About

Hi, I’m Dr Barbara Paterson. I am a professional dog trainer specialising in agility and dog reactivity. I help  owners who struggle with reactive and high energy dogs so that they can find the joy that living with a dog is all about. 

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I have been educated by Susan Garrett, who is a multiple world champion in the sport of dog agility and a master dog trainer. I am a long time member of Susan Garrett’s Inner Circle master mind group for dog trainers and I work as an online instructor in all of Susan’s classrooms.

I have a PhD is animal demography and worked as a research scientists for over 15 years. A few years ago I gave up my academic career in order to focus all my time and energy into helping dog owners bring out the best in their dogs. 

I am looking forward to teaching you how to train your dog using innovative game-based training methods that are not only force free, but kind and firmly grounded in the science of animal behaviour.

In 2013 my husband and I moved to Canada with our two dogs, Tommy and Emma. In Canada I had the privilege to learn from some of the world’s best dog trainers. I am proud to be a student of Dr. Bob Baily, Susan Garrett, and Lynda Orton-Hill. 

I was fortunate to participate in seminars with other great agility experts from Canada and Europe, e.g. Justine Davenport, Jessica Pateerson, Tamas Tras and Zeljko Gioran.

As a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, I firmly believe that dog training is a life-long journey. This is why I strive to stay up to date with the latest developments and continuously improve my own dog training knowledge through ongoing  education, with Susan Garrett, Justine Davenport, Jane Book and others.

Emma and I competed in National and International Dog Agility events in Canada, such as the UKI Canadian Open in 2017. We repeatedly qualified  at Regional Championships. 

In 2018 we participated in AAC National Championships.

When Moy Hall’s NawaNawa joined our family we added scent detection to our dog sport portfolio. 

Thanks to the excellent education provided by Jane Book, Nawa achieved his first scent detection title in 2018. 

Now back in Namibia, we continue our scent detection training in Jane’s online classroom.