Meet Bella Sanders

My obsession for animals, particularly dogs, began at a young age and was ignited by my family’s beautiful Belgian Malinois, Bruno. After he passed away it took nearly 10 years of pleading with my parents to let me bring another dog into our lives….finally my soul dog, another Malinois, Cora came home.

This is where I experienced the not so nice part of the dog training world and had an awful experience at a local puppy training class. Cora was the catalyst for my desire to learn more and do better with the dogs we are all so lucky to share our lives with. Cora was the most incredible dog and had an amazing life however there are things now I wished I had known then to further enrich Cora’s life and overall confidence.

In 2015 my real experience started when I set up a successful dog walking business and also began volunteering at Battersea Dogs home. Cora passed away in 2017 and left a large hole in my heart but had already inspired me to learn more and increase my knowledge within the reward based dog training world. Whilst I was still dog walking I was asked by a well-known and successful local trainer if I wanted to become her assistant and that is where my training journey really began. I am a member of the Puppy School family and have been trained by Gwen Bailey who is an internationally renowned dog trainer, behaviourist and author. I use only kind, ethical and positive methods so NO pain, NO force, NO fear and NO shouting. I keep my knowledge refreshed and current by attending day and weekend courses and seminars on anything from dog body language to the impact of neutering and spaying on behaviour as well as reading new literature, watching webinars, listening to podcasts, and following other reward based dog trainers with the same ethos as I.

I recently begun my journey to becoming an ACE freework instructor, hopefully something I will complete over the coming year, this was developed by the truly inspirational and incredible late Sarah Fisher. I am also working towards becoming a member of the ABTC.

I am now lucky enough to share my life with two rescue dogs from Cyprus, both Pointer mixes who keep me busy and who inspire me to always stay up to date with the latest science backed training techniques, dog behaviour knowledge but also more than anything they encourage me to continue to show all dogs nothing but kindness, patience and empathy which is always what I try to teach to all my clients as well.

Originally born and raised in Surrey, I now live down in the beautiful South Hams in Devon with my young daughter and dogs, after relocating here a year ago.