Train Smart, bond tight, have fun.
Dog Smart Training and Behaviour is owned and run by husband and wife team Oliver and Becs.
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Having both grown up with dogs being a huge part of our life, we soon realised after we first met, dogs were a huge common interest (some may argue our only common interest!) and have played a massive part in our relationship since.
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We both agree that dogs have moulded who we are.
With each dog we have shared our lives with, teaching us something new and moulding the trainers we are today and will be in the future.
Our Story
Dog Smart was created to help pet owners gain access to a different education about their dogs to the more traditional village hall training class approach.
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We started the business in 2018 while both still employed in full time jobs, since then Oliver has made the transition to full time work with Dog Smart and Becs runs Agility sessions while continuing to work in the veterinary profession.
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It is our aim to help our clients get the most out of their relationship with their dog. We want you to understand them, how they may think, how they may perceive the world around them and work with them to get the very best out of each relationship. Each dog deserves an individual approach much like our own children do, because after all they are individuals.
In our outdoor training venue we can work on a one to one basis within the security of our training fields, we employ the use of our own dogs, who help provide distraction, socialisation and stooges for reactivity cases.
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We are committed to training animals without the use of fear and intimidation, using modern scientific principles.
Meet The Team
What Our Clients Say
Oliver was lucky enough to grow up with numerous animals in his life from dogs, horses, cows, sheep (yes they had 2 pet cows and 2 pet sheep for a time), ferrets, ducks and a cat.
These all played a huge part in his life growing up, none more than his Border Terrier Sam whom spent many a day out following Oliver across the North Downs.
His first job as a teenager was at the local gundog kennels where he walked, fed, played and cared for the dogs.
After leaving School Oliver followed in his Dads footsteps and trained to be a Heating Engineer, he has spent the last 18 years working for the family business. However, dogs have never been far from his life and Oliver has played a big part in the training of our canine family.
"my role there was as a building controls engineer, where I designed constructed and installed complex control systems, as well as carried out fault finding on other systems, essentially I worked on machine behaviour before I worked professionally with animals and its given me a very analytical viewpoint"
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Gundogs are Oliver’s passion and there is a special place in his heart for all things ginger, well the ginger Vizsla variety.
In 2017 Oliver felt he needed a career change and after some soul searching decided he wanted a career working with animals.
Something he had wanted at school but was put off by a careers school advisor!
After much research, Oliver signed up for Victoria Stillwell’s Dog Training Academy.
This intense 6 month course covered both theory and practical elements of dog training and behaviour. Taking Oliver off for 2 intensive week long courses, weekly training sessions shadowing a mentor, webinars, essays, exams and producing training videos. Oliver completed this all while still working full time. His hard work paid off and in January 2018 received news that he had passed the course and was a VSA graduate.
Since completing his course Oliver has continued to study and completed The Animal Emotion and Advanced Animal Training Course course by Illis ABC.​
Oliver believes our animal’s emotions and moods play a huge role in their behaviour and how we approach training with them.
He has completed Suzanne Clothiers introduction to CARAT course and this has allowed him to look at each animal he works with as an individual, by breaking apart their character traits and assesing how they might see the world, its been an important change to the way he works.
He is passionate about breed and individual specific Canine Enrichment and especially enjoys working with more sensitive dogs that need patience and understanding and support.
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In his spare time Oliver enjoys walking the canine family and enriching these walks with games such as search, find it and hide and seek. A walk with Oliver is never dull for the canine family! He also enjoys making music and has named his production label after his best boy ‘Ginger Dog Productions’.
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Oliver Ringrose is a graduate of the prestigious Victoria Stilwell Academy for Dog Training & Behaviour and has been granted official status as a VSA-Certified Dog Trainer (VSA-CDT). The Victoria Stilwell Academy is the world’s premier institution for professional dog trainer education founded by renowned dog behaviour expert Victoria Stilwell, and graduates of VSA have been individually taught in-person by Stilwell and other VSA faculty. All VSA graduates have been rigorously assessed at the highest level for both skills and knowledge in the areas of dog training, behaviour modification, canine ethology and creative problem-solving. Additionally, great emphasis is placed within VSA’s industry-leading curriculum upon effective and empathetic human communication skills. This unique focus results in professional dog trainers who are prepared not just to train dogs successfully using powerful force-free, positive reinforcement-based tools and techniques, but also to help dog owner clients to learn how to truly transform canine behaviour and set their dogs up for success using the latest in modern behavioural science methods. Learn more about the Victoria Stilwell Academy here.
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Olivers most recent accomplishment is to have become of Family Dog Mediator from Kim Brophy's education programme, ethology is at the core of what we do when we work with any animal, humans included, especially working with gundogs in a truly force free manor, the ethology of the individual is crucial to understand to be able to use their strengths and understand what motivates them, so that we can shape their behaviour in a way that benefits both of us.
Becs has been obsessed by dogs and animals in general from a very early age. Her first dog Honey, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, joined her family when she was just 5 years old. Becs always wanted to work with animals and was lucky enough to get the opportunity when she was 19, getting a trainee veterinary nurse position at a practice in Folkestone, Kent.
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She completed her training and became a Registered Veterinary Nurse in 2004. This was also the year Becs spent 6 weeks in Borneo volunteering for the Orangutan Foundation UK and was lucky enough to get up close and personal with these beautiful creatures.
Throughout her veterinary nursing career, Becs was always interested in behaviour and how mental health affects our pets and their healing. She started volunteering for Sevenoaks and District Dog Training as an instructor in 2007. Being very impressed with the trainers reward based training methods and wanted to learn more about these methods and how dogs learned in general.
In 2012, Becs completed a Companion Animal Behaviour and Training diploma. Becs put what she learned into her everyday veterinary life, from handling animals and respecting their limitations to running puppy classes for the practices she worked with. She also gave advice to clients on training and behaviour problems they might be having.
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Now Practice Manager at Sandhole Veterinary Practice in Snodland. When not in the office Becs can be found running the Puppy School course and Youth Club groups (adolescent dog classes). She has also helped set up social clinics for patients that struggle with the veterinary environment, helping them build in confidence and reduce the stress of coming to the vets.
Becs loves teaching people and watching the amazing relationships grow between dog and owner through force free, bond based training. She also has a passion for teaching others to understand dog’s emotions and how these affect behaviour, especially in the veterinary environment.
Becs has given presentations at a number of veterinary CPD events on this to veterinary nursing professionals.
In her spare time Becs favourite pass time is walking her canine family. She loves nothing better than walking for miles watching them be dogs and enjoying life.
She also has a keen interest in agility and trains both Willow and Percy on a regular basis (Briar is now retired). And was lucky enough to qualify for Crufts 2017 with Willow in the Crufts Novice Agility Cup. Her very special little girl gave an amazing performance and came away runner up. Not bad for their first Crufts experience.
Louise assists us in training with group classes and with behaviour cases and runs her own dog walking business.
I'm Louise, I've had a passion for all things animal since I was a young child.
After school I enrolled at Hadlow college where I completed a level 3 diploma in animal management. Since then I have worked at various animal related businesses, from kennels to sheep and dairy farms, a veterinary practice and now own a dog walking business.
I set up Scrufts, Tufts and Fluffs dog walking in January 2020, and absolutely love it, mud and slobber included!
I have owned multiple pets through my life, currently 2 cats, a bearded dragon, a tortoise and 2 rescued Hungarian Vizslas - Franky and Barka.
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Thanks to the challenges we had over the first 18 months of owning Franky, I realised my true passion is in canine behaviour. I'm now midway through a level 4 advanced accredited diploma in canine behaviour with hopes to expand my knowledge once this has been completed.
One of my favourite things to see is the bond strengthen between owner and dog as they work together through any obstacles they may face!
Look forward to meeting you and your four legged friends soon!