I was able to pass the selection and join the Intelligence Corps, which for the next 7 years took me many places to many interesting things. I served two tours of Afghanistan and feel privileged to have returned safely with some pretty solid life skills under my belt. Motherhood beckoned and although I continued to serve in the reserves for a few years it was time to find a new career. Having a love of photography and always a deep rooted passion for animals I then combined the two to create a multi award winning photography studio that specialised in dog portraits. Had the double whirlwind of Covid and Elvis, my first Terrier not entered my life then I suspect I'd still be happily photographing dogs day to day, you can still ask nicely for a portrait shoot if you'd like one!

Never one for twiddling my thumbs as covid had closed my studio I ended up helping a local dog trainer get his business online, just like so many at the time who were trying to salvage livelihoods we teamed up. I used my behind the scenes skills to design the website, film and edit while he provided the dog training know how. That business was very successful in it's first year and continues to do well. I have since helped another high profile dog trainer to build and launch their own online platform with great success from a behind the scenes role.

While all this was going on, I have lived and worked with my own tricky Terrier Elvis as well as gradually building an in person dog training business Valley Dogs, working day to day with all breeds of dogs with a variety of training needs. Teaching classes, 121 training and behaviour modification all the way up to scent work, trail hunt and starting the first Barn Hunt in Scotland, no prizes on guessing who I did that for!

I've put a full list of the courses and qualifications I've gained over the last 6 years below, suffice to say it's a lot. But despite having done all the courses and attended the coaching days, been in the mentorships I have learnt more from Elvis than any of those have ever taught me. He's consistently refused to follow the dog training rule book, he pushes pretty much every boundary you lay out for him and constantly reminds me that dogs are individuals that need more than just training to succeed in a pet dog world after years of breeding and genetic manipulation for specialist roles. It is a solid testament to the adaptability and grace of dogs as a species that so many of them manage and even thrive when we set them up to fail as 'pets' from day one.

Elvis

The main man.

KC Border Terrier, Blue and Tan, born 2020. He remains in possession of his testicles.

Up until just under two years of age, other than some over excitement around other dogs and some issues with travel sickness and subsequent behaviour in the car he was pretty much a typical Terrier, perhaps a bit more than bargained for but he had fairly solid recall after some hard work in training, mostly walked on a lead Ok and I felt we had made it through to adulthood with a happy family dog.

A perfect storm of truly becoming an entire male and hitting peak testosterone (which I still believe to be high by general standards) and having some larger breed also adolescent, peak testosterone male dogs come and challenge his space he developed reactivity, which shifted in to forward going aggression frighteningly quickly. He also began to show issues with diet, allergies and a luxating patella all around the same time.

The day he actively choose, not through any need to defend himself, to stalk and attack an oncoming entire male Great Dane I knew we had a big problem. To this day he enjoys a fight and will not hesitate to defend himself if another dog gives him a reason to do so. I'd bet my house on him to win to, no joke.

So in many ways you have Elvis and his behaviour issues to thank for the Terrier School. The journey that he has been on to change his aggressive behaviour, his huge prey drive and general struggles with his day to day life have become the courses that you have in Terrier School. You'll be pleased to know he's much better these days, he'll never be quite the calm, social go anywhere do anything with zero input from me dog we probably all want. But he has an amazing life and I appreciate him everyday for everything he has taught me about not only dogs but myself.

Beattie

KC Border Terrier. Elvis half sister, born 2023.

She's the good girl who benefitted from all my mistakes with Elvis. She's been a fulfilled and happy girl since day one and she is my little megastar. In truth she has her vices, she is SO food motivated it would be easy to end up with her becoming a resource guarder.

In fact she's so motivated by the act of eating in general that she will chance it with things like lego, empty packets or whatever she can pick up on a walk. Poo flavour anyone? 

But her crimes are small in comparison to her pretty solid social skills and generally good behaviour. You'll see her demo more in the videos and mostly be the super star of the whole show.

Ethics, methods and my beliefs about dog training

Dog training is a controversial and divided space to work in. In fact as someone who has come to it later in life after having worked in real conflict zones with real consequences I find it staggering. Truthfully, I've often considered my sanity to remain in and forge forward with this new career of mine. Most day to day dog owners aren't completely aware of the divide, so let me explain and tell you my thoughts as well as the ethics you can expect to be at the forefront of what I do at Terrier School.

As a dog owner you should care about several things. Is the trainer I'm employing doing the best they can to help me and my dog gain the life we deserve together in the kindest way they can, meeting realistic timescales and tailored as much as possible to suit yours and your dogs lifestyle. Is my dog improving, is our life together getting better and are they better off for the methods that have been used. That's what I truly believe to be important.

As a dog trainer the industry pretty much forces you to be in either the 'force free' 'no tools' camp or the 'balanced' 'uses tools' camp. There are some places for wiggle room but with social media gaining in popularity and us all promoting our businesses this way we are often forced to be polarised or forgotten. The middle ground is boring.

When I first learnt about training it was from a very traditional gun dog trainer who did not use food for motivation, would put every dog regardless of what or who they were through a process of rank reduction and train to make the dog avoid consequences as a primary method. He never hurt dogs but he definitely did intimidate them if he needed to. I moved away from that wanting to do better and swung pretty heavily in to the force free camp. No corrections ever, everything was done through motivation and reward and you would manage (prevent) anything you couldn't solve with positive reinforcement. I definitely believed you could solve any issue with positive reinforcement alone, because it was the message I was sold by lots of good marketing and powerful personalities.

You won't be surprised to read that after 6 years, working with lots of dogs, especially ones with high prey drive I have landed back somewhere in the middle and I fully expect to stay here in terms of what I believe to be my ethics around dog training. Here it is - 

• All good dog training starts with positive reinforcement. You should aim to teach things to a dog this way. Adjust your environments accordingly to achieve it if you need to. 
• If your training isn't heavily weighted towards positive reinforcement, you should be doing better.
• You can't achieve all things for all dogs through the use of positive reinforcement alone, the application of consequences can help some dogs, particularly those with strong genetically reinforced behaviours, learn things that benefits their life overall.
• If you are going to use consequences, then use them skilfully and fairly with the full knowledge that it is unpleasant for the dog and you train accordingly to help that dog deal with it in the best way possible - your aim should always be to enhance their life.
• You train the dog in front of you. You listen to what it is telling you, not what your belief system or social media says you should be doing. Be prepared to adapt, do not blindly carry on with what is clearly not working.

The choice is yours as an owner on the use of consequences for your dog. You should be doing the foundations of all your training with positive reinforcement and constantly aiming to reinforce the good things your dog does, basically forever. When you have reached the limits of what you can achieve with those methods you now choose to simply manage the things you can't change - eg not allowing a highly predatory dog off a lead or always avoiding a certain type of interaction with that dog. This may be the exact right approach for that dog, OR you choose to use an appropriate tool or method that brings consequences to prevent that behaviour from happening again, eg - using a remote collar to stop your predatory dog from ignoring recall. The choice should be made based on the dog in front of you, your life together and the consequences to yourself, your dog and others by not changing that behaviour and should be done with a good professional to help you.

Tool use and punishments can be done badly and seriously damage your dog. Training that is based solely in positive reinforcement can also be done really badly and damage your dog. It is not black and white.

Terrier School courses do not contain any use of remote collars or punishment, not because I fundamentally disagree with their use but because it is a nuanced thing that requires skill and should be done in person and only after doing all the things in the courses!