Wessex Country Fair – 7 August 2016 at Wilton House

Jul 312016

Next Sunday sees us appearing once again at the Wessex Country Fair at Wilton House near Salisbury, the home of the Earl of Pembroke.

It’s all in aid of the Salisbury Hospice Charity and, having had modest beginnings, the Fair has now grown in popularity, size and variety, making it one of the best-attended country events in Wiltshire and The South West!

As well as doing our usual turn, we will be judging all the dog classes that run most of the day. I just hope I will have enough free time to watch the dressage camels! You can find out more about what’s going on here:

What’s On

Tilly is currently injured, so keep your fingers crossed that she’ll be fit for Sunday. Hope to see you there!

Demonstration Testimonials

Stephen and Poppy’s act was delightful – highly entertaining as well as educational, a Diamond performance for our Jubilee celebrations. Poppy was a real treat and the crowd loved her!

Polly Mason, Salisbury City Council

Salisbury City's Diamond Jubilee Fun Day

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

This is the second time Salisbury City Council have used Stephen and the Gundog display at one of our family events and we are always delighted with the show which is educational, informative and fun for our audience. We would not hesitate to use the show as part of a future event.

Claire Burden, Business Manager, Salisbury City Council

Salisbury Summer Spectacular August 2013

Bryn Parry OBE, co-founder and CEO OF Help for Heroes, wrote:

It was good to meet you this afternoon and to see your superb dog demonstration and to get advice on wayward spaniels! Good to meet you and I look forward to meeting again.

Best wishes

Bryn

Samantha Male, the Regional Coordinator at Help for Heroes, wrote:

Thank you so much for attending our first ever Band of Brothers and Band of Sisters summer fete. Your gun dog show was fantastic, and I am so glad that you could be a part of the day.

Ali Richmond, a Manager at Help for Heroes, wrote:

Thank you so much for coming along to the Fete at Tedworth House. The dog display was fantastic and we have had some great feedback. I have got a large hairy golden doodle that could do with some of your magic touch!

Help for Heroes

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

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