Auntie Joyce's Happy Dogs

I am originally from CT and moved to The Netherlands June 1999. We moved to our little farm in Andijk in 2008 because I wanted my 2 Icelandic horses to be at home with me. Minnie my Aussie has only 2 toes on her feet. Sadie my chihuahua broke her leg as a puppy and Stella my boomer has a poopy shoot that well, lets just say doesn’t always work the way you’d want it to. My redhead Icelandic Sken ha

d 9 owners by the age of 6 so I promised him that he found his forever home after being mistreated. Then there is Kári my big Icelandic boy with bad back legs and chronic cough. I have been practicing Reiki on them and other animals in the area to provide some healing energy and it has been working. A little about me, I have been in love with animals my whole life. I think horse was my first word. My first dog, for my 3rd birthday, was a chihuahua named Pixie. She was my first venture into training. When we were both a little older I taught her how to dance and jump through a small hoop etc and we would entertain whenever we had the chance. Somewhere around 6 I started riding horse. Around 10 years old I would go around all the horse barns in my area shovelling and cleaning just to be near horses. At 16 I got my first horse and trained her from a foal. And I have never looked back. I studied under Ian Dunbar a long time ago - his SIRIUS dog trainer program. He can be credited with founding the positive reward based training and using food as value. After having many breeds growing up I adopted a West Highland Terrier from a friend about 25 years ago and fell in love with the breed. I moved to holland in 1999 with my three Westies. We first lived in Enkhuizen then Blokker and Wervershoof before buying the little farm in Andijk. I have been collecting dogs since, usually with some physical disability. About 2 years ago I decided to leave my long corporate career as a risk manager/actuary. Following my dream, I turned my dog training hobby into a full time career. I completed the pro dog trainer and geek (behaviour) certification and completed my studies in animal Reiki. I opened Auntie Joyce’s Happy Dogs last September and provide in person and online private training lessons for people and their dogs. Initially without charge as I wanted to perfect my own abilities with people. I know I can train animals however after years in the corporate world I wanted to perfect my rapport with the doggy parent(s). After all, although it is called dog training it is really people coaching. Once people starting offering to pay I knew that I have reached the value add. As one of my first online clients said, my training saved him so much time. If he had to do the research himself and come up with a training plan that focuses on the particular struggles, the training would not have happened. It seemed that many others felt the same. So AJHD DoggED went live. Then my dear friend that owns the Dierenkliniek in Enkhuizen offered me the use of her indoor riding bak and outdoor completely fenced in dog run in order to offer in perso lessons. Currently I am offering private online and in person people coaching and dog training. The in person lessons are at the training facility in Enkhuizen or at your location (travel costs apply). The fee is €60 per hour, the fee is pro-rated depending on how much time needed. I hope to start group lessons for €60-90 euro per hour per group depending on the size of the class. I expect that a group of 4-6 would be the maximum (4 for beginners and 6 for more advanced). So this would be €15 per person per class. There is no end or beginning to this type of training. It is for all dogs of any ages. I always say it is for your puppy of any age. That is because we normally run out and get a 6-8 week puppy training lesson and then our training relationship with our dog ends. That’s where I usually come in - when the dogs and owners are struggling together. But it doesn’t have to be this way if we start from puppy and train all the way to senior. After all you are already training your dog 24/7 so why not make it intentional and let your dog know what behaviours you appreciate. I practice a positive games based approach to training. The games focus on concepts such as calmness, proximity, optimism, confidence, self control, thinking in arousal, grit etc. Some games overlap several concepts. The first step is to stop feeding your dog from the bowl and using all that value to tell your dog the behaviours you want. I started this with my boomer who was attacked by other dogs. Her world had ended. She was afraid of everything. I started with the boundary games. Calmness is the best gift we can give our dogs. I played so many games of proximity that led to loose leash walking and reduced her reactivity to other dogs. Sure I still play the games every day. Sure if I didn’t play them there is a chance she would go back to the behaviours I do not want. So that is why I play 3-5 minutes games with my dogs throughout the day. If games based training spikes your interest please reach out to me and lets schedule an introductory online call so that I can explain the method further and you can introduce me to you and your dog(s). Let the games begin - make your training intentional and fun!