About Us
Ally
Hi I'm Ally!
My journey with reactivity started with my very own dog, Titan! I did everything wrong and he turned into a very reactive dog through over-excitement and a lack of social skills. He was reactive to dogs over 300m away and I think his record was 500m on a huge park one time!
He had absolutely no handler focus and recall was non-existent.
I started to try and modify his behaviour through aversive techniques such as tugging on his leash, telling him off etc. All this did was damage or relationship and eliminate his trust in me... and I would think so too!
Eventually, I changed my ways and through a combination of scent work and reactivity training he's now a model dog!
After working through Titan's reactivity I started to work with family and friends dogs and found my techniques made significant improvements! I then started training other people's dogs for free until I set up APro Dogs.
I grew up with Border Collies (Robbie, Taffy and Cindy) but currently own Titan the French Bulldog and also his full sister, Penny! Penny sometimes comes along on training sessions and reactivity consultations as she stands for no nonsense and is surprisingly very well trained despite being a bit of a pocket rocket!
I also own a cat called Mitzi, a Siamese Fighting Fish named Samurai (amongst many other fish!) and live with a resident Border Collie (my grandparents' dog, Glenn).
Titan unfortunately became disabled after a sudden battle with IVDD in September 2024 and after surgery has remained double incontinent and paraplegic. It was a very tough battle but luckily he has come through it and is still making progress today many months post surgery! Titan still regularly competes in SWUK and occasionally Barn Hunt. He is an amazing ambassador for disabled dogs CAN! and is sponsored by Pumpkin&Friends Charity.
Titan's condition inspired me to help other dogs like him and to pinpoint the causes of this awful disease. So, in September 2025 I will be starting a masters course in Veterinary Physiotherapy at the University of Nottingham and hope to do some research into IVDD potentially as a PhD one day.
My background is very varied and I have previously worked in horse racing in Australia, an Australian winery and lived in the outback! In the UK I studied Law but have worked with horses for most of my life.
I am also writing a novel!
My dream is to become a full time Veterinary Physiotherapist and to have my own clinic and purpose built dog training facility.
