Our History
Gill and Chris started Good Companion Dog Training Club (GCDTC) in the spring of 1993. The club started at the All Saints Church hall in Ffynnongroyw although most of the demand for training came from the Prestatyn area. They moved to the Jubilee Community Center Prestatyn on the 4th September 1995. They are very grateful the committee has provided the opportunity and been very supportive.
Our club has now grown from strength to strength, starting with 2 certified instructors and 2 classes. We now have a combination of over 8 classes a week with 14 volunteers combined of qualified instructors and experienced dog owners and members helping weekly. The class content has also varied with courses and qualifications now allowing us to offer additional workshops and courses in many dog sports and activities.
We are all VOLUNTEERS who are keen to promote responsible dog ownership. Teaching owners how to help their dog learn social skills and fit in with family life.
The club is listed with the Kennel Club. We actively teach and take part in the Good Citizens Dog Scheme at all levels. With many of our instructors also able to assess as qualified examiners and often asked to attend other clubs to assess their award evenings.
The training methods we use are REWARD BASED. They focus on offering the dog choice and rewarding good behaviour. Using kind, fair and effective training by rewarding the dog with treats, toys or fuss to shape and motivate a desired behaviour.
We like to keep our training methods up to date and refreshed by attending as many training courses as possible. We also share with each other by holding training nights for our volunteers at our club.
Our aim is to educate and guide owners to have fun with their dog, whilst also guiding them through socialisation and building up valuable life skills!
The Logo
In the summer of 2023, Good Companion Dog Training Club celebrated its 30th anniversary. Over the past thirty years, the team has been dedicated to helping dogs and their owners communicate with each other to build a strong bond and a lifetime of trust.
When GCDTC was founded, a beautiful hand drawn logo was created. The meaning behind the logo was to help ensure that everyone felt included, having a logo which represented that everyone was welcome, crossbreeds and purebreds alike. So the logo was created to not particularly look like any individual breed. Whenever anybody asked, we would proudly tell them the story of the logo and why it was chosen and we still do, even though that image was then digitised a couple of years ago.
Over time dog training has continued to evolve and so has the club. We have gone from 2 founders to a group of 14 volunteers and hundreds of supporters ranging from class members; partnerships with local clubs and the wider community.
Although the purpose of dog training has not changed, the awareness around it has, and we now understand that the dog is half of the partnership. It’s all about the bond and communication that happens between the dog and their owner, about creating memories and partnerships together.
As we thought long and hard about this, we realised that we needed an image that portrayed more of the relationship that we strive for in our classes. We train owners how to communicate with their dogs effectively.
To reflect this, we have created a new Good Companion logo which we feel represents who we are and what we do. The new logo symbolises that the owner-dog relationship is the very cornerstone of our club.
We, at Good Companion Dog Training Club, are connected through a passion, love and commitment that we have for our dogs, which we hope to now portray through our new logo.
