A strong foundation for real life with your dog!

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Our Life Skills Basics course is a six-week foundation programme designed to help you and your dog build the essential skills needed to navigate everyday life with confidence. This course is about more than teaching behaviours — it’s about helping you understand how your dog learns, how to communicate clearly, and how to set both of you up for long-term success.

Modern life asks a huge amount of our dogs. From busy environments to expectations of calm, focus, and good manners, many dogs struggle simply because they haven’t been given the right foundations. This course is where those foundations begin.

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What the course covers​ - 

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Over Weeks 1–5, skills are introduced and built gradually, with support every step of the way. In Week 6, dogs learn two fun new tricks and complete a short test course to celebrate progress.

Training is practical, structured, and designed for real-world use.

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Skills include:

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• Understanding how your dog learns

• Clear, effective communication

• Marker training and why it’s needed

• Sit, Down, Wait, Stay, Settle

• Loose lead walking foundations

• Recall basics

• Leave

• Behind / Follow

• Look / Touch

• Engage / Disengage

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Alongside these skills, you’ll learn about canine body language, how and when to apply training in real-life situations, and why these skills matter in everyday environments.

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How the course works -

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• 6 weeks of structured training

• Skills build week by week, with homework to support learning

• Access to a private WhatsApp group with your trainer for reasonable support throughout the course

• Positive reinforcement methods taught by qualified, experienced trainers

• A supportive, welcoming environment — we aim to reassure owners, answer questions, and make training enjoyable

If a dog is finding any part of the course challenging, we adapt. If extra support is needed, this may include repeating the course or adding 1:1 sessions — always discussed with you, always with your dog’s welfare and success in mind.

We don’t “fail” dogs. We adjust the training to suit them.

Some dogs may also receive merit extras for excellence, and standout progress may be highlighted where appropriate.

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A starting point for a wider training journey -

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Life Skills Basics is the foundation for future training. As your confidence and skills grow, you may choose to move on to more specialised options such as advanced life skills, gundog training, hoopers, scent work, or trainer-led group walks with other established partnerships.

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Our training approach -

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We use positive reinforcement methods to help you build a genuine partnership with your dog — creating clarity, focus, and trust. Training should be fair, effective, and enjoyable for both ends of the lead.

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Unsure where to start? -

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We’re happy to help guide you.

Every enquiry begins with a no-obligation 20-minute chat, where we’ll talk through your dog, your goals, and the best next steps. Some dogs may benefit from a 1:1 assessment or additional support before joining a group — and we can provide this where needed.

Get in touch to start the conversation and see if Life Skills Basics is the right step for you and your dog.