Christina first
dreamt of doing HTM 10 years ago when she saw Mary Ray on the TV performing at
Crufts. Christina re-watched the recording several times and then started to
teach the moves to her young Great Dane, Caleb and rescue German Shepherd,
Asaph. She owes both of these dogs a huge debt of gratitude for teaching her
what she knows today as well as being such loving friends for so many years.
This then led to her fulfilling a life-long dream of working with animals when
she re-trained from being a violin and piano teacher to working in dog training
and behaviour. She started ICC Dog Training centres and as they grew she ended
up working as Head of Training and Behaviour before a number of house moves
meant that she no longer taught weekly classes. Today she loves teaching a
variety of workshops in various aspects of dog training and behaviour as well as
teaching her violin and piano pupils. She is also Choir Director for Stamford
Gospel Choir and plays in a number of modern church music bands working
alongside her supportive (and patient!) Husband who is a Vicar.
Christina shares her life with 3 wonderful dogs, Ru, Shai and Eze. Ru is a
6 year old Great Dane who Christina rescued when he was 6 months old (this was
the 3rd time that he had been re-homed.) He is an absolute sweetie, being great
fun to work with, very loving and a big baby! He currently competes at
Intermediate level in both Heelwork and Freestyle and is the only Great Dane in
the UK to compete at HTM. He is affectionately known as the 'Dancing Dane' when
he has performed as part of the Dog Activities Display Team at Crufts. The
newest member of the family is Shai, a 2 year rescue Border Collie who joined
the family in February of this year. He'd had no training before arriving and
LOVES his training sessions in obedience, agility and HTM. Christina has high
hopes for him in the future and he's also a very sweet (if somewhat
enthusiastic!) boy.
Finally, it is my pleasure to introduce Eze or to give him his full name,
'Legacy's Eze Ezekiel'. Eze is a 7 year old Border Collie who competes at
Advanced Level in both Heelwork and Freestyle and also competes in agility. He
is duel registered ISDS (both his parents work sheep) and KC and arrived as an
extremely challenging and strong willed 8 week old puppy. After much hard work
he has blossomed into Christina's dream Border Collie who she wouldn't change
for the world. He's qualified for the Crufts semi finals in 2012 and 2014, and
Christina is delighted to have been invited onto the British Team for the Open
European Championships with her lovely boy. Christina would like to thank the
many people who have helped and encouraged her over the years to reach this
point, in particular her wonderful husband for his encouragement and support,
and also wishes to thank the rest of the team for their help too. Eze and
Christina realise - 'The Hard Work Starts Here!'
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