Reward based training for pups aged 8-20 weeks and older dogs and fun gundog training. Pet Professional Guild member
25/06/2025
🌟 Meet the team 🌟
Amy- Head trainer and owner of Bristol Dog School
Amy is a certified dog trainer with a passion for dogs.She specialises in puppies and adolescence.
Her love for dogs began when her parents started rescuing dogs mainly boxer dogs and bulldogs. They all came with their own little challenges and personalities.
She now has 2 miniature Jack Russell’s called Toffee and Indie. She’s had them since they were puppies and Toffee has faced all sorts of challenges like having a back operation at 3 years old. Indie is a sweet little girl.
Amy is committed in helping owners with their needs by providing the right force free positive training and knowledge. She wants to help build positive relationships between you and your dogs.
12/02/2025
🌟Meet the team 🌟
Sarah – Certified Dog Trainer and Canine Enthusiast
Sarah’s love for dogs began at the age of 11 when she received a four-month-old Bearded Collie from a rescue center as a birthday gift. He was full of personality, confidence, and a mischievous streak that kept Sarah on her toes. Training him became her responsibility, and although she faced many challenges, those early experiences shaped her understanding of the complexities of dog ownership.
Fast forward to 2020, Sarah welcomed Berty, her current dog, during the first lockdown. Despite Berty’s confidence issues, Sarah dedicated herself to helping her grow, building trust and strengthening their bond through reward-based training. Inspired by her journey with Berty, Sarah made the life-changing decision to follow her dream of working with animals and becoming a certified dog trainer.
In addition to working with her own dogs, Sarah has spent many years volunteering at rescue centers, where she helps train some of the more challenging dogs. This work brings her immense joy, allowing her to give back and apply the knowledge and skills she has gained over the years.
Sarah is passionate about supporting dog owners who may be struggling with their pets. She empathises deeply, drawing from her own experiences and challenges. Her mission is to help owners build strong, positive relationships with their dogs using ethical, reward-based methods. By providing the tools and knowledge needed to create a happy and fulfilling partnership, Sarah is committed to helping others enjoy the incredible journey of life with their furry companions.
06/01/2025
Have you recently got a new puppy?
Why don’t you join our puppy classes to teach your puppy life skills.
We have two sets of puppy classes starting:
Monday 24th February
Monday 24th March
Week 1 of Puppy Class.
We covered food preference test and a settle which they all did amazing with.
Puppies from 8 weeks to 20 weeks can book onto the class.
Classes are very important part of a puppies development as they socialise and learn puppy skills.
27/07/2024
Week 2 of puppy class ⭐️
We went through settle duration, leave its, loose lead walking, recall and how to correctly use a long line.
Are you getting a puppy and want to know all the puppy basics? We have a puppy course starting 6th September.
A little introduction from Amy.
Looking forward to taking over Bristol dog school
02/07/2024
We have a puppy course in Brislington starting Friday 26th July
For puppies between 8-20 weeks old.
You will learn training tips from settling with distractions to Loose lead walking.
If you would like to grab a spot click the link to book your space
Reward based puppy training class in Bristol
26/06/2024
Dearest Gentle Reader,
We are halfway through the year and I feel I am able to add a handful of new dogs to the Cut & Cuddle fold.
So, if you know of anyone who is looking for a regular groomer (I am not taking one off appointments) or has a puppy who might benefit from joining the Puppy Grooming Programme then please do send them my way.
Recommendations are so appreciated, and you lovely lot always send me the best customers and dogs.
Much love
Clare 🐶🐾❤️
25/06/2024
Last night I taught my last puppy class… These 4 beautiful, playful intelligent puppies with their devoted and caring owners came to me to learn about social life skills and they were all amazing!
So whats going on I hear you ask?
After many years as a dog trainer/Behaviourist I am moving on to teach animal sciences. I have very fond memories of all the clients and pups that I have worked with over the years and I will miss you. Thank you to my wonderful clients and to all the glamorous assistants I have had over the years you are all so wonderful.
Do not worry the story of Bristol dog school does not end here... The lovely Amy and Sarah are taking over and will put their own fun spin on things.
Keep loving your dogs
Clair. Xx
16/05/2024
We have a puppy course in Brislington starting on Monday with two spaces left.
If you have a puppy 8-20 weeks old and would like to join this course please click on the link to book one of the spaces.
This is the last puppy course that we will be running for now due to some changes so grab your spot now!
Reward based puppy training class in Bristol
11/04/2024
What does reactive mean and why you may not see your dog trainer or behaviourist use this word to describe your dog.
We don’t tend to like the term “reactive” all that much because this word alone doesn’t really tell us much.
Reactive essentially means to respond to a stimulus.
Many stimulus start out as a neutral thing that then becomes conditioned through experience.
This stimulus can illicit a positive or negative conditioned emotional response (CER) in the dog. You will see either fear responses where we could see calming or avoidance behaviours such as ears down/pinned back, head turns, low body posture, maybe overt barking to create space. We may see the opposite forward posture pulling towards something excited barking high tails and ears.
So reactive from your dog trainer of behaviourist point of view is very different as it could simply mean your dog responds well to cues all the way up to very overt emotional responses.
If you have a dog that shows overt emotional responses to a stimulus we may refer to these dogs as socially challenged rather than reactive. We will then gather information to learn if the stimulus is creating a positive emotional response with extremely elevated arousal and possible frustration if they can’t get close.
or
Negative emotional response with fear and the need to create space or even making themselves smaller and quietly hiding away.
Once we have this information we can move forward with a plan to change how extreme the emotional response is by building confidence and/or self calming behaviours with gentle exposure.
So instead of saying reactive I prefer to say socially challenged and then explain the signals seen.
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Clair Litster-Huckle BSc (hons) PPGBI, ADTB, grew up in South Bristol and always had a passion for animals and wildlife and was surrounded by pets of different species for most of her youth. She still lives in South Bristol with her husband Jonathan and two Weimaraners, blind rescue Bella and Atum and their rescue Cockatiel Milly. She particularly enjoys gundog training and working her younger dog Atum on shoots and competing in working tests with him, he has achieved a 3rd and 4th in novice HPR working tests and has the Gundog club HPR grade 1. Atum has also appeared on ITV’s Puppy secrets and C5’s Secret life of puppies terrible twos, he also appears in the puppy book by the same name written by Sarah Whitehead. He more recently appeared with Will Smith in Episode one (Gasp) of One Strange Rock for National Geographic.
Both dogs have also enjoyed agility training.
Clair has had the opportunity to work with many exotic species during the course of her career working with animals, which spans over 20 years. She has been lucky to spend time working at Bristol Zoological gardens, Wild Place project, Noahs ark zoo farm and Monkey world, working with Gibbons, Giant Tortoise and Tigers as well as birds of prey and has also worked with domestic farm animals including Chickens, and Goats, and during the 10 years working at the University of Bristol she worked with Cats, Rabbits and Rats and Mice.
Clair’s main interest in dog behaviour, is separation anxiety and how it affects the dog and the owner and she specialises in puppy training and gundog breed training.
Clair runs Bristol Dog School with the help of Liz Fox and Brooke Pitchford.
Liz also Pets sits which she holds her own insurance for
Clair's relevant qualifications
BTEC National Diploma Animal Management
NVQ level 2 Animal technology
Association of Dog Training and Behaviour (ADTB) holding Bronze, Silver and Gold level trainer qualifications
Canine psychology diploma – Higher distinction
FdSc Zoological management
City & Guilds Animal transport
BSc (Hons) Animal behaviour and welfare
Canine nutrition diploma - Higher distinction
Studying - MSc Applied Animal Behaviour and Training
CPD
Julie Cleasby RN RHV (First aid for dogs) - Canine emergency first aid
Trevor Cooper, dog law seminar certificate of attendance
Sarah Whitehead - What makes a dog choose an aggression strategy
Sarah Whitehead - Rethinking socialisation for puppies
Guen Bradbury - Behavioural problems in indoor rabbits
Victoria Stillwell - Building Your Dog's Confidence
Cecilla Villaverde & Savier Manteca – How can nutrition impact the brain
Sean McCormack BSc (Hons). MVB, MRCVS – Tackling pet Obesity : where are we getting it right and wrong?
Vicky Halls – Understanding human-directed (or cat to human) aggression in the home
School of Canine Science - Fear course.
Sarah Whitehead - 50 shades of play
School of Canine Science - 30 days of Canine Science course
Naomi Andrews BSc (Hons) PGDip (CABC) - Behavioural and training strategies for noise phobias in dogs
For Dog’s Sake, common myths about dog behaviour- Dr Amber Bateson, Certificate of attendance
Pet Professional Guild member - 51655848
Sally Gutteridge - Inspiring resilience in fearful and reactive dogs
Jo-Rosie Haffenden - The art of behavioural consultation
Dr Michelle Lord - The neuroscience of how dogs learn and feel emotions
Dog Training College approved instructor
Jane Ardern BSc (Hons)- Understanding your pet gundog
Leanne McWade (Dog training college) - Deaf dog awareness
Leanne McWade (Dog training college) - Overcoming separation anxiety in your dog
Dr Sophie Bell BVMS MRCVS (Animal Love) - Canine first aid
Caroline Wilkinson - Canine play behaviour
Dr Ian Dunbar - Quantifying reliability and speed of training
Dr Susan Friedman - The Learning Planet
Dr Nick Thompson - Immunology, Auto-immunity and Stress
Dr Jessica Heckman - The Biology of Socialisation
Caroline Clarke - An introduction to dog and cat anxiety
Caroline Clarke - Understanding and dealing with canine separation anxiety
