Background
Malaika Chloe Fergus

 

 

I share my life with 3 dogs - a 'rescued' Afghan Hound named Malaika (aged 7), a 5 year old Pyrenean Mastiff named Chloe and a 9 year old Whippet named Fergus who we recently adopted from the RSPCA; my husband and 2 young children aged 4 and 8; 3 cats and some fish. I have been involved with dog training for over 15 years, firstly with my own dogs and then later as an instructor. Over the past 10 years I have also been involved with foster caring - particularly for Afghans and Salukis.

I was introduced to positive reinforcement training methods in 1999 when working with my own dog, a Mastiff named Wookie. I was keen to compete in obedience trials with Wookie but after having used traditional methods of training with him for almost 3 years, realised there were many aspects of his training that I needed to improve. As a result of years of corrections, Wookie would lag behind me during our walks and he was always very slow during his recalls. While he would sit on request, he took a long time to do into a down position. It was then that a colleague introduced me to the use of positive reinforcement training methods.

Through practising and observing my own dog, I came to understand how much training methods based on punishment and aversive methods had impacted on all aspects of his behaviour and temperament. Although I had always been uncomfortable in using forceful methods to train my dog, I knew no other way and assumed this was how training was done. NEVER AGAIN.

With much practise, patience, praise and love I was able to 're-train' Wookie to a point that he was able to compete in obedience trials. We won the club award for the highest scoring dog in his class in the year we began and Wookie went on to be involved in the local obedience demonstration team. I learned that training could be fun and rewarding and more importantly that I didn't have to punish or yank my dog to get him to willingly do what I asked of him.

Sadly Wookie passed away very suddenly in 2004. In his too short 7 years with me he achieved much - not the least of which was his 6 years working as a visiting therapy dog in nursing homes and hospitals around Melbourne. He was involved in an obedience demonstration team for 2 years, achieved his Australian Champion title, was the 'best man' at my wedding and was one of the dogs filmed for the advertisement of the Royal Melbourne Show in 2001. I have but one regret about his life - that I did not have the knowledge to train him humanely and positively for the whole of his life.

Through the training of both my own and other people's dogs I have witnessed first hand the outcomes of aversive training methods. As I became more involved with training I became more and more passionate about the use of positive training methods. In 2004 I resigned from my full time job working as an academic and research consultant and began to pursue my dream of working full time with dogs and spreading the word about positive training methods.

In 2007 I completed the Certificate IV in Companion Animal Services (formerly Behavioural Dog Training) with the Delta Society Australia and Angels with Paws was born. I hope to make Angels with Paws more than just a 'dog training' business - I want it to be a source of information and education for all current and prospective dog guardians. I want to be able to help prevent other people from making the same mistakes with training that I did; when that is not possible I want to be able to teach others about the way that positive training methods not only train their dogs but at the same time enhance the bond between people and their canine companions.