Helping you build positive relationships from the Very beginning!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Consistent 5 Star Reviews from Happy Puppy Parents
Professional Dog Trainer in East Sussex & Surrey
Why choose My Complex Canine?
Fully supported progressive puppy learner journey's for your family to follow, from before you pick your puppy up, to adolescence and beyond, with both private puppy training and group puppy training courses.
Our Qualifications and Accreditations
Choose Your Puppy Pathway
Choose Where To Start
Choose between private puppy training or group Puppy School puppy training classes.
Need help with your decision? See the flow chart below.
Turn Up and Practice
Commit to consistent practice and implementation of the training techniques.
Choose Your Next Step
Flexibility to switch your next level of support, between classes and 1:1s.
Which Pathway is Best for Your Family?
Which Pathway is Best for Your Family? Pointers to consider if you're not sure if group, or private training is the right option for you.
Key Benefits of 1:1 Puppy Training
Training tailored to what you need to be working on with your individual puppy.
Flexibility on exactly what needs to be worked on, in what order, and when.
Building a working relationship with your trainer that provides accountability to your progress.
Stay on track with achieving your goals due to regular contact and progression points.
My time and knowledge dedicated to your puppy and mastering your training skills
More opportunity for greater knowledge exchange, problem solving and questions.
Key Benefits of Group Classes
Build a network of local puppy parents
Gain exposure to diverse training questions and solutions
Feel supported and understand you're not alone in your struggles
Learn in a safe, non-judgmental environment
Enjoy the humour and camaraderie of shared puppy experiences
Benefit from structured, progressive training methods
Puppy Starter Arrival Preparation
Before you even pick up your puppy get set up with accurate, science-based knowledge to help you to settle your puppy into their new life.
1:1 Training
(In-Person Session Availability Monday Daytimes)
Group Classes
(Mondays Hartfield/ Thursdays Lingfield & Uckfield)
1:1 Puppy Foundations
(From £188)
Fully supportive, covering foundational life skills that puppies need, delivered in your home environment and tailored to your own situation and puppy.
Puppy School Group Training
£150 (6 week course)
Help your puppy develop essential life skills and good behaviour from an early age. Small class sizes, reward-based, ethical methods, offering a positive learning experience for both you and your puppy.
1:1 Puppy Advanced
(From £188)
Fully supportive follow-on for families that would like to progress to advanced puppy or happy handling on a 1:1 basis .
Happy Handling Group Training
£150 (6 week course)
Helping you to grow your puppies confidence with husbandry procedures such as grooming, wearing equipment, veterinary procedures and more.
Additional Support for 1:1 Clients
Puppy Coach - This is an ‘on the go’ coaching session only available to clients, which allows you to put in place the skills you have learnt and build your confidence out and about.
Additional Support for Class Attendees
Affordable 1:1 Ask the Expert - online video session to provide support for any at home problems you are having with your puppy.
My Complex Canine Membership [In Development]
Access to online bite-sized courses, discounts for in-person workshops and new services and opportunity to be part of a supportive member community.
Want to Access my FREE Puppy Play Biting Challenge for Families?
You will be added to my newsletter list, but can easily unsubscribe at any time.
Upcoming Puppy Training Classes
Puppies MUST be fully vaccinated to attend Puppy School
A course runs weekly (unless specified) for 6 weeks and is £152 (including booking fee)
If you have any question about our classes please see the puppy training page.
Puppy School Group Training
Help your puppy develop essential life skills and good behaviour from an early age up to 20 weeks on the first day of the class. Small class sizes, individual coaching and reward-based, ethical methods to ensure a positive learning experience for both you and your puppy.
Upcoming Starting Dates:
Lingfield 18:00 24 Jul
Hartfield 18 August 16:30 (break wk 25 Aug & 15 Sept)
Lingfield 17:00 11 Sept
Uckfield 11 Sept 10:00
Hartfield 13 Oct 16:30
Uckfield 23 Oct 10:00
Puppy School Group Training
Help your puppy develop essential life skills and good behaviour from an early age up to 20 weeks on the first day of the class. Small class sizes, individual coaching and reward-based, ethical methods to ensure a positive learning experience for both you and your puppy.
Upcoming Starting Dates:
Lingfield 18:00 24 Jul
Hartfield 18 August 16:30 (break wk 25 Aug & 15 Sept)
Lingfield 17:00 11 Sept
Uckfield 11 Sept 10:00
Hartfield 13 Oct 16:30
Uckfield 23 Oct 10:00
Happy Handling Group Training
Helping you to grow your puppies confidence with husbandry procedures such as grooming, wearing equipment, veterinary procedures and more.
Upcoming Starting Dates:
Happy Handling Group Training
Helping you to grow your puppies confidence with husbandry procedures such as grooming, wearing equipment, veterinary procedures and more.
Upcoming Starting Dates:
Short Targeted Workshops
Short session workshops targeting specific training challenges like recall, calmness and focus in addition to fun 'intro to..' sessions.
Upcoming Starting Dates:
Youth Club Group Training
Follow-on course, for puppies that have already completed positive reward-based foundation training and are looking to progress.
Upcoming Starting Dates:
Puppy School Lingfield, Hartfield and Uckfield
Puppy School is founded by APBC registered behaviourist and author Gwen Bailey. Classes are for puppies under 20 weeks at the start of the course, we have this age limit to create a safe environment for young puppies, so they can learn and grow in confidence. We encourage you to bring your puppy to classes as soon as your puppy is vaccinated and your vet has confirmed it is safe for them to mix with others. All Puppy School courses are run weekly (unless breaks weeks are listed) over 6 weeks, with each class lasting 1 hour. Our classes progress gradually, building on your puppy's understanding and reliability. Class sizes are kept small (5-6 puppies) to ensure that I can provide some individual guidance to all families attending.
Times & Locations
Puppy School Lingfield - Thursday 17:00
Puppy School Hartfield - Monday 16:30
Puppy School Uckfield - Thursday 10:00
The course curriculum covers settling calmly on a bed, puppy play biting and appropriate toy play, handling (grooming, husbandry procedures), loose lead walking, accepting people near food and chews, basic positions and stay, recall and learning how to greet people and other dogs appropriately. We are family friendly and love having young people attend under the supervision of an adult. I use reward-based, ethical methods to ensure a positive learning experience for both you and your puppy. My Complex Canine's goal is to give puppies the best start in life, helping them become well-behaved dogs that remain with the same family for life.
When you book onto one of our Puppy School courses you will be sent a Puppy School Manual which will help you get started on the right path straight away as well as providing you check points after each classes to keep you on track. You will also get access to a private area of the Puppy School website called The Puppy Club which week-by-week guidance, video reminders of the class exercises and articles written by experts based on scientific evidence covering all kinds of puppy issues. Additionally you will leave at the end of the 6 week course with a puppy certificate and rosette!
1:1 Puppy Behaviour Training with My Complex Canine
My Complex Canine’s 1:1 puppy journey provides you with a fully supportive pathway from when you make the decision you are getting a puppy, through their first year and beyond. As a new puppy parent you can begin with the Puppy Starter arrival call to get all the expert tips on how to settle your puppy in, and get started on the right path.
Following this you can be fully supported on a 1:1 basis with programs that are designed to offer you a fully supportive experience, as you learn to become your puppy’s expert! Including concise easy to implement training goals, visual reminders and access to support in-between training sessions, to help keep you moving in the right direction. 1:1 training is perfect for any puppy issue, general recall issues, and progressing you and your dog’s training from a basic level to advanced. Whether you just want short-term guidance with our Relationship Starter program or a longer-term plan to see your training skills transform with our Puppy Foundations or Advanced programs, we will have something that works for you!
“A relationship is an experience and a chance to learn to understand one another”
Schedule your free (no obligation) 15 minute discovery call. Find out more about my services and provide a little bit of information about your puppy and your training goals, so I can outline a plan to help you and your puppy build a positive relationship from the very beginning. If you would like to get to know more about me prior to our call please check out my about me page.
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How To Help Young Puppies Build Confidence
Positive Experience
When you get a puppy you are likely to get lots of people telling you to make sure you socialise them as soon as possible and expose them to as much as possible.
However, it is so important to ensure that what they are experiencing is positive, we can do this well by watching our puppy's body language, so we can detect early signs that our puppies are uncomfortable and respond in a way to help them and avoid a situation from escalating, or becoming a negative experience.
It is a great idea to get them exposed to life even before they are able to walk outside, by carrying them (you can even get carriers to put your puppy in). However, take time to consider that if your puppy is held in place by you, or in the carrier, they have very little options to move away from something. By holding them, we are removing the choice of moving away from something worrying. So, for example, if your puppy is in your arms and three people are saying hi all at once, your puppy is unable to move away if they are feeling worried by the experience. If this is practiced often may result in a puppy that is not comfortable with strangers, as rather than serve to get them used to human affection, it has had a negative impact.
Body Language
In order to help your puppy out in this situation and other new socialisation experiences you can spend time learning about dog body language. Doggie Language by Lili Chin has great examples both written and visual and is great to share with younger members of the family too! This allows you to improve your skills of understanding your puppy. Like with humans every puppy is different, so you have the chance to become your own puppy's expert!!!
Most puppies that are worried will show some/many of the following; body lower to the ground, backend lowered, ears back, tail tucked, moving away or towards, hiding, lip licking, whites of eyes, vocalisation, shaking, freezing, tension in their face and body. If you observe any of these behaviours it is important to respond in a way to help your puppy recover, rather than overwhelm them. You need to consider the distance you are to the object that is worrying them. Move away and give your puppy time to recover and return to their normal relaxed behaviours. Once they are relaxed and at a safe distance give them a tasty treat whilst observing the thing they were worried about, this will help create a more positive feeling.
Choice
Also remember the option of choice! If you are able to give your puppy a choice of what they approach, how they approach and if they approach at all, this gives them some control over their life. Which let's face it, we as puppy parents pretty much control most of their life; when they eat, what they eat, when they walk, when they go off-lead, etc...
“The degree of control that a organism has over a stressor potently modulates the impact”.- Maier et al 2006.
So what does this look like? When they experience something new, make sure you are standing behind them, let them lead the way. Praise them when they move forward or look at you and reward with a tasty treat. If puppies are reinforced for being brave and exploring something new, this will be a positive experience that they would want to repeat and therefore will increase their confidence for future experiences.
Observation & Preparation
As well as body language of your own puppy, you need to help your puppy learn how to respond to other animals. If we set them up to practice calm greetings at a distance in safety for example another animal behind a fence, or your puppy securely on lead, and reward them with food and praise for this response then this will practiced and become their default response.
Take a look at some of out Puppy School graduates experiencing new situations in a way that builds confidence, optimism and preferred behaviours. Notice how they all have relaxed body language.
Guidelines for Socialisation with your Puppy
Give plenty of time to practice a few times throughout the week, but do not do too much all at once!
The importance of positive and pressure free experiences. Let your puppy progress at their own speed.
Good choices can be rewarded with food or toys, it will communicate that they are doing well, do not forget to do this!
Focus should be on finding out pups likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.
Watch that body language! If your puppy shows signs they are worried (tucked tail, ears back, lowered body posture, trying to move away, hide, or barking, growling) do not push your puppy forward, create distance from the thing that is worrying them.
Keep encounters fun and positive and if not going well try doing it another day.
If you need some help training your puppy head over to my puppy training page to get you started on your tailored puppy pathway!
FAQ
What age should my puppy be to join a puppy training course?
Puppies should be under 20 weeks old at the start of the class for Puppy School.
Youth Club is our follow-on course for graduates of Puppy School and pups would be
between 5 and 18 months.
Happy Handling is for puppies and dogs of any age that are relaxed and happy around dogs
and people.
What will my puppy learn in a puppy training class?
Puppy School - covers settling calmly on a bed/puppy play biting and appropriate toy play/ handling
(grooming, husbandry procedures)/ loose lead walking/greetings without jumping up/sit, down,
stand and stay positions/recall/accepting people near to food bowls and chews/ socialisation with
other dogs and people and appropriate puppy greetings.
Youth Club - covers leave and drop cues/recall progression/ loose lead progression/distance control/emergency stop and distance positions/manners around doorways, gates and roadsides/ calmer
greetings/ boundary training.
Happy Handling - helps puppies and dogs cope better with various different handling situations.
Covers body language and consent-based husbandry techniques/cooperative grooming/nail
trims/vaccinations/medicating and how to transfer these skills to the vets.
What should I bring to puppy training classes?
Bring a mixture of tasty treats, a flat mat or towel, a stuffed Kong, a water bowl, long soft tugging
toys, poo bags, and a lead and collar or harness.
How long are the puppy training courses?
Puppy School, Happy Handling and Youth Club are all 6 week courses, that run weekly unless
specified.
What are the timings of the puppy training classes?
Each class session lasts for 1 hour.
Can children attend all of your puppy training courses?
Yes, children can attend under the supervision of a responsible adult.
How many puppies attend your classes?
Small class sizes (5-6) allow for some individual coaching.
What if I miss a puppy training class?
Please let your trainer know as soon as possible. There are no partial refunds for missed classes.
How do I sign up for a Puppy School Hartfield or Puppy School Lingfield?
Click on the link to view class dates and times, and follow the instructions to sign up.
What locations do you offer 1:1 sessions?
Lingfield (RH7), Hartfield (TN7), Forest Row (RH18), East Grinstead (RH19), Horley (RH6), Oxted
(RH8), Crowborough (TN6), some Uckfield (TN22) areas.
Where are 1:1 sessions held?
At your home address and in your local area.
How to I sign up for 1:1 Training?
Schedule a free discovery call by clicking the banner at the top of the page, selecting a date and time and completing the form.
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My Complex Canine offers professional puppy training classes (Puppy School Hartfield and Puppy School Lingfield) and supportive private dog training programs. Owner Sarah Worth is a registered ABTC training instructor and practices science-led ethical training methods.
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