advicefordogowners.com: June 2011

Bhanu-trained pack of dogs to fight Naxalites - Times of India

CHANDIGARH: Nine dogs of the Belgian shepherd breed from National Training Centre for Dogs and Animals (NTCDA) at Bhanu in Panchkula district will be helping paramilitary forces in battling Naxalites soon.

They have been trained not only to find enemies, but also prevent troops from getting caught in an ambush.

US and Israeli defence forces use this breed exclusively and one such dog was also part of the US navy seals' Operation Geronimo which led to the death of al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden. The breed is also called Belgian malinois. NATO troops had also used these dogs in Afghanistan and they proved extremely helpful in saving soldiers' lives.

The canines were imported in June 2010 by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and their training started when they were 3 months old.

Sources said other forces like army and police and Border Security Force started training dogs only when they were 6 months old.

These Belgian shepherds passed from NTCDA a few days ago.

Chief dog trainer at the centre, deputy commandant Sudhakar Natarajan, said, 'The malinois have proved to be finest soldiers. They are able to sense the enemy in a 500-metre radius. This was a pilot project of ITBP. It was NATO that inducted these canines originally. Their deployment in anti-Naxalite operations would lessen casualties and boost our soldiers' morale,' Natarajan added.

The dogs are considered a force multiplier in that they can be used tactically. Sources said that the nine-month training of the dogs at the centre meant they could work in hot and humid conditions and help counter ambushes. Handlers of these canines are also specially trained.

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Labels: Bhanutrained, fight, India, Naxalites, Times

Therapy is for the dogs - Toronto Sun

Dear John:

What do you think about dog psychologists? Me? Not so much. -RNT

Hi RNT:

If you're talking about someone who brings the dog into their office, sticks it on the couch and asks it if it hates its mother, then me not so much either. However, dogs are intelligent and anyone that has studied dog behaviour in its nuances and variations in breeds and individual dogs might consider themselves students of dog psychology. Dog psychologist? A little self-aggrandizing, I think.

There are dog trainers that call themselves "behaviourists," and earlier in my career when I thought such a thing would distinguish me from the run of the mill dog trainer, I embraced the term. After a while, I thought it was silly and so now I'm just a dog trainer that believes in ethology with a strong emphasis on field observation, and has done a fair amount of literature study.

There is a branch of veterinary science now that certifies veterinarians as behaviourists. I believe their intellectual focus is mistakenly inverted when compared to that of a good dog trainer, with much more theoretical and laboratory emphasis rather than field experience. In my experience, they seem to have a poor grasp of the real world of dogs and their owners. I'm sure there are exceptions, but when it comes to actually training a wide range of dogs, as of yet I haven't met one that seemed to know the difference between a scientific paper and a pee pad. They seem to think that saying "no" to a dog will ruin its self-esteem forever.

I recently learned of a new branch of the pet mental health services, and if anything has ever got anyone's goat, my goat was got. On the truck radio, there was a pet psychic. I almost ran into the ditch. If I hadn't been driving I would have called her to see if she could figure out what I was thinking. Vomit and the word charlatan would have figured prominently.

Outside of the world of fantasy, here is what you'll find good and bad as your advisory options: people who have owned a dog or a few dogs. Their advice is often unsolicited. There are the "ignore bad behaviour - reward good behaviour" all-positive trainers - often "certified" - who think they're training for obedience, but are actually not getting much past the trick level. Then there are balanced dog trainers that excel at obedience, teaching dogs to do practical things as if it was a job instead of a trick.

Then there are trainers that have personally trained a thousand or more dogs. They can consistently help teach a dog to stop doing something harmful to others or itself, or at least reduce the impact of the negative behaviour on the dog and dog owner's lifestyle. Or they can do what to me is the mark of a true professional: be honest and be able to explain why meaningful change isn't going to happen.

Over the years, people interested in becoming dog trainers have approached me. They emphasize how much they love dogs, working with dogs, reading about dogs, etc. That doesn't move me much. Loving dogs is easy. Whatever the other requirements, a good dog trainer must love people. Without that natural ability in the forefront, it won't matter what they call themselves.

Pawsitively yours,

John Wade

Johnwade.ca

John Wade helps dog owners through his books, workshops and telephone consultations. If you have a question email him at johnwade@johnwade.ca.

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Labels: Therapy, Toronto

Woofathon: A cool summer camp for your pet pooch - MyBangalore

Labels: MyBangalore, pooch, summer, Woofathon

June 4, The Boom That Got Postponed - GhanaWeb

Feature Article of Thursday, 16 June 2011

Columnist: Adu, Kwesi

By Kwasi Adu

At the launch of Nana Konadu Agyeman’s campaign for the flag bearership of the NDC on 4th May 2011, her supporting husband, ex-President Jerry John Rawlings made a speech. In the course of his speech, he said he would reserve his detailed speech until June 4 2011when he would give more details about how he came to the conclusion that “NDC started losing the 2012 election within the first week of the Mills’ administration, and lost it finally, eight months back” and why the NDC should “change the driver” in order to “rescue this country”.

June 4 came, and at their rally in Kumasi, ex-President Rawlings did not say anything new. The speech was an almost droll recycling of the same old harangues that he been busy at in the last two and a half years. The speech was full of contradictions and paradoxes, interspersed with anecdotes, which were unrelated to the issues he was repeating. At the end of his speech, I asked myself “where is the beef?” I could not find it. I was disappointed. I thought he was coming up with specific details of how the “greedy bastards” have amassed wealth, using the institutions of state. But low and behold, he once again, postponed his “boom to 8th July 2011 at the NDC Congress.

I will not be surprised, if on 8th July, he postpones the deadline again to 31st December 2011. Then again, it may also be postponed to another June 4. Like the Ya Naa tapes that he never revealed, or even the tapes about the serial murders of the women for which he was prepared to swear by Antoa Nyamaa, we might never know these details.

There was something that he said which convinced me that he is feeling sorry for himself. He stated that the PNDC, led by him, made a mistake by not identifying “intelligent, brilliant and smart people” to take over the reins of power from his administration. For somebody who says his political philosophy is the fight for integrity, commitment to the masses, and against corruption and abuse of power, the ex-President should by now be asking himself whether he really meant what he said. If he were to look back at 1982 he should take pen and paper and list the names of the young people with whom he was with in April 1980 and in 1982 and whom he quickly cast out into the outer darkness, (either killed or chased into exile). Has he, in 2011, heard or known of any of those people, whether any of them has been corrupt, or been “greedy”? He cannot point to one; even one.

Does he remember Napoleon Abdulai, Taata Ofosu, Nyeya Yen, Zaya Yeebo, Explo Kofi Nani, Michael Nunoo (Okpara), Shaibu Gariba, Sakkua Agambila, Seidu Bawumia, Aloysius Denkabi, Nicholas Atampugre, Joe Cudjoe and the early PDC and WDC guys, including the young trade unionists? Which of these has been corrupt? These were people, who for the eleven or so months that they worked with the PNDC, received no pay. The young men with him at the time ate once a day from the military cookhouse. In 1982, Napoleon Abdulai for example, deferred his education in the then Soviet Union to return to Ghana to contribute, without pay! Does he remember his bodyguards, (such as Cpl. Kwasi Boakye-Mensah [Tarkesh]) who were prepared to use their paltry wages to pay for his cigarettes? Where are they now? In 2011, he should look around him, and observe his newfound friends around him. Which of them goes on an assignment for him without asking for money? If this is the sort of “training” that he has given to his new “young” friends, why does he bemoan the possibility of NDC delegates being lured by cash to vote on 8th July at the NDC Congress?

So President Mills is not one of the “intelligent, brilliant and smart people”? Such penchant for insults is no longer surprising, but, coming from a person who expects the rest of the country to respect him is contemptible. The people who keep “advising” others to stop criticising Rawlings while approving of his language, should first turn their advice to Rawlings himself. He is the one who deserves that sort of advice.

If for near twenty years, he could not groom any ““intelligent, brilliant and smart people”?” to take over from him, what does he think Nana Konadu could achieve in a possible eight-year reign? In the darkness of his bedroom, when he is alone, ex-President Rawlings should admit that he has been a complete failure. In 1982, he threatened his then-young friends with death when they stood up and boldly told him that he was veering off-course. “You have the pen, but I have the gun,” he shouted at them. In 2011, those he threatened still have their pens, abut he no longer has the gun. At least, he can no longer shoot them and get away with it using his position as head of state.

In the course of his speech in Kumasi, he also stated that 8th July 2011 was going to be a “moment of truth”. There are only two possible truths that will occur on that day: either Nana Konadu wins or President Mills wins. However, for ex-President Rawlings, there would be only one truth: that is, Victory for Nana Konadu. He should ask himself, whether if the truth turns out to be a victory for President Mills, Rawlings and his wife will accept the “the will” of the delegates”. He appears so convinced that he warned that if President Mills “refuses to accept the verdict”, “the inevitable will happen.” What is that inevitability? He provides the answer in his following statement: “it is time to take over the party, the government and the country”. How is he going to do that if he and his wife lose on 8th July 2011? Would he go, as he put it, the equivalent of what happened in Egypt or Tunisia? He must make the inevitable happen.

It is a tragedy when a person does not realise it when he or she is sinking. Like the Shakespearean Macbeth, he does not believe that the woods of Birnam can possibly move towards his castle. The witches told Macbeth “Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care of who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him”.

And even when he saw the woods of Birnam moving towards the castle, he took solace in the witches’ other prophecy that “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”. He believed this until Macduff, his fighting opponent, finally revealed to him that he, Macduff, was born by caesarean section rather than the natural way. (By the way, where did I lately hear the “BE BOLD” call?)

If ex-President Rawlings would be observant, he should be looking at the people around him today and determine their true thinking. Like Macbeth, the people around him today, when they smile at him, only show their bare fangs, with no feeling in the smile: And that those things that should accompany old age, such as honour, love, obedience, troops of genuine friends are completely missing. Instead, what he has are “Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breadth which the heart would deny”.

It is turning out to be a Shakespearean tragedy, with Lady Macbeth in tow. I recommend the book, Macbeth to anyone interested in the current going-ons.

Sometimes, ex-President Rawlings contradicts himself without realising it. Otherwise, why would he in one breadth say that the NDC could not be beaten in 2008 in spite of the monies that the NPP threw at them, yet in the same breadth, he thinks that the same NDC voters are going to be swayed with money to vote against his wife on 8th July?

Ex-President Rawlings would like people to believe that there were people who, in the cause of June 4 1979 and 31st December 1981 spilled their blood to save Ghana, and whose sacrifice should not be in vain. Can he name those people? Can he tell us how he rehabilitated them and their families in the twenty years that he was in power? Their memories are invoked only when ex-President Rawlings find himself in political trouble. Those who survived the fight on 31st December 1981 were either killed or chased into exile. Let me borrow this question from ex-President Rawlings: “Who born dog????”

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Labels: GhanaWeb, Postponed

URBANANIMAL: Hyper dog needs patience, training and love - insideTORONTO.com

Dear UrbanAnimal,

Robbie is a two-year-old mixed-breed dog that I adopted from a woman who had a baby and couldn't keep him any longer. She told me Robbie has always been a hyper dog, but she didn't have time to fix it. When she brought the baby home, Robbie became even more rambunctious and she couldn't handle dog and baby at the same time. I thought his problem was lack of attention and exercise and, because I'm semi-retired, I felt I could give him these things. As it turns out, after just two weeks of living with Robbie, I can't do anything with him either. I asked the original owner if she could take him back, but she refuses. She said he was "impossible." I don't want to send him to a shelter. Have you got any other ideas?

Caroline

Readers, I contacted Caroline to find out more about Robbie's life and discovered his original owner had bought him as a young puppy from a pet store. It was one of those "puppy in the window" scenarios that, unfortunately, continue to take place no matter how much education is available.

Robbie was her first dog and she couldn't resist. So without considering how a dog would fit into her life, she bought him, then left him in a crate while she went to work. As he grew larger, she put him in the backyard while she went to work. She didn't walk him, socialize him or pay much attention to him beyond feeding and complaining about his "hyper" behaviour.

Oh my goodness, where do I start?

It would be so nice to re-wind this story and start over. Can this dog be saved? Absolutely. But it will take time and patience.

In some ways, it's good that Caroline was able to obtain Robbie's background information because it helped her understand why he had been labelled with words such as "hyper" and "impossible." If she didn't know anything about his past, she'd only know this dog needed a new home.

On the other hand, knowing his history meant Caroline expected a hyper and impossible dog, so that's what she got. Robbie didn't come to her with a clean slate and he was unable to verbalize his side of story or tell her what he needed. Caroline has a big heart and would like to keep him, but she has no experience with dogs.

My first suggestion involved Robbie's physical health. I asked her to obtain all veterinary records from the previous owner then make an appointment with a veterinarian of her choice. The appointment would involve a health checkup along with advice on essentials such as proper diet, nail clipping and training.

To address my second suggestion, Caroline would ask the vet to recommend a professional dog trainer who would coach Caroline and Robbie on a one-to-one basis. With no previous training, I was concerned Robbie's exuberance wouldn't be welcome in a traditional class setting and that a behavioural assessment by an experienced trainer would be invaluable.

Robbie's new veterinarian checked him over and started him off with vaccinations, blood tests, a flea preventive product and a much-needed nail clipping. He also recommended a groomer and the names of local dog trainers.

Just one day after Robbie's veterinary appointment, Caroline had arranged interviews with two dog trainers and had even printed off a list of "Questions to ask a dog trainer" from the Internet.

Her last email to me was much like a mother whose child had learned to tie his shoelaces.

"Robbie is doing wonderfully. He's learning to walk on leash and today he sat at the curb before crossing the street. He did it twice so it's not just my imagination. The trainer thinks that Robbie is far from 'impossible' and I agree."

Another happy ending. No, that's wrong. It's not an ending. It's the beginning of a great relationship. Every day will bring new delights as they learn more about each other.

Congratulations, Caroline. Robbie needed someone who would work to understand his needs and you stepped up to the plate. I hope you have a terrific life together.

Email jacque-newman@rogers.com with a question, comment or suggestion. Visit weekly for more UrbanAnimal columns

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Labels: Hyper, insideTORONTOcom, needs, patience, training, URBANANIMAL

Rockport man walks for blindness cure - knox.VillageSoup.com

Rockport — Ron Demers remembers the anxiety attack he suffered after a long-term genetic disorder robbed him of much of his sight.

"It got to me," he said. "...I just felt the whole world close in on me and I felt all alone all of the sudden."

Demers, 63, of Rockport was first diagnosed with Usher's Retinitis Pigmentosa when he was 22 years old. It is a slowly progressing genetic disorder that first causes night blindness and then tunnel vision.

His sight in his youth allowed him to live a completely normal life, but over the course of decades he watched his field of vision dwindle down to a smaller and smaller light at the end of the tunnel.

During the day, he said he can see shapes, but not make out detail. His particular condition also causes hearing loss over time.

Since that anxiety attack that sent him to the hospital, Demers said he has gone through the stages of grief and come to the point of acceptance. He is now putting his energy into doing something to help not only himself but others.

He has organized a VisionWalk to be held June 26 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Merryspring in Camden. The walk will raise money and awareness for The Foundation Fighting Blindness, supporting cutting-edge research to find the preventions, treatments and cures for retinal degenerative diseases. VisionWalks, held in 46 cities across the nation, have raised more than $15 million for sight-saving research since 2006.

Demers will walk with a group of people from his neighborhood as part of a team called the Clam Cove Clodhoppers. He said he invites anyone who wants to come and join in or make a contribution.

Demers said that even when he was young, he noticed he would bump into things and bang his feet, even though he thought his vision was normal.

When he was first diagnosed in his 20s, he said he thought of his blindness as being in the distant future. He said he decided back then to do as much as he could in life to be as successful as possible and prepare for the future. He said he wanted a nest egg to rely on.

He had a long career as a manager of engineering, first for Rubbermaid and later for American Tack & Hardware. He is originally from New Hampshire and spent 25 years in New York state.

In his 40s, his night vision became a problem for him, conflicting with his job, which required him to entertain customers in the evenings. He said he would spill glasses of drinks on the table during such meetings.

He also had incidents on the factory floor where he would trip over a pallet. Demers said some of the other managers in the business would laugh about it.

"I always joked about it, kept it lighthearted," he said.

However, he said he didn't discuss the situation often with other employees.

The condition caused him to miss quite a bit of work when he developed a macular hole in his right eye and needed surgery. For weeks after the procedure, he had to keep his head down at all times to keep the gas that was inserted in his eye from changing position. He had to sleep on his stomach and look at his feet whenever he was walking around.

All of his struggles with his vision were taking place against the backdrop of a changing economy. When the company he was working for decided to move its operation overseas to China around 2002, he decided to retire. He and his wife, Louise, moved to the Midcoast.

Demers said it was after he stopped working that the anxiety set in.

He explained that as an engineer he was always very methodical. He was used to planning every move out to the "umpteenth degree."

"And now, you're in a situation where you were helpless," he said. "You're not in control anymore."

He said he felt depressed and was literally shaking at times.

His advice to others going through the same thing is, "Talk to people. Find people you can talk to and express your feelings. Don't hold it in. Prepare yourself for the future."

Blindness can be very isolating. He said people sometimes don't know how to deal with you if you're blind. He said that when he is walking down the street with his wife, people will talk to her instead of him.

"It doesn't feel very good," he said.

He noted that his wife of 42 years, Louise, has to do a great deal for him. Since he can't drive, she has to take him places that are out of walking distance. She buys all of the groceries and does many of the other chores.

"She is my rock," he said. "She does it all. It's very tough for her."

He said he was grateful for the help of the Division for the Blind & Visually Impaired in the Rockland CareerCenter at the Breakwater Marketplace on Camden Street (1-800-432-1680 or 596-2600).

The organization provides help in training people how to safely navigate the streets with the use of a cane. They can also help in matching a person with the right guide dog.

Demers has been living and working with his dog, Axel, for two years. He said there are a lot of misconceptions about guide dogs and a lot of thought and time goes into matching a dog with a person. Dogs are selected not only for their abilities, but to match the personality of their owners.

The dogs are not only highly trained, but specifically bred to have certain qualities and be free of certain undesirable characteristics.

Axel, a Golden Retriever, seldom barks and understands about 30 words including "left," "right," "forward," and "back." However, communication is still limited. Demers cannot explain to the dog what the plan for his day is in advance.

"He's the pilot," Demers said. "I'm the navigator."

Demers explains, however, that Axel is not a pet. He's a working dog and his training requires maintenance.

He said people should never approach a working guide dog or try to pet it. He said people should leave the dog alone and let it do its work.

"I depend on him completely," he said. "He'll keep me from getting hurt."

Before he could have a guide dog, Demers received training with his cane. He said he was driven to a street and blindfolded so that he could not even use what little vision he has. He had to learn how to walk a distance, cross streets and then find the car again using absolutely no sight.

He said he uses a number of other senses that most people never think about. He can feel which side of his face the sun is on and which way the wind is blowing to maintain his sense of direction. He listens for the sound of traffic and even figures out where he is based on smell. For example, he said that going past a bakery, he can note the smell of bread and get his bearings.

Despite all of his struggles, Demers said he has come through it.

"I try to maintain a positive outlook on life," he said. "I look forward to every day."

To learn more about the VisionWalk and how to help, call Demers at 594-5458.

A similar VisionWalk is being held in Portland June 18 at Payson Park beginning at 9 a.m.

Visit VisionWalk.org for more information.

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Labels: blindness, knoxVillageSoupcom, Rockport, walks

Dog trainer to support clean water charity - Malvern Gazette

2:20pm Tuesday 10th May 2011

A LOCAL dog trainer will be donating all the takings from her next course to a charity dedicated to providing clean water to people in poorer parts of the world.

Sue Harper specialises in teaching dogs to ignore livestock. With the support of the Malvern Hills Conservators, she runs six-week courses in a field near to the Downs Malvern College school, in Colwall.

With her next course starting on Sunday, May 22, she saw an opportunity to support a cause close to her heart.

“This year I intend to ask participants to make the £60 cheques for the course payable to Water Aid instead of to me,” she explained. “Having spent a month training dogs in a poor rural area of India I have become very aware of the burden women bear in many areas of the world walking miles carrying water.

“Water Aid is a charity committed solely to providing safe clean water. I am in the privileged position of following a career I love, living and working in this beautiful area which has close connections with, and an abundance of, free water.”

Water Aid has strong links with Malvern, as local supporters have raised thousands of pounds through the “Penny-a-Pint” initiative, which encourages people to make small donations when they draw water from springs and spouts on the hills.

For more information, or to enrol on the upcoming Teaching Dogs to Ignore Livestock course, call 01684 568067 or email sharperdogs@hotmail.co.uk.

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Labels: charity, clean, Gazette, Malvern, support, Trainer, water

The science and art of cadaver dog training - Waynesville Smoky Mountain News

“A dog is an amazing thing,” says Orval Banks, smiling wryly and adjusting his faded gray ballcap.

He’s explaining the techniques he uses to train dogs, but really, he says, you don’t train a dog. It knows what it’s doing, and you’re just teaching it to communicate with you and teaching yourself to understand its subtle language. Because, you see, a dog is an amazing thing.

Banks runs a company called Southern Pride Search and Rescue Dogs, so he knows something about dogs.

He’s a wizened character, in plaid shirt and jeans, whose name often gets mistaken for Wilbur. He’s not sure why. He’s pretty soft-spoken but knows more than most in his field about what makes a good search dog.

“Train, train, train,” says Banks, chuckling slightly.

And he’s been training dogs now for more than 20 years. His dogs are cross-trained, both in search and rescue and what law enforcement refer to as search and recovery, when they’re looking for remains instead of people.

Rescue, though, says Banks, is his first job.

“I like to get them trained on finding the live people first because that’s a priority. Dead people are not going anywhere,” says Banks.

Still, though, recovery of remains are accounting for more and more of his calls these days, around 50 percent.

Banks isn’t a Haywood County native — he was born in Yancey County and moved around in his younger days — but he’s lived here now for 35 years, and it was 40 years ago that he got into search and rescue, mostly as a volunteer.

A few weeks ago, Banks helped out at a training day for cadaver dogs and their handlers held at Western Carolina University, though he’s loathe to use the word ‘cadaver,’ favoring the less abrasive ‘human remains detection.’

Unlike a lot of that crowd, and the cadaver dog world generally, he’s not from a law enforcement background. He keeps at it four decades later for the love of finding that which was lost.

“If you ever find a little four-year-old kid that’s been out there a couple of days and it’s getting dark, and the temperatures are about freezing, it makes it all worthwhile, you get kind of hooked on it,” says Banks.

And he’s good at it, too, which he puts down to the intensive amount of training that he does with his dog, about twice a week.

“There’s a lot of people that don’t train but once every two or three months and then wonder why they never find anybody,” says Banks. “Every time you go out with your dog, you learn something about your dog.”

The training at WCU was held at the school’s Human Identification Lab.

They used to call it the body farm, but now they stick to FOREST, which stands for Forensic Osteology Research Station. Basically, it’s a place for scientists to study how the human body deteriorates under certain conditions. And it’s only the second of its kind in the country, so when it offers a workshop for cadaver dogs, it’s a pretty popular draw.

They had to turn away 27 handlers who wanted to bring their dogs.

“They get the opportunity that they don’t ever get anywhere else, of letting their dogs see a full cadaver,” says Banks. “It’s good to expose the dog to that, to put everything in perspective to the dog, [to say], ‘OK, this is what you’ve been looking for the whole time.’”

And, says Paul Martin, who helped run the workshop, the scent of real people is different than what you can train on elsewhere.

“You have the ability to work with scents you’d never have the ability to do,” says Martin. He, unlike Banks, comes from a law enforcement background, but agrees with him that much of training is about learning the dog, and letting the dog learn the handler.

“Part of it is identifying the animal behavior patterns,” says Martin.

Banks agrees.

“The biggest problem is that a lot of handlers don’t train enough to be able to read their dogs. You’re teaching a dog and teaching yourself to communicate with each other. The dog knows what he’s doing. A lot of people think they’re teaching a dog to smell something dead,” said Banks, but they’re really learning to notice when the dog does.

According to Martin, things have changed in the field over the last ten years. Human remains detection, or HRD, is becoming more in-demand.

“The specialty has evolved over the last 10 to 15 years,” says Martin. “It’s such a complex field. We’re asked to find the one drop of blood, to find the remains that have been buried for 10 years, to find the remains that have been scavenged.”

And, like Banks said, half his work now is in HRD, because, he says, it’s just a lot harder to get lost these days.

“About 12, 15 years ago, we were at the peak, we were doing about 100 [search and rescue] callouts a year,” says Banks. “But people are starting to get GPS units, cell phones, and there’s getting to be so many people in the woods, you have to work at getting lost anymore.”

There are those now, he says, who are getting in to the field for the wrong reasons — for the prestige, for a certificate that they feel somehow validates their dog for breeding — but many, like himself, are in it to help.

And after 40 years of searching and 20 years with a dog by his side, he doesn’t think that’ll change anytime soon.

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Labels: cadaver, Mountain, science, Smoky, training, Waynesville

Utah club turns puppies into polished dogs - Salt Lake Tribune

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brenda Bates works with her dog Dodge, during a dog training class, Wednesday, March 30, 2011. The Great Salt Lake Dog Training Club offers everything from puppy to advanced training for dogs at the National Guard Armory on Airport Road, in West Jordan. Utah club turns puppies into polished dogs By Tom Wharton

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published May 09 2011 01:01AM
Updated May 9, 2011 12:12PM West Jordan • The puppy that was so cute and cuddly when you brought her home a few months ago has suddenly turned into a biting, shoe-destroying, carpet-wetting, uncontrollable monster. And you are clueless as to what to do.

The Great Salt Lake Dog Training Club can help.

The nonprofit club and its volunteer staff have been helping humans train unruly dogs since 1964. The group offers classes for all abilities every Wednesday night at the West Jordan National Guard Armory. There are classes for puppies as young as 10 weeks old and some for older dogs that need to fine-tune their obedience skills.

In addition to the 150 members of the Training Club, each week about 20 volunteers show up to help train the dogs, said Wendy McCleery, training director. The $75 fee that owners pay to attend the classes goes to print instructions, rent the building and to put on competitive trials.

McCleery said the trails are open to all dogs, including mixed breeds that aren’t registered by the American Kennel Association. “Everybody can compete,” McCleery said. “They all earn the same obedience titles. There are tons of stuff for people if they really want to get into it.”

When classes are in session, the Armory resembles an organized dog circus. Puppies are in a fenced area in the corner where they learn to socialize with other dogs and are taught basic commands. Instructors offer tips on house training, biting and preventing dogs form jumping on people. Tip sheets with homework are given after each 45-minute session.

On the main floor, more advanced classes take place. Handlers put their dogs through various tests, some designed for competition, and others to simply teach the animals to obey basic commands and behave.

Some handlers and their pets sit on the side watching, which is more important than it looks. The exercise teaches the animals to be calm and disciplined in the face of multiple distractions.

The ultimate goal is to meld handler and pet into a team and to create a happy, healthy dog that respects the rights of other people and their pets.

“The thing I like best about the club is the way it caters to the general public and the way they train different skills,” said Deborah Nendell, who makes the drive from Grantsville to West Jordan each week. “There are no harsh corrections or militant training. Dogs progress at their own pace.”

Carole Ann Chamberlain, of West Jordan, took her soft-coated Wheaton Terrier to a recent class with the aim of training it to be a therapy dog for an assistant living center. She liked the club’s reasonable price and feels as though the classes have been successful.

Marilyn Williams, of Salt Lake City, is taking her fifth dog through the club’s training regime.

“I like the fact that it is community based,” she said. “Everybody gives and everybody learns. The socialization is incredible. Your dog gets exposure to different dogs, different people and different places. It makes them not be afraid.”

wharton@sltrib.com

Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. blog comments powered by Disqus Pets » Classes offered for pooches of all abilities.

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A doggone good time

The Great Salt Lake Dog Training Club offers classes every Wednesday at the West Jordan National Guard Armory, 7602 Airport Rd. Cost is $75 for an eight-week class. Here’s what you need to know:

Puppies » Must be at least 10 weeks old and have current shots. Dogs will learn to socialize, sit, lie, stay, not bite, heel and come when called.

Beginning obedience » For dogs 5 months and older. Covers the basics such as sit, stay, heeling and turns.

Intermediate obedience » Expands on what was learned in the beginning class and is more demanding. A Canine Good Citizen test is offered at the end of the eight-week class.

Advanced obedience » Prepares owners and pets for formal obedience trials with components such as watch, open and utility work including out-of-sight stays.

Ring Prep » This class teaches the finer points of presenting your dog to a judge and is for both AKC registered dogs purebred and mixed breed dogs.

More details » www.gsldtc.com; 801-942-1768 for a recorded message; or contact Wendy McCleery, 801-571-1768 or happytails8@comcast.net.

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