Collie consultant testimonials

Testimonials

Read our testimonials and find out how we have helped our customers and their border collies with training and behavioural problems.

Connie

 

Emily Cant & Connie

Aggression Towards Other Dogs, Traffic Chasing

"When our Border Collie, Connie, was nearly two years old, we reached out to Rachel Rodgers at The Collie Consultant. Connie was facing a range of challenges — from car chasing, frustration, sound sensitivity, and compulsive scratching on hard surfaces in our home. She also had a bad UTI as a puppy meaning she really struggled to sleep. Walks had become so difficult that we couldn’t see a way forward despite trying to manage the places that we walked her away from roads.
Like many others, we turned to the internet for help, only to be overwhelmed by conflicting advice. Sadly, we lost valuable time and spent a year attending classes of a trainer who offered ‘behavioural consultations’ alongside his training school. The reality was that he did not have a single qualification in either dog training or animal behaviour and the school eventually suggested we see someone else 1-1.
Looking back, I truly believe that if we had found Rachel when Connie was a puppy, many of her issues could have been prevented.
Rachel’s credentials as an ABTC-registered Clinical Animal Behaviourist, specialising in Border Collies, gave her a unique blend of scientific knowledge and hands-on experience. She truly understands the breed and how to prevent small issues from becoming major problems.
From our very first interaction, Rachel was warm, empathetic, and incredibly generous with her time. She explained everything clearly and patiently, never making us feel rushed. Her emails were detailed and thoughtful, and the personalised plan she created felt both manageable and effective. We received support through email, Zoom sessions, and one-on-one meetings — all of which made a huge difference. Above all I felt she completely understood Connie and genuinely cared about us.
Thanks to Rachel’s expertise, we eventually discovered through CT scans that Connie had a bulging disc and degeneration in her rib heads and neck — conditions that are now being treated. Without Rachel, we might have dismissed Connie’s behaviour as stubbornness, or worse, followed misguided advice to use harsher training methods.
If there’s one thing I wish someone had told me during those difficult early days, it’s this: Rachel Rodgers at The Collie Consultant is the person you need. Raising a puppy can be overwhelming, especially if they display behaviours, you didn’t expect or if they’re very different from dogs you’ve had before. But take it from someone who’s been there — trust Rachel, follow her plan, and it will be the best decision you make for you and your dog".

Cassie

Julie Palmer & Cassie

Aggression Towards People

"I can't thank the The Collie Consultant enough for helping us with our young Collie who was very anxious and afraid of people when she joined our family. Rachel listened patiently to our struggles and her advice was very practical with strategies and activities that we were able to put in place straight away. Her techniques have all been very positive experiences for our dog which has given us a lot of confidence. A few short months down the line and our dog is coping really well with so many new situations, and we couldn't be happier with her progress".

Lucy Gardner & Shrike

Resource Guarding & Aggression

"Rachel has been nothing short of wonderful, we came to her looking for help with our puppy who was resource guarding, had been showing signs of aggression and we didn’t know what to do. Rachel came up with a plan to get started and we went through all sorts of things, she was determined to find out what was wrong with Shrike and gave us lots of advice support, liaised with our vet and wouldn’t give up.

We ended up finding out that Shrike was in pain and we now have a plan to try and manage this. I don’t know what we would have done without her, we can’t say thank you enough!"

Trixie

Emma Lewis and Trixie

Anxiety & Fear of Visitors

"Rachel is a wealth of knowledge and specialist in my favourite breed..I had a telephone consultation with Rachel, who immediately spotted Anxiety behaviours in my rescue Border Collie..Rachel has liased with my Vet and arranged tests to rule out relating medical conditions..The plan of action for dealing with other issues is working extremely well...Can't thank Rachel enough xxx"

Jedi

Yvonne Sloan and Jedi

Sound Sensitivity

"I would highly recommend Rachel, who is knowledgeable, experienced and passionate about what she does. I had no specific problems when i contacted Rachel, but i had just rescued a collie pup and as it had been quite some time since i had a puppy, i wanted to ensure i was doing everything right to prevent any issues from arising.

Rachel was fantastic and no question was "stupid" and when my pup did develop an issue, she was very quick to help me work through it to prevent if from developing further.

Rachel was amazing, very easy to speak with and so approachable that when i had an issue after our 3 sessions had finished, i was able to contact her to help me. Again, she helped me nip it in the bud before it escalated.

Rachel's knowledge, experience, care and passion for Collies (and i have no doubt, all dogs) is fantastic. She helped me gain confidence in myself and my dog and as a result we have the most amazing relationship and bond. Thank you Rachel and keep doing what you are incredible at - the collie world thanks you :-)"

Gloria

Kathy Croker & Gloria

Spinning & Other Compulsive Behaviour

"The knowledge and insight that Rachel has, is second to none. Truly dedicated to understanding what is driving behaviours and guiding me along the way, with an easy to achieve plan that fits in with a busy life. Whilst the journey continues, how life with the lovely Gloria has changed - dramatically"!

Jodie Proffitt-Thomas and Ozzie

Resource Guarding, Reactivity - People, Children & Dogs

Rachel has been absolutely amazing throughout her time with our Ozzie. Ozzie is a funny character and is reactive and highly anxious and couldn’t do many long walks, and often had difficulty bonding with our other dog Hugo. As we came to Rachel, myself and my wife didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel and we thought rehoming was the only option and there were many tears. Rachel’s guidance, training and knowledge allowed us to understand Ozzie and his quirks and helped us to put things in place to support him. We now have a still funny character but one who can be around bikes, people, dogs, animals and children which we never thought would happen. He has gone from not being able to be in the same room as our other dog to now sharing the sofa with him daily. Ozzie is also now doing long walks daily which we love. Thank you so much Rachel you helped us when we were at a very low and helpless place with Ozzie🐾 1000% would recommend it’s improved our routines and life style so much🐾

Testimonial

Kate Growney and Pip

Shadow Chasing

"Rachel was an immense help with our young Border Collie who developed an obsession with shadows. She is non-judgemental, kind, positive, and has the dogs welfare as an absolute priority whilst also being realistic about the owners lifestyle and ability. Rachel clearly has a wealth of behavioural knowledge, backed by qualifications, but she is also great at transferring this knowledge into simple terms for us owners.
We travelled to meet her for the first consultation, and follow ups were done via zoom. She was really approachable and was available for any guidance outside of those calls.
I would urge anyone in the same boat to give Rachel a call/message. Worth every penny!"

Collie consultant testimonial - leo

Laura Cotterill and Leo

Adolescent and Rescue Training

"The first online meeting was brilliant!! Rachel listened and made many notes, she saw me interact with Leo via Zoom and I expressed current behaviours. Following this, I received an extensive training programme and personalised guide to support me put initial actions into practice. Rachel also provided me with brilliant visual and video resources to support training and understanding. Any questions I had, I was able to contact Rachel and she responded, making me feel very much looked after.

Fast forward a few weeks later and putting initial homework into practice; Rachel visited us in our home and we had a 121 session working on key elements of the training programme. Rachel was marvellous at demonstrating techniques and explaining best practice. The session was packed with options to help with Leo in his walks, engagement with people, jumping up and also saw the introduction of clicker training. I now feel confident to put instructions into practice and know I have foundational knowledge to build on Leo's training.

Our journey with Rachel doesn't end here and we have more sessions online to follow.
Rachel's knowledge and service so far has been outstanding and I highly recommend. Rachel really understands and appreciates the Collie breed and has a tool belt of great techniques that are easy to apply. Rachel has helped me put into place training to deter Collie traits at an early age and I know this will help Leo as he grows. Thank you from us all! "

Evie border collie

Delyth Eastabrook and Evie

Repetitive barking and sensitive to noises

"I was really desperate by the time I made contact with Rachel. Although I had owned another Border Collie previously Evie was certainly different and a handful. With Rachel's help we have definitely turned the corner and Evie is becoming a lovely girl and a wonderful companion. I can't thank Rachel enough for all her help and support. I can heartily recommend her. I really enjoyed our Zoom calls which worked really well."

border collie - fern

Arthur & Sophie Taylor and Fern

Aggressive behaviour towards unfamiliar people

"Rachel was absolutely fantastic with us and our 1 year old Collie, she identified the root cause of our issues and gave us a clear plan and timeframe on what to expect.
Before meeting Rachel me and my partner where loosing our minds with the sheer amount of different advice on the internet, Rachel gave us one clear voice and a route on the guidance.
Before Fern was barking at strangers probably once a day, 4 months later on its been a month without her barking at a stranger now out on walks."

Indie dog reactive border collie

Jemma Tointon and Indie

6 month old dog reactive border collie

“Rachel helped us with our dog reactive puppy Indie. She would bark and lunge at other dogs, which was a big issue because we wanted to train her to compete in flyball. With Rachel's training advice, she now rarely reacts at all and is doing really well in flyball!” 

pupstart puppy training

Yvette Cooper & Fen

8 week old border collie training

“It was so brilliant to find a puppy trainer who specialises in border collies. Rachel helped us to keep Fen calmer in the evenings, improve his recall and start loose lead training. It's great having her on hand to ask about issues as they come up.” 

Zoe the caucasian shepherd

Catherine Giles and Zoe

6 month old Caucasian Shepherd training

“Rachel has been out to meet my Caucasian Shepherd pup. Rachel was really patient and calm and has given us some great advice that we are putting into practice now. Highly recommended!”