Natt Hamon

Natt’s parents, her father, the owner of a freight forwarding business and her housewife mother, had the sisters’ futures all mapped out in their minds. Their eldest daughter dutifully followed their desire to get a medical qualification, the youngest one was allowed to choose her own career though she also had a good education and significant studies in English as their father saw competence in English as a key to prosperity.  For young Natt, the expectation was that she would provide continuity to the family business. So, at the tender age of 16, Natt was packed off to Australia for an intensive 3 months of English language immersion at a College of Technical Education in western Sydney.

She then spent 4 years back home studying Business Computing, but it never made its way into her heart.  Although Natt graduated, what she learnt basically went in one ear and out the other.  She does, however, credit her time at university as a very positive life experience, and it certainly taught her exactly what she didn’t want to spend her life doing. After graduation, she spent a whole year working in her family company’s office until she summoned the courage at the age of 24 to quit the job, telling her father she would always be his daughter but she had no interest in a boss/employee relationship. To this day, Natt still harbours the suspicion that she is a great disappointment to the family, despite her many other achievements. Natt, a natural joker, tried hard to be a people-pleaser but quickly came to realise that she had to follow her heart.

It was that same heart that led her to her husband Paul. At a loose end after quitting her job, she met Paul online when he was looking for a local guide in Bangkok, and she was looking for further opportunity to develop her English.  Despite the need for a lot of sign language, he made her laugh, and their mutual attraction was enough to overcome their linguistic deficiencies. The bond between the pair only became stronger as the undertook a cycling trip together from Hua Hin to Kuala Lumpur, and then spend around 18 months in a camper van, together exploring some of the more remote parts of Paul’s native Australia. Living in such close quarters will test the mettle of any relationship, I have it on good authority. On their eventual return to Bangkok, Natt looked for an alternative life-path, and she found it when introduced to the business of being a tour guide.  Her improved English skills suited this perfectly, although she still had some trepidation with her speaking and listening skills. Persevering, she guided tours personally for a year before deciding she was better suited to the operational side of the business and became a tour organiser.  Her company, “Your Thai Guide” rates very highly on Trip Advisor. Prior to Covid, a typical December would see the company working with over 20 freelance guides and organising five to six hundred individual tours in the month, being a very significant operator in the field. Business is picking up again, albeit a bit slowly.

Like many people in her age bracket, Natt has some justifiable concerns about the future of the world, believing it is on a negative path and not the same as the world she was born into. Indeed, her unease has led to the conscious decision to refrain from starting a family, that is, apart from the 5 lucky rescue dogs she couldn’t live without.  Natt prides herself in bringing out the best in them, and they appear to do the exact same for her. Yet, despite her concerns, Natt knows that she must learn to adapt and survive within any environment, so she maintains hope.

Having received acclaim as a highly accomplished dog trainer, Natt states that this is a significant achievement for her.  She believes that the dogs have taught her to be more patient, and in turn this has allowed her to engage more productively with her human customers, who frankly can be trickier to handle than the pups themselves.  In her professional capacity, Natt follows her instinct and doesn’t subscribe to the loudest voices or the flavour of the month when it comes to dog-training habits and practices. She has a great ability to read both dogs and their owners and to formulate simple, achievable steps that can be put into place to ensure the happiness and well-being of both parties.  Like a sage parent, Natt understands instinctively that dogs require routine and predictability from their owners and will benefit from training which may well include rebuke and correction as required, all within a loving and forgiving relationship. Natt’s ongoing hope is that her methods achieve even greater recognition and that she will become a source of inspiration in the field of dog training.

Nat’s business, Hua Hin Dog Training, provides a very comprehensive range of services, from basic puppy training, to behaviour modification, to much more specialised training for working dogs such as Search and Rescue, detection training and even training for all kinds of therapy dogs.  Natt is able to train dogs to detect specific scents such as lavender and then licenced authorities can broaden the skills these animals possess to help them locate other contraband such as firearms and narcotics.  Hua Hin has been the ideal place for the business, with its significant expat population. Hua Hin Dog Training can be found on all the usual social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, yet most of Natt’s new customers come to her via word-of-mouth. Personally, Natt is quite a restrained user of social media and only infrequently post about her family and pets. Her phone is full of the usual pictures of them and little else besides that except for some recent shots of the car she is currently trying to sell, which will soon be deleted, to save space for more photos of dogs. 

It will come as a surprise to Hua Hin, those who know Natt as well as those still to encounter her, that, skilled as she is with canines, this doesn’t continue into the feline world.  Yes, Natt is scared of cats!

Natt and Paul lead a health-conscious lifestyle, though Natt would like to have more time for exercise. One epic physical activity they jointly undertook was their honeymoon trip of six month’s duration in 2012, dubbed the “Every Province Challenge” which saw them cycling 9,000 kilometres through all 77 provinces of Thailand, while the average person might choose a week at an island resort. Natt joked that no matter how hard Paul pedalled, she always reached their destination first.  Go, girl power! Natt is a confident woman who will not accept “No” as an answer, and will even respond to a question with one of her own.

Natt loves the comfort and sanctuary of her home, where she can indulge in some TV, chill to some music and play with the dogs. She makes them treats, toys and even home-made beds, and can’t help but smile at some of their silly sleeping poses.  Much less likely to make her smile are people who assume she must be merely the wife of the dog-trainer, or question whether a woman should be a dog-trainer at all.  Also annoying to Natt are people who chew loudly with their mouths open.

Natt denies having a bucket list though she believes she is moving towards a positive future.  She is learning not to beat herself up and is determined not to let events from her past dictate her future, which she is certain to embrace in her inimitable fashion. Hua Hin is a much richer place because of Natt’s presence in it.