Workshop gives dog owners better skills
PRESQUE ISLE — The Central Aroostook Kennel Club’s recent workshop weekend with Dee Ganley truly ‘went to the dogs’ and brought owners and their pets closer together.
Contributed photo
LEARNING AS WE GO — Jane Sutherland, left, vice president of the Central Aroostook Kennel Club, talks to her dog, Thor, while dog expert and author Dee Ganley instructs. The club sponsored a recent weekend workshop for dogs and their owners, during which Ganley offered tips to help owners interact more skillfully with their pets. 
Dee Ganley of Andover, N.H., spent the weekend helping dog owners and trainers from both New Brunswick and The County improve their skills working with dogs — and the dogs will benefit from their human partners’ new skills.
Jane Sutherland, Central Aroostook Kennel Club Vice President stated “The weekend with Dee exceeded our goals. We believe with the new skills we learned, all benefit, especially the dogs that were helped and will be helped in the future through our new understanding and skills.”
On the workshop’s first day, Ganley did private lessons with four dogs with significant reactive issues, such as excessive barking and lunging at people or dogs; issues that have interfered with their opportunity to accompany their owners on walks or be in public. The next day, the focus was on demonstrating techniques instructors and trainers can use to assist dog owners in working with challenging dogs.
Four owners brought their dogs for both demonstration and learning purposes. There was a Dalmatian from Fredericton who shut down under stress, a young German Shepherd who had yet to learn how to handle the stress of seeing another dog, a Greyhound just learning how to live life away from the track, and an Australian Shepherd who overreacted to bikes and skateboards. By the end of the weekend they were working easily in a room full of people and dogs.
“To see the transformation of these dogs, especially the German Shepherd and Greyhound, was amazing,” stated attendee Dee Hawksley. “There was no force or punishment, just simple actions and rewards that transformed these dogs. They were happy, less stressed dogs.”
The last day’s workshop focused on providing participants with lessons to help dogs learn self-control, as well as techniques for handlers to help their dogs succeed. By the end of the day there were 14 teams of dogs and handlers doing a bit of line dancing together. All the dogs were happily focusing on their owners and ignoring the other dogs.
Sutherland added that the Club plans to continue to bring dog experts to Aroostook County with Suzanne Clothier, author of “Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs,” from Oct. 21-23, 2016.
