About Rolyat Dog Training

In 1990 I owned my first dog. A male German Shepard, he was big and strong in both body and mind. He was also (although unbeknown to either of us) the first to start teaching me the uniqueness of our dogs, of the tolerance, companionship and unconditional loyalty they can have for us.

Sonny, my GSD was the first dog I trained in obedience and agility, admittedly the standards of which would leave somewhat to be desired but then I did say it was tolerance and loyalty that we learned together.

Over the years following I became more interested in working with behaviour. This took me on a path discovering mostly what not to do, which is ironically funny considering all I really did was read watch and listen to so called experts. That is until a friend introduced to me a book written by Dr CW Meisterfeld. At the time I asked the same question as many people have now asked me. What makes this book (or you) any different to any of the other books I’ve read or trainers I’ve seen? Common sense is the easy answer.

Of course there’s a little more to it but it is common sense. It did become a pivotal turning point for me, not only in the way I was training but to my whole perception and way of thinking about our dogs. I then became lucky enough to enjoy a friendship and mentorship with Dr Meisterfeld for a number of years. Over the past 20 years his philosophy of mutual respect and trust has led me to successfully training and retraining countless dogs of all sizes and description.

Jobs for Dogs

It has been what I consider to be a real privilege to work with a number of dogs being trained for specific purposes including tracking, hunting, farm dogs etc. I can honestly say that I don’t particularly have a favourite breed other than any breed doing that which it was breed for. Seeing the natural ability of any dog performing to best of its natural abilities always fascinates me.

Educating the Public

Over the years I have also lectured seminars on Mutual Respect and Trust and consulted with local councils and utility services personal (meter readers, mail men) on safe handling of strange or aggressive dogs. In a lot of ways these people are very rewarding to work with as the animosity they quite often have towards dogs is because of bad experiences and poor advice. When they are better informed on dogs and what’s behind their behaviour, then given logical ways of dealing with them, their respect for dogs improves. This is important to me due to the growing anti-dog legislations and movements we face.