My journey with dogs began at the age of 13, cycling two miles to volunteer at the newly opened Animals in Distress centre. Now, with over 30 years of experience and a lifelong passion for canine behaviour, I continue to dedicate my career to helping dogs and their owners thrive together.
After leaving school, I spent several years working at a local boarding kennels before founding Sensible Dogs. Over the years, I have worked closely with various rescue organisations—including Many Tears Animal Rescue and British Dalmatian Welfare—to foster, rehabilitate, and rehome more than 350 dogs in need.
I later launched a successful doggy day-care, caring for a daily pack of 26 dogs. I also ran a wide range of training and enrichment services, including:
Puppy classes
Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme classes
Socialisation evenings
Scent work classes
Recall workshops
House-sitting and boarding services
Today, I specialise in working with reactive, fearful, and aggressive dogs, drawing on 18 years of hands-on experience in behaviour rehabilitation. My approach is grounded in compassion, clarity, and real-life practicality.
I’ve shared my life with many rescue dogs over the years, and currently live with a pack of eight, six of whom are rescues. Several of them regularly assist in training sessions, helping other dogs rebuild confidence and heal from past trauma through carefully managed interactions.
A personal highlight in my journey was being selected—out of thousands of applicants—to appear on Channel 4’s Superstar Dogs with my dog Odie. We were thrilled to make it all the way to the finals.
Sensible Dogs Family Members
Over the years I have owned a variety of different energy dogs and different breeds. Below are my best friends who play an important part in helping me run my business. They help me to setup real life scenarios on my behaviourals, help build confidence with nervous dogs, teach manners to over excited dogs and they take me on the most beautiful walks.
Ottie
Ottie is a Golden Retreiver puppy. We got her from a working home. She is 100 miles an hour and often runs into objects!.
She Loves being busy and adores Chester.
Shep
Shep is a Collie X Lurcher.who has just turned 10. We rehomed him at 5months old. He suffers with nervous aggression due to poor breeding. Most people we work with can`t believe he suffers with nervousness because he feels safe at work with me. He loves swimming, catching a frisbee mid air, often overtaking it!
Rudi
Rudi is a Saluki x. We rehomed him from a local kennels when he was 8 months old.
He loves his home comforts after racing around the forest.
Odie
Odie was a Working Cocker Spaniel.
He was the only one of the clan we actually bought as a puppy. He loved swimming, ball catching and keeping the gang in check. Odie has crossed over the rainbow bridge in April 2023 after a long and happy life with us.
Echo
Echo is a Working X Show Cocker Spainel. He was given to me when he was 4 months old. He is one crazy dog also the cheekiest one in our group. He is full of energy, every minute of the day!! He is learning how to be a gun dog.
Chester
Chester is a Golden Retreiver who has just turned 2. We got him from a working farm He has been extremely poorly and has been under the care of Langford vets in Bristol. Him and Ottie are completely in love with each other.
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Willow
Willow is a Husky x Collie that came from Romania as a puppy. She lives her life to the max every day and will try anything at least once!
Quirky
We adopted Quirky, the labrador, from Many Tears Amimal Rescue at 8 month Old. He had a broken nose and fractured skull due to the result of a puppy farm but it never let it bother him. We lost him to Cancer at 13yrs old in March 2022 and is missed dearly.
Forest
Forest is a Cocker Spainel but he is huge! We took him on at 5 months old. He is full of energy at all times during the day, loves a squeaky ball, swimming, playing with our cats, his food, our food and your food!
Kizzy
Kizzy is a Collie cross stray adopted from Many Tears Rescue. She is a almost 17yrs and has started to slow down a little. She loves her cuddles, swimming, frisbee, balls and food.
Bruno
My dearest Bruno we were given from a client when he was 3yrs old. He loved everyone and all animals. He loved licking them all. We lost him to cancer August 2022 and is missed dearly.
