Neil Short obedience training

26/11/2025

A super few days in Viborg, Denmark.
After being detained by the police at the airport for 30 minutes 🤣(BREXIT has a lot to answer for), it's amazing how dog training can take you away from all other stresses in life.
4 days of great fun,complete focus and togetherness with each other.
I always work you very hard,take you out of your comfort zones and show you want you and your dogs are capable of with complete kindness,energy and passion.It was great to watch you all and the end results were super.
Keep believing in yourselves and your furry friends 🐕🇬🇧❤️

21/10/2025

A big thank you to Elke and Rik, two of the nicest people you could wish to meet.Both have kindness running all the way through them.
In the 4 days we had lots of beautiful teams from heelwork to music, obedience and detection.
Taking people out of their comfort zones and into the uncomfortable is hard for people to do as their comfort zones are so safe.But staying there doesn't give your dogs the trust that "they can do it on their own".
When you did this the results were incredible and so lovely to see.👏
You then started to feel VERY comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Making small changes in your training can create massive improvements.
We often hear the word criteria in dog training.The criteria in all my training is about feelings.If we can create a dog who feels happy and safe and we can build self esteem and confidence in the way they feel then the behaviours that we so desire from them are so much easier to achieve.
More importantly than this though, is how they achieved it.You could see the dogs come alive as you took them out of your comfort zones, lost your fear of failure and gave them your complete trust.
We no longer had ;
"click"..feed/toy..
We now had ;
"click"... wow that's amazing.. feed
"click"...OMG....feed
"click"...I can't believe he's just done that...feed.
The rewards became so much more emotional and from the heart because of the way the dogs achieved that end result.❤️🐕
"It's not what you do ( as long as its kind) but how you do it that's important"
I was very impressed how you all did this and created some beautiful end results and all the dogs went home feeling very happy,tired and proud of themselves 👏❤️🐕🇬🇧

15/10/2025

This was a beautiful seminar to run with Ina Mendlik in Weiz, Austria.
A beautiful country, the perfect dog training weather and a lovely, friendly atmosphere.You were like a little family, all coming together to support, help and laugh with each other.
There are certain things said on courses that stick in your mind.
" Now I know what to do, I don't fear failure anymore".
This is so important.We tend to avoid failure because we don't know what to do when it happens.We do our very best to create success but we are not perfect and mistakes can happen even if we try hard to avoid them.Sometimes this in itself can create tension in our bodies and minds as that fear of failure takes over.
We all learned to walk as young children through falling over and not getting it right straight away.It is just part of the learning process and a very valuable one if dealt with, with no blame and seen as something that can help your dog get even better.
The other thing said that stuck in my mind was,
Just hold that question for a second, as the dog may just give you the answer"
We tend to read books, look into the science which is great to give us tools to help.However the real answers, happen in the moment with our dogs.All we have to do is to listen to them and read what their telling us in that moment.Very often we can get caught up in the end result and forget to do this.When you do this the end result seems to just happen, creating a happy ,safe dog who really knows his job.
Thank you all for having so much fun and loving those magical moments with your dogs as much as I did.
I leave you with the lovely,kind Ina who will continue the great work you all achieved.
🇬🇧🐕❤️

14/10/2025

07/10/2025

Thank you to Ulrike for all your hard work and for making me feel so welcome in Munich.To everyone on the course, especially Steff and Farina, it was a pleasure to spend time with you all.
We covered agility, dog dance and obedience and it shows how we can all learn from different sports and apply this to our own chosen sport.
Seeing mistakes are just part of the learning process and solving these problems without our dogs thinking they have ever made a mistake in the first place is central to my philosophy.To see them as guides to show us what we have missed in our foundation training is essential to keep the joy,freedom and connection in our work.
To watch a dog work with complete freedom, no fear of failure and a love of working together as one is a joy to watch.To create this we must become experts at dealing with failure with no blame, the correct energy for our dogs and to step back and let our dogs make the choices in our training.This builds so much confidence and self esteem that then is felt by the handler and then that feeling and reward you give comes straight from your heart.
Well done everyone, you created some amazing results with lots of different characters of dogs.
🐕❤️🇬🇧

17/09/2025

A big thank you to Ramona for inviting me to Dusselldorf to run a seminar.
I always feel so welcome here.
We had lots of different breeds with lots of different characters.
Bringing out the characters of the dogs within their work is always lovely to see.
Letting the dogs make decisions in our training is essential for this to happen, building confidence where anxiety used to be, allowing freedom where control used to be and letting those characters shine through in their work.
To get to this we must look at failure in a different way.To see it as just a vital part of the learning process, to see it as our friend, not our enemy, and to look into it with no blame, so that we can learn the path we should have taken.
All we have to do is, in that moment of frustration, to take a step back and listen to what our dogs are telling us.Not easy to do if that moment, but the rewards and success are just around the corner when you do.
Thank you all for trusting in my way, it was great to see the changes in you and your dogs
❤️🐕🇬🇧👏

08/09/2025

A super few days in Viborg, Denmark.Thank you Miriam for looking after me.
What a big change in all your dogs.It was great to see.
Our top priority in dog training should always be how our dogs feel.When our dogs work with complete freedom,and joy, they have no fear of failure and the handler trusts them completely it really is the best feeling you could ever experience.To achieve this you need to forget about the future, forget what anyone else thinks and live completely in the moment with our dogs.To do this is easy when our dogs do what we would like, not so easy when they don't.
Becoming an expert, when the dog doesn't do what we want and seeing this as an opportunity for us to learn the bits we have missed in our training gives us so much power to turn those moments around.
We also feel a very positive, proud feeling for not just blaming the dog.It VERY rarely is a mistake, just a lack of clarity in some piece of our training.
All we have to do is to read what our own dogs are telling us in the moment,the answers are all there.We just have to look for them.
You all did this beautifully and the results were great to see.
👍🇬🇧❤️

04/09/2025

This was a lovely course to run for Hamar hundeskole in Norway.
Thank you, as always to Hilde and Ann-Katrin for all your hard work and the atmosphere you create.
I was so impressed by the improvements you had all achieved.Its all starting to look really super.
Believe in yourselves and your dogs. Listen to what they are telling you in each moment, as they have all the answers to all your questions.Use any mistakes as opportunities to learn.They are the experts, all we have to do is to listen to them.
Well done to you all but most importantly we'll done for supporting and helping each other.It was a lovely friendly atmosphere for us all and your dogs to work in 👏🇬🇧❤️

15/07/2025

Thank you to Ulrike for inviting me to Munich and for making feel so welcome.
We had lots of different breeds and several beginner handlers which is always lovely to see.
You all came together as one big family, helping and supporting each other.You all learnt so much from each other which created such a lovely atmosphere. 👏
I was so impressed by the changes you produced in such a short space of time and you all did this with kindness, fun and with no negativity 👍
Trust and love your dog in every step you take.What they give us back is too special not to ❤️🐕🇬🇧