About Our Trainers
Joan Cattell
Trainer for Puppy Playgroup and Improvers' Class
Accredited Bronze Good Citizen assessor
APDT, UK membership number 317
Joan first came to Wigston Magna Dog Training Club over 25 years ago to train her pet dog Meg. She gained a 2nd place on her course and followed on with the advanced class. It wasn't long before Joan got hooked and started assisting with the classes.
Joan joined the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) because she liked their way of training - kind, fair and effective.
She now owns two Border Collies, Gyp and Gwen. Gyp has just retired after 11 years as a Pets As Therapy Dog and a Blue Cross Educator. She has given up her Show career and now tries her paws at Obedience. When you have Border Collies you just lead a busy life! Gwen achieved her Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award in August 2016.
Joan is also a Pets As Therapy, and Blue Cross Assessor
Accredited Bronze Good Citizen assessor
APDT, UK membership number 317
Joan first came to Wigston Magna Dog Training Club over 25 years ago to train her pet dog Meg. She gained a 2nd place on her course and followed on with the advanced class. It wasn't long before Joan got hooked and started assisting with the classes.
Joan joined the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) because she liked their way of training - kind, fair and effective.
She now owns two Border Collies, Gyp and Gwen. Gyp has just retired after 11 years as a Pets As Therapy Dog and a Blue Cross Educator. She has given up her Show career and now tries her paws at Obedience. When you have Border Collies you just lead a busy life! Gwen achieved her Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award in August 2016.
Joan is also a Pets As Therapy, and Blue Cross Assessor
Lynn Prince
Trainer for Thursday Beginners' Course and Improvers' Class
Accredited Bronze Good Citizen assessor
APDT, UK membership number 938
Lynn joined the club in 2002 and has been with the club since she became hooked after enrolling one of her Boxers, Gypsy, on a course and became an assistant to the other trainers. After sadly losing Gypsy and her other Boxer, Roly, Lynn decided to downsize a little and now has a Boston Terrier puppy called Layla, who has completed her Puppy Foundation and is working towards her Bronze.
In 2003 she attended a course run by the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers, then in 2004/5 successfully completed a C.O.A.P.E (Centre of Applied Pet Ethology) foundation course gaining 12 credits in canine behaviour. Following the success of the first course, Lynn completed a second C.O.A.P.E. course, accredited by the National Open College Network. She gained another 12 credits, this time at intermediate level.
In April 2006 Lynn was accepted as a member of the APDT and became an assessor for the Kennel Club Good Citizen Award Scheme in 2010. Most recently, Lynn became a trainer for Dog A.I.D.
Accredited Bronze Good Citizen assessor
APDT, UK membership number 938
Lynn joined the club in 2002 and has been with the club since she became hooked after enrolling one of her Boxers, Gypsy, on a course and became an assistant to the other trainers. After sadly losing Gypsy and her other Boxer, Roly, Lynn decided to downsize a little and now has a Boston Terrier puppy called Layla, who has completed her Puppy Foundation and is working towards her Bronze.
In 2003 she attended a course run by the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers, then in 2004/5 successfully completed a C.O.A.P.E (Centre of Applied Pet Ethology) foundation course gaining 12 credits in canine behaviour. Following the success of the first course, Lynn completed a second C.O.A.P.E. course, accredited by the National Open College Network. She gained another 12 credits, this time at intermediate level.
In April 2006 Lynn was accepted as a member of the APDT and became an assessor for the Kennel Club Good Citizen Award Scheme in 2010. Most recently, Lynn became a trainer for Dog A.I.D.
Liz Spencer
Trainer for Improvers' Class and Thursday Beginners' Course
A former teacher, Liz has been a member of the club since 1995. It was then that she joined with her black Labrador puppy, Bramble, who was quite a handful! She persevered with Bramble's training and successfully completed the Gold Good Citizen Award in 2003.
Meanwhile Liz had been helping with training classes and became more permanently involved with the Thursday Beginners' Class in April 2004.
Liz's second dog, a whippet called Jasmine, began training in 2005 with the Puppy Foundation Assessment and successfully completed the Gold Good Citizen Award In January 2010. Her present dog, Poppy, another whippet, has also worked her way through the Good Citizen Award Scheme and gained her Gold Award in May 2016.
A former teacher, Liz has been a member of the club since 1995. It was then that she joined with her black Labrador puppy, Bramble, who was quite a handful! She persevered with Bramble's training and successfully completed the Gold Good Citizen Award in 2003.
Meanwhile Liz had been helping with training classes and became more permanently involved with the Thursday Beginners' Class in April 2004.
Liz's second dog, a whippet called Jasmine, began training in 2005 with the Puppy Foundation Assessment and successfully completed the Gold Good Citizen Award In January 2010. Her present dog, Poppy, another whippet, has also worked her way through the Good Citizen Award Scheme and gained her Gold Award in May 2016.
Laura Hackett
Trainer for Bronze Course, Improvers' Class and Tuesday Beginners Course. Assistant Trainer for Puppy Playgroup.
ADTB Approved Instructor. Member of ISAP.
Laura joined the club as an assistant trainer back in January 2005, starting with the puppies and moving to the beginners courses. For the last several years, she has also been on the rota for taking an improvers class and now co-trains the Tuesday Beginner's Course and Bronze Award class with Vicky Lee.
Laura doesn't have a dog of her own, but grew up with dogs in her extended family. Once she started attending the improvers' class, Laura learnt the ins and outs of training by borrowing fellow members' dogs occasionally. This quickly grew into a regular weekly fixture when one club member needed to train both her Flatcoated Retrievers. Laura learnt a lot from Charley, because Charley already knew what she was doing, so Laura only had to worry about her own mistakes. Laura then took on Oliver, another pre-trained Flatcoat, whom she also handled in the show ring for five or six years, including at Crufts, as well as going to agility classes. Oliver moved to France in 2012, so Laura moved on to training Max, an Akita. She was able to put all the things she learnt with Charley and Oliver into practise with an untrained dog and Max did very well, achieving his Bronze Award in 2013. Unfortunately, the club's move to Evington made training Max unworkable and Laura is currently dogless once again.
On top of all the training, Laura gets plenty of exposure to a variety of dogs in her day job, as she has been a professional dog walker since July 2005. She regularly walks 13 dogs (not all at once!), ranging from a tiny Miniature Dachshund to the aforementioned Max.
Laura has successfully completed the C.O.A.P.E. Man Meets Dog course. In August 2016 Laura became an Approved Instructor with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour (ADTB), gaining an A+ on all six modules, one of only five people to have achieved straight A's since 2005! Laura is also a full member of the International Society for Animal Professionals (ISAP).
ADTB Approved Instructor. Member of ISAP.
Laura joined the club as an assistant trainer back in January 2005, starting with the puppies and moving to the beginners courses. For the last several years, she has also been on the rota for taking an improvers class and now co-trains the Tuesday Beginner's Course and Bronze Award class with Vicky Lee.
Laura doesn't have a dog of her own, but grew up with dogs in her extended family. Once she started attending the improvers' class, Laura learnt the ins and outs of training by borrowing fellow members' dogs occasionally. This quickly grew into a regular weekly fixture when one club member needed to train both her Flatcoated Retrievers. Laura learnt a lot from Charley, because Charley already knew what she was doing, so Laura only had to worry about her own mistakes. Laura then took on Oliver, another pre-trained Flatcoat, whom she also handled in the show ring for five or six years, including at Crufts, as well as going to agility classes. Oliver moved to France in 2012, so Laura moved on to training Max, an Akita. She was able to put all the things she learnt with Charley and Oliver into practise with an untrained dog and Max did very well, achieving his Bronze Award in 2013. Unfortunately, the club's move to Evington made training Max unworkable and Laura is currently dogless once again.
On top of all the training, Laura gets plenty of exposure to a variety of dogs in her day job, as she has been a professional dog walker since July 2005. She regularly walks 13 dogs (not all at once!), ranging from a tiny Miniature Dachshund to the aforementioned Max.
Laura has successfully completed the C.O.A.P.E. Man Meets Dog course. In August 2016 Laura became an Approved Instructor with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour (ADTB), gaining an A+ on all six modules, one of only five people to have achieved straight A's since 2005! Laura is also a full member of the International Society for Animal Professionals (ISAP).
Vicky Lee
Trainer for Bronze Course and Tuesday Beginners course. Assistant Trainer for Puppy Playgroup.
ADTB Approved Instructor. Member of ISAP.
I have had dogs at home all my life. I first came to the club in 2002 to train my delinquent puppy, Ellie. Ellie eventually achieved all 4 of the Kennel Club Good Citizen awards from the puppy award up to the Gold. I have also achieved the Bronze and Silver awards with my 2nd terrier, Mollie.
I have currently got five dogs of my own, Jack, Tilly, Molly (a different Molly to the one above), Rosie and Bonnie. Jack is a working cocker spaniel who has gained his Bronze and Silver Good Citizen Awards and will hopefully be taking the Gold Award in due course. Tilly is a parson russell terrier cross patterdale terrier and is completely bonkers but has passed the Bronze and Silver awards. Tilly and I provide plenty of entertainment for everyone at the Improver's class! Molly is also a working cocker spaniel and is actually Jack's mum, who came to me as a rehomed 4 year old dog in 2011. Rosie is a Miniature Longhaired Dachshund who has been with me since an 8 week old puppy and Bonnie is Rosie's daughter. Rosie has completed the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. Bonnie has completed the Bronze Award and Silver and is now working towards the Gold.
I have been a puppy walker for Guide Dogs and can proudly say 2 of my 3 Guide Dog pups are now qualified working Guides. Puppy Walking involves having the pup to live with me for the first year of it's life from 6 weeks old and doing all the basic training and socialisation to prepare the pups for their working life ahead.
I also run my own 'home from home' puppy day care business where I care for puppies and some adult dogs on a daily basis.
I have been assisting with training at the club since 2008 and became an Approved Instructor with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour in August 2016 after gaining straight A+ marks on all six modules. I am one of only five people to have achieved those grades since 2005! I am also a full member of the International Society for Animal Professionals.
ADTB Approved Instructor. Member of ISAP.
I have had dogs at home all my life. I first came to the club in 2002 to train my delinquent puppy, Ellie. Ellie eventually achieved all 4 of the Kennel Club Good Citizen awards from the puppy award up to the Gold. I have also achieved the Bronze and Silver awards with my 2nd terrier, Mollie.
I have currently got five dogs of my own, Jack, Tilly, Molly (a different Molly to the one above), Rosie and Bonnie. Jack is a working cocker spaniel who has gained his Bronze and Silver Good Citizen Awards and will hopefully be taking the Gold Award in due course. Tilly is a parson russell terrier cross patterdale terrier and is completely bonkers but has passed the Bronze and Silver awards. Tilly and I provide plenty of entertainment for everyone at the Improver's class! Molly is also a working cocker spaniel and is actually Jack's mum, who came to me as a rehomed 4 year old dog in 2011. Rosie is a Miniature Longhaired Dachshund who has been with me since an 8 week old puppy and Bonnie is Rosie's daughter. Rosie has completed the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. Bonnie has completed the Bronze Award and Silver and is now working towards the Gold.
I have been a puppy walker for Guide Dogs and can proudly say 2 of my 3 Guide Dog pups are now qualified working Guides. Puppy Walking involves having the pup to live with me for the first year of it's life from 6 weeks old and doing all the basic training and socialisation to prepare the pups for their working life ahead.
I also run my own 'home from home' puppy day care business where I care for puppies and some adult dogs on a daily basis.
I have been assisting with training at the club since 2008 and became an Approved Instructor with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour in August 2016 after gaining straight A+ marks on all six modules. I am one of only five people to have achieved those grades since 2005! I am also a full member of the International Society for Animal Professionals.
Phil Henson
Trainer for Improvers' Class
I first became involved with WMDTC with my first dog Sadie, a Border Collie, some 30 years ago when we were at St.Thomas's Church Hall. Then 20 years ago we acquired Sasha as a puppy and started with bringing her to puppy class and progressed to Improver's, achieving Bronze, Silver and Gold Good Citizen Awards. For a number of years I also took her to do Agility which she loved, even if now and again she thought she knew best and made her own course up!!!
Then along came Tia our third Border Collie (Should have known better by now). We got her at 8 weeks and she was still going to Improver's class 10 years later, even if ill health meant she did a 1 hour down stay most times.
Lesson still not learnt, I am now on Border Collie number four, Kelly, a rescue puppy who is slowly learning that walking to heel is not a suggestion...
As far as training goes, I guess I must have been helping out on club night for about 11ish years doing things in a light hearted way but still making the training worthwhile and helpful towards the Good Citizen Awards. I may train a little differently to the others but everyone seems to come again so it cannot be all bad.
I first became involved with WMDTC with my first dog Sadie, a Border Collie, some 30 years ago when we were at St.Thomas's Church Hall. Then 20 years ago we acquired Sasha as a puppy and started with bringing her to puppy class and progressed to Improver's, achieving Bronze, Silver and Gold Good Citizen Awards. For a number of years I also took her to do Agility which she loved, even if now and again she thought she knew best and made her own course up!!!
Then along came Tia our third Border Collie (Should have known better by now). We got her at 8 weeks and she was still going to Improver's class 10 years later, even if ill health meant she did a 1 hour down stay most times.
Lesson still not learnt, I am now on Border Collie number four, Kelly, a rescue puppy who is slowly learning that walking to heel is not a suggestion...
As far as training goes, I guess I must have been helping out on club night for about 11ish years doing things in a light hearted way but still making the training worthwhile and helpful towards the Good Citizen Awards. I may train a little differently to the others but everyone seems to come again so it cannot be all bad.
APDT
Joan and Lynn are registered with the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. The APDT's mission statement is:
The APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), UK is a voluntary organisation established to improve the welfare of dogs and the competence of dog owners through the promotion of training skills and techniques based on up to date, researched, methods that apply the principles of kindness fairness and effectiveness and are in keeping with modern learning theory.
To find out more about the APDT and the training methods they use click their logo.
The APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), UK is a voluntary organisation established to improve the welfare of dogs and the competence of dog owners through the promotion of training skills and techniques based on up to date, researched, methods that apply the principles of kindness fairness and effectiveness and are in keeping with modern learning theory.
To find out more about the APDT and the training methods they use click their logo.
ADTB
Vicky and Laura are Approved Instructors with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour. The main ADTB principles are:
To find out more about the ADTB, click on the logo.
Vicky and Laura are Approved Instructors with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour. The main ADTB principles are:
- ADTB Instructors only use positive training methods
- ADTB Instructors need to know the basics of behaviour
- ADTB Instructors must be enthusiastic and passionate about dogs
- The ADTB does not approve of any form of cruelty to dogs
To find out more about the ADTB, click on the logo.
ISAP
Laura and Vicky are Full Members of the International Society of Animal Professionals. ISAP's mission statement is:
The International Society for Animal Professionals was founded to improve animal welfare around the world. The purpose of the Society is to provide a focus point to all interested parties around the world and to promote international cooperation and common standards of good practice when working with animals. ISAP aims to encourage dialogue and better understanding of difficulties and different methodologies, to recognise experience and academic achievement and by so doing, work towards an improved existence for all animals worldwide.
To find out more about ISAP click their logo.
Laura and Vicky are Full Members of the International Society of Animal Professionals. ISAP's mission statement is:
The International Society for Animal Professionals was founded to improve animal welfare around the world. The purpose of the Society is to provide a focus point to all interested parties around the world and to promote international cooperation and common standards of good practice when working with animals. ISAP aims to encourage dialogue and better understanding of difficulties and different methodologies, to recognise experience and academic achievement and by so doing, work towards an improved existence for all animals worldwide.
To find out more about ISAP click their logo.
