Learn • Reflect • Thrive

ATTENTION: Dog Trainers

From Qualified to Confident: Become the Ethical Dog Trainer You Trained to Be

Step Into Confident, Ethical Dog Training

For trainers who care deeply about dogs and people, and want to feel confident, calm, and connected in their work.

CLICK BELOW TO WATCH FIRST!

“This isn’t about chasing more certificates or rushing into the next course. It’s about slowing down, pausing, reflecting deeply, and finally stepping into the confidence you’ve been searching for.”

Dear Dog Trainer,

Dear Dog Trainer,

If you’ve finished your qualification but still feel unsure, overwhelmed, or “not quite ready”… you’re not alone.

Many trainers feel confident in theory, but wobbly in practice.
It’s not a failing — it’s simply a sign that you need space to integrate what you’ve learned, not another course to rush through.

Most of us were taught skills.
Very few of us were taught how to reflect, regulate, and grow into the trainer we want to be.

If you’re craving gentle guidance, steady support, and a place where you can breathe, pause, and build real confidence…

You’re exactly who this programme was created for.

We created The Mindful Dog Trainer Programme to be a safe, kind, supportive space where new trainers like you can reflect, connect, and grow - without fear of judgment or pressure to “know it all.”

And here’s the truth that nobody tells you early on:

Why This Journey Matters

In our industry, it’s easy to believe that confidence comes from more courses and more certificates.

But qualifications don’t automatically create confidence.

The real shift happens after the certificate — in that space where knowledge hasn’t yet become lived skill.

Confidence grows through integration: slowing down, reflecting, grounding yourself, and consolidating your learning until it becomes part of who you are as a trainer.

Inside The Mindful Dog Trainer, we guide you step by step through the reflective systems and frameworks we’ve developed over years of real-world practice — tools that bring structure to uncertainty, calm to chaos, and clarity to your everyday decisions.

✔ Learn Deeply
Understand not just what to do, but why — building a richer, more confident understanding of dogs, people, and the spaces between.

✔ Reflect Wisely
Use reflective supervision, peer support, and structured workbooks to turn theory into lived, usable skill.

✔ Consolidate Gently
Grow confidence in the pauses — with built-in consolidation time to absorb, practice, and steady yourself.

✔ Integrate Fully
Bring together your values, your skills, your understanding of dogs and humans, and your own nervous system into a grounded, consistent way of working.

✔ Thrive Ethically
Finish not just qualified but confident, calm, and aligned — working in a way that honours both dogs and people.

By the end of this journey, you’ll feel…

✔ More grounded
with calmer, more connected client sessions.

✔ Steady, lasting confidence
in your approach — not just on the good days, but through the wobbles too.

✔ Clearer thinking and calmer decision-making
even in challenging or high-pressure moments.

✔ Equipped with a toolkit of reflective, mindful, ethical practices
that help you navigate busy, messy, or emotional sessions with steadiness.

✔ More resilient
when emotions run high — your own, your clients’, and the dogs’.

✔ Held within a supportive, safe space
where you can ask questions freely, reflect openly, and grow your skills without judgment.

✔ Rooted in a values-centred practice
where you, your clients, and their dogs can all genuinely thrive.

If this feels like the kind of space you’ve been craving — a place to slow down, reflect deeply, and grow with gentle guidance — we’d love to welcome you into the next cohort of The Mindful Dog Trainer.

This is your invitation to step into a calmer, more confident way of practising — with community, compassion, and clarity by your side.

A place to:

✔ Ask the questions you feel nervous to ask anywhere else
and know you’ll be met with kindness, not judgment.

✔ Share your wins — and your wobbles
because both are part of becoming a confident, ethical trainer.

✔ Learn alongside peers and mentors who’ve been where you are
and who understand the emotional, practical, and ethical realities of this work.

✔ Grow inside a healthy helping culture
where asking for help is encouraged,
and offering help is done with generosity, not ego —
a space where support flows both ways, lifting everyone.

✔ Feel part of a community built on encouragement, kindness, and shared learning
where comparison softens, and steady, genuine support helps you flourish.

You don’t need to be more qualified.

You don’t need to be more “ready.”

You just need to be open to reflection, connection, and steady growth — with support.

You don’t have to figure it all out alone.
The Mindful Dog Trainer is a safe, reflective space to pause, breathe, and grow —
a place where you’ll be guided, supported, and genuinely understood.

We’d love to walk beside you.

— Laura & Colin

Best Ethical Dog Training & Mentoring Provider 2025 - South West England - Corporate Vision Awards

Client Service Excellence Award 2025 - Corporate Vision

Best Rated Dog Trainer in South Somerset 2023 & 2024 & 2025

Join the Dog Trainers Haven FREE Facebook Group

A kind, safe, and supportive group for ethical dog trainers. Share, reflect, and grow in community with others who get it.

By the end of this journey, you'll feel....

  • More grounded, with calmer, more connected client sessions.

  • A steady, lasting confidence in your approach — not just on the good days, but the wobbly ones too.

  • Clearer thinking and calmer decision-making, even in challenging or high-pressure moments.

  • Equipped with a toolkit of reflective, mindful, ethical practices you can rely on.

  • More resilient when emotions run high — your own, your clients’, and the dogs’.

  • Held within a supportive, safe space where you can ask questions freely, reflect openly, and grow your skills with encouragement, not judgment.

  • Rooted in a values-centred practice where you, your clients, and their dogs can all thrive.

    If this feels like the kind of space you’ve been craving — one where you can slow down, reflect deeply, and grow your confidence with gentle guidance — we’d love to welcome you into the next cohort of The Mindful Dog Trainer.

    This is your invitation to step into a calmer, more confident way of practising — with community, compassion, and clarity by your side.

What You’ll Receive

Each and every month:

What Supports You on This Journey to Confidence

  • Reflective Supervision & Mentoring Sessions (3 × 2 hours per month)

    Guided by Laura Mars and Colin Spence — a calm, confidential space to reflect on your learning, explore real cases, make sense of challenges, and receive thoughtful, practical, values-led feedback.

  • Peer-to-Peer Support Group (1 x 2 hours per month)

    A small, connected cohort (maximum 15) where you’ll learn alongside others on the same path — sharing ideas, asking questions, supporting one another, and growing together through honest reflection and conversation.

  • Confidential Space.

    All sessions are unrecorded, creating a sense of safety where you can show up as you are — ask the questions you’re scared to ask elsewhere, voice your wobbles, and explore your practice without fear of judgment.

  • Reflection & Consolidation Weeks.

    Dedicated pauses built into each month, giving you time to process, integrate, and breathe before moving forward. These quiet moments are where confidence takes root and learning becomes part of who you are.

Exclusive Core Module

Burnout: Managing Your Nervous System Before It Manages You

with Dr Claire Plumbly — Clinical Psychologist & Author

A deeply supportive module exploring how to recognise early signs of burnout, regulate your nervous system, and maintain emotional balance in your work with dogs and people.

Because lasting confidence depends on caring for the person behind the practice.

Guest Experts Supporting Your Growth

Carefully chosen leaders who share our values

✔ Grisha Stewart

Attachment, Agency & Relationship-Based Practice
Helping us explore how to weave attachment theory, emotional safety, and relationship-centred practice into real-world casework — featured in our How Do I Do That? series.

✔ Niki French

Calmness, Lifestyle & Guardian Support
Sharing grounded, accessible strategies to help overwhelmed guardians bring more calmness and connection into daily life with their dogs.

✔ Additional Guest Experts

Specialist Knowledge, Shared Values
From behaviour, welfare, communication, and ethical business, each guest brings real-world experience designed to deepen — not overwhelm — your learning.

Why These Guest Sessions Matter

Your confidence isn’t built from information alone.
It grows through:

learning with ethical, trusted professionals

seeing concepts applied to real cases

expanding your understanding gently, with support

bridging the gap between theory and lived, practical skill

These sessions enrich your learning, deepen your confidence, and help you feel supported from every angle — dog, human, and self.

Starts on: 13 January 2026
Reflective Supervision sessions held weekly on: Tuesdays 7pm

Bonuses:

  • Understand trauma’s impact on dogs and how it shapes behaviour and learning.

  • Support guardians with empathy to create safety, trust, and progress in training.

  • Protect your own wellbeing as a trainer by practising self-care and emotional awareness.

  • Bridge the gap between learning and doing through guided reflection and integration.

  • Build lasting confidence by consolidating knowledge into real-world practice.

  • Thrive ethically and sustainably with deeper self-awareness and professional clarity.

  • Set clear income goals

    by understanding exactly what your business needs to earn to support you, your work, and your wellbeing.

    Plan your ideal schedule

    using a gentle, flexible default diary that balances time, energy, and income — so your business supports your life, not the other way around.

    Price with confidence

    with simple, data-informed guide rates for packages, 1:1 sessions, and classes, helping you make decisions that feel aligned, ethical, and sustainable.

What Is In The Mentorship Syllabus

Lovely Things Our Members Say About Us ❤️

Sign Up Today For Just £2500 £1600

or 6 Monthly Payments of £460 £287

Reminder of What You’ll Receive When You Join

  • Reflective mentoring sessions with two experienced, ethical trainers - real conversations that bring clarity and confidence to your practice.

  • Access to a private peer group of like-minded professionals - safe space to connect, share and grow together.

  • A growing library of resources, tools, and business tips

  • Monthly mindfulness and practice prompts - gentle reminders and tools to help you pause reflect and stay connected to your values.

  • Guest expert sessions on psychology, wellbeing, and education

  • A truly safe space to develop your skills, confidence and understanding without judgement or pressure.

Spaces are strictly capped at 15 mentees per cohort to maintain depth, safety, and connection.

Starts on: 13 January 2026
Reflective Supervision sessions held weekly on: Tuesdays 7pm

Who This Is (And Isn’t) For

This is for you if you:

  • Have completed training but feel uneasy putting theory into practice

  • Find yourself second-guessing your approach and wish you had guidance to help you feel confident and grounded.

  • Want to understand your clients — and yourself — at a deeper, more reflective level.

  • Value kindness, ethics, and emotional safety as much as technical skill — and want a space that honours all of it

  • Crave mentorship, connection, and community rather than working in isolation.

This is NOT for you if you:

  • Want quick fixes or magic-bullet methods

  • Prefer coercive, dominance-based training

  • Are unwilling to self-reflect as much as you train others

  • Just seek business tricks without grounding in ethics and growth

About Your Guides – Laura Mars & Colin Spence

MEET THE Mentor

Laura Mars

MEET THE Mentor

Laura Mars

Laura is a force-free, evidence-based dog behaviour specialist based in South Somerset. With a background in social work and adult learning, she is uniquely placed to mentor trainers not only in dog behaviour, but in how humans learn, reflect, and grow.

For the past three years, she has mentored both aspiring and qualified dog trainers, helping them grow in confidence and develop their practice through reflection, compassion and ethical awareness.

Before entering the canine field, laura spend two decades supporting adult learners to gain their degrees and postgraduate qualifications, deepening their learning through reflective supervision and mentoring.

“Being mentored by Laura Mars has honestly been life-changing. Their support, encouragement and kindness have helped me grow so much in confidence, both as a trainer and as a person. They always create a safe space where you feel heard and valued, and their guidance has had a lasting impact on my journey”

She also integrates coaching skills into dog training, helping mentees bridge the gap between knowledge and real-life application.

LogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogo

MEET THE Mentor

Colin Spence

MEET THE Mentor

Colin Spence

Colin is a certified behaviour practitioner and founder of Colin’s K9 Training Services.

With over 20 years' hands-on experience, he has worked with a broad range of behavioural issues including aggression, reactivity, separation anxiety, and resource guarding.

He holds a Diploma in Canine Psychology & Behaviour (ISCP), is a scent-work instructor (levels 1–4), has canine first aid certification, and is a member of INTOdogs.

Colin began his career with a reactive, fearful dog of his own, which inspired his journey toward force-free, science-based training.

He brings a grounded, practical, empathic presence to every session.

LogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogoLogo

Together, Laura and Colin offer a powerful blend of deep reflective practice, lived training experience, and a shared commitment to ethical, force-free learning.

Final Call & Application

Are you ready to stop chasing more credentials and instead become a confident, grounded, ethical dog trainer?
Spaces are limited. Apply now to reserve your place in The Mindful Dog Trainer and begin this transformative six-month journey.

This isn’t just another course — it’s a safe, reflective space to build confidence in yourself, to discuss the why, the how, and the what you might do differently — and to grow with calm, compassion, and purpose.

Next Mentorship Starts 13 January 2026

© Mars and Spence | All Rights Reserved | Terms of Services