Firefly Fields - Joe

UUD Penny AMBOR UDT

?? 1988 - January 25, 2006

We said goodbye to our dear Penny-dog on January 25, 2006. While we continue to miss her everyday, her life had become too painful and we knew it was the right time to let her go. Penny had quite a full life of over 17 years especially considering her meager beginnings. She started me on my path to becoming a dog trainer and was the best teacher I could have ever asked for. Many of the friends and experiences that are most precious to me today are all because of Penny. Our bond is still strong and I know we will be reunited someday.

Here is Penny's story...

Penny found us on December 26th, 1989. At the time, we didn't even realize how lost we were. We had just returned from visiting with family and friends for the Christmas holiday. My husband had seen some dog footprints in our yard, but he didn't think it too unusual. Our little two acre plot in Southwest Michigan was surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland belonging to one family. The parents' house was up the road from us and the son's house was down the road in the other direction. Their farm dogs ran through our yard all the time following the trucks and farm equipment. But when we looked out in the yard, this was a dog we didn't recognize. A smaller dog, standing in a foot of snow (the result of a blizzard a couple of days earlier), looking very cold and afraid.

When we went outside to see if she was alright, she ran under our deck and hid. So we went inside and returned with a saucer of catfood, as a bribe. Hunger overcame fear and the dog came out and gobbled up the catfood. "Pick her up," my husband said, and foolishly I did. I realize now that picking up a terrified dog is about the stupidest thing a person can do. But somehow we could tell she wasn't going to bite.

We bundled the dog into the car and drove to the only three houses within a couple of miles of ours. We asked all the neighbors if this was their dog. "No," said one neighbor, "we have all our dogs inside here with us." Our farmer neighbor said, "Naw, she ain't ours. You keep her though. 'Make a fine watch dog fer ya."

So we took the little dog back home. We called Animal Control, the Humane Society, Animal Aid, and the Dog-Gone Report at the local radio station. It seemed no one had reported the loss of a little dog like this one. "Is it a Rottweiler?," the woman at the Humane Society asked. Looking at the little dog of no more than 20 pounds, I replied, "No, I'm sure she's not." Then they asked us if we wanted to bring her in to the shelter. We didn't want her to go sit in "doggie jail", so we asked if we could just keep her at our house. "Sure," they said, "if no one claims her in seven days, she's yours."

I drove to the store and bought two dog bowls and a bag of dog food. On the way home, I stopped by our veterinarian's office just as he was leaving for the holidays. He gave me some worming medicine to get rid of the roundworms I had seen. "If no one claims her, bring her in next week for vaccinations," he said.

So then we waited for the phone to ring. After only 24 hours, we had fallen in love with this little dog. This, after never even thinking that we especially wanted a dog...or even liked dogs. But Penny has a special charm. Everyone who meets her notices it. Also, I started to notice things about Penny. Although she had grown to trust us, she was very fearful both of things and of people. The first time I told her, "No," she lost bladder control. It seemed that wherever Penny had come from, maybe wasn't such a good place. I was faced with a moral dilema. Did the person who let this little dog get lost out in a blizzard and made her be so afraid, deserve to have her back? What would I say when they called?

Luckily, no one ever called and Penny became our dog...to love forever.

photo by Carol Rettig

Having grown up with cats, my husband and I knew one thing... a dog must be trained! Otherwise, we were certain, she would eat our cats and destroy our entire house!! Of course now we realize that it was unlikely that this small dog, who was afraid of her own shadow, would have done anything too horrible...but we could have done worse. It is always easier to relax rules you don't need than it is to make rules where there have been none.

I read every book on dogs and dog training that I could find and I started to train Penny. The fact that she learned anything at all from the initial training I did is a real credit to her as a dog. I didn't have a clue what I was doing! Given what a sweet little dog she is, I realize now that I was much too hard on her. However, I did use treats (which go a long way with a dog who has previously known hunger) and my praise was frequent and sincere. I taught her sit, down, stay and come completely on my own. Then with help from a coworker at an internship I was doing at the time, I taught her to heel (sort of).

What I should have realized, but did not think of at the time, was that in order to generalize behaviors to a wide variety of environments, a dog must be trained in different environments... around other dogs and people, as well as other distractions. What I had so far, was a dog trained out in the country, far from any unfamiliar distraction, who could perform under those conditions alone. When I took her in to the vet's office, she couldn't do any of the things I had taught her.

A friend from graduate school told me that I should sign up for an obedience class at our local kennel club. So, I found a class held in a little reception hall, given by the Berrien Kennel Club. We worked on the things I had already trained Penny to do. I can't remember learning any new skills, but Penny learned to perform the things she did know around distractions. Of course, because Penny already knew most of the skills and she had pretty good natural attention, she was the star of the class! Also, I loved doing something with my dog...other than watching TV or playing fetch. The seeds of a dog training addiction had been planted!

My teacher from our local kennel club class, suggested that I go to a bigger kennel club in Kalamazoo and take more classes. She knew that mixed breeds could do compete in agility and had heard that the club in Kalamazoo offered agility classes. I couldn't believe it. Kalamazoo was almost an hour away! (I laugh at this now, as I have routinely driven much farther for dog classes, private lessons and competitions.)

When I started training at the Kalamazoo Kennel Club, I took an advanced (novice level) obedience class there first, as I needed to get better control of my dog off-lead. My instructor told me about AMBOR (the American Mixed Breed Obedience Registration), an organization that granted obedience and other titles to mixed breed dogs. (This was back in 1990, long before UKC granted limited participation in their performance events to spayed/neutered mixed breed dogs.)

After the advanced obedience class, I took two agility classes. However, Penny thought the feel of all the obstacles under her feet was kind of scary. At this time, the sport of agility was in its infancy. The people teaching the class did not know how to make agility more fun and less scary for Penny and being a very beginning dog trainer, I didn't either.

Penny and I with judge, Laura Kincaid, upon completing Penny's UKC Utility Dog title.

So, we went back to obedience training instead. The instructors had me take Penny around to some of the club members and have her get treats from them. Penny discovered that people weren't really so scary after all, and she became the friendly little dog she is today. I used to get to class a little early and watch the instructor train his dog. I found the Utility exercises fascinating. I could not believe a dog could be taught to do such wonderful things! I could only dream of having a dog that could learn to do those things someday.

Penny and I did eventually get her UKC and AMBOR Utility Dog (UD) titles, as well has her AMBOR Tracking Dog title. Utility is the third and most advanced level in obedience competition. It requires the dog to do scent work, retrieve, jump, and work off hand signals alone. Most of this work is done at a distance from the handler. It was quite a journey to Penny's UD title as it took a lot of confidence for Penny to perform these complex tasks at a distance from me.

After completing Penny's UKC Utility Dog title (UUD) at nearly age 12, we participated in the Pet Pals program for about a year and a half. This is a pet therapy program run by the University of Wisconsin College of Veterinary Medicine. Each dog / handler team visits the University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital in Madison approximately two times each month.

After retiring from the therapy program, Penny enjoyed her remaining years living on our farm and enjoying all the wonderful smells that country life brings. Penny dearly loved to sniff...

Penny and I wearing our Pet Pals uniforms

Last update: June 22, 2008