More photos coming soon. Photography courtesy Justin Adams, JustWhat.net.
TESTIMONIALS
"Aunt Kathi, you need to register Urs and Ivan in the N.I.R.K. Clicker Seminar July 14-15, 2007!" my beautiful niece Lisa Hoselton said to me. What in the world is a Clicker Seminar? Welcome to my world, the world of highly bred dogs. Urs and Ivan are the Hoseltons' family German Shepherds and the Clicker Seminar was being presented by Joeri Goedertier, Chief K9 instructor with the Belgian Secret Service, 5x National Champion, and so many other titles it would take another page to name. This is an opportunity to teach our shepherds obedience with no anger, just love and patience.
N.I.R.K, (National Independent Rottweiler Klub, http://nirk.org/index.html) based in San Leandro, California, was having this seminar to bring awareness to dog owners that spending a few minutes each day with your dog and a positive attitude will bring you and your pet closer together. Personally, I thought; there is no way anyone could get my dogs to pay attention; I need to see this for myself. Joeri is a slender man with a Belgian accent and a smile that never stops. Before he started speaking to the group, he mingled around, talked to the people attending and petted their dogs. He smiled, laughed and joked with everyone. How could this man control the mixture of Rottweilers and German Shepherds?
Joeri started off the seminar by asking everyone if they knew what a "clicker" was. Thank goodness, I was not the only one who did not know. He then pulls out this little box with a button on it and when pushing the button you heard "click, click". For .99 cents your relationship with your dog will change. A clicker is a stimuli. When your dog does something correctly you click and then you reward the dog. Joeri used little bits of hot dogs. You could use anything; food, balls, petting the dog. Whatever works for you and your pet. This is a slow process, because you need to keep doing the same action over and over, then once the dog has this down, you add more to the action then click and reward. Okay, easy to say and show with a dog that is already trained, but I wanted to see how this really works. Joeri then asked the audience for a dog, and someone brought their dog up to him. This was a Rottweiler. Joeri asked the dog's name and started petting him and calling him by name. Then you saw a different part of Joeri, all of his attention was on the dog. He started off slowly walking the dog in a circle and then stopping, click, reward, repeat; stop, click, reward, repeat. This went on for quite some time and then the dog had it down. Joeri explained that now that the dog has this step down, you add to it and do not click until he succeeded in the next step. Next thing you know the dog is sitting next to him, click, reward. Joeri would explain to everyone how this dog's temperament was. He explained that you want the dog to look at you in the eyes, so you could see the love the dog has for you and the dog could see the love you have for him. Joeri would joke as he went along. There was one dog that did not want the hot dogs and he make a crack about California dogs and how spoiled they are.
He then used our 2 year old shepherd, Urs, and would pet him, call him by name, and do his movement, click, reward. This man is amazing; Urs was following the lead and doing what he was asked. Joeri explained that Urs has a strong drive but is distracted easily and would need constant work and loves attention. Ivan, on the other hand, will do what is asked but has little drive. He continuously asked if anyone had questions. At first, no one would say anything, but as he took each person's dog one by one, more and more questions were coming at him. He answered each one at ease. This man knew what he was talking about. Any hesitation I had was gone. You could tell that Joeri does not use a script, each dog and dog owner was an individual to him, yet he never made you feel as if you were being ignored. His sense of humor was wickedly funny especially with the accent. This was a six hour seminar with a lunch break, but it seemed to fly by and I could not wait to come the next day to learn more.
After the seminar, he was available to talk to about your dog or anything. You felt at ease talking to him and joking with him, he may not have remembered your name, but he sure remembered your dog. We won the .99 cent clicker in a raffle, and I could not wait to go home and work with my dogs. Watching the way Joeri petted and loved the dogs gave me a whole new outlook. I have found that I am spending more time with my boys and when they look at me, you really do see the love in their eyes.
Kathi Hoselton International Credit Tech. E & J Gallo Winery
