Puppy School is 21 years old!
Founder and Director, Gwen Bailey, tells us about the story of Puppy School and how it became the UK’s leading network of positive puppy trainers.
Gwen Bailey with her Vizsla dogs
Twenty six years ago, I was working full time as an animal behaviourist for a large well known animal rescue charity. I was the first person ever to do such work for a rescue, trying to piece back together young dogs that had not made it with their first owners, or helping to make sure that those dogs with issues went into the right homes and stayed there. The work wasn’t easy, especially because positive methods of training and behaviour control were still in their infancy, and, no matter how hard we worked, there were always more on the waiting list ready to replace the ones we successfully rehomed.
New edition of the Perfect Puppy book by Gwen Bailey
Eventually I realised things were never really going to change until we could reach owners while their puppies were really young and easy to train, and owners were still keen to get things right. So I started running puppy classes on a Sunday morning and that lead me to writing a book called ‘The Perfect Puppy’. While the book was successful around the world, amazingly still in print 28 years later and revised for the 3rd edition which will be published in August 2024, I realised there was a desperate need to reach more people with practical help, so I left my job and set out to form a network of people who could run puppy training classes in their area and, between us, we could be available for owners all around the UK. At the time, positive puppy trainers were hard to come by and I made it my mission to change that.
Twenty one years later, we are now a family of about 120 positive trainers, and have collectively helped over 100,000 puppies and their owners to a better understanding of positive ways to educate their puppies. Even better, the climate of training has changed and now most trainers have ditched aversive methods and turned to reward-based training instead.
There are still a few clinging to their old fashioned beliefs but they are slowly dying out in favour of a new breed of science-based trainers and behaviourists who want to use only positive methods for both animal and owners.
Chatting after puppy training class
During those twenty one years, puppies haven’t changed that much inside, although owners are now choosing many more crossbreds, especially poodle crosses in the hope they will be more hypoallergenic, a better size for their household, and more healthy. While this isn’t always the case, at least there has been a change from the closed stud books of the inbred pedigree world, and the show breeders are on notice to change what they do or their buyers will look elsewhere. Unfortunately, good puppies are hard to find and unscrupulous breeders are currently filling the void, but my hope is that more breeders will come forward and breed good pet puppies in future.
Explaining an exercise during a training class
A friendly welcome into puppy class
Twenty one years on, and after lots of hard work, we now have a Puppy School puppy class going on somewhere around the UK every night of the week and on weekends. To say that I’m proud of my puppy tutors and their associates, not to mention their assistants, is an understatement. Their genuine love of puppies and their care for their families are what makes our classes outstanding. We have a thorough teaching programme for new trainees, a system for monitoring all classes, and great continued education opportunities for all. Since members of our Puppy School family are so diverse in their occupations, from veterinary nurses to accountants, we also have a massive pool of knowledge to draw from so that no question ever goes unanswered.
Puppy School has been an incredible journey for the past 21 years, bringing light and love to so many, both human and animal, and our task now is to make sure it thrives and develops further for the next 20 years and beyond so it can continue it’s amazing work.
Testimonials
What Clients say
about Puppy School
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“It was brilliantly taught and we learned lots from the trainers. Really happy we came along, I think it’s set Arty up for a happy life with us! ”— Laura
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“Big compliments to Claire! The way she just understands the dogs and being able to explain that has been a game changer. Her knowledge and expertise makes her a great puppy/dog trainer. I am already recommending Claire to everyone! She loves what she does and that shows. Would recommend to everyone with a puppy :)”— Emily
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“I can’t imagine a tutor better than Kelly. She was so reassuring and helpful, and skilled in getting us through the exercises. Her fondness for the dogs and enthusiasm was obvious.”— Emma
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“Caroline is an excellent trainer. She is knowledgeable, friendly and very patient, never judgemental. Teg and I enjoyed the classes very much.”— Andrew
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“Sarah was great and very knowledgeable. She took the time to listen to each of our individual queries and was available before and after class (and on email!) to answers any issues or queries we were experiencing with our puppy! ”— Billy