Tamasine Smith of Leadchanges was fostering a Spanish stray dog that I was about to adopt (through Axarquia Animal Rescue). We were told Chispa (the stray) was insecure and over submissive when she first arrived. Tamasine helped her to regain confidence by treating her as a ‘normal’ dog and giving her structure. Chispa was even taken on holiday with Tamasine, her husband and their own dogs!

In the short process of considering the adoption (I really wanted to adopt this time but was also afraid the dog might not fit into our life) Tamasine was very helpful in describing Chispa’s character, she was honest about the items that we needed to work on and she shared valuable advice with me. When we eventually went to collect Chispa ourselves we met a happy, cheerful and active dog who was not afraid of us. Tamasine, being a qualified behaviourist, gave us good advice on how to continue the training (like not nurturing her submissiveness by feeling sorry for her) and how to deal with any expected behavioural setbacks.

It’s been over 6 months now since we picked up our dog and although she has her small issues, I am convinced that her stay at Leadchanges worked wonders for this little canine. Tamasine has a lot of knowledge about dog behaviour and she ‘reads’ them very well. I like her no-nonsense approach of things. She is assisted by some very stable and well behaved Rhodesian Ridgebacks and this also helps a lot as dogs tend to mirror/copy the behaviour of other dogs. What really struck me is that Tamasine makes no difference in how she treats her own dogs and the boarders/fosters.

We regularly visit Spain and have always brought our dogs on holiday and we would not hesitate to bring Chispa to Tamasine for boarding if we were to visit an event where a dog would not be happy (eg. like the Feria de Sevilla). In fact, I would go out of my way, just to show Tamasine what a wonderful job she’s done and how happy we are with Chispa!

Leadchanges Testimonial: Manette Marchand, Netherlands