Terms & Conditions
Most recent Amendment: 17/10/2024
Introduction of terms for our membership page.
Prior Amendment: 23/06/2024
Amendment to our cancellation policy from 3 days to 7 days. Amendment to cancellation fees on a per trainer basis.
Prior Amendment: 12/11/2023
Addition of terms and conditions for access to the online members portal, including Refunds and Cancellations terms.
Prior Amendment: 15/03/2023
*updates to refund policy for new discount package options. Refunds, Amendments & Cancellations Section C.
Our Services
Behaviour Rehabilitation
Our Behavioural rehabilitation service is a face to face behavioural assessment and training service, in which we will first provide a clear evaluation of your dog and the cause of their behaviour, then secondly to work with you practically in an advisory and educational capacity to introduce the tools, techniques and exercises we recommend to resolve your dogs behaviour. As a face to face service, we will work with you and your dog over a set period of time, in exchange for a fixed fee at the agreed cost as stated when booking in your session.
Online Membership
Our Membership service is an online portal, providing streamable video content, downloadable PDF documents, and other digital learning content. The membership also offers discounts on our in person behaviour rehabilitation services.
Dog Behaviour
a) Behavioural Change
Whilst we will make every effort to assist you towards lasting, demonstrable change to your dogs behaviour, we do not guarantee that this will be the case, and this is not a part of our agreement with you. Dogs are living creatures who’s behaviours naturally change as a result of their environment, and those who take care of them. Many behavioural issues in domestic dogs are closely linked to the behaviours of the owner. In the same way, lasting behavioural change in a dog is closely related to the extent to which an owner is able to put practical changes to their own behaviour and routines in place. We do not take responsibility for any behavioural changes or lack thereof that occur outside of our time spent with you, where we are not present to witness or influence these behaviours.
b) Dogs as Unique Individuals
Any advice, techniques or methodologies we share with you are specific to the dog we are working with, and should not be used on any other dog unless discussed. Dogs are unique individuals and advice, techniques or methodologies we suggest for one dog may not be applicable for another. Any advice, techniques or methodologies we share are based on the assumption that the information you have provided to us about your dogs history, health and medical condition are accurate, and that you have taken the appropriate time to confirm with a veterinary specialist that there are no medical issues that may be impacting your dogs behaviour. We do not take any responsibility for any impact of our advice, techniques or methodologies, on medical conditions which we were not made fully aware before offering our services.
c) Dogs as Sentient Beings
In working with you and your dog, we are engaging in practical activities that expose your dog to a range of sensory stimuli in the natural environment, and stimuli of psychological significance to the behavioural issues your dog is facing. Dogs as sentient beings have the ability to experience and express amongst many other emotions, pain or discomfort, fear and anxiety as well as frustration and aggression - herein referred to as ‘stress’.
We adopt a practice of limited exposure, which means that whilst every effort and consideration is made to keep stress through exposure to a minimum, you will be working practically with your dog in real world environments, where you and your dog will be alongside other people and dogs, cars, and other stressor stimuli. At any time when your dog is exposed to stress, our role as a behaviourist is to work practically with you through these experiences, to ensure a positive psychological outcome for your dog- not to avoid them entirely. Due to the nature of working with sentient animals, we cannot guarantee that your dog will not be exposed to stress, as this is often an essential part of the process of overcoming these stressors. We will however always act for the long term psychological health and welfare of your dog.
Our Responsibilities
Under the Dangerous Dogs Act (1991), We present ourselves as ‘fit and proper’ persons within the industry of dog behaviour, and as such are required to take responsibility for the behaviour of your dog, and ensure it remains under control at all times whilst you are in our company. This means that in any event that your dog presents a danger to itself or to others, we maintain the right to take any and all actions we deem necessary to maintain a safe environment for all dogs and persons involved, without prior warning at that given time. We will act quickly and effectively, with the aim of preventing or reducing any danger, harm or discomfort to all involved parties. We maintain this right specifically and exclusively during any time we spend with you face to face. This right and responsibility does not extend to your dogs behaviour in scenarios where we are not present to assist you.
Appointment Times
At the Dog’s Way, we offer appointments on site in our enclosed paddocks at Underhill Farm, as well as travelling appointments whereby we will travel to your home address or another location. If you are travelling to Underhill Farm, please try to make sure that you arrive on time for your appointment. Whilst we do factor in extra time for delays, and will do everything we can to ensure you receive your full appointment time if you are held up, this may not always be possible if you are significantly delayed and another client has a session directly after yours. Full directions to the farm are accessible from the “locations” page on our site, and from your email confirmation and reminders.
When travelling to you, our aim is always to arrive at your booking time, and we will always contact you before setting off for your appointment with an ETA - regardless of whether we are anticipating a delay. Delays do sometimes occur, particularly during the winter months. -These delays are normally no more than 10 minutes except in rare circumstances. In these instances, we will always give you and your dog the full time you need for your session and will keep you updated on our arrival time before hand. Delays are an inevitable part of the service we offer, so please try to ensure that you have extra time free beyond your scheduled appointment.
Payment
a ) Payment for your session is always required at the time of booking. The cost for each session is clearly listed when booking, calculated at our basic rate of £80 per hour for One to One training, with pricing variations calculated based on the type of session that you are booking, to factor in additional costs such as travel, and excluding any other offers, discounts, group pricing or promotions. Payment can be made by credit or debit card - using the integrated payment system provided by Squareup Europe Ltd. You can learn more about Square at www.squareup.com. Any payments made to us will show on your Bank Account as SQ*THE DOG’S WAY LTD COLCHESTER GB. An automatic confirmation email will be sent on completion of your booking, and receipts can be provided on request. We do not accept cash payments.
b) Payment for the Online Portal is required prior to access being provided. As a digital product, you will be required to hold a Squarespace account in order to access the online portal. Access is provided instantly on receipt of payment, by a way of a confirmation email, or by logging in to the members page.
Membership
Members Calls
Free Phone calls are offered as part of your membership, both for Lifetime Membership customers and Monthly Membership Customers. Calls are not include for Mini Membership Customers. Customers with access to the members page can book unlimited free phone calls, subject to a fair use policy - which in this case is defined as the ability to book calls without limitation, based on the availability at any given point time on our call booking system. Calls are offered exclusively through this booking system, which means that whilst all members have access to book calls, available times will be defined by the availability that we set, and by the number of other customers who have also booked free phone calls. We reserve the right not to offer phone calls outside of our pre-programmed availability, and we reserve the right to adjust call availability at any time to suit the demands of the business. We reserve the right to cancel individual call bookings in situations where any individual customer is booking calls in a manner which we deem excessive.
Downloadable Booklets
We offer a library of downloadable booklets which are available through our members portal. These can be purchased at any time at the price listed on the website, including when the price listed is £0.00. A downloadable link for PDF will booklets will be supplied on completion of purchase, which will expire 24 hours after your first download. Booklets available on the store may be removed or updated at any time, and it is our customers responsibility to manage the storage of their digital downloads. Booklets are available for personal, individual use only, and are not available for redistribution. We do not give our members the right to share or redistribute digital booklets. All digital booklets remain the Intellectual property of The Dog’s Way UK Ltd.
Digital Video Library.
Our members portal contains our library of online videos, available for personal use to be streamed online. Videos are not available for download, and we do not give our members the right to share of redistribute our video material. All videos remain the Intellectual property of The Dog’s Way UK Ltd.
Refunds, Amendments & Cancellations - In Person Services
a) Refunds
As part of our agreement, you understand that we exclusively offer our time as a service. As such, we do not offer refunds for any time spent with you. As mentioned in Dog Behaviour Section A, any changes or lack thereof to your dogs behaviour are not a part of the agreement you make with us, and as such we do not offer refunds for any reason, once we have completed the full session with you as laid out in the invoice.
b) Cancellations
We reserve the right to cancellation of your appointment, up until 08:00am local time on the day of your appointment. Wherever possible, we endeavour to make you aware of any cancellations with as much time as possible. If for any reason we do need to cancel your appointment, you reserve the right to reschedule your appointment at the next available time within a 30 day period, or alternatively a full refund should you be unable or unwilling to find a suitable appointment time. In the event that you chose to refund your callout fee, we endeavour to do so within 3 business days.
You reserve the right to cancel your appointment without penalty up to 7 days prior to the date and time of your appointment. This can be done using the cancellation link at the bottom of your email confirmation. In this instance, we will work with you to reschedule your appointment for a time that suits you, or in the eventuality that you are unable to find a suitable appointment time within a 30 day period, we will refund any payments made to you.
In the eventuality that you contact us to cancel your appointment less than 7 days before your session, or you are not present at the address provided as the location of your appointment, and you are unable or unwilling to reschedule your appointment within a 30 day period, we reserve the right not to offer any refund in this instance. At our discretion, we may also offer a partial refund excluding a late cancellation fee equal to 25% of your session cost in all circumstances. In circumstances where you have booked a masterclass or referred case where multiple trainers are present, a late cancellation fee equal to 25% of your session per trainer applies. In the eventuality you cancel an appointment on more than two occasions, we reserve the right not to offer you the opportunity the reschedule your appointment again. We also reserve the right not to offer any refund in this instance.
c) Packages
We offer packages on site which provide a number of sessions at a reduced cost to the normal price for booking. In the eventuality that you book a package and subsequently choose to cancel that package, either without having booked any sessions, or having booked some but not all of the sessions in your package, a refund will be offered on a Pro rata basis excluding sessions already used. In this instance, a pro rata refund is calculated with sessions that have been used charged at the standard rate, and this amount deducted from your refund amount - as discounts offered on packages are only available for a full course of sessions.
For example, if you book a £249.00 package, you use your £40.00 phone call and your £159.00 specialist assessment, then request a refund on your package, the refund us calculated as £249.00 - (£40.00+£159.00) = £50.00
Refunds & Cancellations - Online Membership.
a) Refunds and Cancellations
Refunds are not provided under any circumstances for access to the Membership Portal. As a digital product, access to our intellectual property, learning material and discounted session booking is provided immediately on receipt of payment, and as such cannot be revoked at a later point in time.
Use of Video Recording Equipment
We will on occasion using photo and video recording equipment to capture footage of your dogs behaviour, as well as your own - primarily for educational use during the training session. We also occasionally like to use these photos and videos for promotional purposes, on our website and social channels, subject to an opt out policy. In the eventuality that you do not wish for photo or video of either yourself or your dog to be shared, an opt out is provided when booking your session. Any photo and video recorded remains the Intellectual property of The Dogs Way UK Ltd. If you would like to be sent a copy of any photos or video footage taken during your session, you can request these by contacting one of the team. Any participants of training sessions under the Age of 18 are automatically opted out, without exception.