Dogs In Trainers

14/09/2025

I offer free behaviour support to prepare for adopting this dog and up to 6 months after. Diesel is currently under RSPCA care in Middlesborough.

Diesel is looking for a loving home

10/04/2025

My website www.dogsintrainers.com has been hacked and will remain unavailable until further notice. Sorry!

04/02/2025

I'm happy to announce I have been invited to join Wag & Company, the only charity visiting elderly people at care homes and hospitals across the North East of England by volunteers with their carefully selected dogs. My role is to assess four-legged candidates for their suitability, and I can't wait to start! 🤩

I'm an animal lover deeply committed to spreading the word about animal rights and welfare. I'm passionate about a modern, science-based approach to dog

04/08/2024

Dogs In Trainers have moved again! We are now available in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough for direct sessions. Further locations may be available, please get in touch. We also provide online consultations via Zoom. Fully qualified and insured. Professional behavioural help available.

08/09/2021

Meet Theo, the lucky boy who despite a pretty bad start in life got a second chance and was adopted to a home full of love, kindness and understanding for his problems. Theo is a young Belgian Shepherd Malinois, a quite demanding breed that loves working for his human. I’m pretty sure these two will become the best friends and with my support and a lot of patience we will overcome Theo’s issues on walks and make them enjoyable for Theo and his owner.

01/08/2021

Where does your dog fit?

Too often we have expectations that our dogs should be good friends with every dog they meet. When you think about it, as humans, we do not become not good friends with everyone we meet - and that is true of our dogs too. They majority of dogs are 'selective' just like us - having some very good friends - and not really enjoying the company of others. This is important to remember when introducing your dog to unfamiliar dogs - remember just like us - they may or may not like the other dog and that is okay!

12/07/2021

Dogs In Trainers have moved! We are now enjoying the sand on the beach and lovely views of the North Yorkshire Coast. A damn good place to live and even better to train dogs! Check it out and get in touch. Fully qualified and insured. Professional behavioural help available.

10/06/2021

I’m proud to be a member of this great organisation that among other fabulous dog traininig bodies work hard to put some regulations in place in the dog training industry.

CAPBT are in this months Your Dog Magazine where we talked about the association, what it means to be a member and how an animal's emotions underpin all of our work and has done for over 25 years!

Did you know that COAPE was first established in 1993?

We are one of the longest running companion animal behaviour organisations in the UK ❤️

Your Dog Magazine

25/08/2020

Do you recognise your puppy?

I do remember all of you and look at these pictures with a big smile on my face.
The time has gone and your puppies are adult dogs. You spent with me 8 long weeks (unless you missed a class ;) ) or longer enjoying further training. Thank you for the trust, time and engagement in training. It was a pleasure to see you thrive. I wonder how are you getting on? Did you find teaching your puppy life skills useful? Which one the most? Perhaps you continue attending classes with your dog or compete in doggy sports? Perhaps you have another dog and thanks to my classes trained him/her with confidence on your own? I'm looking forward to hearing from you and seeing a pict with your dog!

Sorry if I missed anyone in this album who attended my puppy classes and can't find a picture of your puppy, not all photos were great unfortunately. Please do comment.

24/07/2020

Meet Sasha, the sweet little soul from Romania. She loves people despite being a „yard dog” until 2yo. She also loves the sofa and food! She is settling really well, gradually growing in confidence. She’s got very devoted mum & dad who have no expectations and show her a lot of understanding, patience and kindnest. Although Sasha displays no beheavioral issues we are are ready to prepare her to live in our busy human world. Prognosis are very good😊🐕😍

19/07/2020

Some good points on understanding how food works in dog training. So many people think it’s just throwing treats for the dog in problematic situations. It’s not like that.

Training starts at home where the dog is under threshold and is gradually brought outside. If the dog is not able to focus on you at home or in the garden for x amount of time, then when a family member walks by or throws a ball you are not ready to work around triggers.

Yesterday, Hannah and myself were out with Mack and Poodle for a little run/hike.

Both dogs have struggled in the past with seeing other dogs on a leash.

We came across a lady with two dogs, both at the end of the leash barking at us. We pulled off to the side and started to reinforce the behaviours we wanted to see more off in this situation. It was basic stuff. We were just maintaining their focus on us as opposed to the two yappy dogs.

They got within less than 5 metres and both Poodle and Mack ignored them whilst their tirade of barks increased the closer the lady and the dogs got.

At that point the lady said ‘it’s great when dogs are food focused’.

This unfortunately shows a huge lack of understanding with how behaviour change works and how training works as well.

The point isn’t that these dogs are food focused. A few months ago the food would have meant nothing to Mack in this situation. And I probably only used 3 or 4 pieces of food the whole time she was trying to manoeuvre around us.

It’s like saying it’s great having staff that are money motivated. Sure, money plays a part in having good workers but the biggest reason people quit their job or do a poor job, is not because the money isn’t good or good enough, it’s because they’re not happy with their boss or how they are treated.

Dog training isn’t just about giving dogs food. It’s about being a good ‘boss’. (I use ‘boss’ very loosely here - we don’t need to be that boss that is more like a tyrant etc).

Food played a part with why our dogs didn’t react in this situation but the biggest reason they didn’t react was due to the months of training we have been doing with them.

With Mack, I actually used little food in the first few months because when things got too much he simply wouldn’t take it or would sn**ch the food and then react.

We worked around this by ‘building reinforcers’ as opposed to having them food motivated along with management to prevent the behaviour from happening again and again and again.

Most of the training occurred away from the triggers. The foundations are heavily reinforced and then we slowly reintroduce dogs to their triggers. Once we’re happy with how they are responding, we simply don’t stop there (hence why we took our dogs off to the side and trained) we maintain what we have spent months teaching.

This is dog training.

It’s not as simple as having ‘food focused’ dogs. That can help but it’s not the be all or end all. It requires a lot more thinking than that.

Our patreon page is designed to help people better understand and learn more so they can achieve their goals as well. It does take some work though. And that’s on us.

That is dog training.

Www.patreon.com/Thinkdogtraining