. When we get our next dog, I will definitely get help from Linnea in the very early puppy stages to guide socialisation and training. Thank you Linnea – your help has been invaluable and you have enabled us to relax and enjoy our lovely dog again.

- Rachel

I was fortunate enough to find Linnea when Archie was a young pup (a very content Bernese Mountain dog). I wanted to make sure my 45kg fella would be reliably under control. Linnea has provided superb advice over the last 12 months and plenty of material for Archie and I to get more from our time together. We are currently working on distracting Archie from his potentially dangerous habit of swallowing gloves, tissues and any other discarded fabric he may find on our walks. I love our walks together but rather than making them interesting for Archie, I just get the miles done! Thanks to Linnea’s advice, I have some good ideas for stimulating games (and pockets full of chicken)!

- Jane

My husband and I got our new Miniature Schnauzer puppy in May and although my husband and I have both had dogs in the past we hadn't had them as puppies. We wanted Bonnie to get off to a good start with her training and to grow into a friendly sociable dog, therefore I contacted Walk and Train. After Bonnie had been with us for a few weeks Linnea came to our home and went through some basic training techniques (lasting approximately 2hrs), we learned some valuable lessons for play, walking on the lead, recall and how to stop bad habits forming. I have to say that the training obviously worked and it was the best money I've ever spent, as everyone comments on how well behaved and smart she is for her age and I think I can definitely say this is down to Linnea's initial training and helpful email tips. Last month we started to have some problems when Bonnie became distracted whilst out walking and would ignore our commands, Linnea met with my husband in the park and spent an hour going through some helpful training techniques. Again these tips have worked a treat, although Bonnie still gets distracted by other dogs, children and birds she will return to us on command and very rarely runs off, this has meant that we can walk her off-leash and she loves the freedom of running about in the park and is also very good at walking to heel along country paths. I can't thank Linnea enough for all the help she has given us, Bonnie loved the training sessions and I am sure we will be calling on Walk and Train again in the future should any other problems arise. We have a very happy, well-trained puppy - Many thanks!

- Lorraine