Zachary Hazell

Founder and Head Trainer of Da Capo Dogs, my core focus is on making dog training more Accessible in all forms, and on returning to foundations instead of focusing too hard on a polished final behaviour.

As an ambulatory wheelchair user I strive to help not only disabled clients, but also all other dog handlers and dog trainers to find innovative ways to adapt common dog training "games", as well as developing novel problem solving skills that they can then pass on to their dogs.

While being an Assistance Dog (Service Dog) trainer and handler is extremely important to my work, behaviour is the root of all work that I do. I'm also particularly fond on working with Adolescent and Reactive dogs, as well as teaching precise sports behaviours driven from comfort and confidence within the ring.

My labrador Toby has a lot of big feelings about the world, and I have him to thank for setting me on the journey of behavioural work when we reached the stage where nobody else could help him. Toby has gone from significant fear reactivity towards humans, and excitement reactivity towards dogs (paired with redirection bites that I still have the scars from) to now being a dream stooge dog in helping other reactive dogs. He is confident and happy in himself, and I can take him anywhere and he will work with confidence, but only because of the multiple years of hard work and the lifelong bits of management that we do.

Hiro is my Assistance Dog, trained completely by myself. He has worked full time within a hospital environment, and done everything from a trip to the shops to spectating a bustling Powerlifting competition while making it look like a walk in the park. Hiro will throw himself into any activity and give 110%, and his toy drive makes him extremely fun to work with, but he takes his work very seriously and will not hesitate to ignore any distraction in order to perform his Medical Alert tasks.

I am always learning new things, and I think that is part of the joy of working with dogs! Although I have worked as a dog trainer for over 4 years, I have only set my own company up within the past 6 months, and stepping into this new chapter of my life is scary but exciting. My great hope is that I can help others to see how much value there is in changing your perspective, and in trying to include everyone within the dog training world!