Adolescent Dogs

We booked in our 6month old GoldenDoodle for a 3 week residential training stay with Bekki in Southampton. Before the stay our home had become very chaotic as the young puppy was busy bullying our toddler and 13 year old lab, everyone was very stressed and I felt totally out of my depth on training and how to resolve the unwanted behaviour. This was without a doubt the best decision we could have made. After 3 weeks with Bekki, Zelda returned home a much much calmer dog and is now a total delight to share a home with. Instantly the dominating had totally stopped, she now settles beautifully in the home. Walking is no longer a stressful chore and I’m back to feeling excited about getting out for a calming stroll. There are still a few training areas we want to progress that given lockdown weren’t able to be that successful, so have booked Zelda back in for a top up stay once public areas start to reopen so she can work on distraction training. Our trainer is just awesome, felt instantly reassured that Zelda was being well cared for, lots of updates, and has been available for checkins post training to ensure we stay on track. The online training videos are also an amazing resource that are helping me maintain the training. Would highly recommend this service.

Absolutely amazing training by Guy the trainer, he had my dog Nala for a 4 week residential and the transformation is absolutely amazing, she now walks to heel, she sits & down when told, she settles when told.The online academy is absolutely brilliant always available for help & advice I really can’t recommend them highly enough!

If your pup (of any age) needs any kind of training I would 100% recommend Adolescent Dogs, especially Kassie! My sweet Buki was never a bad pup but he did 2 weeks residential training with Kassie while my husband and I were away. As soon as we met Kassie began informing me of little things she noticed and could tell she would need to work on with Buki and throughout his training she provided feedback and updates. Buki, who was 15 weeks at the time, learned so much and grew more confident. Buki loved Kassie and you could tell how much she cared for him while we were away which is my priority. They provide so many sources and ways for you to prep your dog for his/her stay and then to continue to train your dog afterwards. We were very impressed with their services and are already planning the next time we take Buki back. They offer many different training services so they are definitely someone to checkout!

Our ultra high energy puppy went for board and train for three weeks when she was about four months old.Being a spaniel, she had a lot to learn about leash walking, excitement pee, jumping and recall. She was also bitey and picked up all sorts of garbage on the street - well just a puppy thing. So we communicated with the trainer re our priorities through Adolescent Dogs' well-designed forms and also in person during the drop off session.When we got our puppy back, she was about 1.5x bigger and obviously very very happy. Our trainer gave us all the information necessary to continue her training. The first week back home was a bit difficult with the puppy reverting to her old ways. But as we continued to build our communication with the pup, everything started to get better. At six months, our spaniel pup can walk nicely most of the time when we ask her to and has good recalls 80% of the time. After all, it's about training the dog parents as much as the dogs.As with everything, there's no silver bullet, especially not with energetic young puppies like ours. We come to see Adolescent Dogs' work with our pup as laying a good strong foundation for her continued training. Overall, we are pleased with Adolescent Dogs' services. It has given our puppy a good start to her journey of becoming a polite calm city dog, office dog and perhaps even a therapy dog.

Adolescent dogs has been absolutely incredible they have looked after my labrador for 5months for assistance dog training!! I can see how much he has grown in both age and ability and I can't thank the trainers enough (My lab had both Martin and Bekki) for looking after him ... he ended up staying with the trainers much longer than we first intended as I ended up in hospital for 6 months. They are very helpful with updating their clients throughout the residential stay and take the time to explain what is the next steps on handover. .I am so thankful for everything they have done for me and I totally recommend them.

I have been following Adolescent Dogs for many years. In December I signed up for their Elf on the shelf online challenge. It was so much fun and a bonus that I won lots of goodies at the end of the challenge too.I then signed up to the Calm canine challenge in January which was beneficial to my dog. Now I’m hooked and have signed up to the academy and can’t wait for the Scent challenge in March.I’m a dog trainer myself and I still get so much out of Mike and Jenny’s training, i highly recommend adolescent dogs.I hope to do an in person workshop in the future too.Kay Joy & Ethel the miniature bull terrier

We've recently finished a 3 week residential with Adolescent Dogs, our trainer was Naomi who was brilliant.We decided to use Adolescent dogs as I found the online academy a great resource so decided to go a step further and book our Beagle in for a 3 week residential.We were having a few problems with our Beagle lunging at every dog or person who walked past and constant barking at any kind of strange noise in the house.We picked up our Beagle last week and the transformation is brilliant, it's only been a few days but we can now walk past people / dogs without any lunging, recall is brilliant as well as general settling at home.We were kept up to date every day during the 3 weeks with photos and videos, it was clear Naomi and our dog had formed a great bond.There's still some training left to do but the direction we're going is much clearer.I highly recommend Adolescent dogs and Naomi

Our 9 month old Spaniel Max stayed with Jane for 3 weeks while we were away and had a brilliant time! The training received was excellent and we were kept updated regularly with info on what he was learning, how to action it and photos of our pup! Knowing he was in a home environment and being cared for well was very reassuring for our first break away from him. Couldn't recommend them enough and we will certainly be using Adolescent Dogs again when we are next away

We were going abroad over the summer and wanted to put Cooper somewhere where he could have intensive training to just tweak various issues which we thought he needed. I’ve been following Adolescent Dogs (AD) online for numerous years and had various external trainers teaching us, but they weren’t quite teaching us exactly what I wanted, and I liked how AD carried out the training of the dogs as I felt that even though they were being trained, they really enjoyed it! I was very anxious about sending Cooper as it was for 4 ½ weeks and I was worried that he might not remember or hate us for sending him away which I wrote in various emails and received lovely responses which really put my mind at rest.We decided to go with Kassie as she lived closest to us, and we had the added bonus as her partner Martin was also a trainer which I felt was great as Cooper would be trained by a male and a female.Kassie (and Martin) were fantastic! Kassie updated us regularly with pictures and videos of Cooper. We also received WhatsApp messages and weekly updates on training. Kassie was quick to answer our questions…and yes, we had many questions!As Cooper is the first dog that I have really owned, I always found training him quite daunting and did find all the information that was being sent over quite overwhelming, but Kassie was great as she answered all my questions and explained the reasoning behind everything she suggested.When we went to pick Cooper up, we were all worried in case he wasn’t happy to see us but thankfully he was which was fantastic, especially for our children. Both Kassie and Martin were there for our initial family training, and it was great fun, they were so patient and thorough ensuring that we had all the tools to carry on their hard work at home.The main thing that I would like to say about Kassie and Martin is that they are real doggy people - I hope you don't mind me saying -, and we knew that Cooper was loved and nurtured whilst staying with them. I would say the best thing about having them look after Cooper is that they really got to know and understand him. They are so knowledgeable and insightful about dogs and because of them, our whole relationship with Cooper has improved immensely.Cooper is a Golden Retriever crossed with Poodle and Collie and they picked up pretty much immediately that he was physically stimulated but not mentally hence why he would pace the room at night amongst other issues. We would walk Cooper 2-3 miles and thought that was enough, they explained to us that wasn’t necessary but that he really needed mental stimulation more so as he had a clever and active mind.Since having Cooper home our whole relationship with Cooper has totally changed, I train him every day in the park or in the garden with tug, fetch, find it and other training games that Kassie taught us and things I see on the AD website. We only use specific training toys that he doesn’t get access to so as soon as I bring the bag out of the utility room, he knows it’s our time together and he is extremely excited even before we start! The bond between us is so much stronger and instead of feeling that he is indifferent towards us, there is now a connection which is wonderful.Thank you so much Kassie and Martin.

I was looking for somewhere for my lab to stay, but he can be reactive and it would be the first time he'd ever stayed with someone else, so I wanted to be able to go away knowing he'd not only be safe but also loved and cared for. Reactivity was my main concern but he was also terrible on the lead, jumping at people and settling anywhere outside the house!The whole team at Adolescent Dogs have been amazing, right from initial contact. All the questions I had were answered (and I'm the sort of person that has lots!!) and they set out very clearly what was required for my boy to stay with them (ie crate trained, what I'd need to provide etc).My boy stayed with Verity and I met up with her beforehand which really set my mind at ease about leaving him. She sent me photos (which are some of the best photos of my dog ever taken!!) and videos everyday, along with a very detailed weekly update email with what she had been working on with him and training principles used and information for me to start to learn as well.He had a lot of beach walks & was part of the family while he stayed with Verity, and since getting him back she was been great answering messages and happy to meet up to further reinforce his training. I've also had various check in emails from the owners of Adolescent Dogs, so I would therefore highly recommend!