T R A I N E R ......P R O F I L E

About the trainer… 10 years ago I got the dog that I always wanted a chocolate Labrador it was my first dog and I lived alone and worked full time. Like most people in my position having watched numerous TV programs of a Labrador’s work with the blind, deaf and handicapped I thought that when my dog gets older he will be fully trained or at least easy to train.

Little did I know that when I brought Bentley home it would be one of the hardest months of my life?

Everywhere I went he wanted to be with me, he chewed anything he could get his little mouth around and as for recall and other training attributes lets just say his big ears didn’t work as well as they should, I even looked into selling him.

But instead I looked into what a Labrador needs and started gundog training when Bentley was just four months old. This I did for three years before going it alone and test some training theories I had myself, I read as many books relating to gundog training and then I went on to study some of the pioneers of modern day dog training such as John Fisher and Jan Fennell. From these studies combining what I felt to be the best ways of training a dog from each discipline I practiced on Bentley and got the kind of results that I was aiming for, a dog that did what I asked because he wanted to not because I made him.

When I was sure I had a well rounded dog I got a black Drakeshead Labrador puppy called Guinness and set to work putting my theories into practice from day one. Then one day a neighbour asked if I could do anything for her Labrador as she was impressed with the progress I had made with Guinness in such a short time, I agreed and from that moment mainly through word of mouth I became a professional dog trainer.

I am a member of the KENNEL CLUB ACCREDITATION SCHEME FOR INSTRUCTORS IN DOG TRAINING & CANINE BEHAVIOUR and support the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme.