Animal Centred Education (ACE) and Free Work can bring a new dimension to your current work. ACE offers dog professionals a compassionate approach that supports dogs’ emotional, physical and mental well-being whilst fostering clear two-way communication and deeper trust.​
​Our range of services for dog professionals helps you to enhance your offer to your clients, helping you integrate Free Work and ACE principles into your practice. These services provide practical tools, expert guidance, and ongoing support, empowering you to maximise support for the dogs in your care.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Reed Photography

Free Work in Classes course

Do you currently run classes and would like to incorporate Free Work into your delivery?
Would you like to understand more about how Free Work can maximise learning for both the dogs and humans?
This 5 week online course will give you the knowledge and confidence to do this.

Book Online

Photo Credit: Rebecca Reed Photography

Host an ACE workshop

Are you a professional that would like to host us at your venue, to introduce your clients to ACE (Animal Centred Education)? Workshops available include Intro to Free Work, Relaxed Lead Walking, Connection Outdoors and Jumping up, all taught through ACE methods. Contact us for more details.

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Free Work for your clients

Would you like additional input to support the work with your clients?
These private 1:1 ACE Free Work sessions held a Tilley Farm provide insight with regards to physical and emotional observations, aiming to add layers to the work with your clients.

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ACE Mentorship

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Transform the how you engage clients and how you deliver your dog training sessions, lessons and workshops. This mentorship aims to support you to embed ACE Principles and Free Work into your dog training provision. It can be daunting considering how to amend your practice so let us support you every step of the way.

Find out more

Photo credit: Rebecca Reed Photography

Hosting Workshops

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The workshops available are all taught thorough ACE Free Work. ACE Free Work is a core element of Animal Centred Education. During these workshops we explore what Free Work is, how to set it up, its benefits for your dog and use this as a platform for skill development where appropriate. Free Work can bring peace and calmness to all dogs.
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Free Work is used in Animal Centred Education as a way to enable our dogs to reset, rebalance and release. As our dogs start to slow down during free work, postural struggles, habits, worries about being handled or wearing a harness, to name a few, become more apparent. This enables us to help ease some of these concerns, positively impacting on our dogs welfare and behaviour.

Workshops available are:
- Intro to Free Work
- Relaxed Lead Walking
- Jumping Up
- Connection Outdoors

find out more

Photo Credit: Bob Atkins

What is Free Work?

What are the benefits of Free Work?

Free Work is a simple, low impact activity that can be set up in any environment. It includes a range of objects and surfaces for a dog to explore.

Free Work is a great way for a dog to relax and slow down, allowing them to reset, rebalance and release, both physically and emotionally. 

Observations through Free Work can give us information regarding patterns, habits, postural or physical struggles and preferences or concerns, that a dog may have.

Through these observations, we are able to make small adaptations to the way we interact with a dog, which can often bring the biggest change to their wellbeing and behaviour. 

ACE Free Work is credit to Sarah Fisher.

• Many dogs struggle when in novel situations and many cannot tolerate contact even from familiar people when aroused, worried or in new or exciting environments
• Free Work has provided an invaluable stepping stone towards further learning including quiet interactions and bodywork by encouraging dogs to engage with a variety of items at liberty
• Stripping everything back and giving the dog complete freedom of choice enables dogs to reset, rebalance and release
• It also gives the guardian the opportunity to gather data from the dog whilst the dog is able to gather data from the environment. This low impact exercise can help to improve their posture and ensure the dog works each muscle in their body without engaging in fast, arousing games

​Credit: Sarah Fisher

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you offer for fellow dog professionals?

We offer CPD (continuing professional development) opportunities and workshops for other dog professionals who want to deepen their knowledge and skills.

What topics do your CPD workshops cover?

We run ACE Free Work in Classes, and we can also create bespoke workshops covering a range of topics, for example ACE Puppy, ACE Adolescent and lead walking. Everything is rooted in Animal Centred Education methods and canine wellbeing.

Who are the CPD opportunities aimed at?

Trainers, behaviourists and other canine professionals looking to expand their understanding and add to their practice.

Do your CPD sessions carry accreditation or credits?

ACE Credits can be awarded to those on the ACE Teaching pathway.

How can dog professionals book onto a workshop?

Get in touch through our contact page and we'll let you know about upcoming professional workshops and CPD dates.

Find Us Near Bristol and Bath

We run sessions and workshops at two venues, close to Bristol and Bath, our centre is based in Hunstrete and Tilley Farm is in Farmborough, near Bath and North East Somerset, within easy reach of most Somerset and South West towns including Bristol, Bath, Keynsham, Longwell Green, Bradford-on-Avon, Shepton Mallet, Pensford, Chew Magna, Paulton, Radstock, Clutton, Midsomer Norton.

​Our centre address is: ​Common Wood, Hunstrete Lane, Hunstrete, BS39 4NT
Tilley Farm address is: Timsbury Road, Farmborough, BA2 0AB

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Our Accreditations