Canine Instincts Dog Training & Behaviour

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Little did we know what was waiting for us when they decided to rescue a Boxer called Jack. We thought we knew it all, as we had Josh, a perfect Boxer dog who behaved in every situation, was never on lead and was our best friend. Jack was described by the rescue  as having some emotional hurdles to overcome……well that was an understatement. He was traumatised and had some very serious behavioural issues. He had had a terrible start to life, and, added to that was diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia after we got him, which caused him lots of pain. In the first week he proceeded to bite us both multiple times and although we had no clue what to do and it terrified us, we were determined we would help him and would never get rid of him. Life with Jack was a long journey of discovery and he literally changed the course of ouir lives. To help him (and to stop him biting ) we had to understand him. To do that we immersed ourselves into all things dog, from online courses, to reading, to watching videos, to live workshops and seminars. You name it we did it. From hiring Dog Trainers to Reiki healers, Zoopharmacognosits to Holistic Vets, Expert Dog Psychologists  and many more. We would literally do anything for him. Josh our original Boxer was an amazing help too and showed us how to build Jacks’ trust and not put too much pressure on him. We learnt huge amounts from watching the 2 dogs interact.  The greatest healer for Jack was time and giving him space to begin to trust us, we made many mistakes along the way . He did eventually trust us and was the most special, little boy. 

Jack lived with us for 8 &1/2 years until at 11&1/2 yrs old a brain tumour finally took him. He had turned into the sweetest, most loving boy. He trusted us completely and we protected him through out his life with us and helped him overcome many of his issues. He was a different dog . We never left his side and supported him through every moment. He remains to this day the most difficult dog we have ever worked with.

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The Boxer Rescue Southern Service, where Jack came from, asked us to foster some other dogs to help them like we helped Jack.  Bella came along next, followed by Fraser and Bruno. Bella was terribly reactive to dogs and people and Fraser had bitten the kennel staff was deemed un manageable, previous behaviourists said he should be put to sleep, Bruno had also bitten multiple people and it was recommended he should also be put to sleep. All 3 dogs taught us invaluable experience with all types of behavioural issues, from resource guarding, dog to dog aggression, human aggression, separation anxiety, fear and many more. We eventually  adopted Fraser, Bella and Bruno.  There is now a very long list of dogs we have fostered and successfully trained and rehomed who have all gone onto live fulfilled and happy lives.

 We are the trainers for The Boxer Rescue Southern Service and take difficult dogs in for residential training and spend time supporting new owners with training once they get their rescue dog home. There are  many success stories all living happily in homes with their families. 

We have become very good at working with dog reactive dogs due to having multiple dogs but also from fostering and going to work with the rescue dogs in kennels. We have been helping dogs become social even after years of being kept on lead and failed by previous trainers. One workshop we attended taught us the skills of how to socialise large groups of dogs successfully, we had already doing this for sometime but it upped our skill level dramatically and gave us the push to run our very successful ‘Group Socialisation’ classes.

Both of us have attended multiple workshops by world renowned dog trainers, including Brian Agnew, Chad Mackin, Jay Jack and Cheri Lucas. Marc even spent a week in California being mentored by Brian Agnew.

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 Over the last 12 years we have also completed courses in in scent works and canine first aid, physiotherapy warm up and cool down workshop including massage.. 

We work with all breeds including  Great Danes and Boerbels right down to Cockerpoos and Terriers with everything in-between. We have extensive knowledge and experience of working with many behaviour problems including recall issues, leash pulling, aggression and separation anxiety and more.

We are the trainers for The Boxer Rescue Southern Service and take difficult dogs in for residential training and spend time supporting new owners with training once they get their rescue dog home.

Most recently we have set up The first GRC Dogsports club in the Uk and hosted the first event, and are hoping to title our own dogs in some of the events over the next year, whilst continuing to grow the sport.