We focus on our own way of working with dogs rather than following the rest of the industry. Lupine Canine is welfare-led, with every programme built around what your individual dog needs and shaped by a 30-year career in Military Working Dogs. We offer dog training and dog walking, delivered by a team trained in our system, with different programmes to suit your dog’s needs and your budget.

What makes the difference is that your dog learns in both worlds. Dogs live in a human world but rarely spend significant time in a dog’s world, and each has its own rules and etiquette. Working alongside our own well-balanced dogs, your dog learns the social limits of being a dog, how to introduce itself so other dogs can tolerate it, and how to stay safe around dogs it doesn’t know. Everything is aimed at your dog’s welfare, balance and good temperament.

All our services are designed around your dog’s welfare and safety. A dog’s balance and good order come from being stimulated in both human and canine environments.

Most dogs have a human-only relationship and never learn how to introduce themselves to a dog they don’t know. When they meet one, miscommunication makes fights easy to start. Learning canine manners alongside our well-balanced dogs gives them that missing skill.

Our aim is to bring balance to as many dogs as we can, so they enjoy human company calmly and confidently, and canine company in exactly the same way. Whichever service you choose, from training to dog walking, every session reinforces this.

We never turn a dog away because of its behaviour. One of the Lupine Canine Vows is to bring balance and order to as many dogs as we can, and our two key principles are Dogs first, always and Dog’s fault never.

Every dog starts with an in-home assessment. The most challenging cases, where there is a danger to canine or human life, are reserved for Leander, our managing director and Kennel Master. We have experience with dogs showing serious aggression, including dogs subject to court orders.

A dog that is aggressive is a dog in distress. Dogs are gregarious by nature, and we form a relationship with the dog and help that gregariousness come through.

For the safety of your dog and ours, we do need the basics in place before we start. Those are an assessment, up-to-date vaccinations, insurance details and honest disclosure of any medical or behavioural history, as set out in our Terms & Conditions. If a different specialist would serve your dog better, we’ll tell you.

It means we never blame the dog. A dog’s behaviour reflects how it has been communicated with and what it has been conditioned to expect. If a dog is raised emotionally, as if it were a small human, it receives a communication system it can’t possibly understand. It becomes confused, and if communication doesn’t improve, it becomes reactive, fearful and anxious.

In a human/dog relationship the human is always the stimulus, so the way to change the dog’s behaviour is to change how we communicate with it. We teach you to lead intellectually rather than emotionally. The result is a balanced, calm, confident, gregarious dog.

Conditioning is a biological mechanism, not something we hope will happen. When a signal, such as a command or gesture, is followed consistently by the same action, the brain links the two. With enough consistent repetition the link becomes so strong that the response is instant. We call it a “bonded neural superhighway”.

In practice, we begin with the humans. Owners and handlers learn the same commands, gestures and body language we use, so your dog gets one clear, consistent message. We then build the response up step by step until it is dependable and reliable, and maintain it every week so it doesn’t fade.

Dog walking is for busy clients who can’t always give their dog an hour or two in the park. Your dog is in the care of a professional Lupine Canine walker, trained to our standards in our command structure, gestures, body language and safety protocols. Your dog’s welfare is fully looked after and its trained behaviour is maintained to its level of certification.

That maintenance matters. A trained dog regresses if it isn’t kept up every week, and the time, effort and money you put into training can be lost. Our walkers keep the conditioned responses sharp so your dog stays dependable and reliable.

There have been very influential people throughout my life. But the Lupine Canine Methodology is a direct result of experience in dog training spanning a 30 year career in (Military) Working Dog. More than anything it's a state of mind. I took what I felt was relevant from many different ways of training and kept and developed the best bits into what you see now, the evolved Lupine Canine Training System we currently operate which will continue to evolve, develop and improve. I digest information, then look for the fundamental aspect of what's being explained, I understand it then never forget it and if its relevant I adapt for our techniques at Lupine Canine

Our dog walkers are valued members of our team. They are Lupine Canine trained keeping everything consistent. Everything from the moment your dog is certified to the moment you instruct further services from Lupine Canine.

Our dog walkers are trained in our command structure, gestures, body language, and all protocols that ensure each dog’s safety while it's out and about. This can't be underestimated as the majority of professionals in our industry have never thought about our protocol safety measures.

Our protocol is non-negotiable. There is never a time where if you enter a protocol environment, the protocol that fits that environment will not be adhered to. We are one of the only companies to implement what we call redundant safety measures. Redundantly safe means we're not going to lose your dog, we're not going to kill your dog, and we're not going to get your dog into a place where the police are going to be knocking on your door.

It’s about making an appropriate choice. As the leader/handler you need to choose the right person to be responsible for your dog and for the safety of your dog and others. A professional Lupine Canine walker is trained to stay focused and reactive for every second of the walk, to maintain your dog’s training, and to deal with a problem before it escalates.

Our walkers also progress through the team. They start with puppies and dogs that have been through a programme, and gain experience before taking on tougher dogs. So the person on the other end of the lead is always matched to your dog. And a dog that does as it’s told has far more fun.

The biggest issues are always a result of mindset. As an owner/handler your mind has to be on it, you must focus on your dog. You need to be focused and reactive to external conditions at the correct time. Issues with dogs usually happen if you’re not focused on your dog, slip into an objective mindset, forget that you have to become reactive when out with your dog. It’s an easy mistake for a non-reactive human being to make. You need to focus always, if not you’ll be beguiled back into your objectivity. The danger with an objective mindset while out with your dog is that it takes too long for you to react,too much time for neurons to connect. It takes a few nanoseconds for that message to get through, and within that objective time period of neural transmission, your dog has already gone berserk. So you don't have time for objectivity, you must remain reactive. What that means is your head needs to be in the game every second that you're attached to your dog.

You must stay reactive to your dog’s behaviour, reacting as an instrument to stimulus. Do not allow stimulus to cause a reaction from your dog, you react so it doesn’t have to, you lead, it follows.

The alternative is a reactive dog. Reactivity is based on conditioning of reaction. Once your dog has reacted multiple times to the same sort of thing consistently, that reaction conditions and then they have become reactive, which means they don't need a stimulus, they see something and go because the neurons connect to the synapse instantly, which is the definition of reactive dog.

Yes, absolutely. We wouldn't ever have an under-educated, undertrained Junior take on a senior dog ever; we'd always, for everybody's safety of course, fit the right team member with the right dog.

Calm and confident.

I couldn't do anything else. Life would have turned out very differently for me if I had not met dogs, and instantly known that was my vocation. Immediately. The first time in my life I didn't have a brain that was screaming and I could form a relationship which I, as a human being, find very, very difficult to do. So it was a completely natural transition from chaos to order vicariously through dogs, and I received my training in military working dogs.

I have found and nurtured a team of similarly skilled human beings who can definitely do other things but choose to grow and perfect their relationships with dogs through our dog care and training.

That's like after asking Michelangelo to choose his favourite colour. No way. They are all of them, not only memorable —although I may have forgotten their names, but I have their faces and the individuals that they are, lined up in a nice queue in my brain. I will never ever forget any of them.

If I had to push the envelope, my favourite kind of dogs, and this is very bizarre, but anyone in MWD especially will understand, my favourite kind of dogs are the ones that have got hold of me over the years. Got hold of me and then we worked together and we became my friends. Yeah, the ones that caused me serious injuries, if I ever got to meet them today would run into my arms and lick me to death -- the dogs that I brought out of that hell that made them do what they did. Those dogs are intravenous. If that makes sense. They’re the ones that I love. It's a very odd relationship.

It’s a complex balance of personality traits as they have to work well in the team but above all with the dogs. The chief characteristic we most value in members of the Lupine Canine team is loyalty. But it's more complex than that, as loyalty is built up from a whole host of fundamental qualities, which is why it's so important. You can't be loyal without integrity, you can't be loyal unless you're also a decent human being with a clear soul, I’d class it as fundamental humanism.

When you’re working with our dogs in our team, your personal objectives have to take a back seat, experience shows they’ll disrupt the dogs and the rest of the team.

I'm a humanist and what I expect from our team is for them to interact with me on that level. Unfortunately that rules out 98% of the planet.

But it goes even deeper than that. Unless you are a decent human as a base line you cannot obtain symbiotic different species relationships with different animals. Unless you're able to put others before yourself, we teach the important skill of owning your mistakes, own them and be almost proud of them as this is where growth and team development come from. Again to find these people in a world that demonstrates such lack of accountability and responsibility. Unless you can stick up your hand and say “Yes, it was me I'm sorry.” Unless you're this kind of calm person, you're not going to be able to foster the necessary relationships with dogs, or any other animals because they require that calmness of spirit in order to connect with you.

The best learnings of my life have come from the mistakes I've made. So we encourage our team to own them and never be embarrassed about making them.

Usually up to four, with the company K-9 assistance dogs who are part of the training process and the client’s dog.

We keep numbers small because a group of dogs is never static. Position and power within a pack shift from day to day, which we call “dynamics flux”. The person in control must read those changes and respond within a fraction of a second. That’s why every team member is trained in our system before working with a client’s dog.

We provide exceptional canine services, and the price reflects that. You are paying for a team trained in our own system, welfare-led care built around your individual dog, and 30 years of Military Working Dog experience behind every programme. Our brand strapline is family, protection and devotion. There are plenty of dog services to choose from. We work with clients who see how we will shape their dog and, as a result, their family and their world.