Nicole & Kebo are quite the team. They both possess characters hard to forget; full of life and eager to make a difference in their world.

 

Nicole brings over 25 years of industry experience working with extensive breeds and behaviours. She started out with her first volunteer position at the age of 13 years old with Monbulk Wildlife Shelter and then 14 years old at the Kilsyth Animal Shelter. She continued working within several shelters small & large including Lost Dogs Home & RSPCA, farm hand, dog training, pet supplies; just couldn't get enough. Nicole has 10 years experience in small business development, operations and management. She founded, developed and grew diggiddydoggydaycare for 10 years leaving behind an award winning standard within the pet care industry. With the business destined to grow into an amazing large business, Nicole found she missed working one-on-one with the clients and their dogs and realised this was her true calling.

 

Kebo has quite the story. Nicole met Kebo when he joined diggiddydoggydaycare back in 2008. His owner and he travelled all the way from England and life was to be settled in Melbourne, Australia. Kebo was a scrawny, underweight, over stimulated wired 1yr old crazy pup. He looked more like a Greyhound than a Border Collie. He was badly behaved and didn't know in any way how to switch off or even slow down. We couldn't even get him to enjoy pats or massages; busy, busy! His anxiety was high and he was a donkey on the edge. In 2009 Kebo’s owner had to surrender him and move back to England. Nicole took Kebo under her wing with her Bernese Mountain Dog, Qenia. Let Project Kebo, with intense training and behavioural modification, begin…

 

Over the years to follow Nicole learnt so much about Kebo's behavioural issues, intricacies, fears and triggers yet he continued to progress and become better and better day-by-day. Nicole recognised that Qenia played a big part in teaching Kebo how to be calmer & relax to recover. When Kebo started to get a bit crazy Qenia would just bark once and Kebo would fall in line. When Qenia became ill and was diagnosed with cancer Nicole was devastated. She couldn't imagine life for Kebo & her without Qenia in it. One morning the 3 of them were in the lounge and Kebo walked over and lay by Qenia and placed his head on her paw. They lay there together with Kebo just watching her; almost saying thank you. Nicole's heart burst and it was that day she truly fell in love with him and they were connected for life.

 

To this day Kebo and Nicole continue to learn from one another. Kebo has now been a qualified Delta Therapy Dog for over 5 years with Nicole chauffeuring him around to his volunteer work putting smiles on faces that sometimes haven’t smiled in a long time or even communicated. Kebo has truly become a special part of so many people's and doggies lives. He has helped so many shy "wallflower" dogs & humans come out of their shell. As much as he still has so many intricacies to this day we love him all the same. Now he is a healthy, beautiful, loving, affectionate & peaceful soul at times. He’s definitely put meaning to being more than just a dog. He has soul and he has purpose.

 

It seems Kebo just has way too much intelligence for one dog to handle, but in so many ways he is just pure awesome!

 

"Sometimes it's our imperfections that make us so perfect." – Jane Austen