DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Turid Rugaas Author

Julia Robertson established Galen Therapy Centre in 2002 and since then has worked tirelessly to improve dogs lives and their health. In this time she has treated over 8,000 dogs and trained hundreds of people in Galen Myotherapy techniques. Julia was one of the very first in the UK to understand and treat the effects of adaptive change (or muscular compensation) in dogs and through years of dedication has learned that trends, patterns of behaviour and physical changes occur in a dog when they are suffering with muscular pain. This quantification of the nature of the changes has now been formalised into the Galen Comfort Scale©, which is being used in the many studies and treatments that Galen are involved in. In late 2019 they changed their organisational name from 'Galen Therapy Centre' to 'Galen Myotherapy'. Julia speaks all around the world and runs an International Schools program.

'Dublin-based Steph Rousseau is a dog behaviourist and owner of Steph’s Dog Training. She is also the Founder of Happy Office Dogs, which offers support and resources to dog-friendly workplaces as well as to those considering introducing dog-friendly policies. Her book Office Dogs: The Manual was published in 2019. It has also been published internationally and multilingually. She sat on the Board of the Pet Dog Trainers of Europe from 2017-2020 and since 2013 has worked with hundreds of dogs and their humans in both London and Dublin. Rousseau has spoken at various events around the world, including the Pet Dog Trainers of Europe (PDTE), AGMs in Vienna, Austria, and Durham, UK, and the Dog Symposium in Norway. She has appeared on national television and radio in Ireland, as well as on podcasts and radio stations in America, Australia, and beyond. Prior to dedicating herself to all things ‘dog’ she studied at Trinity College in Dublin and Cambridge University in the UK.

Turid Rugaas is an internationally renowned dog and equine behaviourist, her series of courses for dog and horse instructors known and respected worldwide. In 1984 she set up her own dog school and conducted several studies on dogs, one lasting two years and ending in the success book On Talking Terms with Dogs, still a bestseller in many countries. Following her attendance at the Human-Animal Bond conference in Montreal in 1991, Turid has travelled the world 3-4 times a month, giving talks and seminars, and educating dog trainers in 17 countries. She has written three books which are all still on the market: Calming Signs: On Talking Terms with Dogs; Barking: The Sound of a Language and My Dog Pulls, What Should I do? Rugaas received the Norwegian King Harald’s medal in 2018 for her work with dogs and today she runs a new centre - www.hundelandnordvest.com - together with her daughter Linda.