Welcome to WOWdogs!
Games Based Dog Training based in Edinburgh
WOWdogs
Play to Train
A super fun, relationship building method of positive dog training, using short fun games to teach skills to achieve real life results. This training addresses the emotional response eg fear or excitement that drives dogs to choose unwanted behaviours, rather than just focussing on trying to change a behaviour in situations. Fun, positive and sky rockets your relationship with your dog.
About me - Video below too!
I’m Susan, and am an accredited Pro Dog (games based/ force free trainer). I have experience owning and working with many breeds of dogs at various ages and stages.. My current dog is a gorgeous wee cavapoo called Tiggy. I have recently given up my long standing dietetic post in the NHS, to focus full time on my long term desire and passion to help dogs and their owners. I have a huge interest in dog behaviour, canine nutrition, puppies, adolescents and general behaviour struggles. I have experience walking dogs at a local dog rescue and am a mum of an animal daft teenager and I’m very passionate about how animals can enrich family life.
My Training: *
Absolute Dogs :
- Accredited Pro Dog Trainer plus Geek add on (brain health, separation, resource guarding, noise reactivity, health, dog dog reactivity, multi dogs, the bucket, concept training)
- Residential Pro Dog Training at Bowerland, Devon - 7 days Train the Trainer
- Off leash freedom, household manners, reactivity - boot camps - over 6 months
- Prodog
- Canine First Aid
- Puppy pathways, Absolute Puppy
- Absolute Adolescence
- Small dogs
- Poodle and crosses
- Calmness
- Mini courses - stop barking, stop pulling, stop jumping
School of Canine Science
- 6 week Puppy Course
- Behaviour and Nutrition
- Business in a box
- Dog dog reactivity
Genius K9
- Foundations for Life course plus add on masterclasses eg play, recall, lead walking
Behavet - Veterinary Behaviourist Group Teaching
- Dog Dog reactivity
- Separation
- Happy handing - grooming and vet visits
- Chaos to Calm
- Barking
Member of Help my Dog Hub - weekly learning from a veterinary behaviourist dog trainer
I also have 25 years of experience working with people, translating science into practical support for patients and a strong nutritional background.
I continue to keep up to date on the Help my Dog hub, alongside the above training providers
I would love to help you with any struggles your dog may have, whether just scared of life or pulling on lead, barking, to general training or preventative advice for puppies, adolescents, senior, or rescue dogs. If you just want ideas for enrichment, games I can help with this too. Please scroll down for info on options and pricing.
Additionally, I also offer adhoc local dog walking in the EH13/EH14 areas, covering when regular walkers on holiday) or walk and train, puppy coaching at my home, puppy, cat, rodent home visits. I am first aid trained and fully insured.
* The field of dog training is unregulated. There are many training organisations eg PACT, ABTC, IMDT but none of them are responsible for benchmarking and validating the standard necessary to be a dog trainer. These provide paid membership, after passing their course and sitting their own test. They are not legally recognised industry regulars. This is not to say the courses aren’t good but I believe there are many others, equal or better and I have endeavoured to train (and continue to learn) with different well established organisations.
Recall booster - Stepwise approach to improving recall with you dog using games to power this up. Includes help with reward strategy and supporting plan & resources.
Loose lead - Simple games and techniques to really improve your dog’s skills on a lead. Includes info on how your dog perceives the walk and how this piece of the puzzle is crucial to getting loose lead walking nailed.
Creating a foodie dog and interactive play- This session covers how t0 improve your dogs motivation to train for food or a toy. Reward strategy is huge for dogs to help overcome struggles and for general training which becomes so much easier if they desire a certain reward.
Games fest - Games are amazing enrichment for your dog, they can replace walks, boost your relationship (value around you), are super fun whilst teaching your dogs skills too.
Calmness and dimmer switch - The ability to be calm is an amazing skill for your dog and leads to less undesirable behaviours (barking, reactivity etc), a calmer house and better life skills. If your dog is a 0 or 100 in terms of arousal, we can help grow a dimmer switch so they react more appropriately to the things the environment throws at them. Learn about the dog’s bucket, which can be the missing link in reactivity.
Confidence - The biggest skill you can give your dog is confidence or optimism, grow early as a puppy if able. Confident in dogs reduces other struggles and teaches dogs to look for opportunities rather than worrying about where is the threat is all the time. We can grow this through confidence boosting games.
Reactivity on walks - I can give you games/power poses to work through with your dog at home then to take out on walks. Simple games/techniques can improve things when out and about. This initially is a session to make walks better as reactivity is a bigger struggle to tackle so would require much more input.
All things puppy- A masterclass in covering the main puppy skills, through games which all feed into recall, loose lead, manners, confidence etc. Supported by many resources and game cards.
Brain booster - Primarily for senior dogs to help brain flexibility, general fitness, nutrition all which can prevent brain/fitness deterioration. Research shows we should be proactive with our senior dogs, not reducing their world.
Barking - Can be a real pain point and can spread like wildfire. Learn how to massively improve this by some management strategies and games. Supported with resources.
What I offer:
With all packages I offer a free phonecall to see if I can help/good fit and how training might help and how many sessions you might wish. Please contact me via form below or via facebook page wowdogs_edinburgh or whats app 07941 806352. These are suggested options below but can be tailored to what you and you dog may require.
New client package
- A Discovery 60min first session (can be over zoom if preferred) - behaviour questions (may send a questionnaire beforehand), history and some foundation games to get started. This will immediately start working on the struggle eg barking, reactivity, loose lead, confidence, rescue dog help.
- 3 x 1hr in person sessions - ideally roughly 2-4 weeks apart, this really is the minimum amount of time to implement a plan and see results.
- Email with plan of action and relevant resources provided. Full support via what’s app given between sessions.
- £155
Puppy Package - 1 to 1 support
- 4 -6 x sessions (initial one - 90mins, others 45-60mins) of 121 coaching sessions with you and your puppy, ideally weekly/fortnightly.
- This is a massive opportunity to create a confident and optimistic puppy and give them skills early on to help teach loose lead walking, recall and good household manners via simple games and relationship building.
- Socialisation option to meet my calm, friendly dog.
- Family involvement - kids love playing the games
- E resources to support your learning, demo of games
- Pre puppy arrival call available too at no extra cost.
- £150/£210
Puppy coaching - Option for me to do train your puppy, without you necessarily being there, (combination of out and about and at mine where I have a large secure garden. I work on games, confidence, basic household manners etc and feed back everything. It has been requested and worked well and gives owners a little break too. The puppy has some appropriate exposure to the environment in a safe way by an experienced kind trainer. Prices from £30/hr for minimum 1.5 hrs depending on location.
Puppy Classes - Coming soon!
Adolescent Package
- 4 x 1hr session with you and your dog
- This is when dogs can test boundaries, develop bad habits and lose confidence. It is an important time to continue to relationship build with your dog and manage blips/prevent rehearsal of unwanted behaviours.
- Free eresources.
- £155
ConFUNdence Circuits - see advert (£35 for 50mins or 3 sessions for £80). This can take place in your garden or my garden and will teach some confidence games, use of basic agiiity equipment, enrichment strategies. This will help with any dog struggle and give you tools to use.
Booster Sessions - see advert - designed to be one off sessions to address a straightforward issue.
Subscription - various price options for regular weekly or monthly sessions, drop me a message. Can be to address a training need, enrichment, confidence building, active training walks, working around a stooge dog, learning games, socialisation, fitness etc
Other Options:
- If you are familiar with games based training and looking for a top up, or have a minor struggle or just want a single session - £45 (60-75 mins)
- Follow on packages for clients who want to continue after initial package of 4 sessions 4 x 1hr - £120 or £35 per hour.
- Online training- A great option and can work really well with games based training. Please ask for details.
- Walk and train - I can walk your dog (or walk with you) introduce games based training, deal with reactivity on walks and provide some feedback/suggestions- from £25 per hour
- Local adhoc dog walks 30-60 mins, regular dog walker away, no probs, get in touch to see if I can help- from £20 (solo or with my dog if appropriate)
- Other drop in pet services, puppy, cat, rodent visits - from
£15 (local within EH13/EH14)
What to expect?
During our session, I will provide explanation to why your dog is behaving that way, how we can transform it., I will show you games to play with your dog for a few minutes a day (of course life gets busy). Some management strategies will be discussed too. It is important to remember we are training outwith the situation to skill up your dog in the situation. I don’t necessarily need to see how the dog behaves in certain situations if it is stressful to your dog, but you might want to send me videos etc.
For puppy coaching, I will work with you and your puppy to grow their skills, teach them life skills, confidence and basic obedience.
The really cool thing about games-based dog training is that it’s small, consistent daily actions and input that make the most significant difference over time. Little by little and day by day, you can reshape your dog’s brain and grow your dog the direction you
want and achieve your dog owning dream.
The Geeky Stuff!
Every dog has a brain, which is shaped in a particular way with different strengths and weaknesses.
Every dog behaviour is linked to an emotion eg fear, excitement and we aim to address the emotion driving the behaviour, instead of focussing on just suppressing the behaviour.
Your dog’s personality is made up of concepts aka building blocks. When put in a situation, that brain will give an ‘outcome’ (the dog will behave in a certain way), based on that individual dog’s particular strengths and weaknesses. This is the basically the behaviour the dog has picked to deal with the emotion they are feeling.
However, this outcome may not be appropriate but your dog is not displaying a ‘problem’ behaviour – they are just displaying ‘dog’ behaviour. Behaviour is always linked to an emotion eg a lunging dog could be labelled as aggressive but alternatively be excited, scared, or worried. We are working to address the emotion the dog experiences alongside the behaviour offered.
.
This is where concept training comes in as I identify the concepts that you and your dog need to work on to help with the struggles and make better choices.
Aversive training (inflicting pain or discomfort) may look like it gives quick fixes but this is behaviour suppression not modification and the underlying emotions are still there.
Thank you WOWdogs Edinburgh - they had a blast. Fabulous service - would highly recommend. I know the dogs are well looked after and cared for with you. 🐾
Rhiannion James
My first training session with Susan @wowdogs_edinburgh yesterday
Susan is a wonderful teacher and I can't recommend her highly enough if you are an Edinburgh pup looking for fun based training
_uptown_frank_
I have known Susan nearly all my life and I have never met someone so dedicated to animals especially dogs. With years of experience and now fully qualified, I can’t recommend highly enough. If you are in need of advice, training assistance or support look no further.
Lesley Brander
Susan has done incredible work with my dog. My dog had a challenging experience last year, having been bitten, and it left him wary of interacting with other dogs.
Susan employs a unique games-based training technique that not only showcases her deep understanding of canine behaviour but also reshapes their brains in a way that fosters positive choices. The results have been remarkable. He has not only regained confidence but has also developed the skills to make wise decisions in social situations.
The tools she provided have not only repaired the aftermath of a traumatic event but have also empowered me as a dog owner.
Thank you, Susan!
Angela Verity
Susan is absolutely amazing! My anxious dog loves her! And I've learnt loads from her already!
Mhairi Shewan
Susan has a wonderful way with dogs, and our golden retriever Corrie absolutely loves her! Susan has walked Corrie for us as a friend on a couple of occasions, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend her dog caring skills in any situation.
Fiona Cohen
Susan is great with my puppy, really caring, reliable.
Sent me updates about puppy and videos how they got on. Gave me advice when I needed. Highly recommend her dog services.
Bea Zelman
Terms & Conditions
Please ensure you have read and understood these Terms and Conditions.
Definitions
- Course, training, class, classes – the service(s) we provide.
- You, your, client, owner – a person or persons buying products or services from us and attending our classes.
- WOWdogs, us, we, our) – The person or people providing dog training services.
- Dog (dogs) – the dog or bitch brought to our training session or course.
General Terms & Conditions
- Your dog(s) must be fit and healthy. Training your dog when they are unwell, injured or in pain is unfair to the dog.
- WOWdogs accepts no responsibility for loss of or injury to your dog whilst training with us.
- All dogs must be kept on a lead unless otherwise instructed by us.
- All children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
- We believe in using positive reinforcement as the most effective way to train dogs. We do not allow dogs to be handled forcefully during our training. The use of punishment as a training method has been proven to create negative side effects in dogs.
- WOWdogs accept no responsibility for any damage to, theft of, or from your vehicle. Please do not leave valuables in your car and any dogs left unattended in a vehicle is done at the owner’s risk.
- By choosing to undertake training, you agree to take full responsibility for your own safety, the safety of all parties accompanying you and the safety of your dog.
- We must be alerted to any behavioural problems prior to accepting a booking.
- Please check with us if your bitch is in season.
Booking Procedure & Cancellation Rights
- For packages, normally payment for new clients would be after the initial room for the package (or for zoom if decide not to proceed) No refunds are issued unless your training is cancelled by WOWdogs but if >48hrs notice, will aim to reschedule.
- By paying for the service/s of WOWdogs you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
Group Classes -( Not running these at present)
- We have a limit on the number of dogs that can attend classes no credit or refunds will be offered for group classes you do not attend but we would endeavour to reallocate a place if possible (no guarantees).
- To make the most of the classes, regular short daily training sessions at home are the best way for you and your dog to practice the lessons and games prior to the next class.
Puppy Classes or sessions.
- Only puppies over the age of 12 weeks will be accepted to a group class but WOWdogs can offer 1:1 training to younger dogs.
- All puppies must remain on a lead and be kept away from contact with other puppies in the group unless specifically instructed by your trainer.
- The course covers important aspects of puppy training, so for optimum results it is important you attend all classes.
- To make the most of the classes, regular short daily training sessions at home are the best way for you and your puppy to practice the lessons and games prior to the next class.
- Your puppy is required to wear a flat collar and have a well fitted harness.
- Extendable leads (flexi-leads) and head collars are not permitted for puppy class unless agreed with your trainer..
Individual Training Sessions
- Cancellation: In most occasions I require 48 hours notice of cancellation, otherwise you agree to forfeit the full cost of your session.
- Payment can be within 7 days after the session, a reminder will be sent.
- All behavioural training or advice is offered based on information provided or observed in your session, we do not guarantee that such advice will resolve issues for you or your dog.
- If your dog has a bite history it is imperative you inform us before booking a session.
- We reserve the right from time to time to change or amend these Terms & Conditions without notification.
- By confirming a booking, you are accepting the terms and conditions.
General Data Protection (UKGDPR)
- We will ask you for minimal personal information and information on you and your dog. This information will be used to record details of your training requirements.
- We will ask your permission to use still or video images of you and your dog, in advance of any being taken while at the training session.
- We may use your contact details to contact you about your appointment/booking.
- All data is securely stored in hard copy and/or electronically with restricted access.
- If you click on any links on our website, you may be directed away from our website and we are not responsible for the privacy settings on other sites.
