About Us

Who?

Although the wider Spottesbarr group contains Sporthorses, Stays and more, when it comes to dogs, we’re here for Jess.

Jess believes that training dogs should be a guided conversation – A journey with an end that the human selects, but the teamwork along the way makes it worth the trip, and the dog is allowed to make choices throughout.

From pet Labradors to death-row dogs, competitive sports dogs to photography models, Jess’s background with canines is incredibly varied. This variety, and the cases that have come and gone over the years, has taught her far more than any class, school or course ever could.

She has a higher education certificate in Animal Behaviour and Training, but hands-on trial and error has been the very best teacher.

“Is Jess a dog trainer?”

Jess trains dogs for the joy of doing so, rather than commercially. Traditional dog trainers spend the vast majority of their time teaching humans how to read, reward and release their dogs, and much less time working directly one-on-one with a dog.

The one-on-one bit is Jess’ favourite part, alongside competitions and personal development. For this reason, she’s never pursued a career in animal behaviour and training, despite having a lifelong love of the field.

Jess is an animal photographer and uses her training knowledge to work her own dogs in big environments and to help client dogs learn perfect posing in seconds. Seems silly, but it’s really not!

Jess has photographed thousands of dogs, including over 1000 rescue dogs still in shelters. She developed a reputation for her instant affinity with fearful or difficult dogs, and later for retraining these souls for new homes too.