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Hi, my name is Maxine Watson,
and along with my husband David, we are the owners of DaMax
Kennels Boarding & Training Centre. We have lived in
this area for seven years, starting up the boarding and training
kennels in the spring of 2000. We have three sons, Joe,
Jim and David, that
enjoy the country life with the convenience of living five
minutes from the city.
I (Maxine) was born and raised in Stratford, having grown up with
all types of pets I knew that someday I would make a living
out of it. After taking advantage of several training programs
starting in 1991, including a law & security administration
program, an animal care technician course, abuse-free grooming and obedience training, I
began working with several vets in the Monkton - Stratford area.
Being bonded when I was an auxiliary police officer, I went into
people's homes in order to help them understand their dog's
behaviours, and train their pet. We also offered mobile pet
grooming and a home-based shop to round out our pet
services.
After two years of part-time
teaching the grooming course at a local college, it lost it's full-time instructor
in 1995 due to illness, and I was asked to fill in. Teaching the Animal Care
Assistant course which included nutrition,
anatomy, basic surgical nursing, animal husbandry, behaviour and
communications etc. and of course, training, I knew what the
students wanted and needed. Stressing hands-on for all of the courses,
I called in all of my
connections for monthly field trips. During my
teaching contract , receiving great reviews from my students, the Dean asked me to stay on
full-time. I
continued to teach college in Guelph and Kitchener until we moved to Stratford in
December of 1999.
David is formerly from Kitchener and having
dogs all of his life he has first hand knowledge and a keen interest to
learn more. David assists me in most of our indoor
classes and leads the Walking Club that
includes two scheduled walks per week, once going uptown and
walking through crowds, and the other being more scenic going around
the Avon River, through the Dolan, and exploring out of town
areas. We take the walking group into parades, and are
active participants in the Stratford Dog Park Association.
While I was teaching out of town, David and I noticed that there
was a definite void in the dog boarding and pet dog training
availability in the Stratford area. We decided that returning to Stratford was
beneficial for the whole family. Finding a property with an
existing kennel building close to Stratford was the only solution,
as we found that most townships had regulations against building new
dog kennels. After finding the right place, our
only downfall was that it hadn't been used in years. So with major
renovations to be done, we started in on the task of rebuilding.
Setting up the kennels, cleaning, painting, taking down walls,
putting up walls, adding proper lighting and training mats got us
started in the spring of 2000. After the first long weekend of
the season, I realized something that was an absolute necessity,
fencing the play area! There is no possible way to run a dog
kennel without proper fences!! We added the east yard
immediately and put up a second yard on the west side in 2001. Security fencing to the road was also on the list that
same
year! Offering
safe, supervised and secure boarding is our primary concern, so
whether your pet wants to be social or more discriminating we have a
kennel space suited to your pet, and your wishes.
The years of 2002
& 2003 were spent on our residence, including a total, back
to the bricks and beams gutting, so new wiring and plumbing could be
added. After ripping down several walls and putting up new
ones we are almost finished!! The living room is now back to
it's original schoolhouse form of 30'x30' wide open, the teachers'
office is back, but the boys & girls bathrooms are now the
master bedroom and ensuite. Eventually, we would like to have
an open house (complete with pictures) so everyone can see the
before and after. We will keep you posted!
In 2004,
we added two new, easy-access staircases leading to the training
area, which was also expanded by adding more matting making the
training room approximately 40'x40'. The reception room has
pictures of many of the dogs we have seen over the past six years,
attending our head start, puppy, basic, intermediate, Rally-O and advanced
training classes. In 2005, we added more matting to the
training room, new security gates, doors, new waterline and an
easy access roadway through our yard for more parking and two
accesses to the facility. We have also expanded our kennel
capacity by modifying the rear room from four to nine runs to accommodate the big dogs, and multi-dog
families. In 2006, our biggest endevour
yet! We have added a 10,000 square foot 5' high fenced grass
exercise yard for our customers to enjoy with their pets!
In 2007, we
are planning to add Agility to the roster! It will not
be competition level by any means, but it will be fun! I hope
to show everyone the basics and help them understand the rules in
order to improve their skills on the different pieces of
equipment. It will be a learning experience for all. As
an added bonus to those clients who already participate in this
sport, we will be allowing you to practice in our agility field for
a small fee per hour. We will have all of the contact
equipment, tunnels and jumps to work on. Hope you enjoy!
David
and I are members of the Canadian Kennel Club and I am
a member of the Canadian
Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers, and we realize as with any
other profession, there is always something new to learn.
Attending symposiums and seminars offered each year by several
different associations, we strive to bring current information to
all of our students. The Professional Animal Behaviour
Association (PABA) and the C.A. P.P.D.T. bring in professionals from all over the world for
their OAVT & APDT accredited courses. In 2005,
as well as attending the spring PABA conference, I also attended a
conference given by the PavSki association that
featured Dr. Ian Dunbar for a weekend. One of the most
innovative and informative weekends I have experienced in a long
time, with insights for all trainers! I have had the privilege of learning
from Dr. Ian Dunbar, Dr. Stanley Coren, Dr. Roger Mugford, Dr.
Nicolas Dodman, Dr. James Serpell, Dr. Peter Neville, Dr. Andrew
Luescher, Dr. Ilana Reisner, Dr. Alan Beck, Dr. Wayne Hunthausen,
Sue Sternberg, Suzanne Clothier, Dr. Randall Lockwood, Dr. Karen
Overall, Dr. R.K. Anderson, Roger Hild, Dr. John C. Wright, Dr.
Richard Meen, Dr. Kersti Seksel, Dr. Suzanne Hetts, Gwen
Bailey BSc. (Hons), Carolyn Clark M.A. , Dr. Diane Frank, Susan
Garrett, Dr. Kathrine Abro Houpt, Dr. Gary Landsberg, Dr. Deb
Horwitz, Jean Donaldson, and many more...
We
feel that you can never have too much information! New
techniques, behavioural and medical research are assessed and added
to our training manuals each time a new symposium and seminar is
attended. We hope that each new piece of information can add to your
total enjoyment and well-being of your best friend!
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