British couple offers dog training in C-Falls

Man’s best friend has a new place to learn in the valley as All Day Dog Adventures has opened its doors on Elk Park Road south of Columbia Falls.

Owned and operated by veteran dog trainers Neil and Tracy Day, the new business offers a wide variety of services, from private in-house training to obedience/agility and scent and search workshops as well as therapy and service dog training, agility training, puppy training and more.

“We are here to guide people, from puppy training to more advanced training,” Neil said. “Training should be fun and rewarding which is why we use positive reward based training based on over 10 years experience training dogs.”

“Some of these services may have to wait until the summer, because there is only so much we can take on during the winter, when we have to find indoor areas for group training,” Tracy added.

While the company is based in Columbia Falls, Neil and Tracy said they will be traveling around the area to teach classes and hope to hold training sessions as far away as Eureka.

After years of living in Kent in southeast England, the pair decided to move their family to Montana to be close to Tracy’s parents (who also live in Columbia Falls) and pursue their dream of owning a dog training business.

“We fell in love with the area after visiting my parents here many times, so two years ago we decided to make this our home and realize our dream,” Tracy said.

Those dreams became reality seven weeks ago when Neil, Tracy and their daughters Megan (7) and Emilia (3) made the move to Columbia Falls. Also making the move were the family’s three dogs, Willow, Cleo and Billy.

“Everyone is so helpful and no one is negative. Everyone has been so welcoming. We have been blown away by the community spirit,” Tracy said.

Before coming to America, Neil saw active service in several countries with the British Army before becoming a London Metropolitan police officer for 15 years. During his time with the police force, Neil trained in a variety of disciplines of dog scent work including non-specific air scenting, tracking, trailing, and scent work similar to the training of explosive and drugs dogs. He also has gun dog and obedience training experience. He also has diplomas in Canine Coaching with First Aid, Canine Behavior and Search Dog Handling from the UK College of Scent Detection.

While Tracy worked as a city planner in Britain, she also has more than 10 years experience training the three family dogs as well as search and rescue training as a volunteer. She says that All Day Dog Adventures is excited to be able to offer therapy and service dog training.

“It will be an ongoing project. We want to get all of the pet therapy dogs in the local community become certified,” she said. “We will be training both the owners and dogs so they can be certified before they go out into the community. It is something we are very passionate about and we would like to get the service set up for this area.”

Along with their training courses, the couple is also looking to offer another unique service during the warmer months, guided pet-friendly hikes around the Columbia Falls area and beyond.

“We are getting a lot of tourists that come in with their dogs and don’t realize you can’t take your dog to most areas in a national park,” Neil said. “Most of them also don’t have the confidence to go into the national forest along with their dogs, so we are going to offer a service where we will guide them across state land with their dogs. Each walk will be tailored to the owner and pet’s experience and physical ability.”

With an agility course already set up in their back yard, Neil and Tracy have already begun classes and are hoping to expand their operation.

For more information on All Day Dog Adventures, visit their website at www.alldaydogadventures.com