The OSPE exam is an examination of our canine handling skills. This works on our existing knowledge to enable a profession standard of basic canine handling. This is particularly important, as in the work place, a profession standard is expected.

I was very nervous for the OSPE exam because of the one-on-one nature. But after a few practices I was used to this and felt confident inn my abilities to complete the tasks. I felt comfortable asking my lecturer to home in on grey areas that I had, which enabled me to feel more confident about the exam.

When it came to the mock exam, I was using Marlowe, who is a Jack Russel. I think I found this daunting as I am not used to working with smaller dogs and find them more difficult to reads their body language. This challenged me but I think it was a positive experience. Overall, the mock exam went very well, and I received constructive feedback which enabled me to continue practicing on my weak points. (Inc.com, 2019)

In future, I would try to get some additional practice in around the scheduled area set by the tutor with different dogs to try and widen my range of practice on different breeds than what I am used to. I fund this hard at this time as I live on site and dint have access to my own dogs that I could use as and when I would need or needed to. So, to combat this, I would try to set up meet ups with people I know who are local and wouldn’t mind me using their dogs for practice.

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Inc.com. (2019). 5 Remarkably Powerful Ways to Boost Your Confidence. [online] Available at: https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/5-remarkably-powerful-ways-to-boost-your-confidence.html [Accessed 10 May 2019].