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Niki Tudge Career Background

Niki grew up in Cheshire in Northwest England.  At an early age and with a strong desire to see the world, she set out on a career in Hotel Management.  Immediately, Niki’s senior management recognized her potential as a future leader and placed her on a fast-track executive development program.  Her training included extensive instruction on how to train individuals to train others.  In addition, she became qualified to organize and present group-training seminars and later in her career, she received the demanding training and prestigious certification as a Six Sigma Black Belt.   Six Sigma is a set of practices to improve processes by eliminating defects.   

Equipped with this training and business degrees from Oxford University, she rose quickly on the corporate ladder, which led to a career as a senior luxury hotel executive and training consultant in the some of the world’s leading hotels.  Her assignments included the Sandy Lane in Barbados, the Nicon Noga Hilton in Nigeria, the Michelangelo in South Africa and the Fairmont Orchid in Hawaii.   

 

Throughout her travels and career, Niki pursued her other passion, animals.  She was initially resistant to adopting her own pet because of the demands of her job and travel schedule, but wherever she worked; she always became active rehabilitating abandoned and abused animals.  While working in Nigeria Niki spearheaded a project, in cooperation with Fauna & Flora International - the world’s longest-established international conservation charity working to conserve threatened species and ecosystems worldwide - to rescue endangered and protected species from poachers and transition them back to their natural environment.  This project resulted in successfully saving numerous orphaned chimpanzees, and endangered drill monkeys and preuss's monkeys.  It was also in Nigeria where Niki began developing her skills as a Family Pet Dog Trainer.  Working with the local Police K9 unit Niki took German shepherd puppies, deemed “unsuitable” for police work, and trained them to become wonderful family pet dogs suitable for adoption  Her favorite ex-police dog was adopted by a family in Oregon USA where she lived out a very happy life on a Christmas tree farm.

In South Africa, Niki’s next career assignment, she became even more interested in animal behavior and their interaction with human society.  Applying her expanding expertise in hotel services, business and operations and recognizing the growing need for effective management of the animal-human relationship in our increasingly crowded society, Niki provided consultation services to several large and small animal enterprises on improving their operations and training techniques.  She also volunteered and sponsored the Sundown Ranch Lion Research Park.  She still carries a small scar from her work with an overly affectionate lion cub.  Though her work with Africa’s wild animals was fulfilling, Niki’s first love was always the family pet dog.   Inspired by the research on Cape Hunting Dogs at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust, where Niki was a regular visitor and contributor, Niki establish a personal goal of working with local communities and animal rescue centers to improve the relationship between families and their pets.  By teaching families to communicate with dogs and dogs to understand humans, Niki believes we can significantly reduce the number of stray, abandoned, neglected, abused and unwanted pets.  Niki committed herself to support, through training, rescue facilities and shelters to improve the adoptability of dogs and educate pet owners so that dogs remain a happy, contented, loved, and fully integrated member of the family. “A trained dog is a retained dog” says Niki. Niki believes that there is nothing more delightful than a pet who can participate in family activities and understand how to cohabitate with humans.

After leaving South Africa, Niki settled in Hawaii.  Still a senior executive manager with a large prestigious hotel, but with a more stable lifestyle, Niki was ready for a pet of her own.   It was also in Hawaii where Niki recognized that the US was emerging as a world leader in progressive Pet Dog Training.  Niki began training her own pet Kelpie in obedience and agility with great success.  Her elderly beloved Kelpie, now retired, remains ever anxious to please off and on the agility course. It was during this period that Niki earned her certification as a Dog Behaviorist, Pet Dog Trainer, Veterinarian assistant and Pet Groomer.  By now Niki was entering agility competitions with her Kelpie. 

It was also in Hawaii that Niki decided to combine her passion for Dogs with her professional business skills.  With a partner, Niki founded the Hawaii Dog Training Academy where they focused on training dogs for agility using all positive methods.  The school thrived for two years but Niki was once again transferred with her job.  Now in Florida Niki was able to purchase an ideal piece of property to start a full time training center and boutique boarding facility.  Her new facility also allowed her to rescue a variety of ducks, geese, peafowl, miniature horses, miniature donkeys and she regularly fosters and trains homeless dogs and cats.  Through numerous private consultations and group classes Niki has refined her training techniques and has combined her exceptional skills of teaching people how to teach with over a decade of dog training.  This combination of expertise leaves Niki uniquely qualified in her field of positive Pet Dog Training. 

From her training center Niki has expanded the curriculum she offers and conducts private and group Pet Dog Training lessons at local shelters, dog parks and in private residences. 


 

 

 

Niki Tudge Qualifications

Niki has been operating her current Pet Dog Training Business for four years.  She has completed numerous training and certification programs including

·        Agility Workshop/Conference, Hawaii, 1999 - Katherine Horn.

·        Dr Ian Dunbar Seminar,  Analyzing The Quadrant 2008

·        Dr Ian Dunbar Seminar,  Canine Aggression 2008

·        Joel Wheaton Seminar, Canine Aggression using MRE 2008

·        Pet Dog Obedience Instructor Training Diploma 1999 Thompson

·        Veterinary Assistant Diploma 2000, Thompson

·        Pet Dog Groomer certification 2000, Thompson

·         Puppy Dog Training Paws University Hawaii – 1999

·         Advanced Dog Training Paws University Hawaii – 1999

·         Beginning Agility Training Paws University Hawaii – 2000

·         Advanced Agility Training Paws University Hawaii – 2000

·         Regional Training Manager responsible for developing and conducting management and leadership workshops, 1989

·         Certified HCITB Trainer level 1 thru 3, London England, qualified to not only teach one on one training sessions and group sessions but also teach other people how to conduct and execute training sessions.

§         Level 1 - One on One Training Skills.

§         Level 2 - Certified to hold Group Training Workshops.

§         Level 3 - Certified to Develop Course Curriculum and certify others to conduct One on One Training Skills.

·        ABKA

o       CPCT CAPCT

Niki Tudge professional credentials include:

 

Niki Tudge currently holds the following positions:

Niki Tudge has had extensive experience training and coaching people including:

 

Niki has also published many articles on Dog Training and Dog Behavior including: