Well a whole year has passed since we touched down in the sunny south coast of Spain and it has been a fantastic year! We thought we would celebrate the anniversary of our arrival, our Christmas do and dish out the first ever awards to our gang the only way we know how.........a party! We set the venue in La Luna restaurant, which is based in Mijas Costa - the most central point for all our customers but people came from far and wide to join us. Those that travelled nearly an hour from Almogia were beaten only by Sarah Hoskyn and Rich Clarke who flew over from the UK for 1 night only! Thanks guys!!! With approximately 50 people in attendance and the whole venue to ourselves I don't think the restaurant knew what they had let themselves in for!  Rich Clarke (for those of you that don't already know) will be joining the Doghouse team at the end of January 2012. He is a qualified and highly skilled dog trainer and will help start the new classes all along the coast!! We can't wait to have him on board.So, back to our awards night! Donna and I spent many an evening trying to figure out who deserved which award, which was really difficult because the standard has been higher than ever before. We started by giving the Bronze awards to those that have been putting in time and effort to get themselves to a certain standard. These dogs included Harry, Sid, Lola and Ringo whose owners have done them proud. After a delicious main course we began the awards of the night.  Best Attendance went to Sue McCleary and her gang, she is ready to train every week. It might not be the same dog but Sue is always there and has come a long way from when she first started.The next award was for the Best Puppy unfortunately Filip and Myriam couldn't be with us to accept the award for Mirco but it was well deserved as they have worked hard from before Mirco was even born right up until today! We then had the hardest choice of the night ~ This was for Most Improved. I spent many hours trying to decide how to give out this award. Although I knew who was most deserving it was impossible for me not to mention the runners up as they have all worked very hard to on their dogs behavioural issues.  Lorraine and Andy with Lola have worked really hard to get Lolas confidence up and their work is paying off, Sam and Buddy have always been committed, Gema and Bongo deserve a special mention because they come to class and have to put up with my terrible Spanish but finally there was no other choice than to give the award for the most improved to Marijke and Tango, a match made in heaven. The next 2 awards were for Dog of the Year and Handler of the Year..... Handler of the Year was a fairly easy choice for me due to the commitment this man has to his dog, if he is not training, he is running with his dog, at competition shows or just being a thoroughly good dog dad! Ronan Foley!  Dog of the Year was a difficult choice again but the award had to go to one of the sweetest little Labs we have ever known and as they might be running away and leaving us we had to take this opportunity to thank them. Madra has bags of potential and we know that Ici is the perfect person to bring out the best in her. Thank you guys, we wish you well whatever the future might bring. Lastly, we had to award Bomber and my Dad the Jammiest git award for doing everything I tell them not to and still have an amazing dog.  So, the awards were over and I had started the journey to being just a little tipsy but alas all was not quiet in the land of awards. First Gema (Bongos mum) stood up and with some lovely words gave me a plaque from the little fella. 'Thanks to your very special connection with the animal world, you've managed to find and get the best of me' If that wasn't enough to make things emotional the rest of the gang had been secretly training without me and decided to put together an excellent video. Click the link and enter INTHEDOGHOUSEDTCCLASS11 as the password to watch it..... So I am really struggling to get rid of the foreign bodies that are in both my eyes by now (I'm an ex marine, I don't cry). And what would pretty much send anyone with a heartbeat over the edge???  Yes, you guessed it.....my very own trophy! Thank you all for making 2011 a very special year for me and Donna oh and as a final note don't miss this weeks Doghouse radio show on iTalk fm Saturday 11am to hear about the Beagles that have been saved from a testing facility in Seville. |
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