Hello – we are so looking forward to helping you and your dog on your journey to the life you both deserve.
If you find yourself looking at your dog, desperately wanting to help them and wondering what direction to go in, you are in the right place.
We have lived through these struggles with our own dogs and dogs we have spent time with in the past. For Natalie, when Bobby came to live with her at age 14 in 2021, he suffered with severe separation fear alongside limited hearing and eyesight. Myrna has had several rescue dogs that others were turning away from due to their many struggles. And Lucie has been through the early days, weeks and months with a new puppy in a busy family home with all the ups and downs.
The driving force behind Cornerstone Canine Training is to work with owners who love to consciously focus on their dog’s emotional wellbeing. When you are in the middle of life with a dog that needs help it can be so challenging at times – for us humans as well as our dogs can’t it? So looking after YOU is just as important to us – we get how frustrating it can be when your dog is struggling with the world around them.
Time is our greatest gift to ourselves – so let’s make sure that your time with your dog is spent with you both loving life.
You are in the right place.
It is a privilege to work with owners and their dog’s, encouraging them to have a curiosity for the exciting new journey they are both on.
With integrity and compassion, we pride ourselves in offering our clients an individually tailored transformation plan that enables them to focus their time on having fun with their dog.
Our approach will always be to ensure owners can move forward comfortably from where they are, knowing they are heard, with the confidence that we are working with a 95% solution and 5% problem mindset.
As trainers we prioritise our own emotional wellbeing as well as our ongoing training. To keep ourselves energised, we regularly take part in additional training and learning with our own mentors.
This journey started with my very first dog training client, an adorable Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Ollie and his lovely mum.
When chatting with Ollie’s mum, it transpired that she was worried about Ollie having a negative reaction when seeing other dogs.
As our session progressed, the more I listened to stories of life with Ollie, the more I became curious as to whether Ollie was unhappy with other dogs or if his mum had a deeply rooted expectation that he would be.
Before Ollie came to live with them, they had lived through twelve years of life with a dog who had a lot of struggles with other dogs. Every walk was a mission, with strategies in place for every eventuality for when they would see or hear other dogs.
NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) had been an interest of mine for about twenty years and having read many books, I realised that Ollie’s mum was the one who needed some support. Simply telling her to ‘take a deep breath’ and ‘think positively’, when taking Ollie for a walk, was only touching the surface of where her mind was going. She had spent twelve years in a state of constant vigilance – no wonder she was instinctively expecting Ollie to bark and lunge at other dogs.
I knew the benefits of NLP and how they could transform the thought patterns and reactions of Ollie’s mum and enable her to truly enjoy their walks together – for the first time.
This set me on the path of exploring how I could formally study NLP and combine it with my dog training and behaviour studies. After searching for the best training company to study under, I am proud to be a fully accredited ABNLP Coach.
Alongside the science of neuroplasticity, the science of human and dog behaviour have always fascinated me – being able to transform the way we perceive the world around us is life changing.
Working with clients now enables me to help the humans just as much as their dog’s. So many dog owners, like Ollie’s mum have emotional blocks hidden deep in their unconscious mind – this is where NLP alongside dog training is truly magical.
Ollie and his mum are massive fans of the games and are now able to enjoy their walks, content in each others company and the world around them – to the point where Ollie has recently won a class in a fun dog show – with over 30 other dogs.
