25/07/2025
“I rescued my old girl Ruby when she was about 2 years old and together, we went through all different stages and varieties of training classes which we simply loved doing together. By the time she was about 8, other dogs had come along into our family who needed more training than she did. Because she was the mature steady adult that she was, my attention naturally moved to the others.
I could really tell she was feeling this change, missing the activity, so I handed her over to my husband to do some fun activities. They ended up joining Rally Obedience which sadly came to a staggered halt around the Covid period.
She was 13 by the time we could get her back into training, and we continued in classes until cancer took hold. Her desire and joy in being able to do activities with us has never left her. At 15 she took her Gold Good Citizen’s Medal Test. She is 16 now.
It was in this post Covid elderly period of her life that I noticed how difficult it was to find Ruby her right fit class. She didn’t need regular pet dog classes to troubleshoot problems. She couldn’t be doing certain exercises or activities that would put strain on her joints and muscles. She couldn’t do things at the speed she used to, or be popping up and down like she once could. Mentally she was still savvy and wanting to do, but her body was no longer keeping up.
I realised there was a gap, a missing piece in the training world. This experience with my superb girl Ruby, was my inspiration for creating a training service for our loyal Golden Oldies. Let’s not put them on a shelf. Let’s help them stay young at heart. Let’s carve out quality time with our dear friends for however long they can enjoy it.
The Golden Oldies Class is a niche class, for older dogs who used to be very active and are missing doing things, but don’t want to be amongst a lot of young whipper snappers and who don’t quite fit in anywhere anymore.
It’s a bespoke class, where we tailor the activities to the dog. A combination of helping them maintain body awareness which is a gentle way of maintaining some fitness, providing them with fun scent work activities and getting them to mentally figure out new exercises.
It’s not been running long, but it’s been an absolute joy seeing our current golden oldies light up with their owners during the 45 minutes sessions.”
