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Welcome to Wirral Alsatian Training Society (WATS)
We were established in 1953, initially for training just Alsatians but soon after opened the doors for training of all breeds on the Wirral.
We are a Kennel Club registered Society run as a not-for-profit organisation. All our trainers give their time and expertise on a voluntary basis to provide accessible training for dogs and their handlers. This enables us to keep our costs at a reasonable level to cover the running of the Society.
Our Training Classes
Our training is reward based, non-competitive with an emphasis on achievement regardless of all abilities.
We offer a range of pet classes based on the Kennel Club's Good Citizen Scheme. These include the Puppy Foundation, Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.
We also offer training classes for those who want to progress further with activities such as Obedience, Agility and Rally.
Our Story
The club was established over 70yrs ago to offer accessible dog training on the Wirral to help owners to have well behaved pets. The club has welcomed all types and breeds of dogs for the majority of that time.
In addition to pet training, the Society has links to various Competitive Canine Sports. For over fifty years, our members have competed and judged at the highest level in Competition Obedience. Our Society was one of the first to become involved in Agility when it was developed in 1978. We where also at the forefront in the development of the new discipline Rally Obedience. We run successful shows every year in all these disciplines, which are attended by competitors from all over the country, and our members are regularly called upon by other Societies to judge in these disciplines.
WATS is a "not for profit organisation". The fact that our members give their time freely to manage the Society, keep up to date with training methods and run successful shows is an indication of their passion to serve the dogs and their owners in this area and to put something back into the dog world. This enables us to keep our training fees at a reasonable level and to support charitable causes.
Our trainers have varying degrees of depth of knowledge and experience from many years of working with different breeds and disciplines. One thing they all have in common is their desire to share this wealth of knowledge with others to enable them to benefit from having a socially acceptable, well trained canine companion.
We endeavour to ensure that our training methods are current, reward based and up to date. Many of the trainers have developed their own training experiences by attending workshops and attaining recognised training certificates and qualifications.
We aim to offer informative, fun-based training experiences for you and your dog. Training can be tailored to suit the individual handler and dogs own abilities.