Welcome to 
Naughty Dog School

Hi, I'm Kelly, and I'm lucky to be part of the amazing family at Naughty Dog School.

 

I've grown up with boxers since I was a small child and knew there was no other breed for me. I'd already owned and trained four boxers with no trouble at all — then came my fifth, a girl called Betty. I didn't want to train her in a hall, as that wouldn't help in a real-world situation, so I got in touch with Lynette and became a client of Naughty Dog School. That was ten years ago.

 

I let Betty have a litter, which produced Winston — the easiest, calmest boxer I've ever owned. He joined Naughty Dog School seven years ago. Then came Esmai: by far the naughtiest, loopiest boxer I'd ever had, and a real challenge to all the instructors! But within a few short months she blossomed into a wonderful, well-behaved girl, and went on to become one of our teaching dogs.

 

About four or five years ago, one of Lynette's team members left, and I volunteered to instruct one of the classes. As the team of instructors grew, I took a step back and filled in whenever someone was on holiday. Around three or four years ago, we changed our training style to game-based, choice-led training. The positive reinforcement games are incredible for all dogs — they help them build their confidence and strengthen their relationships, both with each other and with their owners.

 

Esmai later had a litter of her own, which produced Frank, who is now going through his own training to become a teaching dog — so Esmai's legacy lives on.

 

A year and a half ago, I began attending our one-to-one sessions to deepen my knowledge and continue my education in canine body language. I wanted to help owners understand their dogs' emotions and actions — to see that they aren't being "naughty," but that there's always a reason behind their behaviour — and to learn how to break down and teach our games to get the very best out of both our dogs and our clients' dogs.