I've spent over fifteen years learning to speak dog. I'll teach you a fair bit of it too.

I've been a dog training instructor for well over fifteen years now, and a member of the APDT for at least fourteen of them. Where I really found my feet was outdoors, in the scent-based hunting work. Gundog, search and rescue, mantrailing, scentwork. That's the stuff I love doing with my own dogs. I've recently caught the bug for a bit of bite sport too. Early days, but we're having a lot of fun with it.

Here's why that matters to you, even if your dog never sets foot on a trail or a shoot. Most pet trainers teach obedience and leave it there. I learned to work with what's already going on inside a dog, the drives and the nose they came wired with. Point that same approach at the dog who's pulling you down the road or losing the plot at every passing Labrador, and things start to change.

I've worked with a lot of people and a lot of very different dogs over the years. These days I spend a good chunk of my week with adolescent dogs who've started getting reactive towards other dogs. It's some of my favourite work. I love getting to the bottom of why it's happening, handing people the tools to crack on with it themselves, and being a proper part of the journey; rather than someone who turns up, fires off instructions and vanishes.

I also love helping people work out what makes their dog tick. What food they go a bit daft for, different ways to use it, bringing toys into play, tweaking what someone's already doing, and spotting the rewards in the environment around them. It all adds up, and it builds a much stronger connection between the two of you.

I won't pretend I've got it all sewn up. I'm working on my own dogs every day, I still get things wrong, and there's a reactive moment or two in my own house I'm chipping away at. That's rather the point. This was never about perfect dogs or perfect owners. It's about steady, kind progress, and actually enjoying the dog you've got while you make it.

• Over fifteen years as a dog training instructor

• APDT member for twelve-plus years

• Working-dog background in scent, gundog, mantrailing and search and rescue

• Kind, science-led methods, no shortcuts and no nonsense

• Based at White Cross Farm in Wilburton, Ely, covering Cambridgeshire

Fancy a chat about your dog? No pressure, no jargon.