Debbie
Member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers - MAPDT 01026
Debbie wanted a dog from a very young age, but due to her living in a flat she was not allowed one. Instead she ‘adopted’ every stray dog that she could find, and often took other people’s dogs for a walk. As soon as she was able to she got her own dog, a Jack Russell x Yorkshire Terrier. Since then she has had a German Shepherd, Doberman, Black Labrador, a Long Haired Miniature Dachshund, a Border Collie and she now lives with a wide variety of dogs (see below...)
Initially she learnt the most from her first Border Collie, Suzie. Suzie was a rescue dog and very quickly destroyed the entire house. She eat her way through a cane suite, a new carpet, shelving, dug her way through the garden (a challenge for any gardener!) and leapt the fence on a regular basis. Following this Debbie very quickly became interested in dog behaviour! Gradually, with a lot of patience Suzie turned into a wonderful member of the family.
Debbie first met Christina through her puppy class in 2003 with one of her current Border Collies, Rosie. Christina was immediately struck by Debbie’s wonderfully natural way with dogs, and her common sense but sensitive approach. The two became friends and Debbie has helped with a number of behavioural consultations with her very sweet Long Haired Miniature Dachshund, Sam. She has also had Diesel (another Border Collie) from a puppy and he currently sucessfully competes in Competitive Obedience and is also starting to compete in agility. (Click here to read more about Diesel's puppy diary - it was a long and amusing road to sucess!)
More recently Debbie has attended a number of training seminars and workshops including - Dr. Daniel Mills speaking on the mind of the dog, Dr. Anne McBride PhD speaking on and demonstrating how to deal with aggession in dogs, Elizabeth Kershaw on learning theory in dogs, and Attila Szkukalek and Richard Curtis on Heelwork-to-Music. Until recently she has trained with Joanna Hill in Competitive Obedience and now trains with Paddy Driscol in Obedience and with Bob Sharp in Agility. She passed her APDT exam with flying colours having received both an excellent mark and report.
Debbie lives with her husband, 9 dogs, 2 cats, 3 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs. As well as her animals her hobbies include gardening and knitting.
Debbie has also taken on a wide variety of rescue dogs (two thirds of her current dogs are rescues that somehow stayed!) These are -
Tiggy - Tiggy is a rescue Border Collie who came to Debbie with some serious aggression (biting) problems about being handled. After a huge amount of work with him he is now dramatically improved and she has learnt a lot about dealing with challenging collies from her various collie boys! He has now improved so much that he does some talks and displays with Debbie.
Patch - Patch is a very sweet Sprollie (Springer Spaniel x Border Collie.) Patch enjoys obedience with Debbie.
Lily - Lily is a sweet Jack Russell who is just starting to compete in agility.
Woody - Woody is a Border Collie x Pointer who is very sweet, very active and at times rather exhausting! He's VERY full of energy (more so than all of Debbie's pure-bred Border Collies!) and is managing to exhaust all of Debbie's other dogs! The whole household are hoping that he'll grow up soon (he's just over a year old.)
Oka - Oka is an extremely sweet Deerhound x Borzoi
Vision - Vision is the latest member of the family and is settling in well. She is a Husky.
Please click to read Diesel's Diary.