A Letter from Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Aug 062014

Stoke Mandeville Hospital

I received this handwritten card today.

Dear Steve,

I visited Jack yesterday at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He has been overwhelmed by the support and generosity of the Wylye Valley community. He particularly wanted me to write to you to say thank you for putting on the Gundog demonstration in your own time at the fundraiser.

I told him how fantastically behaved and well trained your dogs are – completely unlike my two Springer Spaniels who he knows well!

I am sure in the future he may look at having a specially trained dog as he has grown up surrounded by animals.

Thank you again.

Sally Houghton

Our love and thoughts are with you, Jack, and with all your family and those who love you. Thank you.

Demonstration Testimonials

It was a great privilege to witness Poppy and Stephen's gundog training display at our Fete in Newton Tony this year showing us all how it should be done. They made it all look so easy. I can safely say that I have never seen a gundog display as good as this – ever. Training tips, gundog skills, tricks – it had it all, everything explained in simple terms by Stephen as he went along. You could sense local dog owners watching with total admiration yet knowing their own dog would not even get off first base. Poppy clearly knows her stuff and was quite outstanding in demonstrating her skills and showing all the results of Stephen's expert tutelage.

What really stole the show was the amazing array of tricks that Stephen & Poppy perform together. It was so entertaining and breathtaking to see man and dog working in complete harmony. The audience loved it, the children in particular. It was certainly a great crowd puller. We really hope they will agree to come back next year"

Simon Hunt, Chairman of the Fete Committee.

Newton Tony Fete 2012

At the end of our demonstration yesterday in one of the largest arenas and in front of one of the biggest crowds we have ever seen (17,000), I was stopped by many people including by Lisa Tonks, a professional dog trainer based in Ringwood who runs "Paws4Reward". Lisa was kind enough to write to me after the show:

"How refreshing to watch a Gun Dog demonstration using reward based training, a clicker and treats. This showed how gun dogs can really enjoy not only working, they are also capable and enjoy preforming fun tricks.

It was obvious to all that Stephen loves working with his dogs and his dogs relish working with him.

The demonstration was full of great training tips and advise, for all dog owners and not just for Gun Dogs.

I hope many of my clients were watching. I certainly learnt new things today.

Lisa Tonks
Dog Trainer, Ringwood
lisa@paws4reward.co.uk
http://lisatonks.vpweb.co.uk/default.html
07967 640533

APDT 001152

I was also approached by Mr & Mrs Conlan. Mr Conlan, an ex VC10 pilot in the RAF, said that he had not wanted to come to the show but had been persuaded to do so by his wife. He said he had seen "hundreds" of Gundog demonstrations in the past and had said to his wife "Here we go again!" when it was our turn. But he said he was so pleased he had been persuaded to come along as this was the best and most entertaining show he had ever seen. He promised to write a testimonial and, true to his word, I received this email the next morning:

Dear Mr Harrison,

The high point of the Ellingham Show yesterday for both my wife and me was your demonstration. It was a delight to see the rapport you have with your dogs and their obvious enjoyment of the whole display. I suspect many of the attending dog owners watched with envy.

We look forward very much to seeing you and your team at future events.

Thank you once again.

Tom Conlon

And then, out of the blue, I received this from Christine Pomroy in Bransgore:

"At the Ellingham Show we were delighted to watch your gundog display. Your two dogs, Poppy and Daisy, were a credit to your training regime and entertained the audience with their routines and tricks. It was the best dog display that we have ever seen!"

9 August 2014 - Ellingham & Ringwood Show

Hi Stephen,

I have witnessed dozens of gundog demonstrations in the 40 years I have been involved with Gundog displays. But yours was the most entertaining and informative display of man and dog working together that I have ever seen! Just brilliant!

It was clear that the dogs were clearly enjoying what they were doing (not always the case in some demonstrations) and you were informative on what you were asking the dogs to do and informing the public of this. I thought the range of tricks your dogs performed was stunning!

Best wishes

Brian Willis, Secretary, West of England Heavy Horse Championship

Wessex Heavy Horse Show

Dear Stephen,

I was extremely happy and impressed at how everything went off. Our correspondence before the event was very plain and straight forward, which, from an organiser's point of view, was most helpful.

On the day your demonstration was extremely informative and presented in an interesting and friendly fashion. Everyone enjoyed the first Dog’s basic training display and how you built on each stage as time went on, for a young dog it certainly showed what could be achieved by kindness and expert knowledge. The little Dog has a bright future ahead!

Poppy, the star of the show, was quite brilliant, not only in all her Gundog training but also the very entertaining tricks etc. she performed on the day. It was a great display and demonstration.

Provisionally, I would like to book you for next year, it is always the last Saturday in July, I will confirm everything after our next committee meeting later in the month.

Well done for a great display and once again many thanks.

Best wishes,

David Coley, Show Organiser

Shrewton Summer Show

Steve put on a very entertaining and informative display recently at the Ellingham & Ringwood Show. All aspects of dog training were demonstrated, from the very first actions with your brand new puppy to the high levels of training expected of more experienced dogs that are ready to go into the shooting field. Added to these elements were some of Steve's special tricks showing that dog training can be fun. The crowd around us certainly enjoyed watching the display as much as we did; there was something for every person at the show ground to enjoy.

If you are ever able to watch one of Steve's displays we would highly recommend you do so; it's guaranteed that you will enjoy it and there are always plenty of tips and advice to take home with you. It will certainly be different to any other display you are ever likely to see.

Matt & Martine Blake.

8 August 2015 - Ellingham & Ringwood Show

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