에피소드 18: 로라 워드비 인터뷰 - "탄탄한 기초 다지기"

I saw agility on TV, and of course that's the flashy, the fun stuff, and it kind of got me hooked on wanting to do that. Obedience, though, I kind of only started taking competition classes when I knew I wanted to become a dog trainer, and I thought it would prove my skill. I thought I wouldn't like it very much, and it was kind of lame. And then I actually started doing it, and I realized how hard it was. And that's really what I came to love about it was trying to get that happy attitude in the ring along with the precision. So pretty soon I was kind of hooked on the sport of obedience, which I thought I would hate to begin with. It's funny how much those of us who enjoy dog training just because we enjoy training behaviors to a certain extent. I mean, obedience certainly appeals to that part, right? Oh, yeah. And it helped that the corgi was very easy with me. It kind of held my hand as I was learning things and showed me one by one where I kind of sucked in all the training and eventually helped me fix them. So you mentioned you still have your corgi. Have you always been a positive trainer? Did you start out that way with him? If not, what kind of got you started down that path? Yeah, he's always been positive trained, at least in the traditional sense. So when I first started training dogs, I was doing more pet training routes, and that was pretty positive, at least at the time. And I was also really lucky that we have one of, it's probably the few, maybe the only, I don't know, a positive trained AKC club in the area. And so that was my introduction to the competition world. It's not very popular in the area because most people want to go to the traditional route, but we exist and we're trying to encourage people to compete positively. So I was really lucky to be pretty much positive straight from the get-go. And what area are you in? Minneapolis, Minnesota. I kind of mentioned in the intro that you were training service dogs full-time. How long did you do that for? Seven years. Wow. So how did you go from training pet dogs to training service dogs? Well, my first experience with training service dogs actually was my last year of high school. I was able to do a community service class where we were able to volunteer with whatever we wanted to for basically half the day. And my parents were very generous and they allowed me to puppy raise during that time. So I took a little Black Lab service puppy home to live with us and I was responsible for all of its training. So that was kind of my very first experience.

And after I kind of, you know, graduated from school and, you know, did lots of dog training stuff, I went back to volunteer for them. And they happened to have a job available at the same time I was volunteering again. So I was very, very lucky in that regard. But I'd say my first experience was as a high school student being a volunteer puppy raiser. That's awesome. I think so many people would love to spend all day doing nothing but training dogs. It certainly is easier than training people sometimes. Most of the time I'd go so far as to say, but... Yeah, most of the time. So I believe, and certainly correct me if I'm wrong, so you trained several different types of service dogs, right? Yeah, our organization up here trains five different types of service dogs, which was actually really nice because it allows us to have a very high success rate because the dogs who are lower key might do really well in one type or is the kind of nuttier job might do better than another type of job. So I guess the five types of dogs that we trained were mobility assist dogs. Those are the dogs who retrieve things, tug open doors, tug the laundry basket, help with the laundry. Those are most fun for me to train because kind of all the tricks that you think of in the service dog world. And then we have the hearing alert dogs. Those dogs are trained to alert to sounds in the environment. The diabetic alert dogs who are trained to alert to the smell of low blood sugar. The autism assist dogs who help kids with autism who tend to bolt. And then seizure response dogs who respond once the seizure is happening and help the person get through that seizure. That's quite a range of different skills. Yeah, it can help break up the day a little bit. I would think that the hardest part of teaching all that is really proofing the behavior for all environments. I mean, when you're talking service dogs, you really need a dog who's going to do the work kind of no matter what's going on. Is that your perspective? Is that really the hardest thing? Or is there something else that sticks out as, you know, maybe more difficult? Yeah, the training behaviors were really the easy part of the service dog training. I mean, it takes time to train their skills to be pretty solid, but that was really the fun part. The hard part is that dogs have to focus anywhere and everywhere without any acclimation time. We talk a lot about acclimation time with our competition dog training, but the service dogs don't get that. They might arrive at a store and have to pick up keys at the entranceway.

Or maybe they just barely get out of the car and they have to alert to a low blood sugar. So they kind of have to be ready to focus anywhere no matter what's going on. And that definitely takes quite a bit of training, which is why most of the dogs were two to three years old by the time they play with the client. And they're still very, very young, but definitely no longer puppies at that point. And, of course, the general public doesn't help either with all the, I know I shouldn't, but as they reach to pet your dog or barking at your dog and all the crazy stuff people do in public. Do you mind sharing just a little bit about how, kind of how you teach that so that the dogs can kind of do their work in those types of environments? Yeah. Honestly, a lot of it is their personality. A lot of dogs simply aren't able to do that. Like of the dogs I have now in my house, Lance looked like a perfect corgi, a sassy guy. He'd probably be the only one who would make it as a service dog. Because of anxiety issues, he couldn't do that. My young dog, Zumi, has a little bit of confidence issues where she's not quite ready to focus all the time. So, their natural behavior has, their natural temperament has a lot to do with whether they make it or not. But past that point, I do a lot of choose-to-work games, a lot of distractions out to the side, rewarding focus. And, of course, we do it all without a command, just like we do want the competition dogs to do. We don't want to be saying, watch me, watch me, watch me, or, you know, leave it, leave it, leave it. We want the dogs learning that they see something, that that means their job is to look back at you. It's kind of the exact same stuff we do with our competition dogs, just everywhere. And it's really sort of, I mean, it's really teaching the dogs how to make the choice and think a little more independently, at least, than most people probably think about, right? Oh, yeah. It's a lot of free choice, especially because the clients, they might have limited range of mobility. They can't force the dog to do anything. The dogs have to want to do it. So, it's a lot of choice-based training with the service dogs. So, I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about team. I know Denise and I talked about it briefly the very first episode of the podcast, but for those who aren't familiar with team at all, do you mind just explaining a little about the concept, kind of what it is and how it works? Sure. So, team is an online video-submitted titling program. There are currently six levels that you can title in. I think there might be plans to have more.

I'm not sure. But the goal of team, unlike some other organizations, the emphasis isn't really on finished behavior change, but it's on teaching the dog and the human each individual piece to get to a really high level of perfection. So, basically, even if you only get through the first three levels of team, we're working on those foundational pieces being very solid to get you through pretty much any level of obedience training. Really, kind of the concept, right, is that if you do team, you can probably do almost anything else. Oh, yeah. It definitely takes you beyond utility even, I think. I don't think there's been an episode of the podcast yet where a guest hasn't talked about how important foundation skills are. I know that that's kind of one of the places where team shines, right? How does it kind of do that? How does it approach teaching a foundation? Well, the way the testing is laid out, you're pretty much forced to work on all those little pieces. The first levels use a ton of props throughout the testing. So, it pretty much guarantees that the dog is learning those little perfect movements. Basically, you don't really teach just a sit and just a down, but use a target to help. So, the dog is not learning how to sit and down, but they're learning how to do the individual position changes with zero forward movement. So, by the time you get to, you know, 40 feet away, the dog already knows how to do that perfect fold back down, tuck up, sit without having any forward motion. It's kind of those little pieces that people tend to skip over if they don't know what the end result should look like. And the levels themselves, I think, really reward the handler for being patient and not rushing through those foundations because... Because they're really easy to rush through. Yeah. It's easy to overlook, you know, kind of the precision that you're going to want later on early when you have a puppy who's, you know, eight or ten weeks old and you just want to sit. Yeah, definitely. So, I believe you're teaching Team 1 in August, right? Yep. I know you've taught it once or twice now. What... Is there a skill that kind of stands out as something that people struggle with a little bit? And do you mind just sharing a couple of tips maybe on how they can approach it? Sure. Heel position is probably one that people struggle with the most. Primarily in the Team Level 1 and 2, we're working on the foundational piece of pivoting, teaching the dogs exactly what heel position looks like. And how to move with the handler to maintain it.

And a lot of people who haven't taught it that way before, because that's not the way heeling has been traditionally taught, it's a really hard skill for people to kind of figure out how to hold their hand and how the dog is supposed to move into you. And there are a lot of ways to teach pivoting. There's not just one way. I tend to use a blend of shaping and luring. It's a little bit more lure-based. And generally, probably the biggest tip for people is they want to use a really big arm lure, have the dog go really wide. But generally, you want the dog head to be up a little bit more, turning their head out causes their butt to swing in towards you. And sometimes it's easier to see that if you're using a mirror, so you can watch the dog's back legs easier. But generally, not having such a big, wide head lure, but really keeping the dog's head nice and close to your body so you can focus on the head turning out and the back legs moving towards you. And that's what lets you get those really pretty corners, right, when you're making your turns in heeling? Oh, yeah. It makes your heeling look really sexy. You can do all the sidestepping, the backing up, the pivots. And so by the time you do any four in motion, your dog already knows all those really fancy moves. I like that. It makes heeling look really sexy. So I want to kind of end things the way I normally end the episodes, which is kind of with, I guess, they're my three favorite questions. So first, what's the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? When I started thinking about that, I first thought I would go with some of the service dog teams. But then I realized I'm actually pretty self-centered. And so it definitely has to be about my own dogs. And Vito, my very special boy, we've been through a lot together. And my most proud accomplishment isn't only a particular trial with him, but just the ones where he's radiating pure joy, where he's so happy to be with me. And I can just see with the focus he has on me that all of his worries about the people and the stewards have kind of melted. We don't have that every time, but the ones that he does do that for me is really special. It shows all that hard work that we've done. It makes it kind of magical. Yeah. I think this is probably the question I get told is the hardest question a lot of time. What is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? There's been a lot of good ones out there already. So I thought I would pick the, you don't need to end a session on a good note. Generally, if things are going pretty well, you should enjoy it.

Quit before that, you know, just one more piece. But when things start going downhill, and they will, just end the session. Quit before you're digging yourself a hole that's even harder to get out of. Stopping. Also make sure that neither you or the dog are getting frustrated about it. So I have no problems just going, well, I guess we're done for today, or at least done with that exercise. Move on to something else before things get worse. Mm-hmm. And finally, who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? One of my favorite trainers is Sylvia Trickman, the famous Slovenian agility star. And while she only does agility, she doesn't actually compete in obedience. I really love her philosophies on having fun with the dog, you know, not being afraid to experiment, respecting the dog in front of you. And Sylvia is one where I got a really great piece of advice to help me and my Vito on teaching happy tricks to release stress. And that was probably the biggest change to help Vito a couple years ago, to get him barking at me on the start line, get him sassy, jumping up, so that even if he doesn't feel grave and happy, it forces him to kind of act like it. And that has helped him a ton. And so I really like Sylvia Trickman a lot. I love that idea. Just, you know, they kind of have that line for people, right, where if you stand in the Superman pose for two minutes before a talk, it makes you feel more confident and, like, your body chemistry actually changes. It's a similar idea kind of for dogs, right? The idea that if they get happy and bouncy. It's a lot with people, and I think it helps the dogs, too. Yeah. Happy making tricks. Yeah. I like that a lot. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast, Laura. Oh, you're welcome. And thanks to our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with a special episode with Denise Fenzie to discuss the inspiration behind the theme from camp a few weeks ago and to chat a bit about next year. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services. Thanks again for tuning in, and happy training! See you next week! Thank you.