The Canine Lab

I'm Lara — founder of The Canine Lab and the person you'll work with from the first phone call to the last lesson. I came to dog training the long way round. My academic background is in Biology — I read for my BA at the University of Oxford, where animal behaviour was the part of the course I kept returning to. Long before I started training professionally, I was reading the science of how animals learn, how social behaviour develops, and why dogs do the things they do. That foundation underpins everything I do now: the need to understand "why" you are doing something. 

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I had always had well-trained dogs growing up, but when I moved to London in 2022 with my Labrador retriever, Seamus, I was overwhelmed by the large number of rude and unfriendly dogs that would approach him as an intact male. That's when I found Kate White at Saint K9 Training. I started as a client looking for help with Seamus, and stayed for a long, hands-on mentorship that turned what I'd learned as an owner into something I could deliver as a professional. Under Kate, I worked hands-on with hundreds of dogs across a variety of breeds, ages and behavioural challenges — accumulating the kind of immersive, day-in-day-out experience that no qualification, course or certificate can substitute for. I'm hugely grateful to her for it.

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My approach: I work from what the science of learning and behaviour actually tells us about dogs — not from dogma, ideology, or whichever method is fashionable on Instagram this month. Every dog is different, and the right approach for yours depends on your dog's temperament, the specific behaviour we're addressing, and your goals. I draw on the full knowledge of modern dog training and discuss with you in advance the suggested approach and why. Nothing happens with your dog that we haven't talked through first.

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What I specialise in: I work with dogs of all ages and breeds, but I particularly enjoy the cases other trainers find tricky — reactivity, anxiety, prey drive, and the more complex behavioural patterns that need patient, structured work. Strong puppy foundations and solid obedience are the other half of what I do, and they're the best insurance against the harder problems later.