Meet Manda McLellan
Manda's dog training courses have been running continually for approximately 30 years and in that time over 2,000 dogs have passed through Manda's hands.
Manda started her interest in training dogs at the age of six on various friends' dogs before, aged 9, she got her first dog, a Border Terrier dog called Rusty. She enjoyed the thrill of teaching this little dog obedience, agility and new tricks and it wasn't long before Rusty was jumping through hoops, walking the plank, begging, speaking on command, rolling over and a hundred and one other tricks. Always wanting to achieve more with her dog and then to compete Manda began by putting on displays, first for her friends and family but soon progressing to wider audiences such as school and the Brownies, before entering as many classes possible at local dog shows.
Manda had always wanted a German Shepherd Dog and aged 18 bought a 4 1/2 month pup out of the local paper. Sian (Sharn) was a keen and willing bitch with a strong retrieve drive and Manda's interest increased as she realised the extra potential of this working breed. She joined a local GSD training club and took delight in training her dog to do all the obedience exercises and become the best there.
It was about this time that she then got involved in the training of nosework and consequently the 'dog sport' of Working Trials. This gave her the opportunity to train a lot of more diverse exercises, such as tracking, searching, sendaways, and agility with control to name just a few. She qualified Sian to CDEX and UD Open levels and realised that to seriously compete at the top level you need to start early with a dog of strong working ability and drive.
She started to receive requests for assistance and instruction from other dog owners and began at first to instruct handlers on an individual basis and then formed a class.
After retiring Sian, Manda set about finding a dog to compete at the top level with. She had seen some of the top dogs working PD (Patrol Dog) stake and this had fired her imagination. As the name suggests Patrol Dog stake requires the dog to chase "criminals", find hidden people, defend the handler when attacked and also defend themselves when set upon in the Test of Courage.
Manda's chosen dog was Merlin, a blue merle Border Collie dog with strong guarding instincts. Merlin was a brilliant little dog and he achieved every qualification possible (CDEX, UDEX, WDEX, TDEX and PDEX).
He won one Ticket and the highlight of his career was coming Runner-up at the 1996 Kennel Club Championships.
Despite suffering from hip dysplasia and arthritis, Merlin continued to work up until 1998 when he finally took early retirement. Merlin died in November 2007 aged 16 yrs and 4.5 months.
Manda's next dog, WT CH Jetfire Jake of Ashlindt CDEX UDEX WDEX TDEX PDEX (whom she had taken on aged 21 months) was a big black and white Border Collie dog. Jake took over where Merlin had left off and qualified Excellent in all stakes and became a 'Working Trials Champion' i.e. a double 'Ticket' winner._ He also competed at the Kennel Club Championships twice in 2000 and 2004. Jake was a fantastic dog, extremely athletic and a very consistent all round PD competition dog, the Recall being his downfall, costing him several other Tickets. Sadly Jake died in May 2008 aged 13.5 years.
Manda's next dog was Astra Storm, another blue merle Border Collie dog, who also qualified CDEX UDEX WDEX TDEX PDEX. He won 1 Ticket and 3 Reserves in PD including Reserve Champion at the Kennel Club Championships 2011. He also sired over 70 pups who were successful in WT, Obedience, Agility, Search & Rescue, Sheepdogs, Gundogs, Filmwork and an Assistance Dog. Storm died aged nearly 15 in April 2020 leaving a huge legacy of brilliant offspring who are as incredible and as multi talented as him.
Manda has always admired Rod Roberts' purpose bred BC X GSD's and was delighted to take over the care of Mabel during both her pregnancy and whelping after she had been mated to Storm. This of course meant she had plenty of time to choose her pup from an early age. WT CH Little Tiger and his littermates were born on 1/6/2009 and have nearly all competed in Working Trials, Agility or Obedience. Tiger qualified CDEX UDEX WDEX TDEX PDEX and has now won 3 PD Tickets, enabling him to compete at this years Kennel Club Championships twice. After retiring from Trials Tiger then took up another sport, that of IPO (now called IGP) and obtained the BH, IPO 1 and IPO 2 qualifications before finally retiring from competition at 10 years old.
Manda has also competed in both Trials and IPO with her high drive German Shepherd Dog bitch Gartonhaus Bora of Ashlindt CDEX UDEX WDEX who also qualified for TD Ticket and obtained her BH and IPO 1 before retiring from competition. Bailey was acquired at 10.5 months from a pet home where she needed a more mentally challenging home to suit her breeding and temperament.
Manda started her interest in training dogs at the age of six on various friends' dogs before, aged 9, she got her first dog, a Border Terrier dog called Rusty. She enjoyed the thrill of teaching this little dog obedience, agility and new tricks and it wasn't long before Rusty was jumping through hoops, walking the plank, begging, speaking on command, rolling over and a hundred and one other tricks. Always wanting to achieve more with her dog and then to compete Manda began by putting on displays, first for her friends and family but soon progressing to wider audiences such as school and the Brownies, before entering as many classes possible at local dog shows.
Manda had always wanted a German Shepherd Dog and aged 18 bought a 4 1/2 month pup out of the local paper. Sian (Sharn) was a keen and willing bitch with a strong retrieve drive and Manda's interest increased as she realised the extra potential of this working breed. She joined a local GSD training club and took delight in training her dog to do all the obedience exercises and become the best there.
It was about this time that she then got involved in the training of nosework and consequently the 'dog sport' of Working Trials. This gave her the opportunity to train a lot of more diverse exercises, such as tracking, searching, sendaways, and agility with control to name just a few. She qualified Sian to CDEX and UD Open levels and realised that to seriously compete at the top level you need to start early with a dog of strong working ability and drive.
She started to receive requests for assistance and instruction from other dog owners and began at first to instruct handlers on an individual basis and then formed a class.
After retiring Sian, Manda set about finding a dog to compete at the top level with. She had seen some of the top dogs working PD (Patrol Dog) stake and this had fired her imagination. As the name suggests Patrol Dog stake requires the dog to chase "criminals", find hidden people, defend the handler when attacked and also defend themselves when set upon in the Test of Courage.
Manda's chosen dog was Merlin, a blue merle Border Collie dog with strong guarding instincts. Merlin was a brilliant little dog and he achieved every qualification possible (CDEX, UDEX, WDEX, TDEX and PDEX).
He won one Ticket and the highlight of his career was coming Runner-up at the 1996 Kennel Club Championships.
Despite suffering from hip dysplasia and arthritis, Merlin continued to work up until 1998 when he finally took early retirement. Merlin died in November 2007 aged 16 yrs and 4.5 months.
Manda's next dog, WT CH Jetfire Jake of Ashlindt CDEX UDEX WDEX TDEX PDEX (whom she had taken on aged 21 months) was a big black and white Border Collie dog. Jake took over where Merlin had left off and qualified Excellent in all stakes and became a 'Working Trials Champion' i.e. a double 'Ticket' winner._ He also competed at the Kennel Club Championships twice in 2000 and 2004. Jake was a fantastic dog, extremely athletic and a very consistent all round PD competition dog, the Recall being his downfall, costing him several other Tickets. Sadly Jake died in May 2008 aged 13.5 years.
Manda's next dog was Astra Storm, another blue merle Border Collie dog, who also qualified CDEX UDEX WDEX TDEX PDEX. He won 1 Ticket and 3 Reserves in PD including Reserve Champion at the Kennel Club Championships 2011. He also sired over 70 pups who were successful in WT, Obedience, Agility, Search & Rescue, Sheepdogs, Gundogs, Filmwork and an Assistance Dog. Storm died aged nearly 15 in April 2020 leaving a huge legacy of brilliant offspring who are as incredible and as multi talented as him.
Manda has always admired Rod Roberts' purpose bred BC X GSD's and was delighted to take over the care of Mabel during both her pregnancy and whelping after she had been mated to Storm. This of course meant she had plenty of time to choose her pup from an early age. WT CH Little Tiger and his littermates were born on 1/6/2009 and have nearly all competed in Working Trials, Agility or Obedience. Tiger qualified CDEX UDEX WDEX TDEX PDEX and has now won 3 PD Tickets, enabling him to compete at this years Kennel Club Championships twice. After retiring from Trials Tiger then took up another sport, that of IPO (now called IGP) and obtained the BH, IPO 1 and IPO 2 qualifications before finally retiring from competition at 10 years old.
Manda has also competed in both Trials and IPO with her high drive German Shepherd Dog bitch Gartonhaus Bora of Ashlindt CDEX UDEX WDEX who also qualified for TD Ticket and obtained her BH and IPO 1 before retiring from competition. Bailey was acquired at 10.5 months from a pet home where she needed a more mentally challenging home to suit her breeding and temperament.