Testimonial – Residential Gundog Training with Bryn the Labrador

My contact with Damian started back in August 2015 when having seen his Facebook page I rang him to pick his brain on choosing a puppy, he subsequently put me in touch with Lou who had a litter of fox red labs for sale of which Damian one of the litter too.

Bryn was my first dog let alone my first working dog and I had a lot to learn, Damian’s advice before our first lesson was invaluable with the right start to Bryn’s training & life being key.
Weekly lessons started in October through to December and Bryn was making good progress, in December I started a new job and the lessons stopped until February and those 8 weeks were when the good work stopped and due to my lack of knowledge and change of circumstances life with Bryn became a challenge. He started to do what he wanted, and any attempts to curb and discipline his behaviour made things worse, I eventually managed to make time for a lesson in February which can only be described as a hideous experience, Bryn showed no interest in Damian or myself and just wanted to do what he wanted and wouldn’t listen to any of the basic commands we learnt so well from October to December.

On the journey home I was annoyed, upset, disheartened and frustrated so considered my options. I could try and carry on with Bryn’s training with the help of Damian and hope I could gain enough knowledge to make Bryn the dog he can and deserves to be, or I bite the bullet and send him away to Damian’s for residential training to instil the basic commands back into Bryn and to help his progression.
I spoke to Damian at length about my plans and we agreed it was a good idea, it would be easy to think he would be keen for residential stays as after all he runs a business but he has always been honest about what is best for the dog and the owner so I trusted his judgement.

I dropped Bryn off at the arranged time and said good bye for what was going to be a long 5 weeks apart (not that he cared)
Damian kept me up to date with phone calls, tweets, Facebook posts as and when he could which were always much appreciated.

I picked Bryn up on Easter Monday and didn’t quite know what to expect, would he be totally different would he be a bit better than before?? I could tell things had gone well when Bryn completely ignore my presence and was totally focused on Damian, at first I was gutted but then he had been sent there to gain respect and focus and that is exactly what he had.
Damian took time to explain what he had done and what we needed to do going forward. Bryn and myself were sent home with some very specific instructions, no more no less.

Bryn has been back just short of a week and he is a pleasure to have around and train again, we both have fun training and I am building a bond that will hopefully be as strong as the one he clearly had with Damian when I collected him last week. I’m sure we will have more ups and downs on our training journey but I know from Damian that under the right instruction Bryn is fully capable being a great dog and I owe it to him to make sure he reaches his full potential and with the guidance of Damian we will get there.

Posted: April 11, 2016