Rebecca and her dog Chip after passing their beginner man trail assessment in Cullercoats
If you read our first blog, you’ll have been introduced to Cheshire based trailing instructor Laurence, from Dog Trailing. Laurence was one of the first trainees to pass through The Canine School of Trailing Instructor Course in 2024. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here.
Following quickly in Laurence’s footsteps, just as if she was trailing…. is Rebecca the Dog Trainer.
Rebecca and Chip trailing in Cullercoats
Rebecca however isn’t based in Cheshire, but is up in the North East of England very close to where Co-Founder, Rachel (Nose to Trail) grew up in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Rebecca, or “Becky” as we tend to call her! Works alongside Rachel at Napo Pet Insurance in their Puppy Academy, and has been trailing with her lovely boy Chip for around a year now. Becky has been attending sessions when Rachel has been visiting home, and now following completion of her instructor course (in quite a memorable style, but more about that later) is up and running her on man trailing and pet trailing sessions.
Chip being rewarded at the end of a man trail
We caught up with Becky to find out how her trailing is going.
“Becky Can you tell us a little about your trailing experience and the dogs you work with?”
“I constantly hear from people that certain activities are for any dog, however, being an experienced trainer I know these have their limitations. With trailing I find that any dog and owner can trail. I work with puppies and a lot of nervous and anxious dogs and with doing trailing it is great way to build up their confidence”
“What is your favourite thing about trailing?”
“Seeing the reactions of the owners face when their dog or puppy finds the missing person or dog and how quickly a dog or puppy can pick up trailing.”
Becky being the runner on a man trail for a nervous dog wearing a muzzle
Why was Becky’s instructor course so memorable I hear you ask! Well hereby lies a tale which we’re pretty sure Becky is never going to live down….
At the end of their 12 week course, the instructors have a practical exam. In this session we gather some of our regular The Canine School of Trailing clients, and also some brand new clients, all of which get the opportunity to trail free of charge (side note – if you’re interested in helping us out on the last Sunday in September for the next assessment date get in touch!).
When it was Becky’s assessment slot, she had a wonderful dog we know and love, called Opal.
Opal sitting in the pub at The Canine School of Trailing Trail Camp in Buxton, April 2024.
However, exam stress must have got to Becky’s head as she misheard Opal’s dog mum and accidentally called her Ovary! At first the assessors thought they had misheard but nope – Becky really was calling Opal a bit of lady anatomy for the entire hour.
Fortunately Opal’s mum has a wonderful sense of humour and saw the funny side, and fortunately for Becky getting dog or human names right is not part of the exam criteria!
Now we can’t promise Becky will get your dog’s name right……. but we can promise she will only ever train using safe, ethical reward based training methods and that you will have a whole heap of fun if you trail with her!
You can find Becky’s trails over at Buy tickets – Rebecca the Dog Trainer (tickettailor.com) and she even has a special puppy session up and running for those youngsters who want to get their noses stuck into the fun stuff nice and early!
If you’re a canine professional and you’d like to join our next instructor course reach out to us at admin@thecanineschooloftrailing.co.uk
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