Finally, someone who gets you and your dog.
Because better dog training starts with a better relationship.
It all starts with the relationship between you and your dog
Fairlight Dog Training & Behaviour is based on private training fields in Tickenham, working with puppies, adolescent dogs and companion gundogs across Nailsea, Clevedon, Portishead and the wider North Somerset area.
I’ve been running Fairlight Dog Training & Behaviour in Tickenham since 2016.
Ten years in, and the words my clients use most are knowledgeable, kind, and the one that matters most to me – non-judgemental.
But underneath the training, it’s always been about the same thing: helping guardians and dogs understand each other.
Not obedience for its own sake but for communication. Because once a dog and their person can actually talk to each other, everything else starts to follow.
I know that because it’s exactly what happened to me.
What training with me actually looks like
But those words get thrown around a lot, so here’s what they actually mean when you’re stood on the field with me:
Kind, not soft.
Dog comes first
Not you, and not your ideal of what the dog should be or should be doing. I won’t just train out a behaviour without asking why it’s there in the first place. Fix the “why,” and the behaviour usually sorts itself.
Non-judgemental, properly.
Evidence over ego.
What I want you to walk away with isn’t just a better-behaved dog.
It’s trust.
Trust in your own knowledge, in your dog, and in the two of you together.
That lightbulb moment, when your dog finally gets you, that’s the whole job, really.
There’s a reason I do things differently
Like most people who end up working with dogs, I grew up with them. Ours was a multi-dog household, mostly rescues, each with their own quirks.
Max is why I do what I do.
He’s a lurcher, eleven years old now, who ended up in rescue at just four months and was rehomed twice before he found his way to me. Some of what happened to him before that is hard for him to forget, even now – and it showed up as behaviour I didn’t understand. New people, new dogs, unexplained noises: all of it was hard for him.
That was my turning point. I needed to understand why, and I needed to know how to actually help him and not just manage him. So I studied, trained and earned my Diploma with the International School for Canine Psychology, and I’ve never looked back.
What I learned along the way is this: if you want to make a real difference to a dog’s life, you have to help their guardian communicate with them too. Both of them, learning to live together properly.
Watching that lightbulb moment when the dog finally understands what their person’s been trying to say all along is genuinely the best part of my job.
Because from that point on, I know they’re both going to have a better life.
ISCP.Dip.Canine Behaviour Practitioner
Academy Of Dog Training & Behaviour
IMDT PETdog Gundog
Canine Hoopers World Instructor
UK Dog Behaviour and Training Charter Member
Canine First Aid Diploma
ISCP Certificate Canine Emotional Healing
Canine Ethics Canine Professional
And then there’s Sky
Our favourite walk is Walton Common woodland, open grassland, views out to Wales and the Gordano Valley, and free-roaming Dexter cattle to keep things interesting.
Between gundog work, scent work and paddleboarding, Sky keeps busy. She’s easy to please with most things, except celery. Never celery.
And in case you’re wondering no, dog trainers’ dogs aren’t perfect either. Max still isn’t keen on new people, new dogs, or noises he can’t explain.
Like people, dogs aren’t perfect. We just keep working on it together.
She is patient, knowledgeable and reliable, and we trust her completely to take care of our dogs.
Thank you George 😊”
Ready when you are
Not sure where to start? That’s exactly what I’m here for.
Message me on WhatsApp and tell me what’s going on, there’s no pressure, no hard sell.
Or if you already know what you need, you can book straight in.
