The best place to train your dog is at home in their normal environment. Dogs learn best by practising new skills little and often throughout the week as part of their normal daily routine. 

We always say that the classes are for the humans to learn how to train their dogs, not for the dogs to be trained.

With that in mind, you can learn how to train your dog just as well by watching video demonstrations of each exercise. You can then work at your own pace, simply copying each stage. Everything is broken down into bite-sized steps. Unlike dog training classes, you don’t have to complete everything within six weeks.

It can be difficult to remember everything the trainer says in a class, whereas videos can be replayed multiple times. They can even be watched via an app on your phone when you’re out and about.

Lastly, with our online Help & Support forum, you can ask as many questions as you want if you get stuck and even upload a video for the trainers to review and provide feedback.

Train online, and you don’t have to stand in a field, in the rain, waiting to take your turn!

No. The majority of our clients have gundogs who are family pets and have no aspirations of taking their dog out shooting.

Gundog Puppy Course

For puppies aged under 4 months of age.

Beginner Gundog Course

For dogs over this age but with little/no prior training experience.

Junior Gundog Course

For dogs that have completed the Beginner Gundog Course or have mastered the skills covered in that course (see next question for a list of what that includes).

Successful completion of each course will mean your dog has learned the following:

Gundog Puppy Course

Lifeskills such as:

• Eye Contact
• Settle
• Managing Frustration
• Sit
• Polite Greetings (Other Dogs)
• Puppy Play & Recall From Play
• Introduction to Lead & Heelwork 
• Impulse Control
• Husbandry (Comfortable Being Handled & Eating Pills) 
• Avoiding Resource Guarding
• Targeting – Fist Bump
• Recall On Walks 
• Introduction to Retrieving
• Introduction to Hunting

Beginner Gundog Course

• Focus (On Handler)
• Ignoring Distractions
• Impulse Control
• Walk a distance of up to 20m on a lead without pulling
• Sit – on cue, where they are standing
• Stay seated for up to 60 secs whilst handler stands up to 20m away
• Recall – using a whistle
• Marked Retrieving
• Hunting – hunting in a pattern & turn whistle
• Hunting – holding an area whilst hunting & hunt whistle

Junior Gundog Course

• Walk up to 30m off-lead at heel
• Sit & Stay for up to 2 min whilst handler stands up to 30m away
• Steady to throw/fall
• Stop Whistle
• Recall
• Marked Retrieving – into cover & at distance
• Memory Retrieving
• Split Retrieving
• Delivery To Hand
• Directional Casting – left & right
• Hunting Pattern – quartering inc turn on the whistle

The courses are all self-paced so you can work at your own speed, but best results will come from regular practice and not cutting corners when training each behaviour.

Assuming no prior training, this is how long it should take you to work through each of the courses:

• Gundog Puppy: 6 weeks
• Beginner Gundog: 12 weeks
• Junior Gundog: 12 weeks

From time to time, things won’t go as planned. Such is the reality of training a dog. The good news is, my team and I are here to offer support and guidance along the way.

The courses are all self-paced and you will have lifetime access to all the course content.

If you purchase any of the courses individually, you will be invited to join our exclusive community forum. Here, you can request support with the course content and will be assisted by me or one of my experienced gundog trainers who regularly delivers the material in classes.

If you purchase all the courses together in the Acer Academy Bundle, you will receive personal support from me via either the community forum or email.

Support is available for a specified period, approximately double the time it would normally take to complete the course. 

My courses are designed to offer a structured format for training your dog in bite-sized chunks. Each behaviour progresses incrementally in difficulty as the course advances. Unlike other online training programmes, mine is not a collection of random exercises but rather a step-by-step approach to training a dog and achieving lasting results.

In line with my professional accreditations, I only use modern, ethical, and force-free training methods based on Positive Reinforcement.

None of the training incorporates traditional gundog methods that involve fear or punishment.

Absolutely not! And I have to warn you that if you don’t actually practise the exercises with your dog, their behaviour won’t change. 

You only need to invest around 20 minutes a few times a week to start seeing results, but please note that there are no quick fixes.

That said, if you decide within the first 7 days that the training isn’t for you, simply email me and I’ll happily provide a full refund.