Thank you to everyone for their patience. I am returning to work 3 days a week for now. I currently have a really bad cold and keep losing my voice so I'm trying to complete phone call assessments when possible. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to keep up with every single email, phone call, voicemail, text, Facebook message and online submission, I apologise to those that are getting left out but along with myself and my daughter being unwell it's a crazy house!  I look forward to doing more events and meeting new dogs and owners this year :-)

I had a baby! My daughter was born in January and has understandably taken up ALL of my time. I will be enjoying maternity leave for a while longer and due to popular demand may start an online 1-2-1 and group training service meanwhile.

During my months off I've managed to focus on my dog training theory and dog rescue work in the little spare time I get. I've helped reunite 6 lost dogs and their owners this year and hope to increase that number shortly.

Today I said farewell to the biggest inspiration in my life and one of my best friends. After 12years of love, Angel has now gone to heaven to join our family, friends and dogs. It is because of Angel that I gained my interest in dog training, had the courage to start my own pet care company and start Elite Dog Training. Rest in peace my beautiful girl, it has been an honour to have known you ANGEL XXXXX

So this weekend we held another Agility Event at Paws at The View in Chingford.
It was a brilliant success and thanks to the many lovely dogs and their owners who used our agility we managed to raise £100 for The Cinnamon Trust ! A big thank you to Primo Pet Services for their invaluable help!

Something I tell all of my clients is that they MUST continue training with their dogs - not just in training sessions with me but at home. I too have to regularly work with my dogs to keep their training current.

Dr. Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, animal behaviourist, and dog trainer who received his veterinary degree and a Special Honours degree in Physiology & Biochemistry from the Royal Veterinary College (London University) plus a doctorate in animal behaviour from the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley, where he researched the development of social hierarchies and aggression in domestic dogs. So when I got the opportunity to watch his online lectures in my time off from work I jumped at the opportunity!

Dr. Dunbar’s SIRIUS® Dog Training Academy
Day 1 (6 x 1 hour lectures): Business, Promotion, People Training & Games
Day 2 (6 x 1 hour lectures): Behavior Counseling
Day 3 (6 x 1 hour lectures): Adult Dog Classes & Home Training
Day 4 (6 x 1 hour lectures): Puppy Classes & Home Training

Dr Dunbar's GROWL Workshop
Day 1 - (12x half hour long lectures) This workshop is intended for dogs that are reactive, but not especially dangerous, towards other dogs. They must also be friendly towards people.

Although I'm not new to these techniques I believe it is important to keep up to date on other force free trainer's methods and refresh my memory. Ian Dunbar is highly amusing and his GROWL workshopI would highly recommend.

With any dog, it's a good idea to keep their training up to date even as they get older. My youngest dogs are turning 6 this year and are happy and healthy. My Eldest dog is turning 12 - she is completely blind, has arthritis and has a few old age problems. The basic control training that we've kept up with my dogs means that we can all live in harmony a bit easier. If the blind dog is about to walk into something - we simply tell her to 'wait' and we direct her physically. If one of the younger dogs is in her way we can call them out of the way. It really does help especially in a multi-dog household.

Due to injuries, funerals, my holiday and other reasons I've had allot of time off this month already!
I finally got to go to the lake district and rode horseback on the beach :-)

Lots of fun new changes and developments going on at Elite Dog Training. I've had the delight of spending time catching up with a few previous clients and their dogs too! My dogs have been doing their best at agility the last few weeks and my female rottie Akiva has decided she wants to try and take on my male rottie Kaiser as 'agility champion'.