ABOUT SHIRLEY KENWAY & LAUGHING DOGS

Some years ago I was introduced to the Clicker and later met John , with whom I worked as a trainer.  He inspired me to find out more about clicker training. It was John  who set me off discovering more and understanding more about the clicker, I did as he suggested and went to my first  workshop, and immediately got hooked even more,,,thats why I then felt I wanted working sheepdog -- See my Sky.

I began to attend seminars and workshops and was inspired still further by the likes of Nina Bondarenko, Kay Lawrence, Barbara Sykes, and John Rogerson, to name but a few.  I have attended the ‘Teaching People Teaching Dogs’ course run by Kay Lawrence and have been awarded my CAP 1 and 2.  I am now working towards achieving my CAP 3, which involves taking part in a number of clicker workshops and being continuously assessed.

I have two dogs at the moment.  One is a Working Sheepdog called Sky who is trained to a high standard.  Together we have enjoyed Flyball, Agility, and Heelwork to Music and taken part in several Clicker Challenges.  Sky, who performs the most amazing tricks, was trained using positive reward methods and a clicker or word marker.  My other dog is a Labrador puppy, Moss.  At the moment he is learning good manners, loose lead walking and a number of other basic behaviours which will lay the foundation for him becoming a good dog citizen.  I believe that good manners, with self-control, are the key to a happy relationship between dog and owner.

I rapidly came to the conclusion that you cannot deal with problems that come up whilst training unless you understand and recognise the body language of the dog.  I didn’t really understand body language, or what dogs were communicating to each other, until I met Dee Ganley.  By this time my collie had developed behaviour problems. Dee and I started emailing each other regularly.  As she started to teach me how to recognise "dog body language", I began to understand the immense amount of communication that goes on between dogs.  It is so important to be able to recognise body language in order to able to understand what is going wrong and to be able to correct it.

I realise, through personal experience, what an impact a dog with behavioural problems can have on you and just how distressing it can be.  My aim, therefore, is to help other people understand and train their dogs, whilst using kind and effective methods, to help them solve the problems of unwanted behaviour and to ensure that their dogs are well mannered and in tune with the society  in which they live. 

These days I pay as much attention to how the owners feel as I do to their dogs, believing that the first step to preventing or  changing their dogs unwanted behaviour a  is to give the owners a greater understanding and more confidence in themselves.

In May 2005 I arranged a seminar, ‘Changing People Changing Dogs’, to be given by Dee.  The response was very encouraging so, following that, I set up a chat group for people with reactive and worried dogs to enable them to communicate and support each other -  www.dodgydogs@yahoogroups.com This group goes from strength to strength. Members include experienced behaviourists, trainers and people who are just discovering how important it is to understand behaviour.

Slideshow of a goose that was very aggressive. In fact it attacked when Shirley walked into the paddock.
OUCH... Although, in just a few minutes Shirley was able to get a nice gentle hand touch from the goose.