We adopted Bailey at 6 months old and had a lot of issues with him. We started with AD games straight away, but felt we needed extra help as the year went on. We booked our first visit to Bowerland in December 2021. This turned in to an eye opener for me, as we started to see real life results with Bailey. It transformed the way I planned my training,
Since then we have returned to Devon Dogs a number of times throughout 2022, building on our learning with scent days, film days, a week of 1-2-1 training and then to end 2022 with the retreat was amazing. It was an excellent group of people to bounce ideas off and all of the trainers covered different things, so we had a wonderful mixture of things to work on with our dogs.
My third stay at Bowerland
This is our third stay in one of the cottages at Bowerland and the New Year Retreat at The Old Dairy has been so amazing. My husband and I have had time to explore the local area, chill in our wonderful cottage and have some amazing training with the dogs and the Devon Dogs trainers.
The Old Dairy
We couldn’t have asked for a better place to stay. The log fire was so enticing we had to light it once despite the temperatures being quite mild. The kitchen was well equipped with everything we needed. The separate rooms gave us space to give each dog their rest away from each other, and a large comfortable bed for a very good nights sleep. And, as promised, the best thing of all – no fireworks on New Years Eve!
Bailey & Robbie
Baileys confidence grew throughout the week and our current foster puppy, Robbie, had so much fun and was not fazed by being somewhere new. Robbie is 12 months old and will hopefully be going on to become an assistance dog in the future.
Big thanks to the trainers
A big thank you to Michelle, Becky, Sam and Jamie for each giving us different things to think about with the dogs. My husband has always been quite sceptical, but even he has admitted this week he can see why this type of training works. Many thanks to Michelle as she encouraged my husband to do boundary work with Robbie on Dartmoor with lots of distractions around. He was amazed how focused Robbie was on him, whereas under normal circumstances he is distracted by everything.
A brilliant last day
Both dogs have had a brilliant last day. Bailey loved it as we managed to be outdoors all day and he came to life in the log pile area searching for his ball. We need to work on his confidence in new indoor environments ,ready for our next visit!
We can’t wait to book our next trip!
Karen is a puppy parent and fosterer for the charity, Canine Partners. She has had several dogs over the years before taking on her own rescue dog. She was introduced to absoluteDogs in 2020 by a trainer at the Charity, to give Karen new ideas to train her dogs and have fun with them at the same time.