I am proud to have had a central role in "Dogs Might Fly" which demonstrated the amazing things that can be achieved with rescue dogs and reward-based training. If I can teach a dog to fly, there's a good chance I can help you with your dog!
In this six part series, twelve unwanted and abandoned dogs from across the UK attempted to achieve the impossible: to become the first dog ever to fly a plane.
Episode 1 - The Search: A nationwide search for dogs from rescue centres found some of Britain’s most extraordinary canine characters bursting with potential.
Alfie and Mat fully focussed at Flight School!
Episodes 2 to 5 - The Dog House: I joined a team of dog experts at the "Dog House" to explore the capabilities of the twelve dogs, with the ultimate aim of selecting three who would attend flight school. As well as testing the dogs’ cognitive abilities, emotional stability, and memory, we undertook three incredible training challenges: "Bedtime" (a mini-movie); "Happy" (a music video); and "Pup Up and Away" (a doggy theatre production). See below for behind the scenes training videos.
Episode 6 - Flight School: Two of the three rescue dogs I was responsible for made it through to flight school, and I was proud to have designed the core aspects of the training programme and equipment which ultimately saw Shadow, Alfie, and Reggie all earn their wings by taking full control of a Cessna 172 aircraft.
Training Alfie, Shadow and Blondie for the "Pup Up and Away" training challenge - Episode 5 of Dogs Might Fly.
Training for the music video challenge - Episode 4 of Dogs Might Fly.
Training Alfie and Shadow for the bedtime mini-movie challenge - Episode 3 of Dogs Might Fly.
"Happy" - the final edit of the music video training challenge.