Welcome to Maher & HounD

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 James Parrett 
 
2024-03-17
 
 
  
Karen is amazing! When I started working with Karen my little dog Mabel had no impulse control. We’ve done pet Gundog 1:1 sessions and I’ve religiously done the homework Karen has set us. This week we joined one of the Gundog workshops, Mabel was amazing! Not only did she thoroughly enjoy it but we managed the whole session with no barking and next to no squeaking. Karen is really knowledgeable, clear in her advice and instructions and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else! Thank you Karen!
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Holly Andrews 
 
2024-03-17
 
 
  
We have learnt so much from Karen about our King Charles spaniel over the last couple of months. His behaviour is improving because we have a better understanding of what he is trying to communicate, and how to handle it. He barks less, he is checking in on walks, and he is learning recall, all things we never thought were possible!
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 S F 
 
2024-03-17
 
 
  
Karen is absolutely brilliant. She really listens and will do extra work to figure out where particular behaviours stem from. Have recommended to multiple people. Mighty also loves the pet gundog classes - with this I think we've found his real drive to help him settle at home.
Thank you Karen!
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 A J 
 
2024-02-10
 
 
  
We contacted Karen to help with our working cocker spaniel Oreo, at the time when we contacted Karen Oreo was 6 months old, and we struggle with his recall, loose lead walking and his confidence, this was making us nervous to take him out as we didn’t trust to let him off his lead, to add to that  he was also pulling on the lead so our walks became sort of a nightmare.

Then we decided the next best course of action was searching for a puppy trainer in Southampton and we saw Karen video’s on instagram, which was amazing, we really liked how calm and patience she was with all the dogs, and she uses reward based training which was a breathe of fresh air.

Right off the bat of our first session Karen was very approachable and knowledgable, Oreo got very comfortable too even with his low confidence around new people, this really gives us confident that we have pick the right trainer for Oreo.

Just from our first lesson Karen has taught us a lot about behaviors of why Oreo may be acting a certain way and established that his current feeding could play a big part to his behaviour. Oreo was also introduce to whistle training for recall and after just one session plus doing our homework throughout the week that Karen gave us and combined with changing his food. We started seeing his recall when from 0 to 100 in just a week, he responded so well to the whistle, which Oreo saw that as a fun game so he would wants to come back to us. We were amazed just how amazing her teaching were and in a blink of an eye, we didn’t have to be scared to let him off the lead anymore. Throughout the sessions that we have with Karen we saw Oreo confidence grew, we enjoyed our walks with Oreo more now and can’t thank Karen enough getting us there. ❤️
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Carla Martin 
 
2024-01-19
 
 
  
I adopted Lionel my rescue scent hound from Greece in May 2021. He has been such a good boy in all aspects apart from recall which we have really struggled with. In my opinion training a scent hound is a specialist field and there are not enough dog trainers / behaviourists out there that have the skill to help. Karen is a rarity in the UK and is really knowledgeable when training this type of dog. I’ve only been working with Karen for about two months but I’m amazed at how quick our progress has been. Lionel and I still have work to do, but every time I finish a session with Karen I am always on a high about how well our session has gone. I would definitely recommend Karen to anyone struggling with a behavioural problems, especially people owning scent hounds that struggle with recall.
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Laura Haigh 
 
2024-01-04
 
 
  
We first contacted Karen after watching her video with her own dog learning to recall to a whistle... it was impressive! We have a miniature schnauzer who loves to learn, but we were a bit lost with how to get her to have a good recall, since she LOVES other dogs!
We have had 4 1:1 sessions with Karen, who Hattie loves. She is calm, understanding and definitely knows her stuff. Hattie has a little way to go with her 'stop' but with practice from all of the advice we have been given I don't have any doubts. Karen has taught us the skills we need going forward and Hattie has enjoyed herself in the process, rain or shine! They say a tired dog is a happy one and the photo attached is after training.... one happy dog! Thanks Karen, you've been great. X
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Alison Leigh 
 
2023-10-08
 
 
  
We first contacted Karen 2 years ago to get some guidance from her for some issues that had arisen when we introduced a new Border Terrier puppy to our 11 year old Border Terrier.   The advice she gave then was such a brilliant help that we approached her again without hesitation to seek her support with our younger Border Terrier, Phoebe, who had become increasingly lead-reactive when meeting other dogs. This was making the family very stressed and everyone had a different way of dealing with the situation, which we were sure wasn't helping.
Karen's approach is wonderful, she has such empathy and understands dogs (and their owners) like no other! She was calm, caring and reassuring during all our sessions, providing clear, practical advice that was really easy for us to implement as Phoebe loves the mental stimulation and the training felt like play-time to her.  Karen explained to us how to recognise a dog's body language and anticipate how Phoebe might react to certain situations, enabling us to decide which distraction method to use. We've also worked hard on improving Phoebe's recall and even introduced whistle training.
We are now confident that we have a wide variety of positive reinforcement tools that the whole family can use consistently and that are a real game-changer when it comes to dealing with Phoebe's reactivity. I cannot recommend her highly enough - thank you, Karen!
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Isabel Gomez 
 
2023-09-15
 
 
  
Karen speaks dog like no one else I’ve met. She really helped me to understand my rescued scent hound, now we work together cohesively as a team.  Her methods are easy to follow and she delivers training in piecemeal, easy to understand steps.
A huge thank you to Karen from team Pluto 🪐
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Kirsten McDonald 
 
2023-08-04
 
 
  
Best trainer I have found
Karen is amazing, knows what she is doing and completely trust her
  
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 Dan Mellor 
 
2023-07-11
 
 
  
We first got in contact with Karen after needing some help with our puppy working spaniel specifically, loose lead walking, recall in certain environments and how to have fun using the normal spaniel instincts.

Karen’s help and advice has been priceless for us and we’re definitely going to booking another set of sessions going forward!

Couldn’t recommend highly enough!
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Google rating score: 5.0 of 5, based on 60 reviews