CLASSES AND INSTRUCTORS IN YOUR AREA

Click on the following links for detailed information on our various classes:

- Confi-Kitten Classes
- Confi-Puppy Classes
- Clicker Training for Adult Dogs
- Instructor Training


Below is a list of ThinkingPets instructors and their various areas. Should you wish to contact an instructor via email, please use the 'contact us' section. If there is no instructor in your area, we will put you in touch with the nearest Confi class.



Karin Landsberg (DipCABT(Coape)NOCN/CertCAB)

Area: Waterkloof
Tele: 073 269 0418
Behaviour Consultation Region: Gauteng Province

Karin has been involved in the field of Animal Behaviour since 1997. She originally worked in Cape Town, where she was one of the co-founders of the Cape Animal Behaviour Centre and the Animal Rehabilitation Initiative. She has done extensive research into the field of kitten socialization and habituation, and in 2006 launched Confi-Kitten classes. Since moving to Johannesburg, she has established the ThinkingPets Behaviour Practice and she consults with clients daily on all aspects of feline and canine behaviour problems, as well as offering puppy, puppy II and clicker training classes. She also lectures on the development of kittens and puppies country wide, and hosts Mobile Clinics throughout SA together with other ThinkingPets instructors. She writes the regular series “Consultation Hour” for Cats Life Magazine and “On the Couch” for Animaltalk Magazine, and since April 2006 has been co-writing articles for Dogs Today and Your Cat in the UK with Dr Peter Neville. Karin has been the guest speaker at seminars, as well as appearing on radio and television. She is currently contracted to Iams South Africa to develope their puppy school system, ensuring a high standard in all the Eukanuba puppy schools. Karin holds a (NOCN UK accredited) Diploma through the Centre of Applied Pet Ethology in the UK, as well as a Certificate in Companion Animal Behaviour from the Ethology Consultancy.





Niki Elliott

Area: Bryanston
Tele: 082 451 0433
TTouch Consultation Region: Gauteng Province

Niki joined Karin in the ThinkingPets group in July 2006 and brings to the mix her experience in TTouch, as well as hosting Confi-Kitten, Confi-Puppy and clicker training classes in Bryanston, Sandton. Niki qualified as a TTouch Practitioner Level 1 in 2003 and went on to qualify as a Level 2 Practitioner in 2005. She consults with clients at their homes as well as at her premises, where she has her school and workroom. In December 2003 she qualified to give Puppy Socialization classes and went on to incorporate the clicker training method into all these classes after qualifying as a clicker training instructor in March 2004. In December 2005 Niki qualified as an Obedience Instructor with Shannon McKay, and is currently giving classes to dogs of all ages at her school in Bryanston. In January 2006 she qualified as a Confi-Kitten Practitioner.





Kim Heller

Area: Sandringham
Tele: 082 415 8007

Kim Heller is a qualified Tellington TTouch practitioner who has been involved in puppy training for over 10 years. She is also involved in showing and judging dogs. Kim was our very first ThinkingPets Confi-Puppy instructor and joined us at the beginning of 2007. She now runs an extremely busy puppy school, as well as a puppy II school, in between doing all her show work.





Tersia Kock

Area: Bluehills, Edenvale and Waterkloof
Tele: 082 828 0505

Tersia has completed a clicker training course presented by Eugenie Chopin. She also passed a Canine Culture: Instructor’s Course (with merit) as presented by Shannon MacKay and is presently also enrolled in the Canine Culture: Behaviour Course. She passed the Behaviour Course as presented by Prof Odendaal (with distinction). She has started her training as Ttouch Practitioner and is studying Animal Behaviour through ThinkingPets. She shows a keen interest in puppy socializing classes and dog training in general – specifically in situations where owners regard the situation as more challenging. She is also pursuing her interest in Animal Assisted Therapy. Tersia has learnt most from Border Collies Lalie, Dodi, MacGyver and Rottweiler Sadja. She has been training them in various disciplines for as long as they have lived with her, which varies from 2 to 9 years. In 2007 she became involved with ThinkingPets and is currently hosting 2 different puppy schools for us. In her other life Tersia is a social worker in private practice.





Wendy Wilson

Area: Randpark Ridge
Tele: 083 336 1761

Wendy grew up surrounded by dogs and cats and was introduced to the world of dog shows at an early age by her Aunt who bred & showed Bouviers, Afghans, Whippets & Boxers to name but a few breeds. She has been training and showing Basset Hounds under her KUSA kennel name "Aberdare" since the early 1990's and has made up a couple of Champion Bassets. Wendy left the show world to concentrate on training and animal behaviour as one of her Basset pups started swallowing stones which led to a consultation with a well known Animal Behaviourist and thus opened the door to the fascinating world of Animal Behaviour. Wendy has completed the 2 year Ethology Advanced Dog Behaviour Course with " Best Practice" presented by the Late Prof Odendaal, as well as passing the Canine Culture Instructors Course "with Merit" presented by Shannon McKay, and the Clicker Course presented by Eugenie Chopin. She is at present training to qualify as a TTouch Practitioner and is a firm believer that a combination of TTouch and Clicker training can overcome a lot of the problem behaviours that owners experience. Wendy started running her own Puppy School 'Over the Moon", after being approached by the local vet in 2006. She offers both Puppy 1 and Puppy 2 classes. "Over the Moon" joined ThinkingPets in 2007.





Heather Whitfield

Area: Bakenkop (Centurion)
Tele: 083 566 7009

Heather is currently working as an Office Manager for Tellington TTouch SA. Her working experience is mainly in the Marketing and Advertising Industry, with a strong back-ground in Office Management and Client Liaison.

As she grew up on a farm, being surrounded with a huge selection of animals all her life, she developed a real passion for animal welfare and the rehabilitation of all animals. She believes in caring for animals in a holistic manner (on both behavioural and health aspects) and gives them the love, care and respect that they deserve. It is her ambition to further a career as an Animal Hydro-and-Rehabilitation Therapist and to eventually open her own Practice. Heather became a Registered Jack Russell Breeder in 2006 and started with various courses to further her knowledge and to gain experience in the Animal Industry. She became a ThinkingPets Confi-Puppy instructor in 2007.





Nicky Lucka

Area: Corlette City and Lyndhurst
Tele: 083 408 1517

Nicky Lucka has been training her own dogs since she was very young and has been actively involved in teaching other people for about 11 years. She is a qualified TTouch Practitioner, has completed a clicker training course, and is currently completing a Behaviour and Training course. She shares her life with her 5 dogs, and in her spare time, she trains her two German Shepherds. Nicky competes in obedience trials as well, and has won several events in the past. She joined ThinkingPets in October 2007.

She firmly believes that properly run puppy socialization classes coupled with TTouch and clicker training will add to the overall wellbeing of your puppy.





Bev Davis

Area: Durban
Tele: 083 775 4096

Bev qualified as a puppy class instructor in March 2008 and is currently training to be a TTouch Companion Animal Practitioner. She is passionate about all animals and delighted to be part of ThinkingPets.

Bev previously worked in customer liaison with a national bank and is currently the fundraiser and functions co-ordinator for a prestigious school on the Berea.





Candi Moon

Area: Brixton / Auckland Park
Tele: 079 490 3233

Candi has been keeping dogs since she was very young, and spent many of her school holidays helping out at her local SPCA, where she found helping fearful dogs to trust people again and be able to be homed very rewarding. She has always had a deep love of animals, especially dogs, and is very interested in animal welfare. Currently she is undergoing the Canine Culture Instructor's Course presented by Shannon McKay and has begun her training as a TTouch Practitioner for companion animals. She is also planning on further studies in Clicker Training and Companion Animal Behaviour in the near future.

Candi shares her life with four rescue dogs, two Border Collie crosses and a Border Collie, who she trains in obedience, and a Staffie/Lab cross. She has learned a lot about compassion and forgiveness from the underprivileged dogs she has met and firmly believes that positive reinforcement and gentle, respectful training methods can help transform every dog.





Anelize Van Wyk

Area: Waterkloof Glen
Tele: 079 272 4595

Anelize became involved with clicker training 3 years ago when she took one of her own dogs to classes. Since then she has continued to clicker train both her dogs for fun. She passed the Dog Behaviour Course presented by late Professor Odendaal with best practice. Currently she is involved in the TTouch Practitioner training and studying Canine Behaviour and Training through ThinkingPets and COAPE. She joined ThinkingPets in 2008.





Lindy Dekker

Area: Floating Instructor
Tele: 083 616 0577

Lindy started riding at age 10 in Stellenbosch at Annandale Riding School. The majority of the horses were rescued racehorses with problems, so she learned a lot about being run away with on outrides! She was always surrounded by animals and her parental home was never without at least two dogs and two cats. She was given a rescued donkey in 1967 and had him for 4 years, riding around the block and learning about escape artists. In 1987 she finally reached her dream and acquired her first horse ‘Babyshoes’ (ex racehorse Thoroughbred gelding) - still going at 27 years old.

Lindy has competed in dressage to Elementary level, but tries to avoid competitions. In March 1999 she attended a Natural Healing course for animals, which included Reiki and Aromatherapy as well as an introduction to TTOUCH. She started her own therapy business in 2000, using an LPG Equine machine which is used to massage horses. In January 2001 she attended her first five-day TTEAM workshop and in September 2003 qualified as a TTEAM Practitioner Level 1 and in April 2005 qualified as TTEAM Practitioner Level 2. She has been organising the TTEAM Practitioner training clinics since 2002.

In 2004 she started the TTOUCH for Companion Animals programme and graduated as Companion Animal Practitioner Level 1 in October 2006.

As well as organising the practitioner training clinics for TTEAM she gives 1 or 2 day clinics as well as private consultations for both horses and companion animals - travelling to all sorts of interesting places. Lindy joined ThinkingPets in 2007.