unleashed pawtential
People sometimes ask me about why I do what I do and how I got started. So I
thought I would tell you the story of how the Fairydogmother was born. ONE MAN
AND TWO DOGS Billy was one of my first dogs. Born on Valentines day 1996 he
bounced into our lives at 8 weeks old: an adorable white English Bull Terrier
puppy with one brindle ear and an attitude. Billy was a ‘special’ dog; one of
those naughty but nice dogs you can’t help but love because they make you laugh,
but also drive you to distraction because of their behaviour. Billy was a
spinning/tail chasing, attention seeking nightmare who refused to let go of
anything he was having fun with. Billy was never aggressive, he just loved to
play tuggy. Unfortunately Billy liked playing tuggy with everything he could get
his teeth into – hosepipes still attached to the tap, branches still attached to
trees. He destroyed my mum’s lawnmower when she left him unattended in her
garden for a mere 30 minutes, he played tuggy with my sister’s curtains and once
sank his teeth into a live electric cooker cable sticking out of the wall when
we were renovating the kitchen. The only reason he survived that particular game
of tug was lightening quick reflexes turning the power off! Billy was a
nightmare, but I loved him and wanted to help him and make our lives easier.
Billy had lit the spark in my interest in dog behaviour, so I really got stuck
into finding out how I could help change his behaviour and started doing Dog
Behaviour courses in 2001 – 2003. Fast forward a few years (after having two
children that kept me busy and interrupted my studies) I now had a new dog; Lola
who was a two and a half year old rescue who had been abandoned in a flat to
starve. She was absolutely wonderful, except for one thing; her obsession with
footballs. I discovered said football obsession when I decided to take her to my
eldest son’s football match one very wet, muddy Saturday morning. I walked up to
the edge of the pitch with Lola on a lead and she spotted the football … and ran
for it (she is a hefty American Bulldog x Staffy) and, taken by surprise and
suddenly helpless on the other end of the lead she dragged me face down in the
mud, slowly but surely trying to make progress towards the ball being kicked
around the pitch. Watched by all the other parents I had to be unceremoniously
rescued from the quagmire. Lola’s sheer determination to get at footballs wasn’t
getting any better and a friend of mine said to me that if I went to see Keith,
a dog trainer who helped run a local rescue, he would be able to help. So I rang
and booked an appointment and I went to see him … and that day changed
everything. He didn’t just help with Lola, he offered to teach me real hands on
dog training working with dogs at the rescue. As long as I turned up regularly
and got stuck in, that was the deal, and I was eager to start.
