Exposure to the amazing skill of local experts with dogs (and other animals) has completely changed the way people treat and care for their pets and livestock.
Humans have been caring for and utilizing the strengths of animals for thousands of years, but recently the study and practice of experts around the world are enabling us to solve many of the issues that come along with working with creatures. Research and practice are proving that we can communicate with many animals and that they are also trying to communicate with us.
What you need to know is that you have some incredible sources of information and expertise right at your fingertips. Although this article focuses on Andrea McEwen, owner of Just Fur Paws, located northeast of Carlyle, stay tuned for more stories on people in your area available to enhance and encourage your success.
Professional full-time grooming is one of the many activities McEwen spends her time at. She can be found in her yard, caring for a raccoon named Mortimer, her cats, some English lop rabbits, one lion head rabbit, three rats, one horse, one mule, dairy cattle, speckle park cattle, Chukar partridges, some chickens and fresh water fish. Oh yeah, and her three champion dogs.
She grows attached to all of them as you can see the love in her posts on her Amarantine Ranch Facebook page. Recently, she has been offering Obedience classes to a group of new puppy families at A Second Family Dog Lodge.
Teaching and training parents and children in the art of properly caring for and training their dogs tends to light up her eyes as she says, “It’s an amazing feeling when I see owners connect with their dogs on a deeper level, building a strong bond that will last a lifetime.”
Born and raised around hunting labs her entire life in Brandon, Man., she saved all her paper route earnings to buy her first dog, a cocker spaniel named Bailee. Groomers having extreme difficulty working with Bailee was the catalyst for McEwen to start a part-time grooming shop while working at Pet Valu. Although her original desire to be a conservation officer led her to study criminology, the longing to work with the animals eventually led to her working as a vet tech assistant, which, back in the day allowed her to work directly with and help the vet who took her on.
McEwen’s world changed the day she rescued a five-day old purebred English bull terrier named Audris (meaning ‘lucky’ in Greek) and doors opened for training and showing. She left the vet clinic to open Brandon’s first doggie daycare and grooming facility called Friends Fur Life where clientele boomed, and she focused solely on grooming as Just Fur Paws. That didn’t stop McEwen and Audris from taking classes three times a week loving obedience (rally and traditional) and agility.
With not enough room in this article to list the accolades and certifications for Audris (and Andrea), year after year they placed first and “Best in…” more categories than you can imagine. She continued to train and show with each of her dogs, an Anatolian shepherd named Oberyn and two more miniature bull terriers named Relik and Fleet.
McEwen explains that positive reinforcement and operant conditioning training methods are proven most effective in ensuring a healthy, active, loving dog who is able to bond with his or her owner in a healthy manner. She has helped many people with anxious dogs, aggressive dogs and dogs with all sorts of bad habits. In all honesty, she trains the humans to be able to effectively communicate with their canine companions.
For more information on the achievements, awards, breeding line, services and products offered for your fur babies, please go to: Just Fur Paws or Amarantine Ranch on FB or contact Andrea McEwen at 306-575-8940.
