Who is Avril Munson?
Since 1984 Avril has taught classes constantly for some 12 to 24 hours a week all over Essex, plus, at the same time, growing an increasing database of clients for one to one training and behaviour sessions. The knowledge she has gained over these years gives depth and expertise that can rarely be rivalled.
Avril attended many training classes with her own dogs from 1978 onward, learning first hand and continues to remember the frustration and emotional roller coaster that training a dog can, at times, be a part of that journey.
Avril benefited from learning with some of the greats of the dog world and was lucky enough to have wonderful personal mentors from the working trials, obedience and breed show world.
Her experience as a competitor in obedience training when the sport was at its peak was a perfect learning ground for her own personal dog training. Avril often says it was her failures, with her own dogs, that provided her most intense and beneficial learning experiences.
Avril was an avid owner (living with 5 adult Dobermann's at one time) and a breed club member of the Dobermann Club. Later, a member of the working committee organised and designed the Dobermann Club working tests. As far as we know, they are still used today.
Avril was fortunate to have a sister who worked as a teacher. As Avril’s knowledge and experience grew, her sister Lesley taught her how to structure and document all of her training - this means that Avril’s training has continued to be documented and developed on paper since 1994. Avril’s sister Lesley then worked with her to design and write the instructor and behaviour courses to teach other’s her job - this became an accredited course under the business name of the Central School of Dog Training and ran successfully for 10 years when she took a break from work to write a book on dog training, “Following the Lead”.
Over the years, she has helped out at the RSPCA as a consultant - run courses on dog behaviour for Battersea and Writtle Agricultural College for veterinary nurses and many more.
From around 1994 through to 2015, Avril was a regular guest presenter on BBC local radio, answering listeners dog training/behaviour questions.
Having personally attended counselling after her divorce in her 40’s, Avril was so impressed by her counsellor's skills that she went on to train part-time for 2 years to qualify as a counsellor. Avril says, “I can honestly say that this training had an amazing impact on my work and took me to a whole new level of understanding myself and therefore everyone else”!
As Avril gathered all of this experience, her methods evolved and continue to do so today.