Claire started dog training when she got her oldest dog Tella in 2013, at the time she was living in France in an area where forceful training was normal. She decided she was not using their methods on her puppy and started looking for a kinder way. When she moved back to England Claire decided to become a dog trainer full time and joined a large dog training school were she worked and studied for several years. However it still didn’t meet her ideology of training completely force free so in 2018 she set up Claire’s Happy Hounds and shortly after passed her Victoria Stilwell training. She continues to study from a variety of different organisations and trainers to expand her knowledge. 

Claire specialises in puppies, nervous dogs, reactive dogs and assistance dog training.
She loves working with puppies and helping their owners to teach through kindness from the beginning and allow their pup to grow up to be a well-rounded dog that suits the owners lifestyle. She focuses on the puppies being comfortable in the world and having fun with their owners.

One of her dogs, Nero is quite a nervous boy which means that Claire fully understands the issues an owner is having when their dog is scared to leave the house and enjoy walks. Building the dogs confidence at their own pace through fun training and support for both the dog and the owner really gives Claire a sense of satisfaction and to hear about them enjoying walks is amazing!

Claire’s interest in assistance dog training came several years ago when she was contacted by a charity to help train a puppy to be an assistance dog for a young child with autism who lived locally to her. This has continued and she now supports many owners training their own assistance dogs and feels incredibly proud to see the partnerships gaining their independence.

Claire lives with her three Labradors, Tella, Nero and Mango (and often as assistance pup in training) who all love to train in obedience, hoopers, and regularly compete at canicross events including tridog, a triathlon for dogs.