Welcome To Dog School ｜ Dogs Trust Dog School

Transcript

00:00Dogs Trust Dog School is a new initiative that Dogs Trust have introduced to the organisation

00:18and it's a network of training teams that we have all across the UK that are providing

00:23training classes to dogs and owners that are fun and engaging and science-led. So we've

00:29got research to back up what we're trying to do. We care for about 17,000 dogs a year

00:34across Dogs Trust and sadly what we see is a lot of those dogs come in to us because

00:38of problem behaviours that they have. If owners come to dog school from when their puppies

00:43are kind of 12 weeks old, as soon as they're able to come in to those classes, what we

00:47know from the research that we have and that we've done is that we can prevent problem

00:51behaviours. One of the major differences between our classes and other classes is the maximum

00:56that we have is six dogs. We have two trainers to those six dogs and we're very fortunate

01:01to have volunteers that come in to those classes as well. Each dog has their own station so

01:05they have barriers set up, they have a bed, they have stimulation in terms of a kong that

01:10they can have at that same time and what's really important about that is that the dogs

01:14are completely relaxed. We're trying to create a good bond between dog and owner and the

01:18way to do that is to have a nice calm environment where dogs can learn. We know the most common

01:23reason that dogs under the age of two years old are put to sleep in vets because of behaviour.

01:27If I talk to somebody who's had a dog that struggles with other dogs, meeting strangers

01:32or when they go to the vet really struggles to be handled and you talk to them about the

01:36dog school concept and what we're trying to do differently, they really get it. We've

01:40recruited a network of trainers so we're up to nearly 80 guys that are across the UK now

01:45working for us. They're all incredibly passionate individuals, very, very experienced, knowledgeable

01:52and love training dogs, love training people and actually that's the really important thing

01:57is that we are there for the people as much as the dogs. We run puppy classes, adult classes

02:04and rescue dog classes so there is a class for everybody. We're seeing young couples,

02:09right through to people that have had dogs all their lives but maybe have experienced

02:12a dog previously that's had problem behaviour and so this time around they want to do things

02:17slightly differently. We've had dogs before and we've trained them ourselves and it's

02:19been a total failure. I've had dogs ever since I can remember. Here I find the kindness

02:26of how to train certainly suits me and certainly suits the dog. But with the techniques we've

02:30used here he's been really quick and he's a good learner. People who have got a problem

02:34dog it makes life really, really difficult and therefore if we can, you know, give them

02:39a great bond with their dog, owner's happy, dog is happy and ultimately that's what Dogs

02:45Trust is all about.