PDTE 2017 Winter Newsletter

New members (continued 1)
Cecilie Magnus Campbell -
Norway
I am a 50 year old woman, married with
two children (aged 16 and 18). Grew up
with two dogs (Doberman, one female
and one male), and since then I have had
the pleasure of living with a cocker
spaniel, golden retriever, a mix of
Norwegian buhund/Welsh Corgie and
alkhound, and our last dog was a
Chihuahua. We are currently in the
process of buying a Chihuahua puppy.
My interest in dogs has always been very
strong and for many years I wanted to
become a veterinarian. Instead I ended up
with a bachelor in management, and an
International Master in Business
Administration. However, my interest in
dogs and their well being has remained
strong, and in 2015 I started my education
at Troll Hundeskole in Kongsberg (Anne
Lill Kvam), and received my certificate as
a dog trainer in March 2017.
I would like to work with behavioural
issues and plan to set up a business
(sole proprietorship) as soon as possible.
I have also started a blog where I am
writing about behaviour, needs, the dogs
attenuating signals etc. You may view my
blog at https://gladhundblogg.no
Chantal Kroeze-van der Ree -
Netherlands
I live in a small town in The Netherlands
with my husband and our 11 year old dog,
Xavi, who we adopted when he was 6
years old. Growing up I’ve never had the
pleasure of living with a dog, which
makes Xavi my first canine companion.
Up until a year before Xavi came into our
lives, I was working as a Social Worker,
but, although meaningful and thankful, I
found the work to be really exhausting
and frankly not satisfying enough. That’s
when I realized my true passion lies in
working with dogs. And so began the
search for the right education.
After some trial and error I landed with a
dog school that truly set me on the path
I’m currently on, when it comes to how to
properly treat a dog and work/live with
dogs. It is here that I got my degree as a
dog therapist and where I got most of my
field experience with tracking, social
walks and other fun activities like scent
discrimination. In the future I would love
to further my education in different
kinds of fun activities, (methods of
working on) behavioral problems and
balance & coordination.
However, I think my largest continuous
source of learning is Xavi, I can’t even
begin to describe the numerous things he
taught me through our years together and
will continue to teach me. He reminds me
every day that I really have a passion for
dogs and that I can’t imagine anything
else than working with dogs.
David Oliver – Spain
My name is David Oliver and I have spent
an important part of my life dedicated to
working with animals, as I believe they
are honest and they offer their love
unconditionally. This has helped me grow
as a person, acquire greater knowledge
with time, and become a dog trainer with
the aim of transmitting my knowledge to
people who need it. I currently live with
three dogs, a Golden Retriever, a
Husky/German Shepherd mix and a
Catalan Shepherd mix.
With them, I have learnt a lot about
communication and training, after all they
are my inspiration for becoming a better
dog trainer. Each dog has its’ own
personality and I have had to learn how
best to deal with each of them differently.
With these dogs I have learnt, that the
best way to work with them is through
play. I am not a person who enjoys
being tough or authoritative, so I have
had to learn that, through play, you can
also discipline.
I am qualified as an Animal
Communicator with Olga Porqueras 2010,
Dog Trainer Course (Discan) 2011, PNL
(centro civico Fort Pienc) 2012, Assisted
Therapy with Animals Course (Aetana)
2013, First Aid for Dogs in the Mountain
(J. Martinez. Vet. Pirena) 2014, Natural
Feeding and Homemade Remedies
(Angie Domhan) 2014, Tracking Course
(Enric) 2014, AMC-lider 1 Certificate
(Marcos Ibanez) 2015, Professional Reiki
Therapist Course Levels 1, 2 and 3 2016.
Denise Vrolijk - Netherlands
I’m living with my four dogs and friend
Chris in the city of The Hague. When I
was a little girl, I couldn’t be more happy
when my father brought a little black
stray dog home from work. Nera lived
with us for more than 14 years. I liked to
walk her, take care of her, be together and
when I was sad, Nera was always there.
Lots of years passed living without a dog,
due to work and living circumstances. Six
years ago I adopted my first foreign stray
dog Tara (mix German-Belgian Shepherd,
Afghan Hound, Vizsla). Today she lives
together with our other foreign stray dogs
Cloë (mix German Shepherd, Ibizan
Hound, Rat Terrier), Mika (mix German
Shepherd, Rottweiler, Beauceron, Husky)
and Simba (mix German Shepherd,
Mastin, Ridgeback, Saluki).
They all had their difficulties learning to
cope with their new lives (afraid of traffic,
people, other dogs, loud noises, men,
kids), but we gave them the time they
needed to get more confident. Although
we had some help from a therapist with
Cloë, I wanted to learn more about the
body language and behaviour of my own
dogs. In 2016, I successfully completed
the National Dog Trainer Education
(NDTE) at Calming Signs, The
Netherlands, with a quartet game, book
and presentation about the enriched life
of City Dogs.
I’d like to help dog owners having
difficulties managing the day-to-day city
life together with their dogs. As a private
coach and behavioural consultant, I’d like
to open the eyes of dog owners to a more
natural, respectful and joyful way of living
together. Under the title Dog Livity, which
refers to the spiritual concept of
Rastafar-I: a natural, loving way of living
together with mutual respect
Diana Bowmans - Netherlands
From a child on I have been fond of
animals. I have had mice, birds, cats,
dogs, sheep and horses. I have had three
dogs at the same time and on this
moment I have one dog who comes from
a shelter. Dogs with us are part of the
household.
A few years ago I started as a volunteer
at the shelter, going out and spending
time with the dogs that stayed there. I
walk there with all the dogs, so I have
experience with all kind of dogs. Because
the dogs experience a lot of stress due to
their history and the circumstances in the
shelter, I wanted to know more about dog
behaviour so that I could meet better the
demands of the dogs. So I followed and
passed the course Natural Dog Trainer at
Calming Signs (Nelis Verhoeven) in
Koningslust in the Netherlands. In the
meantime I also started to take dogs (the
ones that were staying there already a
considerable time and were not adopted
because of the issues they had) from the
shelter temporary to my home to help
them to cope with the issues they had, so
that they became more suitable for
adoption. The dogs stayed at my home
until they were adopted.
I also started as a volunteer at Dierenhulp
zonder grenzen, an organisation that
arranges the adoption in the Netherlands
of dogs in shelters abroad. I visit the
people interested in adoption in advance
to advise about their suitability for
adoption and after adoption to see how
things go. After I finished the education
at calming signs I also started as a
behaviourist for the organisation and now
advise the people in case they meet
problems in the interaction with the dog
they adopted.
Ines Jiménez Álvarez - Spain
Since I can remember there was always a
dog at home. My father adored animals,
we used to read lots of books about
animals and their behaviour.
One of our dogs, a powerful German
shepherd started to display aggressive,
protective and hyperactivity behaviours. It
was the eighties, and techniques used by
trainers seemed to me unfair and cruel. I
refused that horrible kind of “professional
hep” and tried to work other ways.
Despite my limitations his behaviour
improved dramatically.
As I was interested in the field of animal
behaviour I studied Psychology at the
University, studying animal learning and
ethology. The labour market drove me to
the field of equal opportunities,
education, training and employment in
the frame of European Programs
developed by the government of my
region in Spain, Asturias.
As I never gave up the canine world I
started to increase my knowledge of
positive dog training and I became an
enthusiast of it.
In my region, Asturias, dog training was
based on the dominance and other old
theories. The impact of this fact was
evident in owners and dogs; that made
me feel like it was necessary to do
something to change this sad situation.
34 Winter 2017/18 - PDTE Newsletter
Winter 2017/18 - PDTE Newsletter 35