Nancy Freedman-Smith, dog trainer and owner of Gooddogz Training, provides a place for dog owners to find positive training tips, canine-activities and places to visit along with the latest information on keeping your dog healthy and active. Nancy lives with her three young kids, Charlee and Finney the dogs, Yellow the parakeet and Tater-Tot the Hamster. Staying current, keeping fresh, and always learning new things is a must for Nancy and her profession because one thing that animals surely teach you is "the more you know, the more you know you don't know."
Finney earns his keep
When I took 5 month old Finney home this summer, I had been looking for ages for a young dog that fit a HUGE criteria.
Here is the short list.
-Good with kids
-Good in crowds
-GREAT dog skills
-Lower in pack order to never challenge Charlee
-Trainable in a multitude of dog areas such as obedience, agility, and freestyle
All these were important, but what I really needed was a STABLE dog. A dog that I could use to help problem dogs. For a great number of private training that I do, I need a calm dog. I needed a non reactive dog for a multitude of training opportunities to help other people teach their dogs that an approaching dog was not scary and didn't need to be lunged and snarled at. I needed a dog who could instantly calm my clients and their dogs and help leash aggressive and reactive dogs accept a new dog while teaching their owners how to accomplish this.
I talked to a LOT of people in search of my new dog. Several trainers recommend that I get a retired show dog, with tons of socialization under it's belt, and I looked into that. But as is often the case with dogs who are meant to be, Finney found me.
And the big news is that today at only 9 months Finney has fulfilled his destiny and then some! I took him on his very first assignment, to see an Aussie mix rescue that I had met with once already. My new puppy was calm as a cucumber. So calm in fact, that the other dog forgot he was there and got down to work,and stopped worrying about us. The Aussie is far from cured, but his owners made huge strides today in understanding how to continue helping their dog.
I was bursting with pride.
Update-if that isn't great enough, Finney has spent the last 24 hours entertaining "Rose" (not her real name), who is here so her care taker can get a break. You will read more about "Rose" in the future. She is a 10 month old Doodle belonging to a local hospital and her job is to help kids!
The hospital has asked for anonymity.
Charlee loves that the young dogs leave her alone and is more than happy to let Finn have both of those jobs.
Comments
Hi, my name is Holly Harnsongkram and my kids, Julia and Emily Harnsongkram, loved your story about "Rose". My husband, Jim Saalabi isa trainer as well. We often use stories about animals as examples to our kids and your story about "Rose" was very sweet. Thanks again, from everyone in the Saalabi / Harnsongkram family !
Posted by Holly HarnsongkramNovember 11, 2006 03:31 PM
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