About Puppy Parenting

I  have always loved dogs, being lucky enough to have a West Highland terrier puppy as a child and re-homing an adult dog 14 years ago. She was a gorgeous but headstrong German Shepherd, testing me on many occasions, but prompting me to start my journey into the study of dogs and dog behaviour.

When she sadly passed away I was determined to get a puppy, and stepped up my studying to include puppy development and socialisation to ensure I had a good chance of bringing up a happy, balanced dog

Along came Indie, a gorgeous 8 week old German Shepherd pup who I took to a puppy training class. The class was chaotic, over 15 puppies in the class, and not what I was expecting (I now know not all classes are like this!). The only positive was that I found I was wanting to offer other puppy owners advice, one in particular who was talking about giving their puppy up as they just couldn’t cope. I really wanted to be able to help them away from the chaos of the class – this was when I had my Puppy Parenting lightbulb moment!

Since then I have helped my sister with the rehabilitation of her rescue dogs and completed several theoretical and practical courses, including a specific Perfect Puppy Foundations course by the Institute of Modern Dog Training (IMDT).

I feel passionate that just like a child, a puppy needs boundaries, teaching/training, positive experiences, nurturing and appropriate activities to build a strong relationship which in turn gives you a happy, balanced dog ……. and owner!