For the Love of Dogs - Mikey Cantan and James Middleton

Photo by Vava, 6.1 (Year 12)

You don’t need to spend long at Bedales to see how fond we are of dogs. Staff often bring their dogs into work (although much to some of our students’ dismay, not into the classrooms!), and it is unusual to walk anywhere on site without seeing one of our four-legged friends. So we were very happy to welcome Mikey Cantan, local business owner and canine psychology expert, and James Middleton, founder of premium dog food brand James & Ella, to the Olivier Theatre on Monday (12 January) to share their canine expertise.

Parent and Chair of Dogs Trust Will Galgey hosted the event, which went on longer than expected because so many members of the audience couldn’t quite bear to leave. This was mostly the fault of the heavenly dogs. Mikey’s black Labrador Digby, and James’s golden retriever Isla, accompanied their owners on stage, and left most of us feeling a bit embarrassed about our own dogs' behaviour back home.

Using Digby to illustrate his teaching points, Mikey talked for an hour on how to communicate with our dogs (clue, not like baby humans!), the need for strong but loving leadership, the importance of managing our energy around them, and the 'dos and don’ts' of behaviour management. As Mikey spoke about love, boundaries, clear expectations, and mutual trust, most parents in the audience likely noticed the parallels between good dog ownership and parenthood.

James meanwhile, discussed nutrition and told us about the role dogs have played in his own mental health and wellbeing, saying ‘when I was diagnosed with clinical depression humans couldn’t help me, dogs could.’ He credits his late dog Ella for saving his life and inspiring his dog food company, James & Ella. ‘I wanted to give back to her, and the best way to do that with a dog is to feed them really well.’

‘It is so wonderful to see such a big crowd give up their evening to learn how to talk to their dogs,’ said Mikey. James echoed these positive sentiments, ‘I was delighted to hear from Head of Bedales Will Goldsmith that this is a dog friendly campus and hope that everyone came away tonight with something they can implement.’

We finished with a Q&A session and Will later explained about the importance of the evening. ‘The UK is facing a dog welfare crisis following a huge surge in dog ownership since the pandemic, with many owners now struggling to look after their dogs for either behavioural or cost-of-living reasons. Last year, Dogs Trust took 40,000 calls from people who needed to rehome their dogs, but we were only able to take in 12,000. So it was great to hear so many practical insights from Mikey and James that can help owners to enhance their bond with their dogs.’

Proceeds from the event will be split between Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and the John Badley Foundation.