Qualified, humane and ethical, effective behaviour change solutions for dogs and their people.
☎ 07368 214133
Welcome to Together Dog Training and Behaviour Consultancy.
After many years of experience teaching humans and as a graduate of the world-renowned Academy for Dog Trainers and Certification as a Fear Free Animal Trainer, Together Dog Training and Behaviour Consultancy brings you expertise with training and behaviour change techniques alongside evidenced, up to date knowledge about dogs and their behaviour.
Through my thirty years of living with, loving, learning from and training dogs of all shapes and sizes, I know that sometimes we all need some help or knowledgeable guidance. Things don’t always go to plan, our dogs can exhibit confusing, annoying or worrying behaviour. Dogs, just by being dogs can clash with our expectations. Reaching out makes you a great dog owner.
Christian Williams MA. PGCE. CTC (Hons). 2019
Are you experiencing a behaviour issue with your dog or puppy?
We specialise in resolving behaviour problems using only force free and effective, evidenced based techniques.
We work with:
Fear, Anxiety, Aggression and On Lead Reactivity
For dogs who are scared or afraid of some or all people, different environments or situations, scared of something indoors or scared of something in the outside world. For dogs who are guarding their food, toys etc. For dogs who are barking and lunging on lead.
Newly Adopted Dogs
For dogs who are experiencing difficulty with their new lifestyle. Together helps owners understand behaviour, create step by step training programmes and work with you to create your new successful partnership.
Dogs Adopted from Abroad
We specialise in helping dogs from abroad learn to feel safe in their new world. We partner closely with you to resolve the range of difficulties you may be experiencing.
Puppies
From 8 weeks through to adolescence, raising a puppy can be hard work! We work with you to resolve any problems, guide you through housetraining, puppy biting, aggression prevention and basic manners training to get you and your pup off to the best start together.
For dogs who don’t like the vets, being groomed or touched
Taking care of our pets emotional, behavioural and health needs is ongoing 24/7 and a huge part of our responsibility as guardians for our companion dogs. We work with veterinarians and owners to resolve fear, anxiety, stress or aggression for dogs visiting their clinics and use positive reinforcement training to ensure dogs feel comfortable with care giving procedures.
Basic Manners & Obedience Training
Is your dog jumping all over visitors, pulling like mad on lead, not listening to you, barking like crazy at the doorbell, grabbing food at home or in the street or disappearing with no recall at the park? We can resolve these issues with positive, smart teaching & learning lessons that are fun for you and your dog.
How do we work with you and your dog?
Free Phone Call
Everything begins with a phone call. We spend around 30 minutes or so on the phone. This will give us a broad picture of what is going on with your dog’s behaviour and your situation. We are very experienced in talking with owners who are feeling distressed about their dog, so please don’t feel embarrassed.
Assessment Consultation
We work through a range of assessment procedures to get to a detailed analysis of your dog’s difficulties – the what, the why and the how to change it. We carefully consider how your dog’s behaviour is impacting you and what interventions we can make in the short and longer term to resolve the problem or range of difficulties, so that you are able to enjoy life with your dog. The Assessment Consultation is a key part of resolving your dog’s difficulties. This is followed by a written Report which summarises our conversations and outlines recommendations for training or behaviour modification.
Training and Behaviour Change Sessions
Following your Assessment, you will have a very good picture of the work that can help your dog. You will have a clear outline of the sequence of your training or behaviour change programme that is needed to resolve any difficulties. Each programme is highly tailored to you and your dog’s needs. Any training techniques are modelled for you and we always make sure you know what to do and how to do it. You will be fully supported between sessions by phone, text or video conferencing. For very difficult cases, we can work with feedback every 24 Hours, some clients like this level of support especially when beginning their programme. Behaviour change programmes are organised in a step by step style, so we only ever move at a pace that is comfortable for you and your dog.
After Care
Our long term aim is for you and your dog to continue living happily together. Following our Assessment and Sessions you will have a great understanding of dog behaviour and feel you have the tools and knowledge to form that fabulous partnership with your dog. Because we know that behaviour is always influenced by environment, our dogs can change as they grow up or age or we can undergo changes to our lifestyle too, we check in with you at regular intervals. Once a together dog, always a together dog.
Why is our training effective?
Ever wondered how dolphins, killer whales or captive wild animals are trained? We use exactly the same technique. Known as positive reinforcement training (or reward-based training) we build the behaviours you want from your dog. Knowledge of how all animals learn has grown hugely during the last 100 years. We train using these two simple but vitally important learning principles.
The understanding of how dog’s make associations between one thing and another
The understanding that reinforcing a desired behaviour increases the likelihood of that behaviour recurring
These two principles form the cornerstones of our modern day, knowledgeable approach to dog training.
Our training is effective because it teaches your dog what to do. We replace “the wrong behaviour” with “the right behaviour.”
Our training is efficient because we always know exactly what your dog has to do to get their reward. We don’t make it up as we go along or waste time (and your money) and experiment with what might work.
We do what works, because we have a deep understanding of how dogs learn and how to use this effectively to train efficiently.
Why do we work to the highest ethical standards?
My dogs and your dog are part of our families. At Together Dog Training we do not underestimate how much you care for your dog and their well-being. We’ve seen corporeal punishment outlawed in children's education. We have now seen a culture shift with dog training too. Considerable scientific evidence proves that dogs have emotions, feelings and sensitivities, much as we do. Again and again, when dog training techniques are studied, positive reinforcement training proves to be the most effective method.
We do what works because we have the deepest respect for our clients and their dogs, and we only act with the utmost professional responsibility.
Why do we only use positive and force-free techniques?
We don’t use any physical force. We don’t use intimidation, scare or startle tactics or pain inducing equipment.
We don’t want to or need to.
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that training using fear, physical or mental punishment or intimidation carries risk of creating a fearful dog or escalating aggression. Punishment may interrupt a behaviour you don’t like, it may temporarily suppress it. It does not address the underlying problem.
We draw on our knowledge, skills and understanding of learning, motivation and behaviour. We engage your dog in a rewarding and joyful way. Our training motto is “a dog that wants to train”.
We do what works because we have studied, been examined and honed our skills over years, so that you can access the very best in dog training.
Why does all this matter?
Dog training and behaviour counselling is an unregulated profession. Anyone can set themselves up, without education, formal qualifications or even any knowledge or experience. The “shallow knowledge epidemic” is rife. Lack of education and old fashioned folk style training techniques (which came from military training in the 1930’s) can cause harm to you and your dog and burn a big hole in your pocket.
Together Dog Training only works with committed owners who want to work with us to resolve their dog’s problems or train with the most proven and effective safe techniques.
Uniquely qualified to teach dogs and humans, we bring you the most technically skilled, highly educated, qualified and personalised training.
We do what works because we know it will work for you and your dog, my dog, every dog.
Dogs do what works.
Find out more about how dogs learn and the techniques we use to change behaviour.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”