Our Story

Growing up with a range of different animals, I had a natural interest in all animals, but dogs were always my passion, ever since I could speak! I finally got my first dog aged 11, my “Raffy” who was a deep ginger Golden Retriever and he was my first love! 4 years later we added Smashmouth, our funny English Bulldog into the family and we had the best years growing up together! As our dear dogs aged, and I had reached my late teens I had noticed some strange behavioural changes between them, so I sought help and it’s safe to say our whole family ended up with a whirlwind of contradictory information. I was already studying animal care at college and needed to find a work experience placement so I decided to try out our local dog training centre. What had meant to be a 2 week placement turned out to be 18 months! The more I learnt the more passionate I grew and I was able to not only help my two beloved dogs live out their years peacefully, I was also able to help my parent in-laws 3 feisty welsh terriers! As challenging as that was it was so rewarding! I trained at three different training schools over 8 years before I felt ready to launch my very own dog training business in December 2017. Since then we have made a lot owners very happy! I also found my passion for assistance dog training and became a certified dog trainer for Veterans With Dogs and trained with Dog Aid for 2 years alongside launching my business.

Back in 2015 we sadly lost both our beloved family dogs, 6 months apart and that broke our hearts, 6 months later my husband and I realised there was a paw shaped gap in our hearts so we set out to find ourselves a Newfoundland puppy, but instead we ended up finding a spaniel cross retriever who needed a home because he was reactive and had been left to his own devices at home!

There my love for rescues started, our first rescue dog Steve taught me about a different side to dogs, he came to us a crazy hyped up 7 month old puppy, who barked at every dog he encountered and chased every shadow in sight! We were out of our depth to say the least! Feeling completely at a loss as to how we could help him, thus my adventure into behavioural problems! 8 months later and we adopted our next crazy spaniel Dave, he came to us at 11 months because of his over boisterous behaviour. We very quickly learnt that to be true when he stole a sandwich off the waitresses’ tray when we took him to his first café! He then ran off with it, resulting in the chair my husband was sitting on breaking! So husband on the floor and a mad spaniel running around the café gardens with a broken chair attached to his lead and a victory sandwich being consumed! Yet again I realised we had our work cut out! 3 years later we took on our Golden Retriever Foster, Joyce at 4 months, she came to us with severe separation anxiety and some reactivity issues, she has been our biggest challenge but she also gives us the biggest rewards! Joyce is now living her best life in her forever home and is overcoming her challenges paw by paw. She has improved tremendously and we have regular contact with her new parents.

Our Mission

We believe in dogs! We believe that every single dog deserves the chance to be understood, and we believe that the only way to achieve this is by using modern, force free training methods and learning new information about how dogs actually think and communicate. There are still many myths and misconceptions surrounding dogs, and our mission is to eradicate those myths by delivering the facts. Our mission has started from a theory, one we are currently testing! We believe that numerous dogs are re-homed due to misunderstood behaviour, that these dogs who have found themselves in rescue centres could have been prevented from behavioural issues, if the correct information was available from the start. Our aim is to start at the very beginning and provide well sourced information, in fun and simple formats so that owners can, not just help their dogs behavioural issues but they could prevent them from occurring in the future. We do not agree that the problem starts with the owner, it runs deeper than this, the problem lies with incorrect information being so freely available and unfortunately still being provided by some unqualified pet professionals. We aim to stop this by joining together with other force free pet professionals to create regulated and governed information and circulate this within our industry. We are hopeful that if we achieve this goal across pet owners and other pet professionals we can dramatically reduce the amount of dogs being neglected, abused and mistreated in our current society. We do not believe that shaming owners for any mistakes or misinformation is kind or beneficial, we want to inspire owners by motivating them and building their confidence that they absolutely can help their dogs.

 

Thankfully we have already helped many owners who felt that they would have needed to re-home their dogs because they had tried so many times and sadly the techniques didn’t work, we are thankful that we were called to help and were able to turn their lives around for the better. Sadly the poor advice that is still circulating can cause many owners feeling helpless and facing difficult choices, but it doesn’t have to be this way and our mission is to change this! 

Meet The Team

proud dog trainer
Bethany Bell

Owner/Head Behaviourist

Bethany is accredited and degree qualified in dog behaviour and training. Bethany started her training journey 10 years ago and has worked with several top trainers over the years. Bethany has previously worked as a qualified assistance dog trainer for Veterans With Dogs and worked with assistance dogs for Dog Aid. Bethany is now embarking on a new adventure in Free Will Teaching with Kathie Gregory. Bethany now offers online Consultations internationally to teach owners how to apply Free Will Teaching to counter behavioural issues.

Caitlin Heasman

Qualified Trainer

Caitlin has been training with us for over two years now and has a natural flare with dogs. Caitlin runs our classes at Enslow Farm and offers 1-1 LifeSkills training in and around the Witney area. Caitlin is currently studying a Canine Coaching Accredited Diploma and Canine Behaviour Professional Accredited Diploma. Caitlin has already helped many of our clients with 1-1 training and through running classes.

Kay Webb

Qualified Trainer

Kay has just finished her Level 5 in Advanced Applied Animal Behaviour (Canine) and started her Level 6, Advanced Applied Animal Behavior. Kay has already done lots of training with her own dogs over the years, including agility and gun dog training. Kay was a volunteer dog walker at Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary and a Pets as Therapy volunteer with her black lab, Cassie. Kay offers one to one training sessions around Witney and surrounding areas. Kay also runs classes at Enslow Farm at the weekends.

Dave Bell

Staff Entertainer And Stooge Dog

As well as providing much entertainment across the team, Dave comes along to work with reactive dogs because of his calm and confident nature. He is a pro! 

Steve Bell

Film Actor/Stuntdog

Steve helps us by demonstrating his training tricks, as well as his odd behaviour, so that others can learn from him. Steve also loves to chase shadows and light reflections but we are working on that. He is also recovering from a fear of other dogs.

Henry Bell

Manager and Web designer.

Henry works behind the scenes. He manages events, marketing, administration and media. He also works with website design and SEO strategies.

Qualifications and Experience

 Qualifications

  • PACT and ABTC Accreditation (2018 – 2021)

  • (FdSc) Degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare (2016)

  • First Diploma in Animal Management (2014)

  • Diploma in Animal Care Management (2010) 

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Workshops and Certificates 

  • Attended “Action Conference” 3 day conference – Psychological trauma in dogs; welfare implications and treatment strategies (2019)

  • ​Completed “The Puppy Lab” The School of Canine Science (2019)

  • Dog Aid “Trainer and handler” workshop (2019)

  • Veterans With Dogs “PALS 1 AND 2” (2018) and (2019)

  • Veterans With Dogs – Continuing Professional development – Effective communication skills and safety  (2017)

 

Previous work and Experience

  • Assistance dog trainer for Veterans With Dogs ( 2017 – Present )
  • Assistance dog trainer for Dog Aid UK ( 2018 – 2020 )