Lessons in walking multiple dogs
Originally posted 11/11/2008
The whippets and I spent the weekend in Pueblo, CO at the Southern Colorado Kennel Club show. The weather held out okay for us, and the whips had a fabulous time running around in my parents' backyard. They thought crunching the leaves, and chasing squirrels was pretty cool.
This was the first time I've taken all four dogs at once to the same show. To say the least, it was a bit daunting. I felt a little like the 'Dog Whisperer' as I trotted 4 dogs at once into and out of the Sate Fair Grounds Events Center.
A lot of my clients have 2 or 3 dogs, and often express the troubles they have walking everyone together. Well, while I'm quite adept at walking 3 dogs at once, adding a fourth really changed the picture! The experience was a lesson in teaching 4 dogs to work together on cue.
This brought to my attention a few new tricks that I will be putting together for the “Three Dog Night" classes I teach. The 'Three Dog Night' class is designed to help owners learn to work more than one dog at a time...and as I said, my experience with working FOUR whippets at once was quite new. It helped me to relate to issues you all may be having in the world when walking 2 or 3 dogs.
I also got the opportunity to reconnect with Paula Mitchell, my cousin and mentor in the dog training world. If it weren't for Paula, Front Range K9 Academy wouldn't exist today. Paula and her 9 year old son, Alex, wrangled whippets ringside for me, and were on stand-by in case any of the dogs needed to enter the ring at the same time. Alex has picked up his mom's knack at dog handling, and he and Lizzie looked great doing down-and-backs and free-stacking.
In the show ring, we faired alright. There was a HUGE turnout of whippets - 35 in all - so this ended up being a pretty big show.
Here are our results:
Sat. 11/08/08:
Jet: 1st Place, Am. Bred Dogs
Penelope: 1st Place, Am Bred Bitches
Lizzie: 4th Place, Open Bitches
Sun. 11/09/08:
Timmy: 1st Place, Am. Bred Dogs
Lizzie: 1st Place, Am. Bred Bitches
Penelope: 4th Place, Open Bitches
Well, that's it from this end of the leash.
Jennifer Hime is the Owner & Dog Training Director at Front Range K9 Academy in Wheat Ridge, CO. She can be reached at: k9counselor.com
