Payment in full is required at the time of booking. To ensure your place is booked it is better to pay online or via BACS. However, if you check the “pay by cheque” option, payment must arrive within 3 working days. If payment is not received the space will be made available online again. We will endeavour to call you before we do this, however, this cannot be guaranteed.
You must be physically able to handle your own dog in classes. If you are unable to safely handle your dog, it is better to seek a private training session.
Covid 19 disclaimer: Do not book without reading this, as this is a disclaimer.
OUTDOOR CLASSES
Please could you take your temperature before attending. If you have a raised temperature, or feel unwell at all, please do not attend.
Please arrive and park in the carpark. Remain in your car until asked to come out. I will guide you into the field, one at a time, ensuring we maintain social distancing. My request for social distancing is to maintain approximately 12 feet apart. I cannot mark out the area outdoors, but I will let you know if I feel you are too close.
Please use hand gel before leaving your car (for hygiene reasons, please bring your own).
There is plenty of room in the field, so it is easy to maintain good social distances. If you can work in a family pair, this would reduce risks for trainers etc as it should not be necessary for me/us to handle your dog when doing exercises such as recall. This reduces risk of not maintaining social distancing. We are allowed a maximum of 30 people, if you want to bring more than two per dog, please let me know so that I can ensure we do not exceed 30.
Dogs must be on a lead at all times. This is to ensure that we do not find ourselves having to separate dogs and then not maintaining social distancing.
If you bring children, please ensure they are with you or an adult.
If anyone persistently does not maintain social distancing, then you may be asked not to attend until risk of transmission of the virus has declined. Please don’t put me in the position of having to do this as I really don’t want to.
Please use a regular shorter lead. Do not use an extendable lead please as this can quickly lead to a possible breakdown of social distancing if dogs or people can get caught up in the lead.
Please do not let your puppy/dog interact physically with another dog unless asked to by me. For two reasons; one, it reduces the risk of not maintaining social distancing, but also, some puppies will not be very comfortable interacting physically with other pups/dogs so we will need to work at the individual level.
If dogs do touch each other, you will need to wipe down your puppy/dog with an antiviral or disinfectant wipe. I will have some of these, but they are very hard to get hold of at the moment. If you have your own, please do bring them as this will enable me to keep running these sessions. If I run out of them, I will have to shut down the classes again. Antibacterial wipes may not afford sufficient protection unless they have over 70% alcohol.
The field has hedges around, however, I cannot be sure that there are no holes and I am unable to continually check the boundaries of four acres. Please do not let dogs off lead unless asked to. We will only ask you to let a dog off lead if we are extremely confident the dog will return to you directly.
There are toilet and hand washing facilities on site. Feel free to wash your hands but bring your own hand towel and hand sanitiser in case there are no hand towels.
INDOOR CLASSES
There is a limit of one person per dog in the class please.
Please could you take your temperature before attending. If you have a raised temperature, or feel unwell at all, please do not attend.
We require you to wear a functioning face mask please and this must cover the nose and mouth. Our trainers will not be wearing masks all the time as it would not be possible for them to talk with a facemark in the hall for three classes. If, for any reason, you are unable to wear a face mask, please do not book an indoor class. We offer outdoor classes and these may be safer for you.
Please ensure you follow the one way system. Please wait outside the main entrance front door ensuring you maintain 2 metres between each other. We will guide you in. We will guide you out of the hall via a different door to ensure we do not come face to face with the next class.
Dogs must be on a short lead at all times. NO EXTENDABLE LEADS PLEASE. This is to ensure that we do not find ourselves having to separate dogs and then not maintaining social distancing. Dogs must not physically greet each other in our indoor classes as there is insufficient space to keep this safe. Please bring antiviral or disinfectant wipes with you to wipe down your puppy/dog if they come into contact with another dog.
If you feel I have missed any risks, please do let me know. I want you to feel safe.
Whilst every effort is made to ensure our clients and trainers are safe, the very nature of Covid 19 means that we cannot take responsibility should you contract Covid 19, as it is difficult to say where it was contracted, people have higher viral load before synths develop. By booking this class you confirm that you attend these classes entirely at your own risk.
Refund Policy:
Classes- Prior to course starting. Due to the overheads associated with running classes we require 5 full business days notice to cancel a course before the start date. A handling fee of £15.00 will be incurred. As we have limited availability, once the course is fully booked we lose further possibility of bookings. If you need to cancel please make sure you give us as much notice as possible to help us keep our prices down.
Classes - Prior to course starting. If you give us less than the required 5 days notice and we are able to fill your space, you will receive a full refund minus the £15.00 handling fee. If we are unable to fill the space, then no refund will be given.
Classes: Courses are NOT transferable. It is not possible to transfer onto another course unless you have advised us at least 5 days prior to the start of the course you have been booked on. If we are able to fill your space then we can offer a transfer to another course with no further cost. This will only be offered once. If we are unable to fill your space with less than 5 days notice, no refund or transfer will be given.
Classes - During course. If you need to cancel the course during the course refunds will be handled on a case by case basis. Refunds are not generally given less your dog has become ill, or passed away. Sadly, this does occasionally occur and we will refund the remainder of the course with no handling fee. If your dog is ill, we may request a letter from your vet before processing a refund.
Classes - we state in our terms and conditions that dogs must not show aggression to people or dogs and we offer alternative arrangements for these dogs. We also suggest that dogs who bark a lot at people or dogs might not be appropriate candidates for a class environment. If it transpires that your dog might not be appropriate for classes, and it was obvious they would not have (i.e they are already showing these behaviours outside the hall), we may request that you do not attend and will not refund the course. If you knowingly book a reactive dog into class, you will have prevented someone else from booking the space and this could have an impact on the viability of running our classes. If it becomes clear that your dog is struggling in class but that we feel it is possible/likely you could not have anticipated this, a refund for classes not attended will be offered minus handling fee.
Classes - females in season. It is not appropriate to bring a female in season to classes. Please let us know when this happens. We suggest booking the next available course without making payment and then we will offset the missed sessions against the cost of the next course. Then you should pay the balance when we know how many sessions your dog will have missed.
Complaints procedure:
Thankfully, complaints are extremely rare indeed. But, if you are unhappy with the service we offer you should follow this process:
1) Contact us via the contact details shown on our Contact Us page letting us know the nature of your complaint immediately you start to feel unhappy.
2) We would appreciate the opportunity to improve our service and will aim to ensure that our service meets your requirements.
3) If we are unable to meet your requirements and yet it was clearly stated in our terms and Conditions and website information that this would be the degree of service provided, no refund will be given.
4) If your complaint is valid and we did not meet our service levels as shown in our terms and conditions and website, a refund will be given for the remaining sessions that you will not be attending.
We encourage all people considering booking to come along and view our class before booking onto it. This will enable you to be sure you can make the allocated time and that you like the way we run our classes. We do not allow any form of harsh handling and we use proven kind and effective techniques. Therefore, we do not accept check chains, pinch, prong, electric or compressed air collars, rattle cans, water sprays or any aversive devices. All you need to bring is a standard lead or training lead, plus a collar that is as wide and comfortable as possible, a harness, and a variety of training treats and toys.
You must not knowingly book an aggressive, barky or highly reactive dog onto these courses (except the Aggressive Dogs course for which you will need to attend a behaviour consultation to be able to attend). If in doubt please make arrangement for us to assess your dog before booking onto a course. This can be done at the venue you are considering attending. If you have not asked us to assess your dog and then find that your dog is highly reactive, nervous, barky or aggressive we may not refund your course payment. However, if we have assessed your dog and still find the dog is aggressive in the class we will offer an alternative solution such as one to one training or an outdoor class etc in order to meet your aims.
We use veterinary approved disinfectants to reduce risks of disease. We also supply surgical overshoes for puppy parties. We take every precaution to reduce risk of disease, however, we cannot be held accountable should a dog become poorly. This has not happened before, however, there is a very small risk with un-vaccinated puppies and even with dogs that are vaccinated that have not acquired full immunity, or dogs that have been titre tested and shown to have full immunity. We would ask that you ensure you only bring healthy dogs/puppies to class. If you suspect your dog may be ill (diarrhoea/vomiting/off food/temperature) please do not bring him/her to class.
At times we might take video or photographic images that we might share on social media. We will only show images and film that show clients and their dogs in a good light. If you would not be happy with this, please let us know. Otherwise, if you have ticked to allow us to use film or photos, this allows us to use images taken in classes. You have the right to ask us to remove an image if you wish.
Paws In Hand Dog Training and Behaviour instructors will make all reasonable endeavours to run courses in a safe and professional manner at all times and in accordance with veterinary advice (where applicable) and good practice. Paws In Hand Dog Training and Behaviour has public liability and general insurance suitable for a dog training club. Any physical activity can have risks, however remote. Participation in Paws In Hand Dog Training and Behaviour activities is entirely at the risk of the participant. Neither Paws In Hand Dog Training and Behaviour, nor its individual instructors or helpers, nor the owners or landlords of our training venues, accept any responsibilities, whatsoever, for any injuries or losses sustained which are not covered by Paws In Hand Dog Training and Behaviour insurance. Handlers and/or owners remain responsible for their dogs at all times and are advised to ensure they have adequate pet or household insurance cover for liability in the unlikely event of damage or injury caused by their dog to property or to a third party.
