‘Sir,- I quite expected the remarks from all corners that have followed “Diehard’s” warnings in your Jan. 16 issue, but cannot help wondering if this contributor has ever realised how many ladies take up kennelwork for a cheap holiday. My experience of kennelmaids would make a tragically amusing book. I do not for one moment say any one word against the training schools. The girls who have been failures would probably have been failures no matter what they took up. I had not long ago a lady who, at nearly forty, had tried almost everything under the sun without success, so thought she would take up dogs. Mine was her third kennel, and needless to say I did not keep her very long. But it is foolish to blame her trainers.

As a trainer, I first remember the girl, usually at an age between 17 and 20 years – the most impressionable period of the human – and the age when a lady is made or marred. I am afraid a good many trainers do not realise the great responsibility they undertake or the shock they may cause to a modest sensitive nature at this period. There is no need for a girl to be coarse or unladylike (as so often happens) because she comes into contact with the intimacies of nature, any more than a boy who looks after a horse need become a coarse stable boy.

I aim to make the girls happy in their surroundings, and I never ask them to do the impossible, or require of them something so difficult as to make them lose heart before they have got hold of the rudiments, but do my best by working with them and patiently explaining, to lead them to a state as near perfection as possible. A girl will always do her best and not slack if she is fond enough of her trainer; and, just like children, if you expect the best, they will not let them [sic] down. I do my best to give them a little pleasant social life away from the dogs, and do not often leave them to their own devices, which is so demoralising for some young girls. I encourage to consider me their friend and companion, and come to me with and doubts or confidences.

Now a word for the young lady who is thinking of taking up this profession. Kennelwork is real hard work. It needs all your mind and concentration. If you cannot look after a dog in sickness as well as in health, if you cannot clean out a messy puppy house, or keep a smiling face over dirty jobs, as well as playful ones, don’t attempt it. If you are at all nervy, temperamental, or quick-tempered leave it alone. Dogs are very susceptible to nerves, and need endless patience. But if after well thinking it out you are fond enough of the dog and really keen to do your best for your canine friend, to devote your life to him, then go ahead, and you will succeed. Kennelwork is hard work, but it is the loveliest and pleasantest work I know. Yours, etc.,

Keen Worker and Trainer.’