Happy First Birthday WaggaWuffins

We are coming up to our 12 months anniversary soon and I will also have finished my degree about the same time!

It’s been a chaotic year, stressful, exciting, tiring, educational and scary. Lots of people have been supportive and helpful. I have met some lovely people and their dogs and made many new friends.

It’s nice to see how the WaggaWuffins has grown out of Elton Dog Club. It’s not been easy, but I wouldn’t change it for the world! I’m one of those few people who love change and moving forwards so I know Wagga-Wuffins will never get stuck in a rut and I love the challenges it brings me.

We now have 18 classes a week and struggle to accommodate everyone. The daycare started only 3 months ago and is picking up nicely and we have some wonderful dogs, it is certainly the best job in the world.

We also are becoming an educational base for other instructors who come to us to develop their skills and knowledge and pick up some tips. We’ve had dog trainers attend courses at Wagga-Wuffins from Bolton, Rossendale, Swinton and even as far as East Yorkshire.

It is also nice to see my own trainers continually develop and improve themselves, they have all achieved great things over the last year and I’m very proud of them.

My Plans for the next 12 months are starting a 2 year top up BSc in Canine Behaviour and Training and a new Puppy. Plans for the centre are more events and instructor courses along with the continual improvement and development of our current courses.

Distinctions all Round!

It’s been a busy week! Jayne finished her COAPE ‘DogWise’ course and her results came through and she passed with distinction. Well done Jayne.

On Saturday we got together for a bit of a training session and an injured homing pigeon found it way into the centre! Brave thing when there were two spaniels and labradoodle there!!!
We put it in a dog cage in the daycare room with some water and bird seed and reported it online as it had a ring on its leg.

Sunday was the final CAP1 workshop and assessment day. Everyone did exceptionally well and we all passed CAP1 with distinction. A massive well done to everyone, Stewart, Jayne, Matt, Anne-Marie, Jackie, Cas and Sue.

Matthew got the Teachers Award off Helen, Helen got her Kentucky and Sue’s husband happens to keep pigeons so she got to take the pigeon home!

We start CAP2 next in August and Helen got us started with ideas of what behaviours we are going to do. We have definitely 1 space available and maybe another on the CAP2 which is 4 workshops run over 4 months. If you are interested email me jane@waggawuffins.com

We had our first Heelwork to Music Training class on Wednesday which was great fun and it’s our first Friday of classes this week, Mixed Activities, Puppy Socialisation and Ringcraft.
We are all off to Blackpool Champ Show in a couple of weeks so we will be practicing for that on Fridays!

Finding Suitable Care for Your Pet While on Holiday

With the sunny season approaching several of our customers have been asking advise on boarding and suitable care for their pets when they go away.
There are now lots of options as to what you can do with your pets while you are away on holiday.
• Boarding Kennels
• Pet Sitting
• Home Boarding
• Dogs stays with family and attends a crèche during the day
• Or take them with you!

People are always weary and concerned about leaving their pets and quite rightly so.

It is important when choosing that you consider the following:

• Always go and have a look round first make sure you are happy with the facility and also the staff, as these are the people who will be looking after your pet.
• Check they have a valid boarding license (Kennels, home boarding and crèches require then)
• Check they are fully insured
• Make sure they are conforming to the license and insurance conditions as if they are not they may be putting your pets as risk and their insurance may not be valid if conditions are breached
• Make sure anyone coming to sit at your home is CRB checked
• Home boarding should not have kennels or crates as you are paying for the luxury of your dog being in the comfort of a home environment.
• The number of dogs allowed on the license is not being exceeded.
• If you are leaving your pet in a boarding establishment of any kind you will need to make sure vaccinations are up to date and also your dog has been vaccinated against kennel cough.

Licenses are there to protect the safety and welfare of your pet. You can check your local council’s license conditions by contacting the council.

Happy Holidays

Polish gets Pampered in Prestwich

On Friday I booked Snoopy my polish lowland sheepdog for a groom at Woof ‘N’ Tumble on Whittaker Lane in Prestwich.
Snoopy had a full groom and nails clipped at a bargain price, the staff followed all my specific requirements and he came back well groomed and looking just great. I was very pleased and I would highly recommend them.

May Update

We had our CAP1 second session on the 4th of May which was really good. Matt has free shaped Teal to stand all four feet on the box which is very cute and little Cara took to the target stick really well doing a beautiful figure of eight.
Everyone enjoyed the day and Helen got her Kentucky Fried Chicken Treat for lunch! It's assessment day next time and we all have plenty to work with till then.

Daycare is picking up we have 3 new dogs, Molly, Inca and Harvey and another coming to view this week.

We have new classes starting in June. On a Friday we have another beginners mixed activities as all the others are full, another puppy socialisation class and also weekly ringcraft, there is also Heelwork to Music/Freestyle starting on a Wednesday at 6.20pm.

I am now only available for one to ones in the daytime Monday to Friday. I’m currently not doing any behaviour consults but we have someone we can recommend should you require that service.

I sent off for an order for the Kennel Club Good Citizen Scheme Stationary today including rosettes and it came to over £100!! I can understand why so many clubs didn’t renew this year with the new charges and membership increase. When I was only doing 2 nights at the Church I would have struggled to afford it, but then I wouldn’t have needed as much stuff as I do now.

As we will now have 18 classes per week we may have an opportunity for a qualified and experienced positive dog trainer to join our team in the next month or so.

Matt and Teal get a special mention

Leaming bar report on the Gundog Club Website

http://www.thegundogclub.co.uk/presscentre/pressreleases/FTdays/leemingbar2.htm

Dog Walker in Wigan, Leigh and Lowton

Emma Hill who used to help out with our training classes at Elton Dog club and WaggaWuffins has finally set up her own business Dog Walking.

We'd like to wish Emma the best of luck with her business

Emma is very experienced with a Degree in Animal Behaviour, she has great empathy with animals and we highly recommend her services, so if your in Wigan or Leigh and looking for someone to look after your dog while your at work Emma is the person to contact.
To find out more about Emma and her services check out her website

http://muddymutt.co.uk/