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News & Blog

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.

Puppies and Owners learning together at the Puppy School Conference

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!

  • Happy Labradoodle pup at local trick training class Labradoodle 'telling a secret' : Trick Training
  • Corgi puppy sniffing scent on ground to find person with a longline for handlingCorgi finding the trail layer : Mantrailing
  • Golden retriever puppy relaxed and laid down at training class conferenceGolden 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!”

  • Owners and dogs taking part in training games outside at local sessionNatures 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 puppy sniffing in class as part of freework based on Animal Centred Education (ACE)Papillon experiencing ACE Freework
  • 9th Puppy School conference
  • 82 tutors and guests
  • 63 dogs in total
  • Owners and dogs learning together at tracking class session outsideTutors and guests learning together : Lost Dog Tracking
  • Fluffy dog sat during training session focused on ownerStrike a pose! Tutor with their dog : Brand Photography
  • Experienced Puppy School tutors celebrating long service for puppy training classesCelebrating long service awards : 65 years combined!
  • Collie dog taking scent as part of training classCollie dog taking Scent from an article : Mantrailing
  • Owners and dogs celebrating success for handling in class with prizesSpot Prize Winners
  • Puppy trainer with owner and Vizsla dog during class sessionTutor enjoying working with Vizsla
  • Up to date CPD and training for puppy trainers Tutor presenting self care
  • Happy, fluffy, ginger puppy with owners during training classMore brand photography!
  • Labrador laid down watching others in puppy training class Taking it all in! : Mantrailing
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Testimonials

What Clients say
about Puppy School

  • “Frankie is a natural puppy instructor with bags of energy and knowledge. The course was very informative and very enjoyable. Both Sassy and I have learned a great deal. I feel confident moving on with Sassy's training and look forward to future courses. Course was perfect and a huge thank you to Frankie, see you at the next course.”
    —   Jenny
  • “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
  • “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
  • “It’s a fantastic course. The small sizes also really allow for personal tailoring if the exercise to suit my puppy. Neal made me so at ease when I struggled with something and there was never a I time I felt embarrassed to ask him to reexplain something I was struggling with.”
    —   Daniel
  • “The training was invaluable in helping me to ensure Toby developed new skills as he grew into the confident, well behaved pup that he is. The training taught me how to be a successful puppy parent, and we are both looking forward to starting puppy college. ”
    —   Mary