Dog Training Testimonial from Jim & Cindy Olson

When our black lab puppy Rainy was five months old we decided that we were not doing well with obedience training so we contacted Kate Johansson , we had seen her several years earlier at a sportsman’s show. We had a lab previously that was trained for hunting so we were familiar with electronic collars and invisible fence collars. When Kate offered to add retriever training to our obedience training, we decided to see if we could avoid sending Rainy to “doggy boot camp” otherwise known as professional gun dog trainers. My husband was not sure the concept would get the job done but he has since changed his mind. Yeah, no two months of boot camp for Rainy!

We started a regular routine of retriever training in January 2009 and Kate has been training Jim and me on how to handle a dog as well as working with Rainy. We have since realized that professional trainers, the “doggy boot camp” kind, do not spend much time with the owners to show them how to handle their dog. There seems to be a whole new vocabulary when training a retriever and all three of us are learning it together. I have also come to understand that obedience is a key ingredient of retriever training so we can do both types of training at the same time.

Dog training has been a huge time commitment for us but we both like being outdoors and watching the dogs work, ours as well as everyone else’s dogs. Working with Kate has given us the opportunity to do that on a regular basis. We could stop now and I would have fulfilled by goals, basic obedience and no boot camp, but we are now addicted to training. Rainy got her first Junior Hunter ribbon at about nine months and now Kate and Jim want to continue the chase for more ribbons. Time will tell ----

Cindy, Jim and Rainy Day Keepsake
June 2009