Customer Questionnaire

A huge thank you to everyone that took the time to complete our questionnaire.

Questionnaires were anonymous and 107 were returned.

1/ Of the respondents, 48% had been with us 6 months or less, 28% between 6 -18 months and 24% 18 months +

2/  76% of respondents had joined us when their dog was 12 months or younger.

3/ a/ 94% or respondents were extremely happy with their Instructors knowledge, with the other 6% happy

    b/ 90% were extremely happy with their Insructors lesson planning, with the other 10% happy

     c/ 60% were extremely happy with the variety of exercises/activities provided in class, with the      other 40% happy or satisfied

      d/ Only 1% of respondents was unhappy with the cost of classes. 47% were extremely happy

       e/ With regard to the variety of clubs on offer, no respondents were u happy with our offering. 94% were either extremely happy or happy.

       f/ 88% were either extremely happy or happy with the cost of clubs

       g/ 96% were either extremely happy or happy with the tea break

       h/ 2% were unhappy with the toilet facilities

        i/ 98% were either extremely happy or happy with the quality of the field equipment

        j/ 100% were either extremely happy or happy with lesson times

With regards to the comments section, the following improvements are currently underway:-

1/ Cabin and awning being refurbished at a cost of just under £2.5k
2/ E-Newsletter to commence this week and be issued at least every quarter
3/ Training treats to be stocked as standard in our shop
4/ Decaff coffee now available during tea break as standard
5/ Recall practice session-dates on the noticeboard

Your feedback is vital to us as we continue to forge forward as Dogzaloud and we're proud to have you making this journey with us x

Supadog 2014

SUPADOG 2014

Thankfully the weather was kind to us yet again as we held our annual Supadog competition on Sunday 7th September.

Competitors were welcomed with bacon rolls, which had to be cooked by Charlie Wilson, because Instructor Les couldn’t get the BBQ to go, even though it was the ‘easy light’ bags of charcoal!!

Some of the old timers had retired, citing old age, tidying the garage and bowls games as excuses! There were lots of new contenders, however, for the much coveted title of Supadog, not to mention the trophy that they get to keep for a year.

There were 3 sections that the team of competitors had to move round, with 4 games within each. Competitors were marked in each section and had a joker to play when they so chose, doubling their points. Games had elements of obedience, searching and agility.

After around 2 hours of hard competing, the results were finally totted up (this took longer than it should as none of the Instructors can add, never mind take away!!). Results were as follows:-

Handler & Dog Points (after handicap)

Adam & Shadow       93
Becky & Eddie          92
Katrina & Bobby       90
Denise & Mabel        82
Jon & Mr Jones        78
Lynsey & Lottie       73
Judith & Crixus        69
Chloe & Ella            65
Liz & Hendrix         60
Michael & Monty    56
Sam & Diesal          55
Claire & Poppy       54
Jo & Carli               53
Sue & Cadbury       47
Wendy & Thor       42
Denise & Holly      41
Liz & Nellie           35

Adam and Shadow were worthy winners, as they showed a consistent high standard across all of the games, although Becky and Katrina were hot on his tail! Adam was also the youngest handler on the day, so he should be incredibly proud of himself and his pooch!

Lynsey with Lottie, Jo with Carli and Judith with Crixus also received spot prizes for particularly good performances in individual exercises.

Whilst everyone cannot win a prize, we as Instructors feel incredibly proud as we look around the field and see all these dogs, some of which came to us as nutty puppies or bonkers adolescents, working with and for their owners, in a field with loads of other dogs and everyone is focussed on the job in hand!

To steal words from customer Chris Saunders, “each and every one of you owns a Supadog” and you should never forget how far your dog has progressed and they are a testament to how hard you have worked to get them to this point.

Supadog 2015 can’t come round quick enough!

Supadog 2013

2013 Supadog Winners - Gary & Millie

Sunday 1st September saw this years annual Supadog competition at Broom Barking Mad Dog Training School. The competition was fierce...fortunately the pooches were not.

The competitors were split into four groups and then rotated through a series of four stations with three games being played at each station. Meg organised a variety of tricky games many of which had the owners dashing about as much as the dogs, we should sleep well tonight! Supadog competition aside, at only £12 entry it was great value for money for two and half hours of fun! Points were awarded based on a handicap system so it didn't matter what level you and your dog were at, you were still in with a chance.

So who won then? Well, huge congratulations go to Gary and Millie with a score that simply blitzed the opposition. Becky and Eddie came an excellent second and third place was shared by Adam and Shadow and Helen and Jess. However, everybody who took part should be proud of their dogs, well done guys and girls.

Thanks to Meg for organising another great event and Lesley, Sharon and Fay for manning the stations assisted by Suzanne. Looking forward to next year already :-)

Position	Handler and Dog	Points Score
1	Gary & Millie	83
2	Becky & Eddie	76
3	Adam & Shadow	72
3	Helen & Jess	72
4	Halima & Alfie	62
4	Rob & Dom	62
4	Wendy & Thor	62
5	Carol & Fern	60
6	Jill & Polo	56
6	Helen & Coco	56
7	Aud & Jaspa	51
8	Richard & Misty	50
9	Aud & Jimmie	42
9	Mick & Monty	42
9	Jane & Daisy	42
10	Liz & Nellie	40
10	Alex & Oscar	40
11	Denise & Holly	32
12	Helen & Robbie	24

K9 Kids Club - by Kayleigh

I had a great time at K9 Kidz Club.  We did lots of activities, like bean bag race – where you put a bean bag on your head and go over jumps with your dog without it falling off, relay race – where you had to perform tricks with your dog like twist and spin, egg and spoon race holding your dog to heal in and out of cones, recall race and Rock paper Scissors which was my favourite.  Rock paper scissors is where you stand back to back with your dogs in front of you and get them to do sit, down or stand and have to beat the other dog.  Each time you won or your team won you got 5 points. At the end we had the sack race and then our parents had to join in and do the sack race, this was really funny.

Kayleigh, Kahlua and Harley


http://www.barkingmadtraining.co.uk/

Milly Versus The Warts

Milly, my 14 month old Springer Spaniel developed a small lump in the corner of her mouth which over the course of 3 weeks developed into 2 large unsightly lumps that protruded from the corner of her mouth and was surrounded by other small lumps. The vet stated that they were probably warts and that I should leave them unless they interfered with her eating etc.  I took her back to the vets a week later as a couple of the warts had doubled in size and several more smaller lumps had appeared, including on the opposite site of her mouth. The vet suggested that Milly should have a general anaesthesia to perform a biopsy and then to remove the larger warts by surgery. This approach was not only potentially expensive, but was entirely unacceptable to me in terms of stress and discomfort to my dog to address a condition that is easily treated in humans. I therefore decided to research the matter on the internet with a view to applying an alternative course of treatment.

True dog warts are caused by Canine Papillomavirus. Viral dog warts, called papillomas, generally range from skin-color to whitish-yellowish and have a cauliflower-like appearance. Papillomas can appear anywhere on the body of a dog, with the most common areas being the face, muzzle, mouth, genitals, and rectum.

Papillomavirus dog warts most often appear on young puppies and adolescent dogs (up to 2 years of age) who still have developing immune systems. Papillomavirus dog warts are also seen in senior dogs whose immune systems are beginning to decline. The immune system of an adult dog is generally strong enough to fight the virus before warts have a chance to emerge.

After extensive research I decided to treat Milly’s warts with Thuja and Vitamin E oil, and have had fantastic result. There was no clear guidance concerning appropriate dosages, so I finally settled on 30c per day of Thuja and rubbed Vitamin E oil onto the warts 3 times a day. I used the following easily available products.

Milly is now wart free ! I told a friend about the treatment that I had applied to Milly as I knew that his Rottweiler had a large wart on his back which caused it some discomfort. He applied the same treatment and within the space of several weeks the wart had completely gone.

In short, this worked for Milly and my friend’s dog. It is far less expensive, stressful and uncomfortable for your dog than aesthetic, biopsy and surgery.

See photos below which show Milly’s warts at the start of treatment and then 3 weeks later as well as my friend’s Rottweiler photos.

I hope this information helps you ...... Sandra

Milly's warts before treatment

Results after 10 days

Results after 3 weeks

Friends Rottweiler before treatment

7 weeks later

Evening Walk with our 4 Legged Friends

On 17th July, around 80 friends of Barking Mad and of the Forest of Marston Vale ventured out together on a group walk around Millenium Country Park, and what a superb evening it was! The park covers 225 hectares and is a fabulous mix of woodland, grassland, meadow, lakes and wetland habitats criss-crossed by 17 kilometres of traffic free, surfaced cycle paths, grass footpaths and bridle ways. There’s a fantastic surfaced path that takes walkers through the beautiful wetland reserve area as well.

The walkers set out in groups, with the growlers heading off last. Despite maps being given out and the route being well signposted, 2 groups got lost! You know who you are…..Richard, Tom, Michelle. Merica et al!!

Because the weather was so hot, the walk was shortened but was fab nonetheless, with lots of opportunities to catch up with old and new friends and for dog walkers to pick the brains of the Barking Mad Dog Trainers.

The walk was followed by a superb BBQ by the lake and the kids amongst the group got an opportunity to play on the outdoor climbing area.

Walkers paid £5.00 for the event and this money has paid for 5 new trees to be planted at the Forest Centre so a huge thank you to everyone that was involved. The Forest is one of only 12 community forest across the UK and is a registered charity so its a very important facility to support and enjoy.

All the dogs behaved impeccably and we all look forward to being able to do this again very soon. 

For more information:-
www.marstonvale.org/millennium-country-park
www.barkingmadtraining.co.uk/

Anglian Wolf Society Trip Report

Peyto and Kaya

Club Trip  

On Tuesday, Lesley and some of the gang from Barking Mad in Broom ventured into the depths of the Bedfordshire countryside to visit the Anglian Wolf Society.

The Sanctuary, which started in 1999 supports and raises funds for Wolf conservation and their primary aims are:

-educate and inform the public about wolves
-promote and support wolf conservation
-provide a place where people can study or work with wolves

Their guide for the day was Phil Watson, the society’s founder, who was obviously a wealth of information on all things wolf related and it was great to hear him talk about body language and also to have a real good chat about wolf hybrids as pets, but more on that later!

There are 4 wolves kept at the sanctuary, Chesa and his brother Peyto, and Chesa’s daughters Aiyana and Kaya.

Chesa inspects the guests

The group were met in the car park to be briefed about health and safety and then were walked in 2 groups down to the wolves. As you would expect the handlers were very respectful of their wolves and we were walking into ‘Alpha Male’ Chesa’s territory so they didn’t want to put undue stress on him, particularly if he was unhappy with any member of the group. All was well though, although he kept a very keen eye on Mike at all times, eyeballing him as he went to the toilet!

The wolves are kept in large cages of about 1/2 acre. Chesa lives in one cage with Aiyana and the other 2 live next door!

Peyto and Kaya posing for the cameras

The wolves were born in captivity, with Aiyana and Kaya being born at the sanctuary itself.  Wolves are born paranoidily scared of humans so the cubs are taken away from their parents at 10 days old to be hand reared and they see no other wolves or dogs till they are 3 weeks old so they are accepting of their human carers.  After their 3 weeks, they then get to meet other dogs and play like normal canine pups. When Chesa and Peta first came to the sanctuary themselves as pups they got all the normal imprinting and conditioning training that you’d hope a normal canine pup would get such as being taken to country shows and walks in the park!  Clicker training was also done with all the pups when they were younger. Phil described them as super intelligent and uber quick learners! The problem with wolves is that every February (breeding season), all learning is wiped clear. At 18 months, the territorial genes switch on with a wolf, which means increased territorial marking and aggression.

Aiyana

So, wolf hybrids……. Wolf hybrids have been becoming increasing popular due to movies such as the Twighlight Series, and the question is do they make good pets? Phil's response was a very categoric NO!  When you cross a wolf and a dog, they have hugely unacceptable levels of predatory and territorial instinct, which makes them a difficult and dangerous houseguest. There is also a shyness gene that in many wolf hybrids just will not go away. There are many example of this in the Czech Wolf Dog (approx. 22% wolf), with many cases being reported where the dogs are so debilitatingly shy that they are afraid to leave their homes.

If you get a wolf hybrid that is approx. 12% (F3) wolf, they can be kept as a ‘pet’ but they'd be extremely challenging and would need to be kennelled outside. 6% (F4) would still have all of the territorial and predatory instincts but could be lived with. The question for potential purchasers of these wolf hybrids is can you really guarantee what % of wolf you’re getting and there is no way of measuring it?

Helen with their pet hybrid - maybe 7-12% wolf

The visit should have finished at 12ish but Phil was so interesting to listen to and the wolves so beautiful to watch that the group didn’t want to leave! They stayed and watched the wolves being fed, tripe and chicken was the order of the day! 

Dinner time!

The group finally left at 2.30 and on departure were treated to a display of howling! Awesome is the only way to describe it. There is no doubt that they will be revisiting the Anglian Society again really soon!