annie “The health of our pet dogs is paramount to ensure a happy and healthy companion, but when this companion is also you work colleague, your working dog, your partner- the health and wellbeing takes a different meaning and priority”
Louise has over 20 years international experience as a multidiscipline handler, trainer, instructor and project manager, she is the former Director and Head of Training for 12 
Years at one of the UK largest specialist detection dog company, she is the founder of bringing conservation K9s to the UK with 15 years of promoting and showcasing detection dogs in conservation and ecology.
Louise as an expert Consultant trains individuals on a bespoke prescriptive basis, offering international mentoring and consultancy packages for budding conservation dog handlers.
Conservation K9s work in Ecology, Conservation and Research
Species Detection training projects Louise has Been Involved in:-
Bear Scat, Wolf Scat, Lynx Scat, Pine Marten Scat, WaterVole Spraints, Dormouse nest, Bat Carcass, Bird carcass, Live Hedgehog Detection, Japanese Beetle, Great Crested Newts, Pool Frog. Salamander, Invasive Plants, field hamster, Otter, Mammal carcass, and many many more …
Our conservation k9s health needs to be maintained at all times, this means we don’t involve ourselves in extracurricular activities with our working dogs such as agility competitions, pet dog scent trails, flyball or any other training events that may include high impact or coming into contact with many other stranger dogs. We like to reduce the risk of preventable injury to our dogs as well as preventable illness and diseases that can be contracted when large groups of dogs get together.
Every day we engage in some training with our search dogs to maintain their effectiveness to ensure professional standards are kept high, whether it is scent imprinting and consolidation, detection training, exercising, swimming, conditioning, massage, environmental training, play time and socialisation (as well as Rest days). Every single day we engage in training, however it does helps that we have 11 dogs at Conservation K9 Consultancy so the dogs have lots of dog-to-dog play time and socialisation in our training centre or at home, where they have their own climbing equipment, agility tunnels, paddling pool and other playground items.
Keeping our dogs fit and happy is our priority, we have to ensure we are feeding the 
right food, the right fat for their olfaction, the right supplements to help their bodies recover from their work and ensuring we give each dog their own mental stimulus is what we pride ourselves on- allowing our dogs to be dogs. We need to ensure our dogs have great stamina and work ethic also, that type of determination that we would all like to bottle and have instead of a coffee, that’s the behaviour and character we look for, without the stress behaviour, a very driven motivated dog ready for action.
We at CK9C are known for our DOG CENTRED DETECTION- in all our training; from foundation to advanced detection training, it is all built around each individual dog and their needs. After all, a happy dog is an effective dog. We ensure we don’t over arouse our dogs to keep their brain working and stress reduced, we ensure we have a toolbox of different options that help enrich our dogs whether working or at home, whether that’s snuffle matts, licky matts, Goodyball treat toys, Ttouch , dog chews , different dog toy and tugs as well as access to swimming when needed.
Some of our work is seasonal, May to Sept, so this means between Oct- April we need to maintain our dog’s fitness ready for deployment. This happens with most operational conservation k9s worldwide that work seasonal, the handlers and trainers need to ensure we keep our k9s fit, strong and make sure they have mental and olfactory strength too.
A working dog’s role is very strenuous and demanding which we have to realise even though a dog may be in nature, were we class as peaceful and calm, actually the pressure to perform is very high, the distance the dog has to cover is vast, the vegetation we work in is hard, thick and usually can leave us injured whether that’s terrain or nettles and thorns. Its not a job for the faint hearted, and that goes to for the handlers also. The dog team is a pair, a team, a partnership – they usually work in hard to reach, hard to survey areas that usual human survey teams cannot access or have reduced success when searching by hand, that’s why dogs are used, to cover harder ground, larger areas and faster. Its definitely not a “walk in the park” by any means, that’s why we ensure the whole wellbeing of our dogs in prioritised, with fitness strength and stamina comes rest and recuperation- it’s vital for our dogs to get enough rest, sleep, relaxation.
Maintaining our Conservation K9s happiness and health is vital for the best working dogs that are helping with ecology, conservation and research throughout the UK.
Due to an increase in untrained dog and handler teams “trying” the field of conservation and ecology Louise and her expert peers, have joined together to create the First Ever UK national Guidelines for the use of conservation K9s in Ecology, Conservation and Research. (This Guidelines paper is under review with international conservation dog handlers who are leaders in this field, and will be a further 8 months before release)
CK9C OFFER Unique Specialist Accredited Conservation Dog Handler courses, and 
other detection courses working with UK Rural Skills accreditation and soon to release partnership with Glyndwr University.
She runs popular Courses and Training in the UK at her training base and HQ where she is in Partnership with NATIONAL TRUST Erddig which her new unique detection training Barn,
For more information you can visit Louise’s website or contact her direct:
Louise Wilson -Director
Conservation K9 Consultancy
07746410976
www.conservationk9consultancy.com
louise@conservationk9consultancy.com
