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Margery Latchaw
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My Best Friend Dog Training Margery Latchaw |
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In the fall of 1998, I decided to take time to start pursuing my interest in dogs and learn more about them. I had a busy schedule playing cello with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and teaching private lessons, but I signed up for a dog training class. It was a traditional punishment-based training class; at the time I didn’t know anything else existed. I took Nigel (then 4 years old) to the class. Although he thrived on the outings to class and the individual attention and we did learn a few things, he was very solemn and withdrawn doing the behaviors we were working on, and it killed me to be jerking on that little guy’s leash all the time. I finished that class feeling as though I wasn’t nearly as good at this dog training stuff as I’d always believed I was.
Soon after we got Fergus I wanted to try more training classes - from what I had heard having a Border Collie meant lots of training and activity, which I was totally up for. I called around our area and found Gary Hensley, who had just been to Purdue University's "Dogs!" course, and he described to me the new way he was training using positive reinforcement. I took his beginning obedience class with both Nigel and Fergus, during which he introduced us to the clicker. After that, since I couldn’t find any actual "clicker classes", I went through his recommended reading list and bought many books and videos to learn as much as I could about this fabulous training method. I discovered all these wonderful people telling me that I could be nice to my dogs and still have them be responsive and obedient! All three dogs responded wonderfully to clicker training, even Spencer who didn’t start until age 11. It was the best thing in the world for Nigel, who came to love training more than almost anything (except maybe going to the park!). Nigel was the one who really made me realize how willing dogs are to change if we as the owners learn a better way to communicate with them. We had to let Nigel go last year (February 22, 2007). He was just shy of 13 years. We miss Nigel very much, and although I feel bad about how many mistakes we made with him, we at least know that his life got better and better as he aged. In November of 2000, I had just retired from a 20-year career as a full-time professional musician and had begun to learn computer code to redesign and manage my husband Dave’s music web site, www.latchmusic.com. I attended a seminar in Ohio presented by Turid Rugaas, the wonderful Norwegian woman who has taught us all about "Calming Signals", and while there I met Judy Archer-Dick and her husband Charles. (Besides positive reinforcement training, learning about the "calming signals" that dogs use has made our dogs happier, more relaxed, and much more confident than they used to be. The dogs and the humans in our home are a lot less stressed out now that we can understand a little more of what they’re trying to communicate to us. I highly recommend learning about it!) After meeting at that seminar and realizing that we lived in the same area, Judy and I often got together on weekends to let our dogs socialize, and for us to compare dog-training notes. In July of 2001, Judy let me know about a clicker class that was being taught by Pam Mahlie and Janet Bernier at the St. Joe Center Veterinary Hospital, which we both attended. I enjoyed the class very much, and took a second class. After that, Judy and I were lured into teaching a clicker class of our own (once a teacher, always a teacher!). Besides teaching classes with Judy and working with people and their dogs one on one, I still do quite a bit of cello performing and have several private cello students.
I am a CPDT (Certified Pet Dog Trainer) and a Professional member of APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers). I am also a graduate of Purdue University's DOGS! Course: Principles and Techniques of Behavior Modification, and have completed the requirements for Pet First Aid for Dogs and Cats conducted by the American Red Cross of Northeast Indiana. Besides the seminar with Turid Rugaas, I’ve attended seminars on clicker training with Gail Fisher and Deb Jones. Most recently I attended a fantastic seminar on positive reinforcement training, behavior, and canine aggression with Chuck Tompkins and Thad Lacinak, and I look forward to many more!
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From my earliest memory I’ve loved
animals, especially dogs. Growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I spent many hours
with our Miniature Poodle, Pierre, and our big gray cat, Hubie, hanging out with
them and teaching them all sorts of tricks. Even then I was much more into
tricks than obedience! What I've discovered is that learning tricks and fun things
has helped my dogs really "learn how to learn" and respond to me, and the obedience exercises
come very easily for them. My first dog of my own as an adult was
Spencer, a Shetland Sheepdog. We lost Spencer in May, 2005 - just 6 weeks before his 17th
birthday. What a guy, he kept his keen spirit up until the last day! I was a single gal when I got
Spencer in 1988, and I spent all of my free time with him, took him everywhere with me, and
socialized him really well without knowing what an important thing that is for dogs.
I taught him lots of behaviors and tricks (including getting a beer from the
fridge, which he did until age 16) using treats, repetition, and what I now know are
techniques called luring and physical prompting.
A year after getting married and buying a
house, my husband Dave and I decided to get another Sheltie, we named him Nigel.
This was 1994 and Spencer was six years old. Out of ignorance, besides
housetraining we didn’t do much about training Nigel. It seemed like Spencer
was showing him what he needed to know (he was even lifting his leg to pee at 8
weeks old!). He never got socialized to people and other dogs, and became
fearful of children because our next door neighbor’s kids were quite awful to
him and I didn't know how to handle it. Very stressful life for a dog. When I
finally tried to do some training with him at age two or three, he completely
shut down.
The following spring I went to our local SPCA
one day with a friend of ours who wanted to get a dog. As we looked through the
photo book of dogs waiting to be adopted, I was taken with a picture of a
3-month-old Border Collie/Sheltie mix puppy. He and his two brothers had been
dropped off at 2 weeks of age, their mother had been hit by a car and killed.
Apparently they had quite a struggle and almost died a couple of times, but the
staff there pulled them through. When they brought out little "Larry"
I totally fell for him (they had called the puppies Larry, Darryl and Darryl
after the three brothers on the "Bob Newhart Show"). He was the last
of the three to be adopted and it was obvious how attached the staff had become
to him. I went home and got Dave to go back over there with me. After meeting
little Larry, Dave agreed we should take him home with us. (We were planning to
get a third dog one year later, either a Border Collie or another Sheltie, so to
find a mix of the two was great!) We adopted Larry and changed his name to
Fergus. He’s 9 years old now and one of the smartest, sweetest, most special
dogs I’ve ever known. He’s been almost exclusively clicker trained, and
loves to do obedience "tricks" just as much as he loves to turn the
television on and off or put his toys away. He also gets a beer from the fridge,
taking over for his old friend Spencer. In June, 2006, Fergus and I became a Therapy Dog team.
He listens to children read at one of our local library branches, and entertains
a group of elderly people at an assisted living facility near us. He brings smiles to many people every week.
