Chartered Physiotherapist, Veterinary Physiotherapist , K9 Clinical Hydrotherapist Specialist and Accredited Clinical Educator
My journey in physiotherapy started in the 1970’s and as a qualified Chartered Physiotherapist in 1982 I was incredibly fortunate and grateful to have amazing support and mentoring from inspirational colleagues, whilst working in the NHS for fourteen years.
Moving into an overlap of private practice, I had the opportunity to specialise in a range of areas, including hydrotherapy, paediatrics, neuro-musculoskeletal, orthopaedics, mental health and wellbeing. This is when I explored the possibility of uniting my great passions of physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and dogs. At that time, this was unheard of and to be honest my colleagues found it shocking that I would consider jeopardising my established human professional status for dogs!
I decided to go back to college as a mature postgraduate and applied for the world’s first Masters in Veterinary Physiotherapy at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London. Completing my studies and achieving a Masters of Science in Veterinary Physiotherapy in 2002 was a great platform to move forwards from.
My focus on education and training, alongside my role as a senior clinician has been a part of my physiotherapy career since the 1980’s. As an Approved Training Provider, K9HS Courses established a holistic educational ethos of an inclusive, caring and high quality training service to offer the best experiences and opportunities to advance canine therapeutic and clinical skills, supported by a sound scientific knowledge base. This was unique at the time as most courses or training was equine biased and delivered by equine focused lecturers, with limited canine clinical experience.
If you are a therapist passionate about working with dogs, no matter where you are on your career journey, then we have the perfect CPD for you.
My canine **clinical practice based at K9HS, Suffolk since 2007, opened initially as a satellite centre for the Royal Veterinary College’s canine practical components for their world first Master of Science programme in Veterinary Physiotherapy. We offered an integrated service of canine physiotherapy, clinical hydrotherapy, rehabilitation and behavioural solutions. As a problem solver and solution maker for complex cases with movement dysfunction, my team had a passion to provide the very best canine service possible, embracing a practice ethos which was a dog centred, holistic approach, working with each dog’s consent and supporting their owners.
As the first UK Accredited Clinical Educator in Veterinary Physiotherapy (awarded by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy), my clinical and educational perspective and practice ethos combines over 30 years of lecturing experience with extensive canine clinical skills. This is a rare find and I wanted to break the cycle of expensive courses with limited practical training and access, by developing a series of exciting, interactive and dynamic training opportunities provided by K9HS Courses.
This includes over a decade at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London, five years at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham and three years with the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists and Animal Therapists (ACPAT) Core Knowledge and Skills (CK&S) Course.
I love the challenge of devising and writing courses, delivering training and creating innovative and enriched clinical practical experiences and fair assessment strategies, especially when its about my favourite topics of canine physiotherapy, k9 rehabilitation and clinical hydrotherapy.
K9HS Courses focus on sharing a range of free resources and “at cost” certificated CPD courses that integrate proven clinical skills, including Canine Movement Enrichment techniques (Canine Therapeutic Handling and Clinic Enrichment techniques) to sound underpinning scientific knowledge and best practice. These are based on an established clinical concept and method first introduced into the RVC Masters Veterinary Physiotherapy programme in 2003 by myself and have evolved into a set of invaluable therapeutic canine clinical skills. These work with each dog actively and offer a very high value proprioceptive rating experience, significantly improving canine balance, movement quality and functional abilities, compared to other lower value techniques.
<aside> 💡 Movement Enrichment canine specific techniques are significantly proprioceptively enriched with a high rating value, compared to lower value from training techniques, discrete techniques and dog games. This leads to amazing consistent results that empower each dog to optimise their movement, balance and function, leading and happy, healthy dogs.
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