Jumping for joy!

By Sean Car

Yarra’s Edge resident and qualified dog trainer Diona Chu has some of the happiest clients in town, as three-year-old Beau demonstrated at Point Park last month.

The Forge tower resident has been living in Docklands for three years and is keen to get the word out to many time-poor locals about her pet care and training services.

With veterinary science and teaching degrees under her belt, Diona has previously worked in a zoo with exotic animals, with wildlife overseas in Africa and pups at Guide Dogs Victoria and, at present, she works with children at Brighton Primary School!

When Docklands News met Diona last month she was out at Point Park walking and training cocker spaniel cross Cavalier King Charles spaniel Beau, who showed off some impressive tricks for the camera.

“I spent five days with Beau when he was a puppy and he learned about 34 tricks,” Diona said. “He used to have behavioural issues like food guarding and now he’s a lot better but he’s still a work in progress!”

Offering a range of services for training both dogs and cats, which include clinics focused on areas such as loose-leash walking, house manners and reliable recall, Diona is also qualified to teach humans in training their own pets.

On Saturday, March 21, she will host a free seminar at Common Man at South Wharf Promenade focused on teaching owners how to listen and read their pets and she encouraged any interested locals to attend 

“A lot of people don’t know how to read a dog. Whether you’re a dog owner or not when you see a dog waiting outside the supermarket for its owner, if you don’t know that it’s super anxious and fearful, you go pat it and it could attack,” she said 

“I see that a lot where I have to tell people not to pat the dog because they’re very anxious right now. So, this seminar will assist people to better understand what situations cause a dog anxiety and how best to respond.”