| When I wrote my last article for Super K9 I admitted to my most
profound mistake in dog training: I tried to obedience train my first two bassets
exactly the same way. This doesn't work very well. It doesn't matter if
both animals are the same breed, if they are related, or even that they appear
to be the same personality. I am talking about a mother and daughter team, Leanne
and her daughter Melissa. To look at them and to see them play at home, other
than their colour there was no apparent difference in breed type or personality.
I read many articles in my quest to learn about training my dogs more successfully.
I also attended many obedience classes, under two separate trainers. A common
notion came from both the reading and the obedience trainers of that day (the
1980's), and this was that bassets were relatively dumb. I sought to prove this
wrong, because it is wrong. Bassets are self willed (and so am I), but my dogs
really are relatively intelligent. In my quest to disprove the theory that
bassets are dim witted, I learned many things. But I still approached training
incorrectly and made many mistakes. Leanne really liked a lot of 1980's
style obedience handling such as strong leash corrections and sharp spoken commands.
It made her work harder. Melissa did not respond to this very well at all and
completely shut down on me (head down, planting her feet, etc.). Every class we
attended became more a struggle and more a battle of wills between dog and handler.
Leanne had long since earned her CD, but Melissa had not and could not.
About this time I had given up on obedience with Melissa and started her in tracking.
The completely different activity was a welcome break. However, the biggest break
was meeting dog trainer Gary Roe through tracking. We started Melissa in training
classes with Gary and Shirley Roe at Surrey Dog Obedience Training Club. Gary
utilized a blend of training methods and common sense. Interesting suggestions
came to the fore, such as whispering commands, rather than shouting them out;
more gentle corrections; lots of turns during training, and short, happy training
sessions. Innovative training methods, and application of knowledge to
the individual dog, rather than a breed stereotype, resulted in a happy dog and
owner. This also resulted in an immediate TD (tracking title), and in the long
run, American and Canadian CD (obedience) titles, and even a long sought after
American championship. Happy dogs and owners can go a long way! Melissa
is with us still and at the age of 12 she is in good health, still has good hearing
and vision, and she is still willing to use this good health to have fun. She
is a very fun loving, but well trained older dog. She still sits when asked, and
comes when she is called. She can also still hear a cheese wrapper opening from
50 feet away but that's another story. Every day we enjoy her very much. -------------------------------------------------
// ------------------------------------------------ Reprinted with permission
by Bonnie Tetlock | 
