I am a signatory to the Registration Council for Dog Training and Behaviour Practitioners (RCDTBP), and I have lectured on canine behaviour on many occasions for different groups and organisations, both nationally and internationally.
I am also a member of the Canine and Feline Behaviour Association (CFBA), Qualified International Dog Training Instructors (QIDTI), and the Kennel Club as well as being a patron for the charity K9 Crusaders.
I am a keen campaigner trying to make a difference for dogs in relation to their care and welfare, and am firmly against breed specific legislation, and have attended several of the London protests against it.
I have talked on many radio programmes on the subject of dogs. I have also appeared on numerous television programmes talking on dogs and other animals. I was the behavioural trainer on the hugely successful BBC3 show Dog Borstal for all four series. I have also appeared on the BBC News, This Morning, Good Morning Britain and London Tonight, covering a variety of dog related subjects. I have written articles for most of the major national dog related magazines, such as Our dogs, Dogs Today, and Your Dog.
I have acted as an expert witness in court cases, both as a canine behavioural/trainer and as an animal welfare officer for the London Borough of Lewisham.
After acquiring a puppy from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 1981, I began attending dog training classes with him, and soon started working at competitive level obedience with both him and my next dog. I have run my own dog training classes since 1986. By 1994 I had won my way up to and including class ‘B’ before work commitments forced me to retire from competing. I have judged at limit, open, and championship level obedience competitions since 1986. I have been training people on instructing dog training classes since 1995.
Having spent some years studying the subject, I started working as a canine behavioural trainer in 1992, with the majority of my clients coming to me via veterinary referral, or from recommendations from previous clients. I have had a book published on the subject of dog behaviour and training, The Trouble-Free Dog, which was published in 2000, and had very positive reviews in The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Dog Training Weekly and has been reprinted twice since then. It was revised and reprinted in 2008.
I am currently writing my second book. I have also produced several booklets and pamphlets for Lewisham Council on dogs, which are distributed freely to the public.
In May 1990 I began working as an animal welfare officer for the London Borough of Lewisham, and continued there until January 2007, where I held the position of Senior Animal Welfare Officer.
Dealing with all types of animals, ranging from escaped reptiles, to injured wildlife, to nuisance complaints, and of course – stray dogs, which was the services core function. This aspect of the job was obviously potentially very dangerous, so an ability to immediately assess a dogs’ attitude was essential, since stray or abandoned dogs could potentially turn aggressive. I left the service in 2006 to work full-time as a behavioural trainer.
For decades, there has been a major problem in dog training. That problem is that there is no national standard for dog training and behaviourists. Literally ANYONE can call themselves a trainer, a behaviourist, a dog whisperer, or anything else that suggests that they train dogs and owners professionally, and then charge people for their services, whilst having no skills or experience to do so.
There is no national standard for dog training and behaviour modification in the UK, so while there are lots of courses that say that they give a ‘qualification’, since there is no standard by which these courses are assessed in terms of the training being offered, they are pretty meaningless, and I know many, many behaviourists and trainers who say that they are qualified, but are nonetheless still shockingly bad at training owners and dogs. So anyone who appoints one of these people may be doomed to failure, regardless of how hard the owners work at it.
So I decided that this needed addressing. In 2021 I founded the Canine Instructor Academy, or C.I.A. Its purpose is to create behavioural trainers with the required skills to be able to effectively help owners and dogs, and to create a network of reliable and knowledgeable people within the industry who are not simply managing issues, and telling owners to constantly shovel treats into the dog, but who can actually create dogs who voluntarily make better choices that keep both them, and their owners safe and happy. Students on the course have described it as “life-changing”, and “inspirational”. They have posted online about how much more effective their training with owners has been, and how their clients are stunned at the improvement in their dogs behaviour.
For more details about the courses, click on the CIA link at the top of the page.
