What We Do
With over 30 years combined experience, Chris and Helen have been helping owners achieve their goals in the Solihull and Dorridge area, since 2010.
They can help you to train your dogs to become calm, family-friendly pets through fun and practical training.
Book Personal Puppy Training or Dog Training for tailor-made solutions, or join the Group Classes Journey for age-appropriate courses as your dog develops.
- Helen and Chris combine years of practical experience with thousands of local dogs.
- They were trained personally by Steve Mann (founder of IMDT) and both qualified as dog training instructors under the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT), so use positive reinforcement to make the training rewarding for you and your dog.
- Chris has a Masters degree in Animal Behaviour and is in the process of becoming a Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist, the top qualification for behaviourists held by around 100 people.
Personal Puppy
Training
Turn your young puppy into a thriving dog, with helpful advice and tips before your pup even comes home, and then an at home Bumper Puppy Power session within the first days of their arrival.
Having a new puppy is a time of great fun and joy, mixed in with lots of anxiety about doing the right thing, toilet training, whether to use a crate or not, how to get a good night’s sleep, against a backdrop of lots and lots of biting! Chris and Helen will answer all your questions, and immediately make your life easier.
As well as being accredited trainers who have worked with thousands of puppy owners around Solihull and Dorridge, Chris and Helen have also brought up seven rescue pups themselves.
We offer specific targeted packages for:
- Recall
- Lead Walking
As a behaviourist, Chris can work with more challenging puppy behaviours that may have developed within the first few months, and with which you want a second opinion, advice and supportive techniques. Click here: Puppy Training 121
And of course you are welcome to combine Puppy 121s with our monthly Super Socialisation or Young Puppy Obedience courses held for small groups of up to 7 pups held at Vets4Pets inside Pets at Home in Solihull and at Oliver Bird Hall, near Touchwood, Solihull. Click here: Classes Journey
Personal Dog
Training
As a trainer and behaviourist, Chris works with dogs with training issues like recall and lead walking and more serious behaviour problems, including nervous aggression.
He can give you strategies, training and tips, in a measured and supportive way, that will help you from your first session. The journey begins here, starting with:
- An Assessment and First Training session to work out the reasons for your dog's behaviour and a plan to solve them.
- An appropriate package of follow-up sessions to resolve the issue, or significantly improve it.
We offer specific targeted packages for:
- Recall
- Lead Walking
- Desensitisation and Re-socialisation for nervous aggression.
To find out more about our Assessment and First Training Sessions, click here.
To receive our full list of services for adult and adolescent dogs (with information about follow ups that does not appear on the website), and to receive a behaviour questionnaire that will help us determine the best way forward, please enquire via the Contact Form or email info@animalkind.biz
Group Classes
Our training journey will help your pup develop into a secure, attentive and joyful adult dog through five distinct courses which jointly prioritise socialisation and obedience training.
We offer five age-appropriate courses, including two for pups aged under 6 months, and three courses for adolescent, adult and rescue dogs - we have had dogs as old as 9 years attend and enjoy our Tweenies course.
Our Super Socialisation course is for semi-vaccinated pups aged 9 weeks plus and it's held at Vets4Pets inside Pets at Home in Solihull.
If your pup is already vaccinated and out and about, but still under 6 months, our Young Pups course is their entry course, as it continues socialisation, while your dog begins to learn lead walking and recall training.
We cater for adolescent, adult and rescue dogs too with three courses with no upper age limit and which welcome dogs of any age. For those over 6 months, our entry course is Tweenies, which combines obedience and fun and is the gateway to two further courses, including an agility intro course (called Teens) and our unique Top Dogs Out and About course.
About Us
Having grown up in Dorridge with cats and a horse, Helen spent many years working in London making programmes for the BBC. After changing careers in 2008, she fell in love with dogs whilst doing voluntary animal rescue work in India, China and Thailand where she rescued street dogs and fostered and rehomed puppies.
Helen has worked with dogs full-time since setting up Animal Kind with Chris in 2010 and has become an accredited dog training instructor with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT). She teaches Animal Kind’s Group Classes journey, as well as working with clients 121 on Puppy Power packages. With the help of Luna the rescue Labrador (right)
Helen
Chris
Chris has always had dogs in his family from Caesar, a Sheltie to Blue the Whippet and Skye the rescued Greyhound. After leaving his career in journalism in London, he found his calling, rescuing street dogs whilst volunteering at International Animal Rescue in Goa and training as an accredited dog training instructor with the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) on his return.
Over the years, Chris has studied Animal Behaviour and now has a Masters degree from Newcastle University and is striving towards becoming a top-level Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist, a qualification held by less than 100 behaviourists in the world.
Testimonials
Rewarding for You and Your Dog