It’s impawsible to reject this Good Neighbor’s off-fur

Posted 6/24/16

Here are some recent “Canine Good Citizens” graduates, from left, Amy Yeager and her German Shepherd, Som; Andrea Sklenar and her Portuguese Water Dog, Ben; Doris Chin Gallagher and her Poodle, …

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It’s impawsible to reject this Good Neighbor’s off-fur

Posted
Here are some recent “Canine Good Citizens” graduates, from left, Amy Yeager and her German Shepherd, Som; Andrea Sklenar and her Portuguese Water Dog, Ben; Doris Chin Gallagher and her Poodle, Nyssa; and Kathy Acosta and her Sheltie, Oskar. Here are some recent “Canine Good Citizens” graduates, from left, Amy Yeager and her German Shepherd, Som; Andrea Sklenar and her Portuguese Water Dog, Ben; Doris Chin Gallagher and her Poodle, Nyssa; and Kathy Acosta and her Sheltie, Oskar.[/caption]

by Len Lear

My wife and I have had dogs for 50 years, and although we loved them all very much, we were not the best dog trainers in Mt. Airy. Our last dog, Angel, a Maltese who died on 9/11 last year at the age of 17 years, one month, was the hardest to train and made “mistakes” from time to time throughout her life. When she was a puppy, we did take her to an eight-week training course at the Pennsylvania SPCA in North Philly, one hour per week.

I don’t think the other “parents” there would disagree that Angel was the cutest dog there. She was a tiny ball of fluff who made everybody smile, but she was also the most undisciplined student in the class. Just walking her on a leash was a problem. Sometimes I was literally dragging her on her belly across the floor, which made everyone laugh but us. She definitely had a mind of her own.

She did not exactly graduate from the course with honors; in fact, she probably deserved no more than a D-, and neither did I. I have no doubt that things would have turned out differently if we had known about the Good Neighbor Dog Obedience Club (GNDOC), a non-profit organization which for 21 years leased gym space at Abington Friends School in Jenkintown but moved last October to 1837 Davisville Rd. in Willow Grove (behind Papa John’s in the Zumba Building).

“I was teaching obedience classes at the Women’s SPCA when it was in Philadelphia,” explained Camille Robinson, one of the founders. “When they moved out of the city, a group of us got together in 1994 and started the club.”

For the most part, the club provides group classes with a maximum of eight participants in each. Occasionally they are asked to provide private lessons.

“Most who come are just looking for a well-behaved pet,” said head instructor Camille Robinson. “We then encourage them to continue training and introduce them to AKC obedience.”

“It is not at all unusual,” added Kathy Acosta, club member and the editor of Good Neighbor News, the group’s newsletter, “for people to begin training their dogs and then decide they want to have even more fun teaching the obedience exercises to eventually compete at trials.”

According to the instructors at Good Neighbor, some dogs do not respond well to the traditional ways of teaching a particular exercise, so it becomes the job of the instructor to reach into her bag of tricks to find the best training methods to motivate a dog to become eager to learn. Camille realized when training her first dog that “one size does not fit all” in the world of dog training.

“What motivates your dog?” asked Kathy. “What activities is she happy to perform almost non-stop? … Dog training has become a very important facet of my life. I first took my then-four-month-old Border Terrier puppy, Bindi, to a class taught by Camille 12 years ago and have not stopped training since! While the majority of dog obedience instructors might have told me not to bother trying to train a terrier, with the training and guidance from Camille, Bindi went on to earn several obedience titles in three different registries in the time we were trialing.”

The club has had students from Montgomery, Bucks, Philadelphia and Delaware Counties, as well as from New Jersey. About half of the dogs brought in for training are pure-breds. The most common problems that bring people to the club are pulling on the leash, jumping up and not coming when called. And the most difficult problem to fix is “getting the owners to be consistent in their interactions with their dogs.”

Camille admits that there have been some dogs whose difficulties just could not be corrected and that the hardest thing they ever have to do is “advise an owner that the dog not stay in the home.”

I asked Camille what was her greatest regret, if any. Her answer, short and sweet: “Not having wealthy parents.”

I also asked Camille if she could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Her answer: “I have no idea since I haven’t been everywhere!”

In addition to Camille, GNDOC has an instructor Cheryl Metzel, who previously worked for Petco as a dog trainer and mentor for other employees interested in becoming trainers.

The club’s next Beginner Class will start Thursday, July 7, 7 to 8 p.m. Their website is www.gndog.com. Past issues of their newsletter can be found on the “What’s New” tab, under “Newsletter.” They can also be reached at GNDOC2007@yahoo.com or 215-745-1003.

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