The Poodle Trainer Shelina Duke on swapping the classroom for dog training

Spread the love:

When Shelina Duke started learning to train dogs back in 2020, it was just to help her own three barking poodles during lockdown.

She was shielding at home with chronic asthma, and those three dogs needed some serious help with their behaviour.

She didn’t expect that teaching herself from a WordPress book while isolating would lead to building a thriving, global, poodle-only, force-free training business with clients around the world.

Shelina spent four years juggling full time teaching as an assistant head teacher, 10 dogs, and running a growing online membership before finally leaving school in 2024.

She’s won three Dog Trainer of the Year awards, qualified and shown Edith at Crufts, and built a business that
fits around real life – school runs, clubs, and caring for 10 dogs – without cramming her diary full of one-to-ones.

She’s also navigated a serious head injury, chronic illness, the sudden loss of her sister, and becoming a guardian to her young niece.

In this episode, Shelina talks about how she taught herself to build a website and membership from scratch.

How she grew from local all-breed classes to a global poodle-only business, why she’s so committed to kind,
force-free training, and how she deals with the trolls.

Plus her mission to help both poodle guardians and other pet pros build businesses that work around real life, not the other way around.

Listen in on the player link below and you can read the key points covered in the Q and A at the end of this post and find all the links to connect with Shelina.

How did you go from being a teacher to a dog trainer?

“When lockdown hit in 2020, I had to shield because of chronic asthma. I’d had really bad asthma attacks – nine in eleven days at one point – and I was on long-term steroids.

“I was stuck at home with three barking dogs, and I was going mad. So I went on a bit of a rampage trying to work out how to stop them barking.

“The more I learned, the more I realised I could do this. I took a course to become a dog trainer, but honestly, I only did it for my own dogs at first. I had no interest in taking it any further.

“I just wanted a quiet life at home. But then I realised I had a gift for teaching people how to train their dogs.

“So I started doing it in my spare time – evenings and weekends, even though I had no free time as a teacher.

“It sounds ridiculous, but somehow I made it work. I built it up for nearly five years before I went full time.”

When did you niche into poodles?

“I got my first Poodle, Arthur, in 2021, and I was absolutely blown away by him. He was so different from my other dogs – so eager to learn, so engaged.

“I realised people weren’t having the same experience with their poodles as I was, so I set up a Facebook group to help Poodle owners.

“I kept that going alongside my all-breeds business for a good three years. But when I went full time in November 2024, I decided to go all-in on Poodles. It was scary, but it’s paid off completely.”

“Now I only train poodles and the odd doodle.”

Tell us about juggling teaching and your business for all those years.

“Honestly, looking back, I don’t know how I did it. I would leave school around five o’clock, then train two or three evenings a week, do one-to-ones somewhere, group classes on Saturday mornings, and agility on Sunday mornings.

“I didn’t even know when I ate. I never took a lunch break – I’d work through it to save an hour after school.

“I’d come home, crash on the sofa, sleep until seven, have some food, and go back to sleep. It wasn’t a life. But I was determined to make it work.”

What made you finally leave teaching?

“First, back in 2024, I had a head injury at work. I got a bad concussion that damaged my vestibular nerve. Suddenly I couldn’t do my training business – I was exhausted by one o’clock every day.

“Then, in June, my sister passed away unexpectedly. She was only four, and my niece came to live with us. Between me, my mum, and my dad, I took on the guardianship.

“I realised I physically couldn’t teach and raise a child the way I wanted to. I’d seen so many teachers struggle trying to do both – their kids would miss out because of school, or they’d fall behind at work.

“I didn’t want to be a half-hearted teacher or a half-hearted parent. So I decided I had to leave.

“I originally gave myself until January 1, 2025, but I left earlier. It was terrifying, but it had to happen.

Picking up her Prestige Award which she’s won for three years in a row

How do you juggle 10 poodles, parenting, and running a business?

“I’m really flexible. Some calls I do during the day, some in the evening – especially if they’re American clients, because that’s their morning. I shift things around to fit what needs to fit.

“If I’ve got a busy day, I might do some work before my niece gets up. If I’m working in the evening, I have the afternoon off. It all just moves around to whatever needs to happen.

“The key thing is that my business runs without me being on it all the time. So if she’s unwell and I need to pick her up from school, that’s not a problem.

“It fits around her and around the life I want to live.”

How did you deal with fear around social media?

“As a teacher, you’re taught that social media is bad. You’re told not to let anything public be seen. So when I started the Poodle trainer page, I was terrified.”

“But I’d already been through some drama in my local community – a trainer I’d trusted gave me bad advice, and when I stopped using it, there was backlash. So I kind of knew what it was like to be criticised.

“Then something happened that changed everything. Someone put a horrible post in my Facebook group saying I should kill myself. I didn’t see it for hours, but my community did.

“They stood up for me without me even asking. They commented and said how awful it was, how they’d seen me with my dogs all the time.

“By the time I found the post, the person had removed themselves from the group.

“That’s when I realised I don’t have to worry about what other people think. I’ve got people who have my back. And that changed everything.

“The other big thing was turning my personal profile into business mode. I fought that for months because of the school thing.

“But then I realised I could just set my niece’s photos to friends only and keep the Poodle stuff public. And my reach went insane.

“I’m regularly getting 100,000 views, and when I really push my reels, I get to 200,000 or 300,000 views a week.”

What’s changed about what works online?

“When I started, I could put out a free challenge and get 400 people in about 48 hours. Just one post and people would jump on it.

But when I went full time in January 2025, I did the same thing and got 50 people. I was like, what’s happened?

“I realised that how people buy and behave online has completely changed. Facebook’s algorithm has changed. Links reduce your reach. Certain words reduce it. You have to work harder to get the same result.

“But I was also refusing to work harder in the sense of more hours. I’d just left teaching to have freedom, and I wasn’t going to trap myself again.

“So I had to change my approach instead. I shifted from one post a day to three posts a day. That terrified me at first, but then I realised I could just say what I wanted to say.

“And suddenly I loved writing posts. I couldn’t wait to write about something. That completely changed how I felt about social media.”

What’s your business model now?

“I have my free Facebook group, which is still growing. I have my membership, which is stronger than it’s ever been.

“I have two programmes – my reactivity program, which is live, and my barking program, which I’ve turned into a course so people can buy it whenever they need it. And I have my one-to-ones.”

“I don’t pack my day with back-to-back one-to-ones. I have maybe two a day, because they take it out of you.

“People say you should be doing them all day, every day, but I was like, no. I looked at what I wanted my week to look like, where I wanted free time, where I could just sit down for an hour and do nothing. And I didn’t compromise on that.”

In the show ring with Edith at Crufts 2026

What are you most proud of?

“Winning dog trainer of the year three years in a row for the South East of England and London. That’s insane.”

“And taking Edith to Crufts this March. I’d never been to Crufts before 2023, and when I saw it, I was like, I want to show a dog.”

“When I got Edith, I was on a mission to qualify her. She qualified at her first show, and then we went to Crufts.”

“People told me not to go because of the controversy around Crufts and training methods.

“But I was like, if I don’t go and show that you can have a happy show dog, that you don’t have to pull on the lead, that your dog can actually enjoy it – then people don’t know.

“They don’t see it. And if they don’t see it, they don’t know there’s another way.

“Edith loved every moment of it. She sat on her trolley, smiling at everyone, wagging her tail. People would walk past other Poodles and come straight to her.

“I want people to see that. I want them to know you don’t have to do things the traditional way.”

What’s next for you?

“I’m building up my mentoring side, working with other pet businesses to help them get the business and life they want. Whether that’s training online, niching, growing a membership – really looking at what they need.

“On the Poodle side, I’m on a mission to change how Poodles are trained. I’ve taken my puppy to some traditional classes, and they’re just not suitable for Poodles.

“I see so many Poodles struggling, and they come to me after four years of doing it the wrong way. If I can spread the word and show people there’s a better way, then maybe I can help them avoid that.”

Where can people find you?

You can find me on social media as Shelina, the poodle trainer on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

My website is still on with the flow for now, but I’m transitioning over to Shelina, the poodle trainer in the coming months. (At least I don’t have to build it from a WordPress book this time!)