My Story

I have always loved animals. As a child, we had small furries; rabbits and hamsters, but we couldn’t have any larger pets.

When I was a young teen, my family went on holiday to Cornwall. We stayed on a farm where there were 3 dogs; two boxers and a border collie. I fell for the boxers, they were so fun loving and friendly.

I got my first dog, Ginny, a boxer, when my children were young, she was an amazing pet and was lovely with the children when they were growing up.

As a puppy she was attacked by an off lead dog and had surgery to repair a laceration on her ear. Over time, she became nervous around other dogs. If she saw another dog, she would refuse to move. I didn’t know how to fix it. I tried to find a trainer who could help; we saw a few and she went to a board and train but there was no improvement. We kept to lead walks and avoided busy times. I felt so bad that we were in this situation.

My next dog, Bruce, was a black and white working springer spaniel, he came to me at 16 weeks. He was already very confident and outgoing when he arrived and hadn’t had much training. What a whirlwind, like most spaniels, he had a great nose and loved sniffing! It was very difficult to get hm to give me any attention. As soon as we left the house, I couldn’t get him to lift his nose off the floor. If he was off lead, he would run away, following a scent or chasing a leaf, it was very disheartening. I searched for ideas which would help me get him to focus on me and want to be with me?

I read about playing with your dog as a way of building a relationship, it seemed like a great idea but the only games I knew were tug and retrieving and I’d been told not to tug with a gun dog and he just ran away with the ball.

I took an online course for would-be dog trainers. At the time, I didn’t want to be a dog trainer and it was a substantial financial investment.

I decided to go for it. I thought I would see where the journey took me. I have attended many training sessions with my own dogs, including life skills training, and a number of gundog training courses, There is always something new to learn.

In 2019, I got a second working springer, Lex. As a young pup, he was biddable and training was easy. When he hit adolescence he developed a painful orthopaedic condition just as the world closed down due to the Covid Pandemic.

It was a difficult time, he was lame and uncomfortable and very unsettled.

We waited several weeks for surgery because everything was closed. He developed complications, and needed a second operation. There was a long recovery period, I used a games based approach to help him settle in a crate and keep him occupied during his recovery.

During this period, I learned a lot about helping a dog recover from surgery. I worked with the physio getting him to do his daily exercises to rebuild fitness. I developed an interest in canine fitness and helping dogs to both avoid and recover from injury.

I am always learning and love exploring new ways of training. My dogs love gundog training, it’s great for building relationship. Recently, we taken part in scurries and working tests. These events are fun and a great way to see how training is progressing.

Gundog skills such as sit and wait, walk nicely on a lead and come back when called are really useful for pet dogs of all breeds as well as working dogs.

I like to keep my skills and knowledge up to date and explore new ways of training. In 2022, I attended a residential course at the Canine Instructor Academy where I learned about how dogs learn, dog law and nutrition.

I enjoy listening to podcasts from a wide variety of trainers, using different methods.