Puppy School's Amazing 9th Conference 2024!
Operations Manager, Sarah Smith, tells us about our recent Puppy School Conference and how it benefits the UK’s leading network of positive puppy trainers and guests.
Every two years, Puppy School tutors from across the UK travel to the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire for a packed weekend of CPD fun. For most, it is the highlight of the year. An opportunity to gather together, say hello in person and learn from some of the best experts in their field. And this year was no exception!
With a superb guest speaker line up who gave workshops and lectures on Lost Dog Tracking, Training Anti-poaching Dogs, Mantrailing, Trick Training, ACE Freework, Power of Personal Branding Photography and Taking Care of Yourself, Team Games in the Woods, as well as an All About Dogs Quiz as part of the evening entertainment, the Puppy School Conference 2024 certainly proved to be a huge success.
We are proud to have been able to offer our tutors and guests opportunitites to enhance their own learning and develop their career professional development. Whether that is experiencing an introduction to something new, building upon existing skills or developing techniques that can be used within their own practice, it is what helps to make us better. By making sure we offer up-to-date, proven reward-based theories, techniques and practises, we are pleased to host superb CPD opportunities for both ends of the lead!
Labradoodle 'telling a secret' : Trick Training
Corgi finding the trail layer : Mantrailing
Golden Retriever puppy says hi! : Welcome Address
With over 80 people and 63 dogs attending, the conference was certainly busy and everything went smoothly. This year we opened up our conference to guests from outside the Puppy School family and welcomed them to share the expertise and make new contacts. It is important to forge connections and work with like minded professionals so this will now be considered for future conferences.
Finding the perfect balance of interactive workshops where attendees can work with their own dogs if they choose, seminars and presentations to listen and learn from as well as fun games and quizzes, is always at the forefront of our minds when arranging the conference. We are already thinking ahead to 2026 and how we can make it even better! Not an easy task with feedback like “Fantastic, loved it. Loved the variety between dog training content and business support content”,“Really enjoyable, educational, and fun” and “had the best weekend and didn't want it to end!”
Natures Menu Melanie Sainsbury working with her dogs : Games in the Woods
We must give a special mention to Natures Menu (https://www.naturesmenu.co.uk), as all of this wouldn’t be possible without their sponsorship. It is their continued support that means we can deliver a fantastic conference at cost price every two years and we are very grateful for it. We would also like to thank Tug-e-nuff for their continued support and for donating thank you gifts.
Finally we would like to thank all of our guest speakers, Claire Brown of K9 North, Sandra Raw of Worcester Dogs, Jason Cortis of Worcester Dogs & Mantrailing UK, Louise Otter of Surrey and South London Dog Training & Behaviour, Melanie Sainsbury of Natures Menu, Becky Howe of Puppy School Tiverton Dog Training, Vicki Watts of The Doghouse Fit Train Fun, Anastasia Jobson and Chrissie Pargeter of Puppy School Sussex. Thank you for making this year’s conference one of the best yet.
Papillon experiencing ACE Freework
9th Puppy School conference
82 tutors and guests
63 dogs in total
Tutors and guests learning together : Lost Dog Tracking
Strike a pose! Tutor with their dog : Brand Photography
Celebrating long service awards : 65 years combined!
Collie dog taking Scent from an article : Mantrailing
Spot Prize Winners
Tutor enjoying working with Vizsla
Tutor presenting self care
More brand photography!
Taking it all in! : Mantrailing
Testimonials
What Clients say
about Puppy School
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“I wanted to share my gratitude towards my puppy school tutor in Chichester, Louise Williamson. She has really gone above and beyond to help me giving me lots of support, advice and positive encouragement.”— Emma
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“Alice was absolutely lovely and helped us with some issues that weren't covered in the syllabus, she was so knowledgeable about everything puppy behaviours and she taught the class well. The venue was great, there was plenty of space for each puppy and for exercises without it being too big and scary. Nelly loved attending puppy school and we learnt so much about dog training and behaviour.”— Mandy
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“Frankie was amazing, absolutely loved going every week and so did Riley. We learnt so much in such a lovely and fun atmosphere!”— Jane
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“Puppy School has been an all round excellent package from start to finish but the greatest asset to this training was Sally! Sally was calm, clear and responsive to us all so you feel you get the benefit from being in a group of handlers and puppies with all the benefits of that but also individual attention to support you and your puppies specific needs/issues. Banjo is a nervous puppy, Sally was very sensitive to this and managed situations so Banjo benefitted from all the training exercises and interaction in a very positive way. She also gave me lots of support in how to help him outside of class. It was also brilliant to have a booklet and online access at home to watch reminder supporting material videos of the things taught in each session. There were also a range of vouchers and free trial bags of different foods which has proven helpful in determining what works for Banjo. I have had several puppies over the years, and have been to several classes, this has been the best experience yet for both me and my puppy. Thanks especially to Sally! ”— Maria
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“A friendly, professional class, taught by an instructor with a deep understanding and experience of working with puppies. Plus, it was lots of fun!”— Rita