Pieka and I spent the weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Suzanne Clothier seminar. First, I really enjoyed the seminar. Suzanne is an entertaining speaker with a relaxed, low key manner. The facility (Clermont County Dog Training Club) is lovely and the people were very nice.
Saturday’s session was focused on canine body language. Always a fascinating topic, but Suzanne focused on some techniques with anxious dogs. It was especially nice to see a very anxious, stressed border collie relax in front of the crowd after her owner began working with her more appropriately. ….and realized the dog has poor vision. The ears came up, the tail relaxed, her whole body softened. Very rewarding.
Sunday dealt with “relationship based training.” The topic called for a totally different type of dog – confident, intelligent, the type of dog who can take some responsibility in the dog:handler relationship. Sound like anyone we know? Pieka was the demo dog for Suzanne’s “Auto Check In” technique and she was a ROCK STAR. She turned on for the crowd. We were in front of a crowd of approximately 40-50 people, several dogs on mats in the front row, for about 30 minutes. Pieka maintained focus beautifully. She was relaxed and engaged, even after dogs were worked (and tugged with) nearby. I was incredibly proud of her. I cannot count the number of people who approached me afterwards to compliment her.
Suzanne seemed impressed as well, mentioning that Pieka has great confidence, stability, as well as great physical beauty. Thank you, Julie, for gifting me with this dog! We are having so much fun.
What a wonderful report! Pieka is very fortunate to have such dedicated, rock-star human parents! You truly have a Super Pup.
Hi Jaime,
Thank you for sharing your experience on the Suzanne Clothier seminar. I have not yet attended one of her seminars. How super cool that Pieka was selected as the confident-demo dog! You should be very proud of her, in front of that many people and dogs at her age, totally awesome! I echo Carole above, kudos to you for being a rock-star dog mom!