STEADY AND SURE
puppy programme
For gundog puppy guardians who want to start the way they mean to go on
Nina Fotara KCAI (WG)
Kennel Club Accredited Instructor, Working Gundogs.
15 years working alongside spaniels, retrievers, pointers, setters, HPRs, and rarer gundog breeds and crosses.
🏆 Award Winner 2026 Holistic Gundog Training Specialist of the Year & Canine Behaviour Excellence Award | Pet Products & Services Awards
KCAI (WG) qualified | Currently completing Level 6 Certified Clinical Canine Behaviourist | Creator of the Regulation First Model™
Early foundation training for gundog puppies between 12 weeks and 6 months. Built on the Regulation First Model™.
The best time to begin isn’t later. It’s now.
Early foundation training for gundog puppies from 12 weeks to 6 months.
Congratulations on your gundog puppy!
You didn’t get a gundog puppy to wait and see how things turned out. You got one because you wanted a real partnership — a dog who works with you, stays connected with you, and genuinely enjoys being in your world.
Those things don’t begin with formal training. They begin right now, in the small moments. A look back at you on a walk. A name that means something. A puppy who finds coming back to you more interesting than running off. The early habits that decide whether adolescence will feel like a continuation of the work you’ve already done, or a sudden cliff where everything seems to fall apart at once.
I developed Steady & Sure because so many of the gundogs I work with in my adult programmes arrive having missed the foundations that puppyhood was the right time to build. Not because their guardians did anything wrong. Because nobody told them, at the right moment, what those foundations actually are.
Most puppy training focuses on teaching cues. Sit, down, come, stay. Those things matter, but they’re not the foundations. The foundations are calm, connection, and clear communication, built when your puppy’s brain is most ready to learn how to be with you. Get those laid properly between twelve weeks and six months, and the work afterwards becomes far easier than it would otherwise be.
Steady & Sure is built for exactly that window.
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
When a dog feels calm enough to think, learning becomes possible.
if any of this feels familiar, you’re in the right place.
You’ve got a gundog puppy and you’re already wondering whether you’re doing enough, or doing too much.
- You’ve got a gundog puppy and you want to do this properly from the start. Not push them, not pressure them, not drill commands into a dog too young to understand them. Properly, in a way that respects what’s developmentally appropriate at this age.
- You’ve read conflicting advice and aren’t sure what to trust. The internet has every possible opinion about every possible thing. Some of it contradicts itself. You want to follow someone who actually understands gundogs at this age, not chase advice from anyone with a YouTube channel.
- Your puppy is already showing strong instincts. The scenting, the pointing, the chasing, the watching. You can see what they’re built for, and you want to channel those instincts well before habits form rather than try to undo problems later.
- You’re worried about adolescence. You’ve heard stories. You’ve read the warnings about gundogs between eight and eighteen months. You’d rather get ahead of it than face it unprepared.
- You want your puppy to grow up connected to you, not just obedient. You don’t want a dog who responds to commands. You want a dog who’s part of a partnership, and you understand that partnership has to be built, not trained in.
- You’re a first-time gundog guardian who wants the right foundations. You’ve done the research. You’ve chosen the right breed for you. Now you want to start the way you mean to go on, with someone who can show you what those early months actually need to look like.
- You’ve had gundogs before and you’ve realised what you wished you’d known earlier. This time, you want to do it differently.
None of this means you’re overthinking it. It means you understand that the months before adolescence are the months that shape the dog you’ll have for the next twelve years.
Why these months matter
For Gundog Guardians who want more solid foundations
Between twelve weeks and six months, your puppy’s brain is doing something extraordinary. It’s deciding, in real time, what the world is and how to operate in it.
Every experience your puppy has in this window, every walk, every social moment, every encounter with something new, gets weighed up and filed away. Is this safe? Is this exciting? Is this overwhelming? Is being with my person the calming thing or the dull thing? Is the world something I move through with curiosity or something I react to with intensity?
The answers to those questions don’t come from formal training. They come from the texture of everyday life. The walks you take. The way you handle moments of excitement. Whether your puppy learns that you’re a regulating presence or a stimulating one. Whether they learn that calm is something to settle into or something to push through to get to the next interesting thing.
Most puppy training doesn’t address any of this. It teaches cues, sit, down, stay, come, without ever building the underlying regulatory system that makes those cues hold up later. That’s why so many gundogs hit adolescence and seem to forget everything they’ve been taught. They haven’t forgotten. The cues were taught into a nervous system that wasn’t first taught how to regulate, and when adolescence floods that system with hormones and curiosity, the cues simply can’t be accessed anymore.
Steady & Sure focuses on the regulatory and relational work that mainstream puppy training skips. We build the calm. We build the connection. We build the clear communication channel between you and your puppy. The cues come, sit, down, recall, lead work, but they come as part of a foundation, not as a substitute for one.
Get this window right, and adolescence becomes a stage you can move through together rather than a wall you crash into. The dog you hoped for stays in reach.
The dog you’re hoping for is already in front of you. These are the months that shape them.
What Steady and Sure actually does
Steady & Sure is three private one-to-one sessions paced over four to six weeks, designed to lay the foundations of calm, connection, and clear communication in the developmental window where they matter most.
The pace is gentle. The work is real. Your puppy isn’t being drilled or pressured. We’re building the underlying capacity that everything later in life will rest on, working with what’s developmentally appropriate for a puppy between twelve weeks and six months.
The work falls into a few clear areas, woven together across the sessions rather than taught as a checklist.
- Recall foundations. The early habit of coming back to you, built before the world becomes too interesting to ignore. Not a trained behaviour you’ll have to maintain forever. A natural pattern of returning that your puppy genuinely wants to come back to you because being with you is the good thing.
- Focus and engagement. Helping your puppy learn that checking in with you is worth their while. The looking-back moment, the soft pause, the natural awareness of you in their environment. These small habits are the seeds of the partnership you’re building towards.
- Gentle lead work. Introducing the lead in a way that feels calm and positive, without pressure. Most lead-related problems in adolescent gundogs start in puppyhood with lead introductions that confuse or frighten. We do it differently.
- Settling. Teaching your puppy how to switch off and rest properly, even in new or stimulating environments. A puppy who can settle now becomes an adolescent who can regulate later.
- Confidence building. Helping your puppy move through the world with curiosity rather than overwhelm. We expose them to the right things at the right pace, building a confident outlook that holds when adolescence arrives.
- Early environmental awareness. Beginning to introduce the sights, sounds, and situations your gundog will encounter throughout their working or family life. This isn’t socialisation in the meet every dog you see sense. It’s careful exposure that builds resilience.
Throughout the programme we bring in parts of my methodology that match what your puppy needs, Soft Speak™ for arousal, PAWS™ for impulse, Flow Walking for outdoor connection, applied gently, at the developmental level that suits this age.
Three sessions over four to six weeks is enough time to lay these foundations properly. Not as a rush. Not as a curriculum. As a real beginning to the dog you’re building towards.
“Training doesn’t begin with behaviour.
It begins with regulation.”
What you’ll see develop
Puppies grow and develop quietly, and what you’re really watching is the slow appearance of habits and dispositions that will hold for years.
Your puppy starts to look to you naturally. Not because they’ve been cued, but because checking in has become something they do. The looking-back moment on a walk appears earlier and more often. The natural awareness of you in their environment grows. You feel the small shifts of we’re doing this together rather than I’m trying to manage them.
They begin to settle properly. Real rest, not the half-alert puppy pause that isn’t really rest. They can be in a room with you without needing constant stimulation. They can switch off in new environments rather than staying wound up. The capacity for calm is genuinely being built, not just being asked of them.
Recall starts to mean something. You call your puppy’s name and they come, not because of a cue you’ve drilled but because returning to you has become the natural choice. The foundations of recall reliability later in life are laid right here, in these weeks.
Lead walks begin from a place of calm rather than excitement. The lead doesn’t become a confusing thing your puppy has to figure out. It becomes a calm extension of being together, which makes adolescent lead walking far less likely to fall apart.
Your puppy develops a curious, settled relationship with the world. Sounds, sights, people, dogs, environments. They’re learning what to notice, what to settle past, what to engage with. The over-arousal patterns that send so many adolescent gundogs sideways simply don’t get built in.
And underneath all of it, you and your puppy begin to find a rhythm. A way of being together that doesn’t depend on commands. The early shape of a partnership that will keep developing for years, but that starts being recognisable right now.
“Real training starts with the nervous system, not the cue.”
What’s included
Three one-to-one sessions over four to six weeks Private sessions held at my fully fenced venue in Purleigh or in real-world locations, depending on what your puppy is ready for. The pace is set by what your puppy needs at each stage, not by a fixed weekly schedule.
Written guidance after every session A clear write-up after each session covering what we worked on and what to focus on between sessions. No relying on memory, no trying to remember what I said three days later.
A puppy welcome box Including the items you’ll need to get started, such as a puppy dummy and a whistle, alongside a few small things to make the early weeks easier.
Access to the puppy programme library A library of videos and PDFs covering the foundational work, available to you to refer back to whenever you need it. If something specific comes up during your puppy’s development that needs supporting material, I can add it to the library quickly.
Between-session support throughout the programme Phone, email, or WhatsApp support during the four to six weeks, so you’re not stuck waiting for the next session when something comes up. If you’ve had a difficult moment, a sudden change, or a question that can’t wait, you can reach me.
One month of follow-on support after the live sessions end The work doesn’t stop when our sessions finish. You’ll have my ongoing support for a month afterwards as you continue to build the foundations into daily life with your growing puppy.
Access to the Holistic Dog® community A private community of gundog guardians on the same journey, including guardians of older dogs whose conversations and questions will be useful to you as your puppy grows. A proper supported space rather than an unmoderated group.
The Regulation First Model™ applied to puppyhood The methodology that runs through everything I do, applied here at the developmental window where these foundations are most easily built.
“Training doesn’t begin with behaviour. It begins with regulation.”
Who Steady and Sure is for
Steady & Sure is the right starting point if any of the following sounds like your situation:
- You’ve got a gundog puppy between twelve weeks and six months. Your puppy is past the early settling-in period, is safely able to go out and about, and is ready to begin building the foundations that everything else will rest on.
- You want to start training in a thoughtful, pressure-free way. Not drilling commands. Not pushing your puppy beyond what’s developmentally right. Building the foundations gently, at the pace that suits this stage of your puppy’s life.
- You’d rather build the right foundations now than fix problems later. You understand that the patterns laid down in puppyhood are easier to build than to undo. You’d rather invest the time and care now than face avoidable issues during adolescence.
- You want your puppy to grow up genuinely connected to you. Not just trained. Connected. You want to be the kind of guardian your dog actively chooses to be with, and you understand that’s something built from the very beginning.
- You’re a first-time gundog guardian who wants to start properly. You’ve chosen the right breed for your life. You’ve done your homework. Now you want someone who can show you what these early months actually need to look like, in a way that respects both you and your puppy.You’ve had gundogs before and want to do this puppyhood differently. Maybe you missed things first time round. Maybe you’ve thought a lot about what you’d do differently. This is your chance to build the foundations the way you wish you had then.
If you’ve got a gundog puppy and you’re ready to start the right way, the Steady & Sure programme is built for exactly this stage of your puppy’s life.
““The dog you hoped for stays in reach. The foundations that make that possible are built right now, in these months.”
Here’s one guardian’s experience of working with me on their puppy, in his own words.
“My wife and I had sessions with Nina for our working cocker spaniel puppy, Clover, and we’re absolutely delighted that we did. We had several sessions over a few months, initially weekly then moving to fortnightly, and Nina was superb throughout.
From a place of having a cute but unruly 9 month spaniel, we now have excellent whistle and voice recall, close lead walking, retrieval, distance commands and such confidence in our dog that has made her even more of a pleasure to have.
Nina was professional, approachable and supportive throughout, and did a great job of coaching us and our dog during the sessions so we had tangible things to work on each week. Dog training requires owners to also put in time to achieve goals, but with Nina’s help we started seeing results almost instantly based on what we wanted from the sessions.
We both could not recommend Confident Canine and Nina more highly, and we’re very grateful (and a bit relieved) we found you.”
— Olly Worley, Private Gundog Training
Olly’s story isn’t a guarantee, but it isn’t a one-off. This work, done properly, lands.
Training doesn’t begin with behaviour.
It begins with regulation.
Your First Step
If Steady & Sure sounds like the work you want to do with your gundog puppy, the first step is a chat.
The chat is free, with nothing to commit to and nothing to pay. We talk about your puppy, where you are in their early months, what you’re hoping to build, and any questions you’ve got. Afterwards I’ll send you full PDFs of all four programmes, three for adult gundogs, and Steady & Sure for puppies, with pricing and exactly what’s included, so you can read everything properly in your own time.
For puppies specifically, there’s no assessment session required before booking. Once you’ve had the chat and read through the information, you can book directly onto the programme when you’re ready. The shorter pathway suits puppy work, where the timing window matters and the work is developmental rather than corrective.
If you’d rather have another conversation before booking, that’s absolutely fine. You can come back for a second chat any time, and we can talk through anything you want to clarify. There’s no pressure to decide anything in the moment.
If you’ve got a gundog puppy and you want to start the right way, let’s talk.