Neil Short obedience training

12/05/2026

What a beautiful course to run for Ulrike in Munich,Germany.A super atmosphere with such friendly people.
Ulrike, as always makes me feel so relaxed and welcome.
To work with you all was a real pleasure, as you all did so with compassion,kindness and a great energy and togetherness.
Through the 3 days we covered heelwork to music,agility and fci obedience with lots of different breeds.
Throughout the 3 days we had no negativity at all, all mistakes were sorted without the dogs ever realising there was a mistake in the first place.This kept the dogs wanting to please and working with no pressure and complete freedom.
Thank you all for living in the moment with me and your super dogs.
Life really is too short,especially for our dogs, not to live and love every second with our best friends.❤️🇬🇧🐕

21/04/2026

A big thank you to three of the kindest people I've met.Veronique Devender, Elodie and Vincent for making me feel so welcome in Calais, France on this Heelwork to music seminar.
It is always a pleasure spending time with you all.
Then the lovely Elke Boxoen and Rik came for a private lesson making it even more special.
Several teams on the course and private lessons I've met before and saw a great improvement,since the last time I saw you👏👏
Others i hadn't seen before and you fitted into the family atmosphere of the group perfectly and produced some super results👏👏
Several things that were highlighted on the course were.
1/ To see failure as a beautiful thing that helps us and our dogs to grow stronger, if we deal with it with no blame to our dogs and listen to what they are trying to tell us.
2/ To step back and let our dogs make the choices in our training.
3/To reward straight from your heart and "really" mean it.Make your dogs feel special.
4/ To "trust" our dogs and let them do what we have taught them.
It is so important,especially in dancing with dogs that we show trust through our relaxed,confident body postures and a smile that says that you are just loving living in the moment with your best friends.
The end result that you so desire is normally then just round the corner.
Thank you all for your supportive,friendly and passionate way you all had with your dogs and each other.We had so much fun and the dogs all went home feeling very proud of themselves 🇬🇧🐕👍

30/03/2026

Thank you to Hilde and Ann Kathrin for making me feel so welcome in Hamar and to Nina for the lift to the airport.
You all worked so hard but more importantly you did so with kindness,passion and a lovely support of each other.
At the end of the four days we all sat together and I asked if there were any questions.
One question was " could I tell them all the phrases that I use when training.This wasn't easy as I just say things that come to me in the moment.
So we opened it up to see if we all,as a group could remember them.Different things I say on courses will mean or be more powerful to different people.
Here are some.If they help or resonate with anyone else then it's worth it.
.............................................

Go for the feeling before the technical.
Expectation pushing success further away.
If you want perfection allow your dog to be imperfect ( release the pressure)
The perfectionist when they achieve perfection are still not happy.BE CAREFUL. Our dogs are not perfectionist and we are a team.
When you click, make your dog feel special (reward from your heart)
When you experience failure.....success is just round the corner (if you deal with it with no blame to your dog and read what your dog is trying to tell you)
Our dogs never say ahh, ahh when we make mistakes.
Read your dog not your book, the answers are there right in front of us,we just need to listen.
Our hobby is our choice not there's.Lets make it the best choice ever for our best friends.
When you live in the moment of every step you take you take together,the outside world,outside noise and stresses,don't exist, it's like meditation and is the best feeling ever.
❤️🐕🇬🇧

17/03/2026

A big thank you to the lovely Carina Lach and everyone on the seminar in Dusselldorf,Germany.
What a great couple of days this was.To be surrounded by kind ,funny, and very supportive people who were all so passionate was a joy.
So many different characters of dogs,all needing slightly different ways of training is always great.It makes you live in the moment of what is needed at the time.It makes you react on your gut instinct and train with complete freedom.
Believe in yourselves and your furry friends.I was very impressed, not just with what you achieved on the weekend, but more importantly how you achieved it.Your dogs worked with complete freedom and joy and it was a pleasure to watch you work together.
Well done 👏🇬🇧

03/12/2025

A super 4 days in Hamar, Norway.Thank you to Hilde and Ann- kathrin for making me feel so welcome and to Emily for the lift to the airport.It was lovely to talk to you and get to know you more.
We covered Rally,fci obedience ,gun dogs and heelwork to music with a variety of different breeds.
Everyone worked beautifully together, with kindness, passion and enthusiasm.
It was great to spend time with you all.

26/11/2025

A super few days in Viborg, Denmark.
After being detained by the police at the airport for 30 minutes 🤣(BREXIT has a lot to answer for), it's amazing how dog training can take you away from all other stresses in life.
4 days of great fun,complete focus and togetherness with each other.
I always work you very hard,take you out of your comfort zones and show you want you and your dogs are capable of with complete kindness,energy and passion.It was great to watch you all and the end results were super.
Keep believing in yourselves and your furry friends 🐕🇬🇧❤️

21/10/2025

A big thank you to Elke and Rik, two of the nicest people you could wish to meet.Both have kindness running all the way through them.
In the 4 days we had lots of beautiful teams from heelwork to music, obedience and detection.
Taking people out of their comfort zones and into the uncomfortable is hard for people to do as their comfort zones are so safe.But staying there doesn't give your dogs the trust that "they can do it on their own".
When you did this the results were incredible and so lovely to see.👏
You then started to feel VERY comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Making small changes in your training can create massive improvements.
We often hear the word criteria in dog training.The criteria in all my training is about feelings.If we can create a dog who feels happy and safe and we can build self esteem and confidence in the way they feel then the behaviours that we so desire from them are so much easier to achieve.
More importantly than this though, is how they achieved it.You could see the dogs come alive as you took them out of your comfort zones, lost your fear of failure and gave them your complete trust.
We no longer had ;
"click"..feed/toy..
We now had ;
"click"... wow that's amazing.. feed
"click"...OMG....feed
"click"...I can't believe he's just done that...feed.
The rewards became so much more emotional and from the heart because of the way the dogs achieved that end result.❤️🐕
"It's not what you do ( as long as its kind) but how you do it that's important"
I was very impressed how you all did this and created some beautiful end results and all the dogs went home feeling very happy,tired and proud of themselves 👏❤️🐕🇬🇧

15/10/2025

This was a beautiful seminar to run with Ina Mendlik in Weiz, Austria.
A beautiful country, the perfect dog training weather and a lovely, friendly atmosphere.You were like a little family, all coming together to support, help and laugh with each other.
There are certain things said on courses that stick in your mind.
" Now I know what to do, I don't fear failure anymore".
This is so important.We tend to avoid failure because we don't know what to do when it happens.We do our very best to create success but we are not perfect and mistakes can happen even if we try hard to avoid them.Sometimes this in itself can create tension in our bodies and minds as that fear of failure takes over.
We all learned to walk as young children through falling over and not getting it right straight away.It is just part of the learning process and a very valuable one if dealt with, with no blame and seen as something that can help your dog get even better.
The other thing said that stuck in my mind was,
Just hold that question for a second, as the dog may just give you the answer"
We tend to read books, look into the science which is great to give us tools to help.However the real answers, happen in the moment with our dogs.All we have to do is to listen to them and read what their telling us in that moment.Very often we can get caught up in the end result and forget to do this.When you do this the end result seems to just happen, creating a happy ,safe dog who really knows his job.
Thank you all for having so much fun and loving those magical moments with your dogs as much as I did.
I leave you with the lovely,kind Ina who will continue the great work you all achieved.
🇬🇧🐕❤️

14/10/2025

07/10/2025

Thank you to Ulrike for all your hard work and for making me feel so welcome in Munich.To everyone on the course, especially Steff and Farina, it was a pleasure to spend time with you all.
We covered agility, dog dance and obedience and it shows how we can all learn from different sports and apply this to our own chosen sport.
Seeing mistakes are just part of the learning process and solving these problems without our dogs thinking they have ever made a mistake in the first place is central to my philosophy.To see them as guides to show us what we have missed in our foundation training is essential to keep the joy,freedom and connection in our work.
To watch a dog work with complete freedom, no fear of failure and a love of working together as one is a joy to watch.To create this we must become experts at dealing with failure with no blame, the correct energy for our dogs and to step back and let our dogs make the choices in our training.This builds so much confidence and self esteem that then is felt by the handler and then that feeling and reward you give comes straight from your heart.
Well done everyone, you created some amazing results with lots of different characters of dogs.
🐕❤️🇬🇧

17/09/2025

A big thank you to Ramona for inviting me to Dusselldorf to run a seminar.
I always feel so welcome here.
We had lots of different breeds with lots of different characters.
Bringing out the characters of the dogs within their work is always lovely to see.
Letting the dogs make decisions in our training is essential for this to happen, building confidence where anxiety used to be, allowing freedom where control used to be and letting those characters shine through in their work.
To get to this we must look at failure in a different way.To see it as just a vital part of the learning process, to see it as our friend, not our enemy, and to look into it with no blame, so that we can learn the path we should have taken.
All we have to do is, in that moment of frustration, to take a step back and listen to what our dogs are telling us.Not easy to do if that moment, but the rewards and success are just around the corner when you do.
Thank you all for trusting in my way, it was great to see the changes in you and your dogs
❤️🐕🇬🇧👏