Beech Behaviour Dog Training

Trusted for 10 years

Sandra has been brought up with dogs all her life, working in rescue shelters in her home town of Antrim, Northern Ireland from an early age. This lifestyle included many family pets, that often grew in numbers as she brought home rescue dogs that needed a little extra TLC! She attended university there and, in the late 1980’s, pursued a career in marketing in England for many years, owning many more dogs than she can remember along the way. Rising to the top of her career as a Marketing Director brought pleasure and rewards but none as great as her love of dogs. Sandra followed her lifelong dream five years ago to work with dogs through realising her commitment to improve the relationship between people and dogs.

Sandra's formal training began with Alpha Education which is an organisation at the forefront of treating and preventing behaviour problems in dogs and she also attended some excellent workshops run by such eminent Dog professionals as Ian Dunbar, Grisha Stewart, Kay Lawerence, Chirag Patel, Dr. Susan Friedman, Brenda Aloof, Dr. Daniel Mills from Lincoln University.  Sandra has continued to update both her training and behaviour knowledge during 2012-13 with courses in amny aspects of canine understanding. One of her favourites was Tellington Touch to help dogs who need extra emotional support through massage. FurtherMasterclasses with Sarah Whitehead APBC on Adolescent Dogs, Impulse Control, Advanced Clicker Training and Dog-Human Aggression were highly educational and informative; leading edge thinking on methods of training our dogs using Positive Reinforcement Training in its truest form. However, one of the highlights of Sandra's career was the attendance at internationally renowned Dog Trainer Emily Larlham's weekend training camp in September 2012. This was a truly inspirational course and Sandra was honoured to study alongside leading UK dog trainers and animal behaviourists.

Sandra is also an Associate Member of Robin Walker B.Vet.Med MRCVS (retired) Behaviour Practice, who is a lifelong member of the highly acclaimed Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors. Through this role Sandra has gained much respect working with Veterinary Surgeons on numerous challenging cases to improve the lives of both canines and their owners.

Other Interests
As well as Animal Behaviour, Sandra has a special interest in Human Psychology. Following on from her Marketing Director role in a Consumer research company where understanding human relationships was her focus, Sandra uses her human psychology skills to build strong lasting relationships with the people she works with.
Sandra has brought up many young puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind and has been a puppy walker for over eight years.
Sandra also has a passion for Africa and travels to this continent annually to work with big cats and on Conservation Projects involving canines. She hopes to expand on this work in 2014 as she embarks on training more dogs for this essential work to help protect our endangered wildlife.