Friendly & professional puppy & dog training Inc gundog training. Behavioural training. 1-1 & classes
Full Member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers - MAPDT 01512
AODT - a lifetimes passion for Dog Training! Experienced, Practical, Qualified, Passionate, Knowledgeable and Proven. We love what we do, and we could not be more driven about producing well trained, happy dogs, fabulous bonds & understanding. The AODT Story
Alicia was lucky to be born into a dog owning family. As a child she kept
various animals from fish, to guinea pigs, and even a pet duck. Her love of animals, forming a bond with them & inevitably spending a huge amount of time with them shaped her outlook on life, animal care and compassion. At the age of 9 she joined her Father training the family dogs at a local obedience school. She had already been training her pet rats on agility courses (in lieu of being allowed ponies), and the rabbits to come when called - but dog training took her on a whole new journey, & her enthusiasm to a whole new level. Always the child who would question everything she found herself both enthralled and disappointed. There was nothing better than training a dog to get something right and the level of teamwork that was required. But the ways in which she was tutored by dog trainers of the time, and the methods they suggested she use on her ‘friends’ left a sour taste. Like a sponge she soaked up experiences and advice, watched closely & took great delight as a teenager in rebelling against the norm, and introducing play, fun and huge amounts of praise to her training. She was rewarded & encouraged to realise this slightly ‘odd’ approach paid dividends. The dogs she worked with learnt quicker, were more reliable competition dogs and were eager to please. During this time she worked as a Kennel Maid, a stable hand and attended many courses and events. She went on to work with Adults with Learning disabilities and qualify as a Certificated Advocate with a specialism in Learning Disabilities. From her mid twenties she shadowed and was mentored in various training schools while embarking on Instructing qualifications and starting to teach. Fast forward to 2011 & Alicia realised she could no longer instruct under programs dictated by others, and that struggled to keep pace with both scientific evidence and her own ethos and growing determination to change the way people trained their dogs. Alicia’s Obedience Dog Training was born - and going back to her own roots Alicia started with young handler classes, hoping to inspire the next generation, before embarking on companion obedience classes later the same year. Since then Alicia has grown the areas she serves, the services she provides, her own knowledge even further and the team around her. Whilst initially named as a person ‘Going Solo’ AODT is now so much more than that - it’s a family, a format and a growing ambition to change the quality of life for dogs, and their owners. When you entrust AODT with training you and your dog, you benefit from years of experience, backed up by the latest available information & studies, combined with a super supportive structure to help you both succeed.
10/01/2025
🧙♂️ Meet Merlin
He is currently being fostered and his carers are working hard to play their part in his young little life.
💛 We first visited Merlin before Christmas to help with him settling into a home environment.
💛 He’s popping along to our training venues to see what he thinks of the environment and other people & dogs
💛 We’ve also provided his carers with a Zoom call to discuss his attachment to one family Member, not uncommon for a rescue dog but super important how we move forward to help him feel secure.
🪄 There are no magic wands or quick fixes here; just time, consistency and hard work.
06/01/2025
🥇 We’re off to a Gold start!
These teams have been working their socks off to bank all the skills required for the Royal Kennel Club Gold Good Citizen Award.
Today amid their nerves and in front of RKCGC Examiner, Tracey they absolutely sailed through their assessments 💞
What a way to start 2025!
Huge congratulations to Jackie & Mavis, Emma & Tink and Dot & Waya - you should all be super proud that all your hard work and commitment has paid off 🧡🩷💙
Our thanks as always to Tracey for her time & expertise xx
05/01/2025
🥰 We want to be together
Our guided walks are currently available to those that have trained with us.
😓 They have spent time working on the skills they and their dogs require before putting them in group walk situations to create success.
We’ve worked on confidence, both humans and dogs. Worked through scenarios and appropriate social skills, all while surrounded by support & understanding.
Creating bonds and increasing quality of life is exactly what we’re all about 💞
02/01/2025
🥂 Happy New Year!
We’re back after our Christmas break and eager to meet you & your dogs 🥰
Due to demand we have added a NEW course starting the 20th of January 8.30pm at Bulphan Hall for Pups & Beginners
We have limited places available on our Monday am Pup & Beginner course starting 13th January 11am at Bulphan Hall
For our Gundogs we still have a couple of places on our Beginner Gundog course starting the 11th of January 11am at Belhus Woods
✍️ Get in touch to grab your space!
24/12/2024
🎬 And that’s a wrap!
We’re off to take a few days well earned break We wish you & your 4 paws a very peaceful Christmas 🥂
We’re back from January 2nd for enquiries
24/12/2024
🎄Glittering Graduates
Our final Graduation of 2024 is complete and produced these wonderful teams;
Billy, his boys & Pablo, Gemma & Bea,
Kim & Stephen with Belle, Mel & Bjorn and Georgia & Rocco 👏🏻
Congratulations all, we hope to see you again soon! 🫶🏻
22/12/2024
🎄 Feeling Festive
🧑🏻🎄 Christmas fun & games yesterday brought a close to our Belhus Woods classes until January.
🦌 We’re very grateful to the Woods & their Rangers for supporting us for another year.
Thank you ☺️
22/12/2024
🥰 Belhus Beauties
Our final Beginner & Pup graduates at Belhus Woods Country Park aced their graduation yesterday, we missed little Rubi and hope she feels better soon!
🥳 Congratulations to Julie & Bailey, Jayne & Purdy, Megan & Bonnie, Ria & Nala, Perry & Jax and Chris & Maple.
You’ve been a committed and consistent group, great job!
Our next course to start at Belhus is now full!
We do still have limited availability for Bulphan.
21/12/2024
⭐️ Gold Stars
Just in time to adorn their Christmas Trees with their spoils these guys smashed their Royal Kennel Club Gold Good Citizen Awards 👏🏻
Huge congratulations to Bev & Murph, Heidi & Obi and Steve & Jasper - you should be incredibly proud of yourselves 🥰
20/12/2024
👋 Everyone say ‘Hi Alan’
This week we had a Zoom session with Alan’s Guardians to help them work through settling in conundrums.
💻 While it’s always a shame to not get to meet bundles of fluff like Alan in person, zoom remains a super useful tool to support people & their pooches around the UK.
With a quick summary email sent following the session we were delighted to receive a reply explaining how they now felt reassured and were grateful for solutions to move forwards 🥰☺️
19/12/2024
❤️ You’ve got a friend in me
This week was our final private session of the year with these boys and their Mums.
😊 It was lovely to step back and see just how far Chester & Otis have come thanks to their regular training sessions.
But more than that to see the friendship that has grown, between the dogs & their humans. They’ve been regularly meeting up outside of training practising in public and sharing time together 🤗
See you next year boys xx
17/12/2024
💞 Bright as a button
Beautiful Tilly the Chow Chow recently paid us a visit ahead of joining us in January for classes.
💡 It’s always a pleasure to work with dogs & their owners at the start of their training journeys, even more so when you see a real zest to learn start beaming out of a furry face.
15/12/2024
🕰️ Don’t miss out!
Our January class dates are filling fast!
The following courses all now have limited spaces;
🐾 Beginners & Pups
6th Jan 6.30pm Bulphan Hall
11th Jan 11am Belhus Woods
13th Jan 11.15am Bulphan Hall
Meet cheeky Pablo, a young Spanish rescue who came minus his ears & tail 😢
💔 The idea of ‘saving a soul’ and the reality of that soul sharing your home can be two very different things.
❤️🩹 It really isn’t uncommon for those first few weeks or even months to leave you feeling guilty for thinking ‘what have we done’
⏰ The main thing to do is give everyone time to settle, get good advice from the start (📞call us!) and to be consistent.
Also, any idea as to what breeds this boy is? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
12/12/2024
🥳 Happy Birthday!
Today Dionne celebrates another turn around the Sun 🌞
Join us in wishing her many happy returns 🎉
10/12/2024
🐾 ‘Paw’some Foursome!
Our latest graduates were crowned on Monday morning after completing their 6 week course.
🆕 Heading into 2025 our Beginners course will be jam-packed with more learning than ever!
For now we congratulate Emma & Maisie, Karen & Bertie, Keith & Eric and Julie & Pepper 👏🏻
We expect to see those hard earned rosettes adorning your Christmas Trees (high enough to avoid being stolen of course 😂)
09/12/2024
👋 Say ‘Hola’
Little Carlos the Pom recently travelled to see us about his reactivity.
🔈 What became clear was some noise sensitivities and a lack of confidence were a couple of pieces of the jigsaw causing some of his behaviour, it’s was a pleasure to watch his Mum have some lightbulb moments too!
He’s been sent home with a plan and his Mum has already reported some nice changes to his reactions 👏🏻
08/12/2024
🤩 Fun Working Test!
Special thanks to those that supported the gundog fun mini test this morning, even with the slightly less than balmy weather!
Novice;
1st Luisa & Skye
2nd Colette & Hazel
3rd Dionne & Digger
COM Helen & Emma
Special mention to Suzanne & Hattie who received an AODT Harmony Award, they’ve worked so hard but this morning shot proved too much, Suzanne didn’t skip a beat withdrawing her and popping her back in her safe space (her car)
Doing right by our dogs is ALWAYS the right thing to do 🫶🏻
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🥰 We want to be together
Our guided walks are currently available to those that have trained with us.
😓 They have spent time working on the skills they and their dogs require before putting them in group walk situations to create success.
We’ve worked on confidence, both humans and dogs. Worked through scenarios and appropriate social skills, all while surrounded by support & understanding.
Creating bonds and increasing quality of life is exactly what we’re all about 💞
🤔 Something for you to ponder
Let me know your thoughts ⬇️
#dogtrainer #supportsmallbusiness #dogtrainingadvice
🙌🏻 Small but mighty
Little Derek might just be our smallest recruit to Gundog training thus far. He’s worked for the last 5 weeks getting to grips with all the requirements of the Beginner Grade, while
tackling a lack of confidence and some minor resource guarding issues.
🫶🏻 We’ve remained calm, we’ve supported him and we’ve really pushed his Mum (Lynn) out of her comfort zone, for the greater good.
🩵 Today he showed that’s it’s all paid off by nailing his retrieves for the very first time! Not once, not twice ….. but three times ❤️🔥
Just incredible (and yes, that is a fluffy pencil
case and we love them 😂)
⭐️ Saturdays Stars
We have so much fun in our enclosed space at Belhus Woods Country Park
Please meet the stars of Saturdays Intermediate & Advanced class 🥰 🍿 🎬
Experienced, Practical, Qualified, Passionate, Knowledgeable, and Proven.
We love what we do, and we could not be more driven about producing well trained, happy dogs and fabulous bonds & understanding.
We are delivering friendly, professional pet dog obedience classes, 1:1 home & location visits, behavioural consultations, Agility, Scent & Trick Training - across Thurrock & Havering.
The AODT Story;
Alicia was born into a dog owning family. As a child she kept various animals from fish, to guinea pigs, and even a pet duck. Her love of animals, forming a bond with them & inevitably spending a huge amount of time with them shaped her outlook on life, animal care and compassion.
At the age of 9 she joined her Father training the family dogs at a local obedience school. She had already been training her pet rats on agility courses (in lieu of being allowed ponies), and the rabbits to come when called - but dog training took her on a whole new journey, & her enthusiasm to a whole new level. Always the child who would question everything she found herself both enthralled and disappointed. There was nothing better than training a dog to get something right and the level of teamwork that was required. But the ways in which she was tutored by dog trainers of the time, and the methods they suggested she use on her ‘friends’ left a sour taste.
Like a sponge she soaked up experiences and advice, watched closely & took great delight as a teenager in rebelling against the norm, and introducing play, fun and huge amounts of praise to her training. She was rewarded & encouraged to realise this slightly ‘odd’ approach paid dividends. The dogs she worked with learnt quicker, were more reliable competition dogs and were eager to please.
Fast forward to 2011 & Alicia realised she could no longer instruct under programs dictated by others, and that struggled to keep pace with her own ethos and growing determination to change the way people trained their dogs. In 2011 Alicia’s Obedience Dog Training was born - and going back to her roots Alicia started with young handler classes, hoping to inspire the next generation, before embarking on companion obedience classes later the same year.
Since then Alicia has grown the areas she serves, the services she provides, her own knowledge even further and the team around her. Whilst initially named as a person ‘Going Solo’ AODT is now so much more than that - it’s a family, a format and a growing ambition to change the quality of life for dogs, and their owners.
