Cumbria Dog Training

Business is still as hectic as ever, with boarding, residential training and home visits still in full flow - not to mention the sheep chasing. After three weeks of residential training, I said "goodbye" to my little Sprocker guest Reggie, who was collected by his lovely owners. I'd really bonded with this little character and knowing his background pulled on my heart strings as well. I was very pleased to see how much progress had been achieved in just 3 weeks, given how he arrived. And yes I did have a few tears when it came to saying "goodbye". But in my sadness there was a bright light as I also knew that he was returning to owners who, like me, wanted the very best for this young dog. I am able to do all this training because I am very lucky to have a great husband,...... Paul. He is now helping me to run my business by doing alot of the walking of my boarding guests, so all my guests are very well cared for with all their individual needs. Janet

Last Sunday I had a very enjoyable day at the Coniston Country Fair, where I'd pitched my Cumbria Dog Training stand for the day. Fran came with me and of course where Fran goes, Maddie goes to. Thankfully the weather held and we met some lovely people. With Coniston Lake behind us, there can't be many shows with a more beautiful backdrop. Making new friends and with Maddie to my left A recent guest has been Olive - aka known as Honey's playmate (poor Olive!). These two play non stop, both inside and outside the house, and it was noticeable that the day after Olive had been collected, Honey did nothing but sleep. Don't worry about the fierce Chihuahua - when the going gets too hot, she can be seen running under the car for safety. Honey 1 - 0 Every Other Dog ! Honey chooses Olive's left ear for dinner Meanwhile, taking a leaf out of the The Three Bears nursery rhyme, Honey decides that a larger bed fits quite nicely, thank you very much! The fact that my...

Let me introduce you to Harry, an Italian Spinone. Harry arrived yesterday for a day's "try out", prior to any long term boarding. He's as gentle as he looks and those eyes .... ! Janet

Meet another residential training guest of mine, Reggie. This young dog is a Sprocker - Cocker Spaniel / Springer Spaniel mix. Sadly things didn't work out with his original owners and he had a rather sad time with them. However, all that has changed and he now lives with people who really do care about this lively little character. At the moment I'm working on gaining his respect while at the same time getting him to calm down. Reggie is very hyper. At the moment he is not off the lead, even in the garden, and won't be until I'm confident in his recall. But I'm very pleased with his progress so far and look forward to the next few weeks. Meanwhile Scott, another residential training guest, improves all the time. And with a couple of dry days behind us, he seems far happier to leave the house ! Reggie Having fun - a long line prevents him from running into the sunset Scott The delights of a ball Charge !

For the past few weeks I've had the pleasure of training Scott, a young Dalmatian. Now living with his second owners, he has had the good fortune to be wanted by people who decided to change his highly original name to Scott, from ........ you've guessed it, Spot. But Scott is having to endure a summer from hell and he is  suffering. The reason ? He doesn't like rain ! I'm very pleased with the progress this young lad has made but as you can see from the top photograph, my idea of  a dog "sitting" aren't quite the same as Scott's - though I can forgive him on this occasion, given the very wet conditions just below his bottom ! Also staying with me at the moment is Olive, a small Terrier who loves being here. On arrival a couple of days ago, there was a summary glance and goodbye to her owner before running off to see who was about ..... and whether a certain Chihuahua still lived here ! Together, Honey and Olive are absolute magic. Playtime never...

Paul's No. 1 fan has returned for a few days. Sadly for the two of them, walks etc are very limited, due to Tash just having undergone an operation. She is a lovely dog who follows him everywhere and starts to whine when he leaves the room. Come on Tash, he's not that fantastic !! Janet Guess who took this pic ( a clue ....... it wasn't me !)

Flaming June has given way to an even hotter July ............ in Spain, Italy and Greece. But for the UK, April showers have continued and just got heavier. The top photograph was taken pre walk and is of a few raindrops hanging from my garage door ! But I can't get miserable having such a lovely group of dogs staying. Tilly, the black Cocker Spaniel has returned home now, but not before enjoying a complete variety of walks and smells ! Only she knows what the wonders of this hole were, but looking at her face - and body - it was worth it. Meanwhile Chester appears to have some H20 in his eyes - not surprising as he never seems to be out of the stuff. This big friendly dog is like an elephant in a couple of ways - able to find water anywhere and once found, loves nothing more than rolling about in the stuff. This morning he found a muddy puddle, sat in it before deciding it was large enough to lay down in ......... then, once supine, chose to have a complete roll in the s...

Paul helped me out this morning by walking the dogs, as I was busy training. As someone who has been on the Fells in all types of weather, he wasn't going to let a drop of rain spoil anything. And so it was that he took Chester and Tilly up to Great Dun Fell and the radar station - or as it's known in our household, the "golf ball". At least he had the common sense to park the car at Knock and use the tarmac road, rather than wading through boggy ground on the tops in very low cloud. With his camera battery going flat, he took a few pics on his phone - possibly to prove that he'd reached the top ??! Janet Tilly's sad look is deceptive - she never stopped running and sniffing ! I think my previous comments are supported The summit - was it really worth it ??? And on a clear day !

The very wet weather which we've been experiencing for weeks has forced the cancellation of this weekend's Skelton Show. This is the latest event to suffer from the weather, which saw June being one of the wettest on record. Forecast for week commencing Monday 2nd July