It all started in 1996 when I just set up my “HappyPets” Pet Behaviour and Training Practice. By then I have been training, showing and breeding dogs for over 15 years. I have trained from Boxers to Neapolitan Mastiffs most of the working breeds and competed and instructed Schutzhund classes.

At this time I went to the Discover Dogs Show in London and saw Mary Ray and Donelda Guy performing their fabulous routines. I had no dog at that time but during those 2-3 minutes when Mary and Donelda moved around the ring as their dogs circled, spun, whirled and weaved I knew that once I got a dog the activity I would get involved was Heelwork to Music.

Attila & Fly
A Freestyle Dreamteam

However it took 2 more years to get a dog and I was not even aware what an excellent dog I had found. I received a phone call from a lady, who had brought her Border Collie puppy to my puppy class, to say that the puppy was getting very assertive towards her, sometimes quite aggressive when she wanted the puppy to do something that the puppy was not keen on. Since she found it very difficult she would like to rehome Fly. I remembered Fly from the class, especially that she was an assertive, cocky puppy. As I thought it is time to get a dog, I decided to have a look at Fly. I saw her and liked her, she was very interested in any game. She would have fetched the stick and the ball for the whole 30 minutes that I stayed. I came home and the next day phoned Fly’s owner and said that I would like to take her.

Fly turned out to be a wild dog indeed with a lot of energy to channel. She had some basic obedience so I immediately started teaching her heelwork, advanced obedience and basic tricks: Roll Over, Pirouette, Salute, High Ten, etc. A year later I met Annie Clayton at the Turid Rugaas Workshop who after seeing Fly do different tricks convinced me to enter the HTM competition in Leicester, which I did and to my surprise won the Novice group. This competition had a very strong influence on my progress since I saw among others the super routines from Donelda Guy and Mary Ray. This time primarily a few backwards and 2 legs movements in Donelda’s programme impressed me a lot. I also became aware that there were competitors representing different styles, which was not HTM any more.

A few days after my return from my first competition I started phoning dance teachers and asking them who would teach me to dance with a dog. I found a very kind lady and extremely talented teacher Heather Millan. Heather after trying to teach me Spanish dance steps realised that it was easier to find me a routine theme that would match my natural steps rather than teaching me to dance. And the Charlie Chaplin routine was born. from that point on I have developed new routines, some of which you can see in the clips section of the website.