H&C

THE WRATH OF A WOMAN

Dexter was a bad boy before Annie and Howard took him on

“We spent a whole evening making another How To video and in my wisdom I decided to mount the video camera on its side, allowing us to film in portrait rather than landscape. Marvellous! Right up to the point when I uploaded the film on to the computer and into the editing suite. Damn! The video was now all on its side; no problem, I thought, using my incredible film editing genius I can rotate the picture. Yes, another brilliant move by me… right up until I showed Annie the finished article.

“I look like a beeping six foot wide midget! It makes me look like I’ve got thunder thighs, you can’t put that on the internet,” Annie shouted at me. I quite liked it; it made me look like I was a power lifter.

I chose to ignore her and sent it to the professional editor at H&C. It seems that he understands women much better than me; he sent it back and told me that I was an idiot and that Annie would not thank me for releasing this piece of film extravaganza. In hindsight, I think he probably saved my life. But it did mean we had to set aside another evening to re-shoot the film; thank goodness the Battersea dogs aren’t camera shy and love working with Annie. Watch this space – we’ll have this video on the site soon.

In my last blog, I mentioned how writing a blog is helping me to reflect and enjoy things that have been good in the last few weeks. Filming Henry and Dexter, two of our Battersea dogs, can only make you smile. They have come such a long way; their self control confidence and enthusiasm to work for and please their handler is just awesome. When I think just what a pair of bad boys these two were it makes for a very happy outcome.

Battersea Dogs Home have invited Henry and I to be a part of the Battersea Demonstration team at Crufts this year. Now I probably stand up and give dog handling demonstrations at least three hundred times a year, but I’m really nervous about this one and completely out of my comfort zone.

While on the subject of exhibitionists, as part of our CPD (that’s teacher speak for Continual Professional Development) we asked Richard Curtis, the Crufts winning freestyle handler, to come and teach us some of his amazing dog training skills. Richard specialises in heelwork to music and is one of the UK’s top handlers. There is so much to learn about dog training - I just love it!”

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