Dog Trainer's Log

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Syracuse Obedience Training Club, Inc. will be hosting its second annual Doggone Good Day on Saturday (tomorrow, January 23) from 9a.m. to 4 p.m. at their training building, 6392 Deere Road, Syracuse NY.

Activities at this event are specially planned to help the public meet owners and dogs of various dog breeds, representatives of local dog clubs and rescue groups; see dog activities demonstrated; and explore different dog supply and dog food vendors. Special events will include: [Read the rest of this entry...]

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Big conformation classes can last for a half-hour or more. Even though smaller classes are shorter, a dog that wins his individual breed class has a long stretch to look forward to in the Winners ring. At specialities, Best of Breed classes, aka ‘intersex,’ can run 50-75 dogs, and often end up being split into multiple sections. Those are the kinds of classes where Madison, Ch. Kabree Mad About You, learned her default behavior: stand-still-look-pretty (SSLP.) [Read the rest of this entry...]

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Strong and flexible butt/lower back muscles are critical for working dogs – but especially for performance dogs who face 15-20 agility obstacles which must be leapt over, climbed and descended in every course, and many times that number in every practice. My Madi is a pretty square little southern belle, and she sometimes isn’t quite as flexible nor are her rear and lower back as strong and muscled as I’d like them to be. Those weaknesses show up in her preference to jump 12 or 14″ rather than 16, and when she doesn’t quite make it from the floor to the back arm of the couch, or struggles just past the mid-point of an A-frame climb. If she doesn’t have enough space to get up a good head of steam going into that frame, when she can’t get enough momentum, her little butt sometimes struggles with the task. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Here at American Spaniel Club’s winter specialty in Philadelphia, I’ve been having a great time watching dogs and catching up with people I usually only get to see once a year.

Good Rally Excellent and Advanced courses – not such a hot Novice Rally course, which didn’t use the ring space efficiently. Finally got the three steps & sits sign in Advanced … howEVER Princess M. had gone directly back in time to her stand-still, look-pretty behaviors from 2007, her very first outing in a Spaniel Club performance event.

I haven’t had to pick her up off a course in months, but yesterday we left the course after sign 8 (or was it 9?) No sense reinforcing the no-sit behavior that I don’t want to continue.

Pictures from the front later…

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I had a different post planned for today, a happy celebration post. Madison did her very first 12 foot off-angle send to the weaves this morning! One command (go weave!), one signal to three poles stuck in eight inches of drifted powder snow, me standing a good 15 feet away on the other side of the patio, one little blue roan english cocker bitch running out to her poles and weaving them as if she’d *always* done exactly that.

But after my 11-hour day, after shoveling a back exercise area and a 100-foot path to the far sidewalk for the third time today, after feeding and skjoring/walking with the dogs, I came in, opened the personal email account I’d neglected all day and saw this subject line:

“Benefit for Terri and Bruce”

Wha . a . a. a. t?
WTH?!?
And there, following the explanation was this note from Terri Clingerman, an AKC obedience judge who lives, trains and instructs dog obedience in western central NY. Terri is also the AKC Gazette columnist for the Border Collie Society of America.

Terri’s note detailed a particularly UNhappy New Year. Just this week:

• her border collie Rhys had a second surgery to repair damage caused by eating a tug toy
• her training barn burned to the ground. No one human or animal was hurt, but the barn, all of her training equipment and more are a total loss.
• she had to put down her beloved training partner, labrador retriever Danny

I have certainly had a banner new year (to date) by comparison. In Terri’s own words:
———————
Hi everyone,
Just an update on some stuff that’s going on – some of you know some of it. I truly have had enough of 2010.

Rhys needed a 2nd surgery, because the internal stitches weren’t holding and he was seeping fluid. He had it on Jan. 2 and came home tonight. He actually looks better now than he did after I picked him up the first time. So anyway, cross your fingers but he should be ok. He’s on 2 different
antibiotics, 2 pain meds, and gets 2 tbsp of food 6x a day. [note from Pat: Rhys, a border collie, ate a tug toy, which is why he had surgery in the first (and second) place.]

Yesterday our big barn burned down – the one that was my training room, Bruce’s workshop, etc. Luckily I was home and called it in, and it didn’t spread. No people or animals were hurt, but it’s a complete loss. Tractors, my in-laws van, my new matting, lots of my equipment, countless tools and other items, and on and on. It’s a mess but the insurance people are being great about it. The cause was a faulty boiler/heater.

I think you all know that Danny showed some nerve damage about 6-8 months ago, that caused muscles in his head to atrophy and his right eye to sink in… we never figured out why although I assumed some kind of trauma. I’m not sure if it’s related to that or not, but about 3 days ago he started to show some unusual signs, like losing hearing and some vision. Last night he started walking in circles like Hootie was (before he died) and bumping into walls in the house, and not really recognizing us. Something neurological…

I wonder if maybe all along he did have a brain tumor. This all happened very fast. I made an appt. to have him checked tonight when I picked up Rhys, but when I got home, he could hardly walk and it was clear that the dying process had begun… I expect many of you have seen it. :*(( So we took him to the vet to have him put down. We’re really kind of numb right now, to be honest.

Feel free to let others know, I tried to include people who should know but I may have forgotten some.
Terri
———————————
Dog people are amazing group – there are already alternate training site offers on the table so that Terri can continue her classes, show-n-go fundraisers being put together, and other assistance efforts being organized.

But in situations like this, I’m not sure there can ever bee too many helping hands. So…
if you have an offer of help or support, please contact Terri directly.
You can also leave a comment here, and I’ll share it with her.

It’s time to do some paying it forward, people – how can you help?

———-

An update from Terri:

Terri has let everyone who has presented a fundraising idea know that both she and her husband Bruce, while “deeply touched by how many people have wanted to help us” are both a bit uncomfortable with the thought of accepting donations. In Terri’s own words, “The building and contents are insured and it’s not like we lost our house and need immediate replacement of clothing or necessities. Although it’s a major inconvenience (to say the least) we will rebuild and things will be fine.”

To respect Terri and Bruce’s wishes, I’m relaying her suggestion that “all the money raised be distributed among the fire departments that responded. They are all volunteer depts. And I know every donation helps. The towns that responded were, North Rose, Rose, Wolcott, Sodus & Clyde, NY.”

If you’d like contact or donation information for the volunteer fire departments Terri mentioned, and can’t find that from Google or other search methods, please contact me (gaelen2 AT yahoo DOT com) and I’ll happily email you any contact information I have.