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Newspaper Archive of
The Democrat-Reporter
Linden, Alabama
March 15, 2012     The Democrat-Reporter
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March 15, 2012
 
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Thursday, March 15, 2012 ( h Ahoy" L. Wind chaffed faced, tousled hair, Sandie Bond said she didn't like candid photographs "Heel" and he stays at her side She has pointed to a bumper Having given her one bumper, retriever awaits another command f Sandie trains retrievers • I I From Ontario, Michigan,. Ohio, Illinois, all cold states, they come to cattle ranch to train dogs o00andie Bond from ntario, Canada, lives in a mobile home parked in Newbem about half the year in her retriever-training profes- sion. The other half is spent in her home near London, which is in southwestern Ontario. Sandie is a first generation Canadian. Her mother and brother were bom in England and her father was born in Ireland. In her profession, she has travelled the eastem U. S. A. and Canada. She hunts upland birds and waterfowl as her pasttime activities. Being a professional trainer of the sporting dogs is time-demanding, as much as 20 hours a day, other days, not so much. Year-around, it is every day she spends with animals in her charge. There are no days off, no vaca- tions, and not much of any other life, she explains. Her face is wind-chaffed and her hair tousled by the gusts. So, while she isn't training one of the retrievers: Labrador, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling, Chesapeake, Irish Water Spaniels, and Golden, she totes around a long- haired miniature Daschund named Cowgirl. To demonstrate retriever training, she put down three li6mpers across a pond at Vandy Collins' place near Faunsdale. She went to her King's Ranch Ford F-350 pickup truck with state of the art kennel boxes on the cargo bed, unlatched one of the doors, and out came a robust retriev- er which she gently lifted down to the ground. "Heel" and he sat on his haunches beside her. She added one special tool for the training session, a collar with two prongs on it which alerts the trainee that he needs to stop and look at his trainer. Next she had it walk beside her down the hill to' the edge of the pond. The canine did this obediently as it was trained from seven Weeks old to follow commands. " Not speaking a word, Sandie raised her right arm and pointed directly across the pond and splash, splash, splash, splash it leaped until it got into deep water where it began swimming, straight toward the orange bumper on the far bank. It ran up the levee past the bumper and screeechee! She blew the whistle, which sounded like the third grade teacher who was startled to locate the green snake one of her students had brought to show and tell. Actually, the dog had ran down the far side embank- ment and the controller for the shock collar was in her hand and the retriever suddenly found a spot where it could pay close attention to its trainer. Her ann waved to the left toward the bumper, and the dog found it quickly. It grabbed the plastic oblong bumper in its mouth and dived into the pond, bringing his prize to Sandie. Shaking off the excess water, it ran directly to her, held up the bumper and she took it gently from his teeth. "Sit" and he parked his muscular frame at her feet, waiting for another command. Not only are the dogs taught to give up their quest on command, they are taught not to bite into it. Two more bumpers were retrieved at much greater dis- tances, which required the dog to look back at the trainer for directions. With the other dogs around, including Cowgirl, there was but one single purpose in this dog's life, obey the trainer so that when it goes back to its owner or handler, the commands will be .so instilled in its life, there will no need for urging or prompting or shout- ing to the retriever. Sandie trains an average of 12 dogs, a maximum of I4 at one time. Training is not all she does. The dogs must be fed. Their quarters must be cleaned. She does all of this, plus she keeps them in a routine. They like being in a routine, she said. She gets them up in the morning at the same time. After training, they all get fed at the same time. After that, they get to run around and be dogs. ,, She has a kennel run at her place in Newbem and the various breeds of retrievers can get all the exercise they want there. Sandie explained how training begins with a seven- week old puppy and that is done around water, noise, other dogs, and gun shots. It learns to sit, stay, come, and become acquainted with hand signals after a whistle. The next level is specialized for gun dogs, hunting dogs, and field trial dogs. She gets them at six-months age and keeps them up to two years. -i She begins by keeping the dogs on a line to sit, heel;. obey the whistle, and she then lets them learn to obey'off; the line. Training is six days a week and on the seventh day. she is washing the dog trailer and getting fresh bedding for them. How the dogs' personalities mesh with the U'ainers' is answered with, "The dogs have to want it, or I won't do it." She feeds them performance food and declared the welfare of the dog is number one in her life. She began explaining how she got into the professional training of retrievers. "Once, I had a black Lab..." Somewhere along the line, she lost her husband, her bank job, and a professional trainer hired her for two years. "I picked his brain for everything he knew. He had high standards for everything and was with a good group. "I've been doing this for 15 years," she admitted, and said she plans to do it another 10 years and become an amateur trainer again and be/nore recognized among her peers. Professional trainers cannot enter their dogs in amateur field trials but an amateur can enter both the amateur arTd professional events. And those events are why she is here. For many years, trainers have gathered at the state cattle ranch in tLic County, which is now part of Forever Wild. People come down for a week or five or six weeks during the field trials. "This area is becoming famous for training." She guessed there were 150 dogs in the area and their owners and handlers come to watch them and the trainers stay the entire season, until it gets warm enough up nolh for them to train there. To train at the cattle ranch, each dog is chm'ged $5.00 a day. There are six professional trainers in the area now along with 36 amateurs. The trainers are scattered over West Alabama. Many stay in camp houses of local hum- ing clubs. Some like Sandie have their own quarters and special kennels. She loves her work but agrees the ties to the dogs is a negative because she has no social life. "It's not a way to get rich, either." All pro trainers couldn't do what they do without the support of their family and friends and especially, beamed Sandie, the people like Melba and Vandy Collins. Vandy, she smiled, is a big bear with the biggest heart "He and Melba are the epitome of Southern Hospitality. I love the kindness of the people here. We even go to the high school football games in Greensboro and cheer tor the kids of the families we know." !l',l At the far distant right corner was a bumper, which he retrieved your W|#TEii propane orders PROPAN E 334.EgB-84EO00 L,.,,., t ,.. ,, ,, i -t