My name is Sheila Hocken and I have been helping owners train their puppies and dogs for over 25years.
Qualified Dog Trainer
I have C&G in dog training. HNC canine behaviour. I have experience with all breeds and all types of training.
I have helped disabled owners train their dogs to help them, through Dog Aid.
Member of the ass. Pet dog trainers number. 00411.
Experienced Dog Trainer
All I ever wanted to do was train dogs. As a child my parents would not let me have a dog, it took me about five years of constant pleading to get my very own dog.
Up to that point I found other dogs to train, neighbours and friends all allowed me to walk their dogs and over the years I handled many different breeds including St Bernard’s, Irish setters, Dachshund poodles and so on.
Peggy a boxer, was unwanted, chained to a wall and eating off a newspaper, we gave her a much better life. I realised I needed guidance so enrolled in a local training club, this being the 50’s training was very different, poor dog had a check chain and was yelled at.
I wanted to work with dogs when I left school but my eye sight prevented me, have an hereditary defect that became much worse I had to settle for being a telephonist, a job that most blind people go shunted into.
Then came Emma. I was told by a home visitor for the blind I should apply for a guide dog, I never looked back, if you forgive the pun.
Emma opened the world to me, she gave me freedom and confidence and cemented my deep love for dogs.
Most important of all she gave me the understand of how to respect and treat dogs, who are capable of doing almost anything if we have the capability to train them.
I have been so fortunate in my life, in the mid seventies I had a successful eye operation that gave me enough sight to do what I wanted in like train dogs.
At that time Emma was 12, and she stayed with me until her death in 1981 at seventeen years of age.
If you would like to know more about my life with Emma read my book Emma & I still available from amazon