About us

Penel Malby & Laura McAuliffe run Dog Communication jointly.

Penel's dogs are all very different, in age, breed type and personality. They live together as great friends and all get along so well. Penel's dogs are Lola, an eight-year-old old English setter; she is very gentle and calm, and great with nervous dogs, Lola is often the dog we introduce to a nervous shy dog first of all. Hattie is seven years old; she is a working strain Cocker Spaniel, a very busy, intelligent little dog - Hattie particularly likes entire male dogs! Barley is a seven-year-old lurcher, who came as a rescue six years ago and is a very well trained dog - he has superb recall and is great with other dogs, very polite. Barley refuses to run with dogs that he doesn't know so is a great asset helping teach dogs that have"chase" issues, as he gets older he has become much more confident, in a good way. Barley has developed his body language and communication skills and has learnt a lot from Laura's dog Beama.

 

 

Gracie is a whippet cross and is about six years old, she is extremely good at assessing dogs. Morris is a Pointer cross English Setter, another rescue - he is about four years old, he can be very nervous and worries about life sometimes but is growing in confidence the longer he lives with Penel. Figgis is a three-year-old entire male cocker spaniel, full of joie de vivre. Figgis is brimming with confidence and has tremendous social skills: he also plays a role in our socialisation classes, especially with the Shy Guys.

 

 

Laura McAuliffe has a degree in biology with specialism in animal behaviour and a PhD in something entirely different! Laura's career returned to animal behaviour five years ago when she became involved with rescue dogs.

Laura's interest in using teaching dogs to help aggressive dogs began seven years ago when she adopted a people- and dog-aggressive rescue lurcher called Luka. Luka has severe learning difficulties and could almost be described as autistic in human terms. Rehabilitating Luka so that he could enjoy human and dog company again has been a long journey for Laura and her husband Richard. Laura began to see how effective teaching dogs can be when one of her own dogs, Beama, began to gently police Luka and politely stopped other dogs from approaching Luka, helping him to enjoy walks free from the fear of other dogs harassing him. Luka is a changed character and now adores the company of other dogs and most dogs love him too!

Through Luka, Laura met and worked with many eminent behaviourists and finally Angela Stockdale who inspired and completely changed Laura's views on how to rehabilitate aggressive dogs. Over the past six years Laura has gained a wealth of experience assessing dogs with communication problems and the use of teaching dogs to help aggressive dogs. Laura's main teaching dog, Beama, is an exceptional teaching dog and has helped hundreds of dogs to overcome their issues with other dogs. Beama is serene with a very strong character and natural presence. Luka has also become a teaching dog in his own right - he has great empathy with dogs that have learning difficulties and is used to help them to learn how to behave appropriately and most importantly how to play with other dogs!

Laura and Penel met seven years ago when Penel offered her pack of dogs to help socialise Luka, who had never met a non-lurcher before. Through walking with Penel's steady and sociable dogs, Luka made great progress. Their eight dogs are now great friends and love to spend time together walking and playing, as well as working together with other dogs in the group socialisation classes

Penel and Laura on holiday with all their dogs