Mechelle Jacques took over the pet dog training classes at Leadgate Community Centre ten years ago, following the retirement of Linda Whales. She had already been running successful classes at Trimdon for a few years and took on the offer of the Leadgate classes, where she had personally successfully trained many dogs.
Running dog classes is not an easy one-man operation, and Amanda McCormack from Leadgate offered her services straight away, and their alliance was born. This turned out to be a magical combination.
While running the classes, Mechelle completed the Clinical Animal Behaviour Post Graduate course at the Royal (DICK) Veterinary School, Edinburgh University. She was their first-ever graduate and is one of only a handful of vets and behaviourists with this qualification in the Northeast. This gave her a fantastic understanding of puppy development, which she uses to ensure pups are trained to the best of their abilities. Mechelle is County Durham’s only Accredited trainer in Companion Dog Training.
Amanda took a different route and studied to become a fully qualified Kennel Club Good Citizen’s Judge while also training her dogs in Agility to a very high standard and competing all over the North of England.
In 2019, Mechelle and Amanda started a new class of Canine Rally, a new and developing sport. This dog training sport was starting to take off all over the UK as an alternative to competitive obedience. Now, six years later, they have dogs competing at the highest levels, dogs who have been chosen to represent the North at Crufts, and handlers who have trained to become judges in a sport they love. This group travels all over the county competing and judging, but always bringing the best dog home.
Amanda decided that this was not enough and found a suitable venue to train agility, her passion. The venue has changed as the group has grown, and now many handlers and dogs owe their fitness to Amanda and her great training. The icing on the cake came in 2023 when Amanda won a national award at Crufts. She was awarded the Royal Canin, Dedicated Person of the Year award for Good Citizen Training.
By David Leck and Steve Webb, Consett in Focus
