Meerkat
Assistance Dog Club
Hello! I’m Danielle Beck, Clinical Animal Behaviourist, Rehabilitation Trainer and most importantly Assistance Dog Trainer!
I’ve been helping caregivers, who often have disabilities which fall outside of the main charities to train their own assistance dogs for over 10 years. As a disabled handler myself with my own owner trained dogs, I understand the stress, pressure, and time it can take to train our own whilst working around our own limitations.
I’ve created the Meerkat Assistance Dog Club, as a way to help support handlers training their own assistance dogs to mitigate their disabilities and prepare for public access.
Our club is led by myself with the support of fellow assistance dog trainers Jasper Molly of Think Dogs & Sophie Martin.
For further information about our 1-2-1 training and assessment services please email [email protected]
Our mission is to provide a safe and supportive place for handlers to come together to learn, support each other, understand how to teach different kinds of mitigating tasks, and work towards public access.
What's included in the club membership?
- Monthly virtual group sessions to support you with your training.
- Your own private virtual storage on our site to share your videos and gain insightful feedback into your progress.
- A private facebook group to share videos, stories, and tips with other AD handlers and our trainers to give you on going support.
- Discounts on virtual or in person temperament assessments (depending on location), to evaluate your dogs suitability for public access work.
- Discounted 1-2-1 training (virtual or in person) with our trainers.
- Discounts for all future AD specific courses run by Control The Meerkat.
- Access to the control the meerkat ever expanding learning empawrium filled with instructional videos, E-Books, planners, and diaries.
Who can join?
Our Assistance Dog Club is open to all who:
- Are currently training their dog to be their assistance dog to help mitigate their disability.
- Are looking for some regular support with their tasks or public access training.
- Are just starting out and want to learn how to set themselves and their dog up for success.
- Would like their dogs assessed on their suitability to be an Assistance Dog.
What do you require from your handlers?
As our company is dedicated to trauma informed training, all members of our club must agree to using positive reward based methods with their assistance dogs. We do not condone aversive training tools or techniques.
By joining our club you are agreeing to make a commitment to following the advice of our trainers and practise and keep us updated on your progress outside of our sessions.
We promise to be honest with you about your dogs behaviour and suitability for the work, as their physical and emotional health and welfare is paramount. Therefore, we expect honesty and transparence in our communications, and we will help you make informed decisions about your dogs suitability as a working assistance dog
As experts in dog behaviour, we can support you to work through a variety of problems and give your dog time to learn. Please bare in mind, not all dogs are suited to this work, regardless of the training you put in. In this situations we will support you in how best to move forward.is