It ALL began with keeping one small puppy named Sugar

First, there was my Red dog (daughter of Crackers-our 10-year old lab)..

Then, it was puppy time (yup, that's a whelping box, Wayne, my husband, made for Red and it was in our kitchen). There were 6 puppies, 5 male and 1 female. Their names? Sugar, Spice, Cappuccino, Chai, Latte & Queen Pearl (the female).

Then we ended up keeping one special puppy named Sugar..

I'd had dogs all my life, in particular Wayne and I loved Labs, and we THOUGHT we had 'good dogs'. But having Labs, I quietly thought.."These are retrieving dogs, wouldn't it be great to have them do a retrieve on command? How about just coming when called?" Someone said one of the best dog trainers in the country lived/trained dogs in Laurel, Md..less than 30 minutes from me.  They said I should take my puppy there for training if I wanted a dog that could do more than eat, sleep and be a peeing/pooping machine.

At 9 1/2 weeks old, Sugar and I met Margot Woods, Dog Trainer and owner of Applewoods Dog Training. We started with the Puppy Headstart Class, then went through the AKC Star Puppy Program.

Literally, in 3 short weeks...my young puppy, Sugar, knew more than his mom or grandmother in terms of learning to be obedient and well-behaved. Course, after those 3 weeks of Sugar in training, I looked at his mom, Red, and his grandmother, Crackers and thought.."I can't have two sets of rules in the house..who says you can't teach an old dog new things? You are both going to be retrained." And they were using the Applewoods training methods.

These photo's are part of Sugars "Socialization as a Form of Training" assignment from the Puppy Headstart Class. As you can see, we sure had fun completing this list while he was quite young-:)

I ended up fascinated with what I was seeing happen between my young dog Sugar and I as we went through learning the Applewoods dog training together. The rest is history as now all 3 of my dogs have AKC obedience titles and have become much more well-behaved, well-mannered and are now obedient dogs that LOVE to be worked.  Sugar has the most obedience titles (6 titles) & 2 field titles in our Lee household, has the highest level of dog training and is a smidge past 5 years old.

Sugar is also my demo dog so you'll get to see him working throughout your lessons.  Is he perfect?  No.  Is he trustworthy because of the piece-by-piece, layer-upon-layers of training he's had since a very young pup? Yes.  Are we partners? Yes.  Does Sugar want to work? Yes.  He's an intelligent animal who has an important job to do and he takes it seriously.
Do we play?  Constantly-:)

 

Just like each of you...I started obedience just hoping 'for a good dog that might be able to hunt?'. Just like you, I came as a beginner hoping for something good to happen with my dog. What I got far exceeded my tiny initial hopes & dreams. What I got was a well-trained, well-behaved, and obedient dog that can think, take responsibility for its choices, and has emotional & physical self-control. That goal is possible for you & your dog too.

Your obedience journey begins ...

Roxanne