Description
Chrissy Beckhurst has over 35 years of experience working with children and adults as a Teacher, Teacher of the Deaf, Educational and Clinical Audiologist and as Deputy Head of a College for the Deaf. Her personal interests include a lifelong love of wildlife and companion animals; she adores the outdoors, spending much of her free time walking with her dogs on the coast or mountains of Britain and Europe. Chrissy has been involved with dogs all her life, mostly herding breeds, GSD and Border Collies, but also gundogs, HPRs and those of mixed background, including a Doberman X Rottweiler, a Bearded Collie X and a Greyhound Lurcher. She has trained her dogs to work sheep, as Pets As Therapy dogs, as well as to do fun agility, tracking and scent work. Chrissy lives in the Dartmoor National Park which gives her plenty of access to livestock. She completed her COAPE Advanced Diploma in 2007, is a Practitioner and a member of CAPBT and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT 1015). Chrissy runs a number of workshops, Dog Training Classes, Reactive Dog Classes, Chase “LEAVE IT!!!” , Scent and other bespoke workshops as well as 1:1 sessions and animal behaviour referral from Veterinary practices. Personally and professionally, one main focus for Chrissy, when training dogs is to see dogs being walked stress free, in any environment and seeing the enjoyment it brings to both dogs and owners. Chasing is a hugely self-rewarding behaviour, which is instinctive for most dogs. Teaching a dog not to chase inappropriate targets and to walk safely and stress free in areas where wildlife and livestock abound has to be taught in a strategic, developmental and methodical way. The actual process has to be flexible in order to accommodate different owner and breeds of dog. The outcome of such training will not be identical for all clients. Dogs started young, trained with consistency and that are focused on toys or food are the easiest to train. More difficult cases are dogs that have already successfully experienced chasing of inappropriate targets and those dogs that are simply not toy or food orientated. Chrissy has advised and worked successfully with such dogs and their owners in a non-punitive and reward based, relationship building way.