Dog Idols?

SaraB

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#1
Being an agility-addict I have several handlers that I aspire to be like some day. I read/watch everything of their's that I can get my hands on, I attend every seminar within driving distance. My current idol is Silvia Trkman, I love her positive attitude to everything, I love how she adapts her training for each of her dogs, and I love how helpful she is even when you haven't paid for advice.

So, sport/working people, who is your idol in your respective sport?
 

Fran101

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#5
Emily Larlham (Kikopup) She is just awesome. her dogs are awesome too and her training philosophies are so refreshing

Not to mention, oh god the patience to be positive only all the time. I WISH. I am really going to 100% try but I don't even know if I'm capable of never saying "no!" lol
 

BostonBanker

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#8
Honestly, training wise and handling wise, I'm not sure I really have one. There are so many people I admire, but I've yet to meet someone I look at and say "That is It".

However, there is a woman who attends a bunch of the same trials I go to. I won't say her name, since she isn't a "public figure", but she is without a doubt the most pleasant, positive, friendly person I've ever spent time around. She never gets upset with her dogs, she never appears frustrated, she always has a kind word for everyone. I watch it and think "this has got to be fake" but I believe it is fully genuine. I try to remind myself how much I admire that every time I want to be nasty or upset.
 

~Tucker&Me~

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#9
Emily Larlham (Kikopup) She is just awesome. her dogs are awesome too and her training philosophies are so refreshing

Not to mention, oh god the patience to be positive only all the time. I WISH. I am really going to 100% try but I don't even know if I'm capable of never saying "no!" lol
I really like her and her philosophy too. I am trying to be 100% positive and the more I work on it the better I get at it. Lately I rarely ever say anything negative to him and I am at the point where it definitely never happens in training. I can say that I have began to notice a definite difference in his attitude towards working with me in that he seems to enjoy it more, and I do believe he tries harder and provides a wider range of behaviours because he isn't worried I will react badly. At our trial this weekend, the judge who is apparently known as being 'harder' came up to me at the end of our run and said that it was obvious to her that my dog and I have a very close bond and work really well together. Having seen the differences now with Spy, I look forward to being able to start my next puppy off with these methods :)
 

MericoX

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#10
However, there is a woman who attends a bunch of the same trials I go to. I won't say her name, since she isn't a "public figure", but she is without a doubt the most pleasant, positive, friendly person I've ever spent time around. She never gets upset with her dogs, she never appears frustrated, she always has a kind word for everyone. I watch it and think "this has got to be fake" but I believe it is fully genuine. I try to remind myself how much I admire that every time I want to be nasty or upset.
I wonder if this is the same person who I "idolize". (Initials are D.C.?)
 

Beanie

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#11
I also love Silvia Trkman. I'm hoping to take one of her online classes this fall if I can afford it! A few of the people who were in Recallers with me are taking her class right now and they have nothing but positive things to say about her. Her overall philosophy seems really close to mine. She is perfectly okay about adapting things to suit the individual dog... I just love that.
I don't know if I would say she's my idol LOL but she is awesome. Also she has such a lovely voice!

I also really like Susan Garrett. I know plenty of people have nasty things to say about her and her e-courses, but I really enjoyed being in Recallers... it was a big paradigm shift in how I looked at dog training on the whole. Just in the way she phrases things sometimes, it seems to click for people (myself included) even when it's a concept we're already aware of. Just putting it a different way and you have that a-ha moment. There are lots of SG sayings that have just become part of how I approach training too.
 

BostonBanker

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#13
I wonder if this is the same person who I "idolize". (Initials are D.C.?)
Nope :p Although now I'll spend the night trying to figure out who you are referring to.

I like Susan Garrett. Just because she is brilliant at marketing doesn't mean she isn't also a brilliant trainer.

Most of the people I really like are those I see running at trials every weekend, but they aren't people I've trained with enough to say how I feel about them as trainers. I think that would take a lot more time with me working with them for it to fall into that category. I did a Julie Daniels seminar with Gusto and really enjoyed her and her teaching; I'd definitely go back to her. I'm hoping to get into a camp this summer with Gusto that has three instructors; two of them I see at trials and really admire, the third I've only seen run a few times but hear great things about.
 

elegy

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#14
I won't argue that SG isn't a brilliant trainer, but ever since I read Ruff Love, she kinda gives me the heebs.

My vote goes to Denise Fenzi.
 

~Tucker&Me~

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#15
I won't argue that SG isn't a brilliant trainer, but ever since I read Ruff Love, she kinda gives me the heebs.
I haven't read Ruff Love but heard some not so great opinions of it were circulating... Would you mind sharing what gave you a bad feeling about it? Even just the big ideas? I am really interested :)
 

Fran101

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#16
I haven't read Ruff Love but heard some not so great opinions of it were circulating... Would you mind sharing what gave you a bad feeling about it? Even just the big ideas? I am really interested :)
This was just my personal experience.. but personally, I didn't like the book.

It involves basically stripping all your dogs priviledges away (sleeping on the bed, access to their toys, free playtime in the yard etc..) and then slowly, with the use of the program, your dog earning them back in like 3 months.

There is A LOT of crating. As in, if you aren't feeding, training, actively playing..your dog is crated. even if you are home. for 7 weeks.

It's a lot of isolation. I kind of GET the idea, you are making your dog totally dependent on you for ANYTHING good and it creates this kind of handler OMGCENTEROFMYWORLD bond/super focus.. which I suppose is good training wise, but it just doesn't sit well with me :( and seems way too strict, much more so than necessary.

Maybe for a serious working dog or a dog with serious behavioral problems.. .. but as a puppy raising program? .. I dunno.

but personally, it didn't sit well with me. I wanted training and puppy raising to be fun! I want to become my dogs best friend naturally and working together great because we both find it rewarding, not because I isolated him and MADE HIM obsessed with me.

I heard that recently the book was re-written and made a little.. softer. So I can't comment on that.
but just, first impression wise, it felt like I was reading a book on how to brainwash my dog.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#17
There is A LOT of crating. As in, if you aren't feeding, training, actively playing..your dog is crated. even if you are home. for 7 weeks.

I loathe how many trainers turned to black boxing dogs a couple years ago. It seems to be getting better but this was a very common theory for a while and very depressing.

Denise Fenzi is pretty dang cool, I agree!
 

RD

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#18
I'm totally for the Ruff Love approach in dogs that have some sort of behavioral issue that is out of control. For a little information sponge puppy it seems like it'd be crippling. I don't like the approach at all.

My dog idol is a trainer I met about 6 years ago in Washington. Her name is Carol and when I handled a dog in one of her classes, she was seriously THE most upbeat, positive and downright fun trainer I've met. She taught me more about training in a couple months that years of books and practice and instruction from other trainers didn't even compare to.

Silvia Trkman is probably my favorite trainer I haven't met. Or maybe I'm just totally in love with her dogs. It could easily be the latter.
 

PWCorgi

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#19
I love Denise Fenzi's blog and based on her FB I think we would get along well, she has an awesome sense of humor. So bummed that I didn't get to go to her seminar when she was here!

As for personal, well that would be my trainer/behaviorist/friend in Pennsylvania, Silke. She is just amazing. I adore her attitude towards training, and other trainers, she is forever trying to bring all the trainers in our area together, whatever their methods are. She is so energized and positive when it came to working with aggression cases. She specialized in reactive dogs, so when it was time for a new dog, she'd seek out one with reactivity issues. To me that speaks volumes, because really who WANTS that in a dog, lol. Even though she didn't compete, she was always taking new classes and trying new things and had every book and DVD about every aspect of dogdom ever made. And lord was she ever hilarious.
She taught me that it is okay to push your dog and okay to make them a little uncomfortable sometimes, it's part of life! I think that helped Frodo and I more than anything!

I miss her :(
 

SaraB

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#20
Love Denise Fenzi as well!

I agree wholeheartedly with Ruff Love. It was recommended for me to do with Classic and I just couldn't do it. Mostly because great dane crates are huge. LOL

I would much rather have my dog earn real life rewards while living life. I got a dog to enjoy their company, can't do that while they are in the crate. Also, settling in the house is a big behavior for me, can't learn to settle in the house if they are expected to be in working mode the only time they are out of their crates.

Otherwise, I love Susan Garrett. She's even said in her blog a couple times that even though people think her dogs live in crates based on the Ruff Love book that it is just not true. She says that people read too much into the book and take it too literally, but she is the one who wrote it as a step by step program so I don't really understand her explanations.
 

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