It’s been a very fun and exciting week at Pine Lodge this week.  We “imported” an excellent trainer from The Netherlands to give us a crash course on clicker training in the Martin Gaus method.  Our instructor was Sharon Rademaker.  Her dog school is Jottem Dog school in De Volger.  Some of our guardian families were here with their puppies

Pickles, also known as Pine Lodge’s Pick Me, came with Debra. Pickles is 3 months old and a very eager student! She impressed us all with her eagerness to learn. She was a quick leaner, and retained well.

The trick Debra chose to teach Pickles was when she asked her, “What would you rather be, married or dead?” Pickles would roll over on her back. She has it down!

Debra did a great job with Pickles. She plans on working a lot more with Pickles, now that she understands the clicker concept!

By the end of the day, Pickles, who is very energetic, was just tired out!

Willow was another one of our student in attendance. Willow is around 5 months old. She came with her “mom” Peggy.

Willow is an always happy little girl. She too is very energetic about life! She was happy to be learning new commands. However, when the day got hot, Willow would head for the shade! Smart girl!Dog training can be exhausting!

Scout came for part of the time.

She is older, so she knew a lot of the things, but she did learn a few tips…  Here Sharon is demonstrating “heel” to Scout’s “mom”, Brenda.

But on a hot day, “down” was her favorite!

Several other dogs played school with us…

There was Copper, who is learning to do “the twist.”  She’s really good too.  Here she is learning “wait.”

Trixie is a Double Doodle  most of you have not had the pleasure of meeting.  She is 8 months old. We really didn’t have to work very hard with her.  She seemed to understand what we wanted… it was like instant success!  That is, until she got hot… then she was done!

Trixie demonstrates “heel.”

Here she is learning about “foote.”

She’s the kind of dog you work with that makes YOU feel successful!

Skittles also joined the class.  She’s a 5 month old puppy we have here.

Skittles is VERY energetic, but also an eager learner (just look at her face!)

Here Sharon is teaching her “touch”, in preparation of teaching her “foote.”

Sharon used Skittles quite often to demonstrate something new.  I think they both bonded to each other.We all learned sooo much!  We would recommend the Martin Gaus clicker training to everyone!

On our last evening, we had dinner here.  It was nice to spend time with Sharon, her husband Mischa and Jisse, their very cute 3 year old son.

Roy took Jisse on a ride on his old blue tractor.

We wanted to share an American experience with our Dutch friends. But what could it be? We came up with an idea! We told them we were having them cook their own dessert!  We decided to teach them to make S’mores!

First Roy built a fire, something that is not allowed in many parts of The Netherlands. Here it will be band when the plants get too dry.

Then we got out our ingredients:

Graham crackers

Marshmallows

And chocolate

Sharon and Mischa were instructed on the art of toasting a marshmallow. You want it to be toasted until golden brown…. Well Sharon needs a little more practice… they catch of fire very easily!

When they are all toasted, you put it on a graham cracker with a piece of chocolate, and enjoy!

We would like to especially thank Sharon and her family for coming to train with us! We really enjoyed and learned.We also would like to thank Peggy, Brenda and Debra for taking the time to come also. We had such a good time with them.  And of course the doodles, who made us look  a lot smarter than we really are!

Clicker-On!