Charnwood dog school believes in kind, ethical, science based methods of training. We  are passionate about imparting knowledge to our clients by coaching them to train and build the best relationship with their pet.

Our training takes place in a natural environment to help them take their training into real life scenarios.  Our mission is to ensure that we provide bespoke training to each individual that we work with. 

Charnwood dog school brings together two different backgrounds to offer a wealth of personal experience and skills in dog training and behaviour. 
 

Hi! I’m Karl Cheatham and I founded Charnwood Dog school 7 years ago in the heart of the Charnwood Forest. We are very lucky to have 7 acres of beautiful fields and woodland to train on.

I share my life with my 3 dogs who are my pets but all have ‘jobs’ too. Wren, my 10 year old black Labrador, a retired gundog who now loves her scentwork and tracking; Finch, my 5 year old yellow Labrador who works on shoots and competes in tests and Owl, my 5 year old whippet who’s prey drive is incredible!

I have a comprehensive list of canine qualifications and experience. I am a qualified and accredited instructor and qualified as a trainer with the Institute of Modern Dog trainers - IMDT in 2016. I am also an accredited instructor and assessor with The Gundog Club. Back in 2021 I qualified as a City & Guilds scentwork instructors and handler, one of only a few in this country.

I have a passion for working with both clients and their dogs and watching them succeed with their training. If people enjoy the training with their dog, then they can’t help but succeed in achieving their goals.

I believe in continuous professional development and here at Charnwood Dog School we are constantly learning to improve our skills and help our clients. Currently I am working towards my ABTC accreditation with the Gundog Trainers Academy.

HI! I’m Emma Woolwich. I started my dog training journey 10 years ago after adopting a worried cross breed called Beigy.  My challenge was to learn to integrate her into a busy family life and help her make friends with my other resident dogs. She’s the reason I started this career and we’ve learnt a lot together along the way, building the best relationship, based on mutual trust.

For the past seven years I have been lucky and privileged to work for the Dogs Trust. Starting  as a volunteer and canine carer, I then became a dog trainer, was promoted to rehabilitation trainer and for the last 2 years I have been in a Senior coaching role delivering a multitude of classes and 1-2-1s to owners and their dogs. I have worked with a wide variety of dogs and have delivered all sorts of training, from the more basic to complicated behaviour modification plans. I particularly love working around reactivity and building confidence and am particularly passionate about teaching owners how dogs communicate with us and their own kind. Helping dogs to develop life skills which will find them forever homes has been the most rewarding of jobs.

Throughout my career, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by great trainers and behaviourists that have helped me to develop and build new skills, particularly in the world of positive reinforcement training. An empathetic nature and a love of working with people are skills that help me to pass on good training skills to dog owners, helping them create a great relationship of trust and understanding with their dog. I am a true believer that once we ‘speak’ dog a little better, then our training journey is far more enjoyable and the results will be more noticeable.

My main goal as a dog trainer is to encourage people to use positive reinforcement in training and to teach the world about how dogs communicate. I’m a self-confessed dog geek and love learning and developing all the time in order to improve my skills. I am currently working towards my APDT (Association Of Professional Dog Trainers) accreditation. When I’m not busy with work or with my children/dogs, you will find me reading books about dogs and watching/attending webinars and conferences.