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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
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