About Sam's K9 Academy
Sam’s K9 Academy and Puppy School Flintshire was establish in 2009 after Sam spent 2 years at collage and 3 years at university studying Animal Behaviour with a special interest in Canine Behaviour.
Over the last 14 years the academy has grown to offer training for puppies, adult dogs and behavioural cases. In 2018 alone we had over 400 dogs come to us for help on their training journeys and since 2019 we have been listed as one of the Three Best Rated trainers in Mold by an independent company.
Sam Davies BSc (Hons) Animal Behaviour and Welfare
Head Trainer
Sam began her professional training career by teaching Puppy School classes after being trained and assessed by well known behaviourist and author Gwen Bailey. This has now expanded into Sam teaching 13 classes a week for puppies and adults as well as working with difficult dogs on a 121 basis.
In 2015 Sam was independently assessed by both the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) and achieved on both Full Membership. Sam is always working on obtaining more knowledge and learning new techniques and regularly attends CPD training in subjects including Canine Body Language, Aggression and Rehab, Specialist Scent Detection, Tracking, Rescue Puppy and Resource Guarding.
Sam has worked with dogs from the age of 14 in numerous boarding kennels so has alot of practical handling experience with many different breeds. Sam grew up with a show cocker spaniel called Misty, at the age of 13 rescued a Shih Zhu cross called Rocky and started her training experience in local classes, at the age of 15 she rescued a 6 week old Lurcher called Molly and experienced many different dog sports and at the age of 18 she rescued a Saluki called Freddie who has been extremely mistreated. Freddie was very shut down when he arrived and would react extremely badly to people, Sam spent alot of time rehabilitating him to feel more comfortable and he is now a happy and content dog. Sam now lives with a Working Cocker Spaniel called Stanley, they enjoy trick training, shape training and agility training. She also has a Spanish rescue dog called Squishy who Sam worked with on a puppy rescue course and decided to bring her home. Stanley and Squishy work with Sam during one to one sessions to help nervous dogs.
To see Sam's Qualifications please click here.
We love Sam’s K9 Academy
Coming to Sam’s classes has helped us to understand Mishka and improved our communication which has built a stronger bond and better relationship! Most importantly we have fun and enjoy coming to classes together and Sam is always on hand with advice and support…and humour!
One-to-one sessions
These sessions have been invaluable in helping us to understand all our dog’s needs. Sam’s advice has enabled us to build stronger bonds and adapt to each of their different learning styles. Our older rescue boy Oscar can be quite reactive out on walks, but with Sam’s help we have learnt how to manage any reactivity and our walks are much more enjoyable. When Nellie reacted badly when our other boy died, Sam helped us with managing that adjustment. We’ve since learned that Nellie can be quite anxious and each training activity needs breaking down into small steps. Sam has helped us adapt to Nellie’s learning style and pace which has helped us to set her up for success. Finally, when we welcomed our new puppy Rosie, who couldn’t be left for even 10 seconds, we enlisted Sam to help us settle her in. Following Sam’s advice, within days we had a happy, calm and relaxed puppy who was able to be left for several minutes. Sam’s one-to-one training is not only great for dogs, it has also been great for us as owners because we now feel much more confident too! Oh, and our dogs adore her!
Puppy training classes
Sams classes are an excellent way to start training your puppy and have given me confidence to go out and socialise with my dog. I like the small class size as you get time to ask questions.