Dog Talk BlogTraining and Behavior Insights by Barb Gordon

My Name is Barb Gordon. I live in Spokane Washington with my husband Jack, our Bouvier des Flandres, Rosta and Bracken, our Golden Retrievers, Ember and Promise, our Miniature Pinchers, Unique and Prada, our Border Collie, Focus and our cat Kubla. All wonderful companions as well as competition obedience, agility and hunting dogs.
I have officially been training my dogs for over twenty years, but I started out learning at the age of five when my father brought home a German Shepherd pup and a little training book. Sadly for me, my father’s work moved from California to Illinois and our dog went to a new home. Our family never had another dog, so over the years I encouraged every stray to follow me home, hoping one of them would melt my mother’s heart and I could have another dog.
After my husband Jack and I got married, he was smart enough to know that if I was happy, I would in turn make him happy. We moved to a horse ranch, got a horse and a dog. Having my own dog for the first time was an eye opener. I found out that loving dogs isn’t enough, you have to learn how to think and talk dog.
I wasn’t very good with our first couple of dogs. I made a lot of mistakes. My first dogs were unwitting teachers I wasn’t very grateful to, and in fact refused to learn from. I blamed them for my ignorance. I was impatient and uncaring. I loved them when they weren’t doing bad things and hated them when they did. I kept looking for Lassie and finding Tramp. It wasn’t until many years later that fate sent me and my Bouvier Zappa to dog school where I started getting that the responsibility for a great dog was mine.
In the old days here in Spokane and I’m sure other places as well, all dog training revolved around competition obedience. There wasn’t a class that taught you to raise a good reliable family companion. So I took Zappa to dog class and he learned how to heel, sit, down, stay and do a formal recall. This was all fine and good until he was loose and would bolt and run away from me. I learned really quickly that if there was a problem, no one knew how to help you with it. Their answer was just keep working on this or that and your problem will go away in time. Or worse, “He’s just a difficult dog.” Meanwhile the reality was that this dog could not be trusted off leash. A car with his name on it was right around the next corner. I lived in fear of it, because I knew heeling was not going to solve it.
Once again fate entered my life and I met a dog trainer named Sandy Reeves. She lived in Idaho just about an hour from me. She saw my dog take off at a fun matched and told me she could help me with my problem. That day I learned how to think and talk dog. Never again did I blame my dog for being a Bouvier and not a Golden Retriever. Never again did I have a dog that bolted and ran away or behaved badly. I not only became a good dog owner, I became a better human being. That day I grew up and took the lead.
I started my own dog school in 1993. The whole goal is to help people learn about dogs, so they can have a good companion and/or competition dog. In fact the best dog they have ever owned. Our family dog classes revolve around problem solving, not heeling. Our competition classes revolve around teamwork. It is a pleasure and joy to help dogs with their people and people with their dogs.