Scott McKay and Kate Gibbs, on two private acres on the Norfolk–Suffolk border, working from a system rather than a hunch.
Church Cottage · St Cross South Elmham · Residential UK-wideTakes the specialist end of the work — the Dog Club, protection and tracking, residential placements, and the 1:1 cases that have already been through two or three other trainers. The dogs that arrive here get described as the difficult ones. Usually they are just dogs whose handlers were never given a system that held together.
Certified through NePoPo® Silver and then Gold, the Gold course taken here in the UK under Hans Verbruggen — one of the most respected working-dog trainers in Europe, and someone whose work reaches a long way beyond sport. Scott still trains with him through the year, here and in Belgium, which is what keeps the method honest.
Lives with two German Shepherds, Sonny and Puro, who between them taught him most of what he knows about the gap between a method and a dog. The system is not the point. The dog in front of you is the point, and it will tell you plainly when you have got it wrong.
Runs the pack walks and most of the everyday obedience work — lead manners, recall, settling, the things that quietly decide whether a Tuesday is pleasant or not. If you are an ordinary owner with an ordinary dog and a problem making life harder than it should be, Kate is who you will spend your time with.
Took her NePoPo® Gold in Belgium, at the source, and trains alongside Scott under Hans Verbruggen through the year in both countries. Two trainers working from one system matters more than it sounds: whichever of them you end up with, you get the same answers, the same words and the same standard.
She is also a dog photographer, and a properly good one — trials, working events, club days, and portraits of people's own dogs. It is not a sideline. Years behind a lens watching dogs move have made her quick at reading the half-second before a dog goes over threshold, which is precisely what a pack walk needs.
NePoPo® is a registered trademark of B.C.BB B.V. (Michael and Bart Bellon) and is used here with permission. NePoPo® certification is held by individuals, not businesses.
Most owners we meet have already been given advice. Usually it's one of two kinds: something so gentle it never changes anything, or something so heavy-handed it damages the relationship they were trying to protect. Both leave people stuck and both leave the dog confused.
NePoPo® is the alternative we went and learned properly — the system used by police, military and sport dog handlers across Europe. It's built on being clear with a dog: the dog always knows what earns the good outcome, and it always knows how to switch the pressure off. Done right, that produces a dog that works because it understands the game, not because it's guessing.
Learning it took going to Belgium rather than reading a book. Scott holds the Gold School certification and Kate holds it too, which is not a common thing to be able to say about a two-person outfit in Norfolk.
What it means for you is simple. We're not improvising. There's a structure behind what we ask you to do, and a reason for the order we do it in.
A reactive dog cannot learn at two metres from the thing it's worried about. On two acres we start at forty and close the gap at the dog's pace, not the car park's.
No loose dogs round the corner, no toddler on a scooter, no football landing in the middle of a recall. Distraction gets added deliberately.
Tracking needs ground. Protection needs space and privacy. You can't do either properly in a village hall, which is why most clubs don't.
Sessions run in the rain. Dogs live outdoors in it and so does the training.