The Good Dog Life

Fantastic 1-1 puppy training classes for my Cocker Spaniel. Michelle was great with myself and Bruno, I feel much more confident in continuing his training and picked up some great tips as it is my first dog outside of a family pet. Bruno loved the classes!

We booked a 6 session course with Michelle and it was such a good decision. Athena is a whippet and loves to run. She is also very sensitive and whilst she is very socialised with other dogs she can be scared of some larger dogs and will tend to bark. Due to her breed we were also having issues with fast moving objects and her barking and lunging at them. This was with bikes, motor bikes, runners, running children and cats. Michelle was great from the start. She understood the breed and gave us so much good advice and support. She has shown us so many techniques to deal with these situations and helped change Athena's behavior. Our walks with Athena are now a much more enjoyable experience. We would highly recommend Michelle.

We had four one to one sessions with Michelle and she was brilliant.We followed all her advice and we can definitely see a vast improvement with our puppy Poppy.She used to jump up everyone she met and also bark at other dogs.We have put all Michelle’s strategies in place and now Poppy is becoming a much calmer dog.Thankyou so much Michelle.

Fantastic puppy training with Michelle from The good dog life. Great range of training choices for our labradoodle puppy, Buddy. We opted for the puppy package that combines 1:1 home visit session and group classes with other puppies and owners. So glad we chose this, Michelle gives you a really great foundation of all the training principles and excercises with the tools to take them further and really refine the skills. The group classes equally as valuable, really consolidate what's already been learnt while socialising your dog with others. Michelle has a really great ethos and ethical training approach. 10/10 would recommend

Michelle is so helpful and patient, and accommodating with flexibility of sessions if you’re busy. She explains everything to you as the owner so that you better understand your pup, and Lola loved her! Would highly recommend!

Michelle at The Good Dog Life has been a star find! When I adopted a retired racing greyhound earlier this year, I soon realised I would need help with her training and behaviour. Enter Michelle, who is not only an experienced trainer and behaviourist, but also happens to own a greyhound herself. Under Michelle's guidance, my dog has been transformed from one that I didn't think I'd be able to keep, to one who is now a pleasure to walk. Thank you so much for all your help Michelle!

Our first experience with The Good Dog Life was when we took our new puppy Ted to puppy classes, which were well structured. Michelle not only gave us structured classes on how to work with our puppy but we also learnt the reasons why our puppy behaved in a certain way and how to resolve this in a positive way. As we were so impressed with our classes we then asked Michelle if we could book one to one classes with our older dog Daisy who was anxious around other dogs which was now rubbing off on Ted. She came to our house for a two hour assessment and then advised us how many sessions she would need to help us and our two dogs. We had three further sessions she emailed us clear homework instructions for us to practice before the next session. Michelle taught us alternative activities we could do when approaching other dogs eg scatter feeding. All in all we were very impressed with her professional and competence and would not hesitate to recommend her.

I’ve had five sessions with Michelle, working with my rescue dog on recall and stopping him pulling on the lead to get cats and anything else that gets his attention, and she has been brilliant! I can now let him off the lead in the park and some of the fields near me, and he will engage and come back to me. He’s still work in progress in wooded areas, but Michelle has shown me what I have to do to get him to the next level, and using the distraction techniques she has shown me, I can now go for a walk and he can go past some of his trigger areas with no reactions, I’m still working on others. I totally recommend Michelle, she is friendly, professional, very committed and takes time to explain if you don’t quite understand something.

Michelle is very knowledgeable of dog (and human!) behaviour. Over 5 sessions taught us various techniques to build confidence and manage behaviours. Some noticeable improvements. Definitely recommend.

We've been very grateful for Michelle's help in training our puppy Phoebe. She gets straight to work and focusses on the most important commands and behaviours that every puppy needs. Letting Phoebe off lead was nerve-wracking to start with but Michelle prepared and guided us through the process and spent time in the park with us helping Phoebe to interact with other dogs in a controlled way and recall when needed. We'll be back for top-ups when the challenging teenage behaviour begins! Thanks so much Michelle!