About your tutor
Puppy School Devizes classes are run by Jo Thiselton Dyer
Hello and welcome to Puppy School Devizes and West Wiltshire
Hi, I am Jo and I run Puppy School in the Devizes and North/West Wilts areas. As well as Puppy School, I run Scentwork Training under Positive Connections. I have always taken on rescue dogs myself, some of whom have been incredibly traumatised, and it has always been my passion to help and support dogs who may not have had the best start in life, or who are anxious, fearful or just need help with their surroundings.
It is crucial that puppies do have the best start in life, and that their caregivers understand their emotional needs during the difficult time through their growing period.
I will always teach in a positive way with positive reinforcement across all of my training and will always give the extra support where needed, to ensure the puppies and dogs are learning in the most positive and confident way. I am a fully qualified Scentwork Instructor and I compete one of my dogs Neo in trials both Scentwork UK and Detection Dog Trials.
Puppy School tutors come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Apart from running our puppy classes, many have thriving careers in rescue shelters and some work as veterinary nurses, dog walkers, dog groomers, dog training professionals or behaviourists. What they all have in common is a passion for training puppies and a keen interest in animal welfare and behaviour.
Our Puppy School tutors and associate tutors must undergo extensive training before teaching Puppy School classes. This includes an application and interview process, six days of comprehensive theory covering a range of topics from animal learning to lesson plans (taught by founder and director, Gwen Bailey, APBC registered behaviourist), as well as three days of supervised practical work and a comprehensive correspondence course.
We monitor our Puppy School classes regularly to ensure the highest standards are consistently being maintained. Tutors are carefully overseen by Regional Managers to make sure they are using all the skills necessary to become excellent, positive, reward-based puppy trainers. Our tutors must uphold our Code of Conduct at all times and must complete a sufficient amount of continued professional development each year.
Puppy School is delighted to have been recognised as a Practitioner Organisation for the Animal Behaviour and Training Council (ABTC). Alice Crick is registered as an Animal Training Instructor with the ABTC. The ABTC is the regulatory body that represents animal trainers and animal behaviour therapists to both the public and to legislative bodies. It is the only animal welfare charity that is primarily concerned with protecting the psychological welfare of animals undergoing training and behaviour activities.