Leadchanges - <>

Leadchanges is all about dogs, dog/human psychology and exploring the connection between them. Kennels, day sits & behaviour modification. Fully insured.

Tamasine Smith worked with horses for over twenty years and taught and studied horsemanship for around half that time. For a number of years she was also a teacher and trainer of horsemanship at her own centre, around South Africa and other countries. Often those coming to the centre would meet the resident Ridgebacks and ask if she also trained dogs – to which the answer would be “no, only horses”. However, over time, it became clear that although horses are considered prey animals and dogs predators, they actually both need the same thing when it comes to the humans in their lives – leadership and consistency given with calmness, confidence and compassion. She discovered that what she taught in horsemanship lessons: that it’s about “who we need to be more than a method of training” – also applied to dogs. This led to her taking up studies in dog behaviour and starting on a training programme for dogs. After working with a friend and colleague to create a self-development course called Inner Game (after W. Timothy Gallwey’s books) initially using horses as the teachers, it seemed that it might work just as well with dogs. It did. And so Leadchanges was born.

Tamasine continues her studies, also attending workshops and gaining inspiration from others. One such group was DogsandAll in South Africa who prepare dogs for protection work and sniffer dog work including drug and bomb detection.

Leadchanges is now based in Andalucia, Spain and in addition to the original workshops, has grown to encompass Tamasine’s own work and work with rescue groups such as Lab Rescue (South Africa), Ridgeback Rescue (South Africa) and PEPA (Spain). This work involves fostering, rehoming, home checks and rehabilitation.

Tamasine in particular loves helping with shy and fearful dogs, preparing dogs for travel, working with travel worried dogs, and with people who do not necessarily thrive in group classes. Leadchanges also offers work with puppies, helping people start their dogs off in the right way, offering longer residences and day care facilities for young dogs, which involves teaching them to crate, pool safety and swimming (summer months), basic obedience and agility along with socialisation to other humans and animals.

Tamasine is a keen traveller and has always found it necessary in the past to find house sitters for her dogs, because she has not wanted to subject her own beloved dogs to a closed and unloving regime while she was away. This has led her to offer, through Leadchanges, a different kind of kennelling, built on the concept of socialisation, walking and fun, allowing for a greater interaction with their human carers and access wherever possible (and appropriate) to her home, to be part of the family.

Tamasine studied for her Diploma in Dog Behaviour with the British College of Canine Studies in the UK and passed with Distinction. She also took her First Aid Certificate with the BCCS and also passed with Distinction. She is an “Affiliate” member of the IACP (International Association of Canine Professionals). Affiliates show an active interest in a career as canine professionals but are still gaining experience – ie they are apprentices, students of canine professions, trainees, volunteers or devotees of canine related occupations.

Tags: Dog Trainer,Region