A brief history...
I
was born in 1949, son of a Military man so the Forces was
in my blood. On reaching the age of 15yrs, I became a boy
Soldier that was for 2 ½ yrs, then I was able to join the
regular Army I then joined the 1st
Battalion
Staffordshire Regiment. I served with them for 12yrs,
during which time I done some active service abroad. I also
had to do a number of courses throughout my time with them
in Leadership and Management and I also had to learn how to
instruct and train Recruits and my own men as I climbed the
ranks, these things have put me in good stead through out
my life and I will always be thankful for the skills they
gave and brought out in me.
It was during this time that I acquired my first Dog,
Troop, a German Shepherd, I still have very fond memories
of him, he was a special Dog, not only because he was the
first Dog I Trained, It’s that we did everything together,
firstly I was very lucky to have him as I lived in the
barracks and as a ranker that was not allowed, but we
overcome that hurdle and the Regiment allowed me to use him
in Northern Ireland Training and that’s where I purchased
him from, he went in Helicopters, landing boats the lot,
any way that’s when my love for Dogs started with this
special Boy and from that day I have never been without a
Dog.
I was posted to Germany and Troop came with me, he kept
many a young soldier in line for me and he also loved
playing football with them till he dropped! While in
Germany I joined a German civilian dog training club, the
dogs they train there are to the famous Sieger standard,
the Sieger Show in Germany is the Mecca of all German
Shepherds, only a small amount of dogs actually make it
there, so I was very fortunate to be given the chance to
train with them and also to learn there methods, which were
very interesting!
Back in England one of my many jobs, while with the
Stafford’s, was Training young Cadets from different armed
forces, while doing this job I very luckily came into
contact with the West Midland Police Dog Unit and they very
kindly invited me to train my dog with them, I never say no
as you can always learn something new, no matter how much
you think you know, there are so many different techniques,
so I would recommend you always have an open and enquiring
mind and never be too proud to ask questions!
I then decided on a change of career, so I joined the
Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC), this is a place
where soldiers who have offended go to and are either
released into civvy street or rehabilitated and returned to
their Regiment. I served 12yrs with the MCTC. I found
myself working on training wing.
I then started rifle shooting for the MCTC, I was very
lucky, we shot and trained for 4 months of the year in
preparation for our District shoot which enabled us to
qualify for the big Military shoot off at Bisley held each
year, against all the top teams from the British Army.
I was now becoming known for my dog training, so I would
help my colleagues with their Dogs. I became interested in
game and clay shooting, it was a natural progression from
rifle shooting. I was asked to take over and run the
Military Corrective Training Centre clay club, it was for
both Military and Civilians personal alike. Now I had to
have a gun dog, so that was my next learning curve.
Along came Jake a cocker spaniel and what a rogue he was,
that was definitely a good learning curve, I managed to do
a lot of the training myself, making some mistakes along
the way, however he was my first gundog and I don’t mind
admitting I needed some help, he had an exceptionally
strong character and was proving to be a difficult dog for
a first time handler to train. I sent him away to a gundog
training kennel, so he could be taught to hunt and so he
could be shot over. I used to go and watch the trainer
picking up techniques and hints and tips, I started to go
to shoots and trials speaking to all the trainers and
absorb all the knowledge they were giving me, I always
found people very friendly and only to happy to help and
give you advice. One good lesson I learnt from Jake, was to
advise people against having a spaniel as their first dog,
unless I could see they were capable of controlling one, my
advice is always start with a Labrador and once you have
learnt your skills then advance to other more difficult
breeds and everyone has always thanked me for that bit of
advice.
1 year later I had more time on my hands, so I decided to
get another cocker Jack. He was aptly named as my wife had
said 1 dog is enough, so after 3 (my wife insists that I
write small) Jack Daniels, Jack was in the car and on his
way home with us, he was 5 months old and such a biddable
boy, with that boy’s quiet and calm manner I was able to
achieve so much more, so I owe all my training abilities to
Jack, he was my mate, that little boy went through so much
in his life, he’d had cancer and he didn’t particularly
have good bones, he broke one of his front legs and it had
to be pinned and later in life the other front leg had to
be amputated, but he was still happy running around
enjoying life and made a good pet and companion along with
Jake. Jake remained stubborn even after recovering from 2
major strokes and Jack he remained a cool dude!
When I knew my time with the Military was coming to an end,
I chose to do some courses with the Military on Dog
Training as I knew one day this would be my chosen career.
On leaving the Army as a Sgt Major, I began working for the
Home office as a Police Trainer. I was responsible for
Training Police Probationers at Shotley Police Training
Centre, which sadly no longer exists, the government closed
the centre down and the place has been left to go to rack
and ruin, the sad thing about that is there was such a lot
of History there, it had been a Navy Training School for
boys they were called the Ganges Boys and the Mast is still
there 145ft approx.
On learning that the government was about to close shotley
down as a Police training centre, I applied with the Home
Office to go on a number of dog training courses, gundogs,
drugs and Police dog training
So you
are probably wondering where I am going, writing about all
the training I have done through out my Military career,
well this is where my method stems from, because in the
Military we have a system which methodically leads you
through a training session and it never changes, it always
remains consistent through out, so as not to confuse you
‘the trainer’ or the pupil ‘the dog’. I have now fine tuned
this method and lots of people have used it successfully,
the only thing required is that you be consistent and that
means NEVER change your words of command when training,
maintain your body language through out training, if you or
the dog are having a bad day forget about training.
