Walkabout is delighted to announce that there will be a new set of workshops for everyone to attend again in 2008. With classes held on weekdays and evenings and Saturday social groups also available, there is sure to be a way for your dog to join in the fun and you to learn more about your dog.

All breeds and ages very welcome at any of our social skills evening classes and the groups on Wednesday and Saturday mornings are very popular. This really is the natural way to train a dog and have fun doing it. With the opportunity to meet and greet the wolves of the UK Wolf conservation trust, and to join our social walks and the training and instructor programme, there are lots of reasons to join us, Check out our website for more details of our next meetings and call us on 0845 226 8367 to take advantage of the birthday discounts. 

Who We Are

Carol Donovan and Stuart Ashworth have both over 30 years experience working with dogs and got together nearly 20 years ago to care about all animals but especially cats and dogs.  After many years of working in this area with your pets, and the local Veterinary Surgeries, we have built up a team of like-minded professional people who care about your dogs  as much as you do. The team is all fully supervised and very experienced in the many needs of our canine  friends. We have full professional indemnity insurance and naturally covered by public liability insurance.

 Qualifications: We are fully qualified canine behavioural trainers. As experienced pet nutrition counsellors, we worked closely with the founder of the Association of Pet Behaviourist Counsellors and the Association Pet Dog Trainers which were set up to help improve pet dog and cat knowledge and to help promote responsible dog and cat ownership. We attend many courses and seminars to keep up to date with dog training and  behaviour. We  have worked closely with other aggression specialists around the country to keep up to date on latest  methods of retraining. However, having been privileged  to have had up to 9 dogs at one time in the family unit, and helped many thousands of dogs over the years, our best teachers are the dogs themselves.  Every one is unique but many of their pack characteristics are similar.  We are also fully committed to the Responsible Dog Ownership Campaign  - started in 1990 and still going strong.

Work Experience: Following on from many requests for help, WALKABOUT was established by Carol Donovan and Stuart Ashworth in the area many years ago and we already have many thousands of satisfied clients.  We started with our dog walking and socialisation courses and have built from there. We currently have very successful Training Centres in Frimley Green,  and in  Finchampstead,  where we are able to help rebuild owner’s confidence when problems occur or to help the new puppy owner ensure that their new puppy gets the best start in life. We also run socialisation courses for the puppies and older family pets and do a lot of work in supporting new owners of rescue dogs. 

We know that many clients want to attend classes with their dog but due to family and work commitments are not able to.  With this in mind we have a number of other options from training the dog ourselves on a daily basis to private tuition at a number of venues to suit the owner.  We are one of a few organisations in the country who use their own teaching dogs to help other dogs learn or relearn their basic canine skills. All of our work is designed to help and support the owner (and their veterinary surgeon) cope with their pets with increasing pressures of today’s society.  We want to help prevent misunderstandings and perhaps prevent a re homing situation or even worse, euthanasia.  With this in mind we keep costs down and offer affordable training, yet offering what both our client and their dog needs.

 We now offer workshops at  Farnham, West Byfleet and Farnbrorough during the day (including Saturdays) and have clubs throughout the area to which we direct the owner and their dog as part of their retraining programme. We have sites around the area to ensure that we can help as many people as possible. If they cannot get to us, we can travel to them and have a wonderful team of volunteers who bring their dogs along to help and support the new dog.

Family Experiences: We have all owned dogs  for many years.  Between us, we have had over 30 dogs, many of these  at one time (Stuart had 5 and Carol 4), which has given us the opportunity of studying the family pack. Of course they have given us lots of love and laughter, but they have also exposed us to a wide variety of problems and our experiences will be able to help you. We currently have a number of German Shepherd Dogs of varying ages having come to us as puppies through rescue organisations.  We often work with the rescue centres to help rescued dogs settle into their new home.

Although the children are grown up now, we have through the years, gained much experience of dogs  within the family unit.. Dogs have come and gone some just staying for a short time while owners have been away and training has been needed. Others have become one of the family and of course greatly missed when they pass on. Healthwise and behaviourwise, we have probably seen it all.  This wealth of knowledge and experience has enabled us to share information and help many people in the past. 

Now, we would like to share it with you!

To visit our Photo Gallery CLICK HERE