My love of animals began at a very early age. My first “own” dog was a large, black cross breed puppy, “Muffin”, who I found roaming the streets starving. From then on, I have always been surrounded by as many animals as possible.  Since owning my own home and having children, we have had always had a house full of animals none of which went to any form of training or socialization.

When I got my first Boerbul, I felt he needed to be trained because of his size.  I was recommended a particular school and not really knowing too much about training, I did not investigate for my self and just enrolled and went along with my dog. It was a school where Man Work was taught, and I had no control over my dog at this point! We were asked to leave after the first 10 mins after my dog attacked the trainer. Obviously this was not the sort of training I needed to do with this particular dog. 

After that experience I stayed away from training until I got my new Staffie. I attempted training with him at a different school, all the time thinking that there had to be a better way to teach dogs than pulling them around on a choke chain. He and I hated the training. He spent the first two lessons lying down on his back and I dragged him around the field like this. Again, no success and we left with me thinking that my dog was just stubborn. I was then given my first GSD, and I really wanted to have a well-trained dog, so it is back to another school with her. The only option that I knew about was compulsion training, and I am really determined to stick with it this time. After many months of pulling her around on a choke chain, I had a dog that I could “control”. She listened, heeled beautifully and did exactly what I told her to do but had lost her spirit. She was nervous and fearful. I hated seeing her like that so we left training.

It wasn’t until I met and went to work in the TTouch office that I began to hear about other methods of training. I became a TTouch practitioner and it was then that I realised I could make a difference to the thousands of animals that end up in shelters because they are “un-trainable”! 

After completing my TTouch Practitioner 1 training, I qualified to take Puppy Classes and then completed a 6-week course in Clicker Training with Eugenie Chopin and another week with Kay Laurence, a top Clicker Trainer from England. This enabled me to work with puppies before problems started. Finally I had found a method that felt right, and gave the results that owners were looking for without inflicting pain and punishment on their animals. The next step was to help those dogs that were already a problem. I did a year’s course with Shannon McKay in Basic Obedience. In 2005 I was upgraded to TTouch Practitioner 2.

There is still so much to learn and every day is a new experience. All animals are different and because our classes are kept small, we are able to give personal attention to everyone.