About Teamwork Training

Paddy Driscoll MSc (Clinical Animal Behaviour) APDT(UK) (no 246) ABTC (ATI)

used to live in Surrey where she established her dog training and behaviour business, Teamwork Training, in 1996 having been in a successful career as a professional librarian working in public, academic and prison libraries, acquiring training, management, organisational skills and a degree in poltics and international studies along the way. But her hobby of training and showing dogs, pursued since she first took the family dog to a local training class in 1968, won out and she exchanged the world of books and information for dogs. 

The Teamwork Training business relocated to Lincoln in 2003.

Following Covid the business changed direction and Teamwork Training Skills Support was established. She still takes on the occasional training or behaviour case, but most of her professional time is spent supporting other trainers and behaviourists in their dog training and behaviour ventures. Plus delivering the occasional course or webinar if asked. She is no longer pursuing CCAB Status, but is (technically speaking) "Pre-Cert" i.e. has fulfilled the criteria needed to become a CCAB. Semi-retirement appealed more than continuing to acquire more qualifications. :-)

She currently lives with a Golden Retriever and sometimes bothers to train her in ScentworkUK scent detection. She has owned, fostered and rehabilitated many rescue dogs of a variety of breeds, mostly for German Spitz Welfare, and also for the rescue charity Dogs in Need. She has experience in training her own dogs for a variety of competitive disciplines.  

Her past experience has included: 

• Teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students at Bishop Burton College, and teaching support at the University of Lincoln
• Member of DogAid (as a volunteer trainer working with owners of assistance dogs)
• Professional behaviour and training support to Jerry Green Dog Rescue.
• One of the first dog trainers in the UK to adopt clicker training - she presented the first workshop on the subject for dog trainers here in the UK.
• One of the first trainers to establish puppy classes before puppy classes were a 'thing'

 Always an innovator, she was amongst the first to introduce clicker training to the UK following a trip to the USA in 1996 for a 'Don't Shoot the Dog' workshop with Karen Pryor and Gary Wilkes. Establishing 'baby' puppy classes in the 1970s, and more recently groups (like the Gnasher Club) specifically to support owners of "reactive" dogs - both innovative in their time. She has specialised in working with aggressive and so called "reactive" behaviour. 

These are just a few of the trainers and courses she has learned from over the years - . 

Always keen to update her knowledge, she gained her Masters degree (with Merit) in Clinical Animal Behaviour at the highly regarded University of Lincoln, with Prof Daniel Mills and Helen Zulch, in 2013.  

She is currently

• a member of the UK Association of Pet Dog Trainers (no 246) having been both an assessor and an APDT course instructor in the past.
• on the Animal Training Instructors register of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council (ABTC). 
•  a Contributing Supporter Member of the Fellowship of Animal Behaviour Clinicians (FABC)

RELEVANT ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

MSc in Clinical Animal Behaviour

TRAINING ACHIEVEMENTS

• BREED SHOWING - made up 2 champions in 2 different breeds, including the first clicker trained show champion in the UK. Used to be on a number of breed club judging lists (open show level)
• OBEDIENCE - C only, and gained BEx, with an AussieXCollie, having originally won out of Beginners with a German Spitz 
• AGILITY - she reached the finals of the Barbour Mini Pairs competition 2 years in succession; won out of Starters (equivalent to Grade 2)
• SCENTWORKUK - Level 2
• WORKING TRIALS AND HTM - trained for but never competed

WHAT ELSE?

• Certificate in Counselling Skills Level 2
• Certificate in Events Management Level 2
• A number of publications, including co-authorship of Differences in trait impulsivity indicate diversification of dog breeds into working and show lines. Fernanda Ruiz Fadel, Patricia Driscoll, Malorzata Pilot, Hannah Wright, Helen Zulch and Daniel Mills. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 22162 (2016) which earned her and the co-authors Scientific Reports' 'Top 100 read articles 2016')