Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Canine Connection
podcast. We have a guest today, and Lori is going
to introduce her. Hi, everybody. So our guest
today is Arielle Wolf. Arielle, I don't know
her very well, but I have always admired her
from afar when I saw her at trials. And Patron,
I actually got to get to know her a little bit.
This year when we were down at the Obedience
Classic in Florida, because she was down there
showing her dogs. She had her, well, anyway,
I'm going to let Arielle explain and introduce
her dogs and her life. But she does have, what
we wanted to have Arielle on was, the reason
why was because she has non -typical. obedience
breeds. She has a German wired haired pointer
named Newt, and she has a long haired dachshund
named Dwight. And we just find that super cool,
number one. And number two, we really would love
her to be able to share her. you know, her training
processes with these two dogs that are non -typical
breeds that we normally see in the obedience
ring and, you know, her journey and how she got
started, why she got these two breeds. And I
know she does a slew of other things beyond obedience
with her dogs. So I'm going to hand it over to
Arielle. Welcome, Arielle. Wait, hold on. I'm
going to jump in real quick. So I'm at the classic
and Lori's like, oh yeah, blah, blah, blah. Person
we need to talk to. And I'm like, in my head,
I'm like, uh -huh, uh -huh, uh -huh. Like, dude,
I'm showing two dogs. Like there's mass chaos
down here. I can't process the information right
now. Then at some point, I don't really watch
a lot, but I don't know. I'm watching probably
to see how a ring's running or something like
that. And I see somebody working. a German wire
hair pointer. And this dog is working really
cute. Like it's so happy. It's so animated. It's
just working beautifully. And I'm like, that
will always catch my eye. A nice working dog,
like a happy working dog. But then on top of
that, it's like an off breed. And I'm like, wow,
like good. You go girl. Like, good job. And it's
not till like later, probably when it. towards
when I was done with my runs that like my brain
could actually process. And I'm like, is this
the, and I go up to, is that the person you were
talking about? And it was. So anyway, okay, I'm
done. Okay. So Arielle, the floor is yours. We'd
like to introduce yourself and just sort of,
you know. explain on how you got started and
what you do and all the great things you do.
Yep. Thanks so much for having me on. And I'm
really flattered to hear that you both think
so highly of me. I think really highly of both
of you. I'm a dog trainer, a dog sports content
creator, and a self -professed jack of all trades,
master of none. What is a dog sports content
creator? So I'm on TikTok and I... curate mostly
obedience and rally related content towards the
under 40. I feel really strongly and passionately
about trying to make some of these really, these
sports that people are very intimidated by much
more accessible to people who may not be able
to access classes or get their foot in the door
easily, locally. Nice. Well, I'm not under 40,
so that would explain why I didn't know what
that was. I mean, really, I market at anybody
who doesn't have an AARP card yet, but. Dude,
I'm there. Okay, well. I'm kidding. Well, TikTok
is like, I mean, I have two girls under the age
of 25 and TikTok is their life. So that's. That's
amazing. That's awesome. Yeah. So that's been
a lot of fun as like a little bit of a side quest.
But as for how I got started, I got into dog
training about 15 years ago. I was in high school
and getting ready to get my first service dog,
who was actually a black lab. And I loved labs.
Labs are great. But personality wise, we didn't
really mesh and he didn't meet my needs very
well. So our partnership was pretty short -lived,
and I returned him to the program and found myself
working with a trainer to train my own service
dog, who was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Fast
forward about 10 years, and I got Jubilee, who
is my first German Wirehead Pointer. And she
was a wild young dog. She was a fabulous service
dog, but she was so high energy. And unlike my
previous dogs, she needed more outlets than just
her day job to be fulfilled. And even more than
that, to be able to calmly hang out in public.
So I started I took a rally class and I started
doing dog sports, fast cat with her to allow
her to better help me. And the partnership of
the dog sports really took every aspect of our
relationship to another level. So between her
and my current dogs, Newt and Dwight, who is
the. Newt's the German wire -haired pointer and
Dwight is the long -haired dachshund. I've since
earned advanced titles in obedience, rally, agility,
field trials, and more. So I'm hooked on dog
sports and I love to tell people all about it.
This is my jam. I can totally talk about this
for a very long time. So I recently, I don't
know if it was recent, maybe it was not that
recent, but so, you know, non -traditional breeds
some they're just the reality is they're a little
harder at times with certain sports especially
sports that are not inherently self -reinforcing
like rallying obedience um to motivate them and
we have to like be creative and think outside
the box and you were um god i want to say you
were doing articles i hope i'm right with you're
dachshund yep and you had done something like
completely on like unconventional do you know
what do you it was a facebook post do you remember
what i'm talking about yeah so yeah um dwight
is a dog um who he's my first dachshund i'm not
sure how much of this is dachshund and i'm not
how much of this is just him as an individual
um But there's not many dachshunds in obedience.
And compared to how popular of a breed they are,
I can understand why. So he has a brilliant nose.
And like many hounds, he loves to smell. He loves
to use it. And I knew that if I could click into
what he was doing with articles, he would really
enjoy it. He's not a very resilient dog and he
has a very low tolerance for frustration and
a very low tolerance for being wrong. So if he's
not got a very high rate of reinforcement, if
his success rate isn't exceedingly high, I would
say at least nine out of 10. He's just like,
you know what? This isn't fun anymore. I'm quitting.
So. with articles because it's really hard to
get them to have that high of a success rate.
What I did is after I tried a couple of different
methods, you know, I tried around the clock,
I tried a little bit of a tie down and I would
start and stop a couple of methods and be like,
you know what, this one isn't for him. And ultimately
what I ended up deciding on is he could bring
me back any article and I would reward every
single article he brought back. But bringing
back the right article, especially the right
article without having touched any of the other
articles first, was a huge jackpot. And he's
a smart dog. He understands that a handful of
cookies is better than one cookie. So it didn't
take him long to realize, oh, if I bring back
the right article just the first time I smell
it, I get a handful of cookies. That's great
for me. I think that's so awesome because like
I'm just laughing to myself, imagining like when
I tell my students sometimes like, it's all right,
don't worry about it. Just give them a cookie
anyway. What? But like the outrage, you're rewarding
the wrong thing. You're telling them that bringing
back the correct article is right. Like because
people get so entrenched and like this is how
we've always done it or this is how I've always
been taught or like. There is no one way like
and it doesn't always mean that like in essence,
you were rewarding effort. Correct. And then
you were letting him solve the problem on his
own, basically. Right. Yep. Yeah, that's so interesting.
It must also be challenging because he's so low
to the ground. And his nose is right there. I
find that that's challenging a lot with little
dogs, especially little dogs that are like terriers,
hounds, like. Right, when they're just like intrinsically
wanting to be sniffing everything, for sure.
I take advantage of that. I, you know, you're
not going to change the fact that their nose
is, you know, three inches from the ground. But
what you can change is their relationship with
the ground. So I walk into any trial building
and I've done this since he came to me. He was
about a year old when I got him. He was disobedient
and a nuisance dog, which is why I got him for
training. And, you know, one thing led to another
and he ended up staying. So that's how I got
my accidental dachshund. Yeah, I didn't know
that. Wow. Yeah. How old was he when you got
him? Just over a year. I think he was 13 months.
Oh, OK. Yeah. So he was a dog that had lived
with a family member and I'd had him on and off
for training since he was a puppy. But he ended
up just being a little bit too much hound for
my family. So he came to me and I'm like, you
know what? Anything that's going to live in my
house is. going to have a job. And the job that
I originally assigned him was to train and get
my other dog, Newt, jealous and work through
so I could work through arousal issues with him.
So I would train him for two, three minutes at
a time when Newt needed a break or when I specifically
wanted to get Newt wound up before training him.
And that ended up being the perfect amount of
time to just get Dwight interested in working
and training. And over time, that became longer
stretches. And then he actually ended up taking
on much more of a role in my life and being trained
than I anticipated. But yeah, his original job
was just to make Newt jealous. So how do you
use the sniffing and the floor to your advantage?
So when I go anywhere, I'll... acclimate him
and in the beginning what i mean by acclimate
is i'll just let him walk around i don't tell
him anything i just automatically let him sniff
because that's going to be his first inclination
he wants to check everything out yeah um so this
was my warm -up at the classic this is my warm
-up at any local trial this is my warm -up when
i go to train in my local parks i just let him
sniff around and eventually they're going to
get to a point where they're like you know what
i've checked out everything and they'll lift
their head and that's a moment that you can mark
and um it might take 20 30 minutes it might take
longer do you um do you cue him to go sniff like
i don't okay because i i have jackie and snacks
patra she actually cues him because i found that
really interesting when she first told me that
i literally had a heart attack and i'm like well
wait a second and she does she goes i go in and
i put it on cue and i said let's go sniff so
the reason i don't yeah tell me yeah it's because
i really want him to choose um to disengage with
the environment and engage with me so when he
lifts his head then i have an opportunity to
reward and the more that he lifts his head the
more rewards he gets so eventually it becomes
like rather than me begging him to disengage
with the environment it's like eventually his
head comes up and i'm like hey look how awesome
i am over here i'm doing all these fun things
you want to play right right that's the acclimation
where you want them to just choose you over the
right and Over time, it becomes a much, much
shorter acclimation. I would say in general,
it takes him under two minutes to acclimate to
a new environment at this point. And two minutes
is usually pretty generous because he understands
the pattern of I go, I sniff around until I'm,
you know, I've checked it all out. And then we're
going to go and we're going to train. And then
I get to come out and I get to sniff again. Yeah.
So I don't actually have issues with sniffing
in the ring. The one or two times that I have
had issues with him sniffing, I see that as he's
overwhelmed with the environment and I've just
picked him up and left. Just this isn't the day
for us. It's just displacement, right? It's just
like, I can't, I'm confused, I'm concerned, whatever
the case, that's why I'm doing it, which is different
than him just not being engaged. Right. And because
I know that I have this long relationship history
built up with him where he understands that sniffing
is not an integral part of the behavior change
that we're going to be doing. If he's sniffing
excessively in between, that just means his head
isn't where it needs to be. And I'm not going
to get the work that I want, regardless of what
I say or do. Wow. Well put. It's pretty amazing.
So you got Dwight with no intention of doing
any sort of formal structured dog sport things.
But then as you were using him as a pawn for
Newt, it sort of developed into some, you know,
some things started to shape and come together.
And then you decided to. pursue. And then eventually
Ariel had him entered in novice at the classic,
like the biggest, hardest, most distracting dog
show in the country. Tell us about how that happened.
Okay. So Dwight is, you know, he's actually my
best obedience dog. Um, he's easily capable of
a 198 when he's on. Um, but he's really inconsistent.
And I think that that's going to be true of a
lot of these, um, you know, more non -traditional
breeds. And there's definitely a spectrum to
non -traditional and we can get into that in
a minute. Um, but, um, he was, he was just this,
this dog that I got him through novice. He was
doing beautifully. in my local trials. Unfortunately,
he was attacked. There was a dog who came over
the ring gate and went after him when he was
doing a retrieve over high and training. And
that forever kind of did some damage in that
he's not sure that, I mean, now that he knows
that dogs can come over the ring gate, I'm never
going to fully convince him that that's never
going to happen again. So one of my big long
-term goals has been to get him one notch point
and to be able to show him at the noc the noc
environment is really challenging but it's a
lot easier than the classic yeah great so um
i've been kind of slowly getting him uh worked
into he's in rally novice again at the rnc um
this coming july um he's capable of working well
past that, but I like to be able to hang on to
the leash as long as I can in that kind of environment.
So I haven't moved him up. And I really want
him to just be able to be in those environments
and continually build on the success that we
have. My idea of success for him is for him to
be happy and comfortable. It's not a cue or a
score. So have you, you know, when you first
started trialing him in Novice at like probably
smaller local trials, like then did you progress
and try to get him acclimated to busier venues?
Like what was your process with that to like
prepare him for the Classic this year or last
year and then preparing him for the RNC for this
year? Um, so I hadn't really taken him to any
significantly larger trials. I did take him to
the RNC last year and he froze up quite a bit.
Fortunately, still had the leash on. It was rally
novice. And I was able to just celebrate the
short little moments of success. As for the classic
last year, he had way, way more moments of success.
novice obedience being much harder and requiring
much more from him. He still froze up, but he
was able to work through all of it. It wasn't
like he needed to be physically helped out of
any of it. Right. Yeah. He didn't qualify any
of his three runs, but that's not a measure of
success or lack thereof. He did some really awesome
work. with dogs on the other side of the ring
gate. And a lot of what was good was beautiful.
It was. And just for everybody listening, the
classic is the busiest. Most distracting, hardest
dog show venue, I think. I think you guys can
probably agree out of everything. It is 300%.
There are no words that could ever adequately
describe how loud and busy and chaotic and smelly.
And yeah, there are no words to describe. It
is easily, easily by far the hardest dog show
venue. And all of the stimuli you could ever
imagine in any local trial combined together
and then turned up to a thousand. Right. And
the rings are all back to back. Right. So for
a dog who has had some trauma with, you know,
a dog. crossing barrier to get him right having
a dog do it go out on the other side of the ring
gate was really really hard for him exactly so
the rings are all going at the same time um yeah
that's pretty amazing that's pretty amazing what
did you do to like build his um confidence back
up after that happened after the dog jumped over
the ring gate I did a lot of just having him
exist in environments where there were other
dogs and just passively see other dogs. I didn't
do a ton of face -to -face interactions, more
just return to normalcy. Just dogs can exist
around you, ones that I knew were safe and under
control that kind of fit the description of,
yeah. Yeah, and we saw that a little bit when
you came up and did a class with me. Because
I think I had the ring divided. Yep. Right? And
you were doing like a broad jump or something.
Yeah, that's where we saw it a little bit. And
he just, there was a little avoidance just because
of that with the other dog on the other ring
gate. And you just worked through it until he
finally got it. And then I think you had moved
it over a little bit to help him out. And he
was successful. I give more space whenever possible.
And if not, then I make it easier. And there's
always something that you can do to backstep
your exercise to the point that your dog can
be successful. And if there's nothing you can
do, that's really not an environment that they
can work in at that time. They're not ready.
I think what's really important because I've
seen this happen a lot is where. Yes, that did
happen to him. Yes, it did affect him. But it
is what it is. It's done. So now or after that
and through today, you just work with him to
help him move through that. I think a lot of
times people take that and then they go, they
throw their hands up in the air and they're like,
the dog's ruined. And every time like. they work
their dog or their dog gets a little uncomfortable,
weird. They're like, oh, see, there it is. There
it is. And they almost make it worse by creating
like this self -fulfilling prophecy. And then
sometimes they're like, oh, see, he's nervous.
And a dog in some situations isn't even nervous.
Like the whole labeling thing, right? Instead
of just being like, which is what you're doing,
where you're like, yep, it happened. Yep, it
sucks. Yep, it bothers him. um well now I have
to deal with it here's what I'm doing and here's
what I will continue to do right yep which is
what I've always done um with Dwight is the message
that I want Dwight to have as a takeaway is I
understand why you're nervous and I think that's
a valid reason but there's also ways that you
can do this and I just want to empower him that
he can do it because every time he does something
that's challenging especially around you know
in a very highly pressurized situation he's always
so proud of himself and we can genuinely celebrate
that yeah and you can build on that right and
I think that I always say to my students I'm
like first of all you have to believe in the
dog right because if you don't believe in the
dog well the dog's never going to believe in
themselves and you have to be the anchor for
the dog. Like you have to stop being like, Oh
God, Oh God. And just be cool, calm and collected.
Okay. I see this. All right. Let me help you
through this or, you know, let me help you work
through this and then build that teamwork, build
that trust, build that confidence rather than
just kind of, you know, throw their hands up
in the air and like, every single every time
the dog like looks left or right go see he's
nervous see he's panicking um and then it makes
you powerless like you when that happens you
can't really do anything to fix it or to help
the dog or to help the dog overcome it um and
um going back to just the the labeling i think
this applies to um i mean it applies to all dogs
you know but definitely there's there's people
who bring out very non -traditional dogs and
they're like well my my dog couldn't work because
you know that fluffy coat looked like a sheep
you know or i don't know um like there must be
rats in that corner my my dog is a terrier so
of course you know he's sniffing because there
must have been rats in here at some point right
um it all kind of goes back to like the There
must have been a bitch in heat in here at some
point. Yes. And I think that particularly with
some of the more non -traditional dogs, there
are people who, when they're not having success,
they try and find an excuse that would be more
unique to their dog and their situation. Yeah.
Yes. And again, it's limiting because then you
can't you don't have a solution then. Right.
You can't fix it. Right. Like if your dog's a
terrier and there's rats in every corner. Well,
then basically you're shit out of luck. Right.
Right. Right. Nothing you can do about it versus.
Yes, I have a terrier. Maybe there were rats
here. Maybe there weren't. But. In either event,
I'm just going to keep working to help my dog
be more engaged or help my dog, you know, overcome
their rat obsession. Yeah, you always have the
choice of how you attack this, whether it's to
be powerless or to be powerful. Kind of an example
of this is several years ago, I knew that German
Wirehead Pointer Nationals was going to be held
in a livestock barn. And several years before
it had also been held in another livestock barn.
There were pigeons in the rafters. Almost no
dogs qualified in obedience. It was kind of a
shit show. Actually, no, it wasn't kind of a
shit show. It just was. It was bad. But I'm like,
you know what? I know where there's a pigeon
coop. And so I had my dog do signals in a pigeon
coop because I'm like, if you can do signals
with 20 pigeons flying around and into you, you
can do it if there's a couple in the rafters.
And we got high on trial that year. Yeah, high
on trial and high combined. I love it. You know
what? On off -breed nationals, first of all,
why do they do? Because my one training partner
is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. They'll have it in,
like, a barn. You know, like, they had it last
year, no center stanchion. Like, they didn't
even have regular ringing. Yeah, it was like
a dressage ring with the loaf. Yeah, it was like
a dressage. And I'm like, what are you people
doing to these? I know. Give them a chance. These
venues, geez. Help them out. It's so hard. You
know, there's there's a lot that I wish could
be different. And I think a lot of it oftentimes
comes down to finances. These are smaller clubs
and they may not have the most money to rent
the nicest rings. And particularly, you know,
like I know for Wirehair Nationals, I was chair
one year and the person, the friend that I was
co -chair with. We were the only two people in
the B classes. So we were both simultaneously
setting up and stewarding for each other in between
running dogs. And then there was a handful, maybe
like four or five novice dogs. So it's really
hard when you have that small of an entry to
be able to justify financially getting a really
nice setup that would be advantageous for newbies
to want to. It's kind of like this catch 22 of
people don't want to enter these small breed
nationals in the lower levels for obedience because
it's going to be subpar of a setup for success
than most local trials. But then there's not
the entries to support financially getting a
nicer venue. yeah and it's kind of like you said
because my training partner like he'll find out
where the nationals are held find out what the
venue's like i remember one year it was on like
a dirt floor barn type scenario so we um we found
some dirt floor places where we could train right
and we took them there and we trained there because
um you know rhodesians are very they they are
not you know yeah the whole bred to hunt lions
not not the ones that are that are being bred
now they don't like their paws to get wet they
don't like to lay down you know they're like
prima donnas they're like princesses so um you
know what he would was he get like he probably
wouldn't want to lay down on the juror and he
wouldn't want to do this and that so we rented
these places or we you know he made arrangements
to go to these different places so he could work
through all those things to um you know maximize
the dog's ability to succeed in that like unique
setting and then even where they had um the last
one where they had those wacky ring gates like
he just warmed up to you know towards that like
he he just what he wasn't like oh god i'm done
is the bottom line right he didn't just throw
up his hands in despair he solve the problem
right how can I help my dog be successful in
this situation um and yeah so what you said is
like so key I had that written down because um
when people use those breed labels as an excuse
in a sense of like well now I can't do anything
about it well then you then you can't right you're
not empowering yourself instead so you know be
creative think about how can you solve the problem
understand yeah I may need to work way harder
on this than somebody else but that's okay because
that's another thing like if you choose an off
breed then You chose that breed, right? And so
you are going to have more challenges than certain
other people with certain other dogs. For sure.
And that comes with it. So you know that going
in. So I don't like when people are like, oh,
stupid terriers, blah, blah. Well, dude, you
got a terrier. Right. That's the dog that you
have and you love. Obviously it lives in your
house for a reason. Yeah. Right. Like, yeah,
I get it. It can get a little frustrating, but
it is what it is. It is a terrier at the end
of the day. Keep at it. Doesn't mean you can't,
you know, you can't do well with it. You might
have to work harder. Okay. That's just part of
the territory. If you don't want to do that.
then don't get a terrier get a golden retriever
i'm not saying all golden retrievers are easy
to chain people don't slip out i'm just saying
but i i think something that also we need to
talk about is that there's a spectrum of non
-traditional um and that not all non -traditional
breeds are equally non -traditional um so i think
before we get into this like i i want to define
both non -traditional and To do that, you know,
it's just the opposite of traditional, which
would be breeds that both currently and historically
dominate in the obedience ring. So like Retrievers,
Goldens, Labs, and then Border Collies, Shelties,
and then some of these more historical breeds
like Poodles and German Shepherds. So that's
kind of what you call this more traditional group.
And then everything else is just this amorphous,
non -traditional group. But there is such a spectrum
within that. And the challenge level is exponentially
higher in some of these breeds than others. Like
there's some of these uncommon or rare breeds
that are hidden gems waiting to be discovered
for performance sports. I agree. Sorry, I had
to say that because there are so many breeds.
I'm like, oh, my God, why aren't why are more
people not have this breed? Honestly, I think
of German Wirehaired Pointers that way. I think
that if you want a real hidden gem and you want
to do well in breeds, literally any sport, pick
your sport. You can be in the top five if you
can get to the top level. But yeah, so there's
these non -traditional breeds. Well, actually,
let me back up for a second. So I want to kind
of break down some of the temperament traits
that are common to the breeds that we commonly
see on the podiums. And that's going to be high
energy, easily motivated, resilient to both pressure
and repetition, biddable and wants to work with
people, and a dog who finds the act of working
to be inherently rewarding. And then physically,
Dogs who are medium to large in size, square
and build, you know, dog shaped for lack of a
better word. Yeah. And has fluffier curly hair.
So these are all the traits that the more of
these traits are a predictor of success where
and the more likely that success is going to
come easily. Well, conversely, the more divergent
a dog is from any of those traits. the more challenging
it's going to be for them to do well in obedience.
Or rally or certain other sports that are not
where they're not that they're not inherently
bred for. Right. Right. And that's a very good
definition. Yeah. Thank you. I thought a lot
about this. clearly because i think this is a
topic that comes up with a lot of people with
depending on what they have for their dog you
know their breed a dog for sure and it's also
understanding like this um so you know back to
dwight just because you did such a nice example
of like um He he likes he wants to like sniffing
is in him like it's it's wired into his DNA.
Right. I'm not going to fight that. Right. I'm
not going to be like, stop sniffing, stop sniffing.
I'm just going to leverage that. Right. Like
I'm going to accept like this is who you are.
I understand that. So how can I take that? And
leverage that. to get what I need you to get
or what I would like you to give me. Right. And
I feel like sometimes people on the one hand,
they'll use their dog's traits as an excuse.
But on the other hand, they're like trying to
fight a battle that they're never going to win
because at the end of the day, you're not going
to change like innately the genetics that are
just wired into your dog. Right. So another example
of that, my German Wirehaired Pointer, Newt.
He is a very environmentally aware dog. He's
a pointer and he's also like I've worked him
a lot on birds. He's a dual champion. So he's
got his field championship and he's also a master
hunter. So he's been on birds pretty extensively.
He understands that the environment has these
draws. He listens and he watches for small changes
in the environment. I know this about him. And
something that I've noticed just historically
is that if I can get him into busier venues,
he tends to do so much better than when I have
him in quiet, sterile venues. So in my state
of North Carolina. Almost all of the trials are
single ring, one judge trials. And you're going
to be hard pressed to find a trial where people
won't shush you if you talk in a conversational
tone. So I always wanted to get Newt much more
consistent locally before I traveled with him.
But I never really, I got his UD. He got his
UDX, but he was never really consistent or working
in a way that he seemed happy and that I was
super comfortable with. And then I would take
him to the Classic. The first year we went to
the Classic, had a trial right beforehand locally.
He bombed it. And I was convinced he was going
to do awful. He got third and open that year.
Same exact setup the next year. He got fourth
in utility. And then, you know, so it came to
being this pattern of, OK. I know he at least
likes these really busy venues. He did really
well ending up just a couple of placements outside
of the top 10 in Masters last year. I was super
proud about that. He made top 50 at the NOC.
These are all things. He loves that environment.
He loves the energy. He loves all that going
on. It's more advantageous to him, you know?
Yes. Like it's more advantageous to him. Well,
for a dog who wants to look around, the more
there is to look at, the less there is to see.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you've got a quiet
place, every little pin drop, every cough, every
dog bark sounds deafening and you can hear it
inside the ring. When you're in. You know, you
may not realize it if you haven't gone to like
the Classic or the NOC, but you don't hear any
of the noise when you're in the ring. Yeah, it's
just this loud buzz. Yeah, there's no one specific
noise because it's just background noise at that
point. But you also, again, had to kind of just
think outside, like you. you didn't just say
well he can't do it in the quiet trial so no
way I'm gonna try a busy trial you're like well
I'll try it you know what I'm saying like I think
that a lot of times people pigeonhole themselves
um they limit themselves like you have to be
creative sometimes you have to be willing to
try it okay I try it was a disaster okay no big
deal like well that didn't work right I think
people sometimes they They worry too much or
they're like, you know, this is the way it's
done or or this step has to come before that
step. And I think that I think we've talked a
little bit about this in the past, like creativity,
like is so important in training, like willing
to try different things, willing to just see
what happens, willing to like, OK, if it doesn't
work out, it doesn't work out. And I think when
you have non -traditional breeds or even a traditional
breed and for that dog is just more challenging,
you need to be like open -minded. You need to
be willing to just try some things that on paper
might not make sense or that if you told somebody,
they might go, oh, that's going to be a disaster.
Yeah, I agree. I was just going to say that.
Listen to your gut. Yeah. And just try things
anyway. Like, I think that's interesting because
you're pretty young. Like, I feel like you're
maybe that's why you're more open minded. Well,
I feel like, you know, there's a lot of people
who have told me I can't do what I want to do.
And I'm one of these people who I'm like. Well,
fuck you. I'll show you. Amen, sister. Right.
But it's not always easy. Right. It's like it's
not easy when you're trying things. And then,
you know, of course, when we try things, a lot
of times they don't work. And then we'll we have
self -doubt. Right. And then added on top of
that, we have these people. saying you know or
at least if they're not saying it to your face
you know they're saying it behind your back i
told you so right um like you have to have something
where you're just like pick yourself up dust
yourself off and keep going well sometimes you
just have to experiment like they're you know
what i mean with anybody absolutely you have
to have that freedom that like to be able to
say, you know what, I'm just going to try it.
It may go sideways, but I need to know if this
is a possibility that's going to work for this
dog. And sometimes you just need to freaking
try it. But that takes courage. It sure does.
Because you're doing something that is that not
everyone else is doing. You're doing it your
way. And people just love to watch people fail.
Right. And we know that it's in the back of our
mind, like, because we just know that. And so
to be able to take that leap and like to have
it fail. And then not just go, well, I'll just
go back to what. Well, I'm going to try something
different again. Like what? But I think this
is also about defining what failure is. So kind
of to go back to the example of Dwight and his
articles, I tried tie downs and he was clearly
getting frustrated by the fact that he knew that
he needed to retrieve and he couldn't. Like if
he would get to one that he couldn't immediately
pick up. It didn't really compute to him to keep
trying again on other ones. He would just try
harder on the first one that he came to. So could
that be looked at as a failure? Yeah, that wasn't
the method for him. But my takeaway from that
wasn't that tie down was a failure overall. It
was that actually tying down the articles, having
him be unable to bring something back was creating
a frustration for him that was. the opposite
of helpful for what my goals were. You know,
I tried using food on the articles, which that
was great. But, you know, he also had some self
-doubt afterward of if there's not food, where
are we? And as I started to fade it down. And
ultimately, you know, what I came to was, OK.
He just needs to be, you know, shaped on dissent.
And we'll see how that goes. And that worked
marvelously. Right. So it's the perspective.
And I think that's a huge point because I do
think people are very much oriented to it's either
a success or a failure. Right. Yeah. Obedience
is way too hard, especially if you have an uphill
battle already just by the breed that you chose.
to be able to see it in terms of pass, fail,
win, lose. Well, and also paired with the being
limited to your options of training methods or
ideas and lack of creativity and the freedom
to try more abstract ways. I think that's a big
one. Oh, for sure. I think it's like that in
a lot of sports, though. Like a lot of sports,
some more than others, you know, have like set
ways, like this is how we do it. Right. And then
and in general, like I have someone she has a
terrier. She's doing sent articles. I'm teaching
her the, you know, sent the. Oh, my God, Lori,
help me. The word tens. Yeah. That sent the tens.
Right. And then whatever the whole method. and
like the dogs and she's never done sent articles
before right so dog's doing great step by step
and it's like step by step she posts a video
she's like look how well my dog's doing well,
how are you going to do? And immediately, like,
like two or three times now, someone has said
to her, well, how's that going to work out? You
better make sure the dog's not doing this, or
you better make sure the dog's not doing that.
And I'm like, that doesn't even make sense. Right.
So she comes to me, she's like, um, somebody
said, blah, blah, blah. Right. And so of course,
like, luckily, you know, luckily she has me to
come to, but like, right. Then now she's going
to start. Oh, well, maybe I'm doing this wrong,
even though it's going well. Like, right. Oh,
right. So maybe I shouldn't be doing like that.
Maybe because I'm from the other person's perspective.
Oh, this is a different method. You don't even
understand the method, but then don't start.
But that's just human nature, right? Yeah, for
sure. So one of the critiques that I would have
for. just the amount of information available,
particularly to people who need a much more creative
path for their dog, whether that's a non -traditional
dog or just a more challenging traditional breed,
is that there's some incredible training talent
in this country who are very set in their ways
of how things are done and anything outside of
that is wrong. For sure. Something that I face
kind of an issue with Dwight was he really struggled
with the concept of stand. And he's a dachshund.
So people just automatically assume, oh, well,
his back must hurt or, you know, like because
what he would do is he would stand and then he
would sit back down. Yeah. So people assume that
his back hurt or his knees were bad. I was told,
go talk to the Ochdoxin people. Do you know how
many Ochdoxin people there are? None? One? More
than none, but I think it's one or two. You know,
who are currently, the dog is alive right now.
Yeah, right. Forty years ago. Right, exactly.
And the other thing is, they're all minis. Dwight
is a standard and he's a bigger standard, too.
He's 27 pounds. So he's twice as long as some
of these mini dachshunds. And a stand has just
not been the easiest thing for him. I've tried
everything. And like I was getting suggestions
like, well, just kick under his belly. OK, well,
then he's he wants to move away. I don't want
to teach him to move away from pressure when
I've spent so much time teaching him to come
into my pressure. Yeah. put a you know cold coke
can under his belly he'll stand up oh jesus why
um like and i've had more than one arch trainer
who was like here let me see they take a handful
of treats they try what their normal method is
that you know taught their border collie or their
golden in all of about you know five minutes
to stand forever and lo and behold it didn't
work so what i Ended up doing, I don't know why,
but I set up a camera at Dwight's level behind
him where the judge would stand on signals. And
I had him do a stand from a sit and a down. And
I'm like, oh, my God, he's stepping on his tail.
Oh, yeah. Remember you told me this. Yeah. So
what he would do is he because I worked really
hard on a kickback stand because I didn't really
want him to move forward because anybody who's
ever done obedience with a very pressure sensitive
dog knows that one step turns into more very
quickly. So I had him kick back and he would
step on his tail and then with the pressure would
sit back down. So I cut like four inches off
his tail and suddenly I didn't have stand issues
anymore. It was amazing. It was the quickest
training fix I've ever had. Well, that's the
whole, yeah. We have talked about this many times.
There is no one method. There's just not. I can't
even remember how I taught my dogs anything because
I'm changing it all the time. And then with students'
dogs, I'm never like, there's only this way because...
There's got to be 10 different ways because each
dog is different. Right. And yeah. And like,
good point there too. Like literally you have
to look at it from all angles, like literally
like front side and back. Right. And really kind
of analyze like, what, what are you doing? What
is the dog doing? Like, how is the dog perceiving
this? And that's what it should be all about.
It should be about like solving the problem.
Right. It shouldn't be about this is the method.
Apply the method. The method should be solve
the problem. Right. Be again, be creative. Figure
it out. Don't just say like, well, this is this
is the only way to do it. Well, there are people
who. They only want to do a very specific type
of methodology. They only want to train a very
specific way. And that's all that they're comfortable
with. And you know what? You can find a dog for
that. But the number of dogs who will fit into
that are very limiting. So if you have a non
-traditional breed or a dog who doesn't work
with your preferred methods, then your options
are to either not train them or to train different.
That's really as simple as it is. Yeah. Yeah.
And I also think like advocating for your dog.
Right. Because if you do have a different breed
or a dog that, you know, has some issue and it's
a struggle and and this isn't to throw shade
on trainers because everybody's not like this.
But, you know, like the trainer should either
say, well, I'm not sure, like maybe like. like
I don't have a problem if you go to a different
trainer besides me right right or if you come
up with different ideas like um but people again
like they have to have the courage to say like
well no I'm not gonna put the soda bottle under
nope I'm not gonna put my foot under no I'm gonna
like not do the things that I don't think are
gonna work for this particular dog Um, but I'm
also not going to give up. I'm going to keep
looking and I'm going to keep searching and I'm
going to figure it out. Right. And so they have
to be willing to say like, okay, yeah, no, I
don't want to try that. Um, and, but also not
give up, right. And not say, or not if the trainers
as well, then you can't fix it or you, or whatever
limiting thing they might say, or other people
might say, you have to be like, yeah. Maybe you're
right, but I'm going to keep trying to figure
this out. Like I'm going to keep trying to solve
this problem. Right. And people have to trust
in their gut. You know, everybody's insecure.
But at the end of the day, if your gut is telling
you it's not this or it's not that. Right. Then
you have to believe that because no one knows
your dog better than you know your dog. Right.
Go ahead. And I think as far as methods, you
also have to sometimes choose or decide, I guess,
is this a method that's going to be beneficial
to my relationship with my dog? True. Because
there are methods that work that. might produce
short -term results that don't give you long
-term what you're looking for and that's also
something that you need to really decide is that
a road that you want to go down yeah boy is that
a hotbed right now yeah that's a whole nother
hour conversation i'm not even gonna go down
that road um yes right because at the end of
the day that's what it's got to be about like
I try to tell people like do you even remember
why you started doing this like why did you start
why did you first do dog sports like I remember
why I did it I wanted to spend more quality time
with my dog and I wanted to like build my bond
with my dog that is literally why I started doing
this and Lori and I have said this many times,
like our dogs first and foremost, they're our
pets. Yeah. Like that's what they are first.
Right. And everything else after that is everything
else after that. Right. And it's just supposed
to be things we do together that we enjoy doing
together. It's a relationship we build. We build
the relationship because we're really learning
about the dog and figuring. figuring this dog
out and communicating with this dog and that
at the end of the day is what trumps everything
else and it's why we make the choices we make
and why we like why we Like I, there have been
many times where I'm like, yeah, I'm not going
to do that. I'm going to try and do it this way.
And in spite, you know, spite of it causing me
big problems with people, sometimes I go home
and I think about it and I'm like, you know what?
Yeah, I'm, this is what I'm going to do because
I, this is what I want to do for my dog. Right.
And, um, And again, and I have students, they
come to me like with a struggle, like, you know,
um, I, I want to go to this class or I want to
go to this situation or I want to train with
these people, but it's contrary or, but you know,
I need to put the rule. And I always say the
relate what you. Your relationship comes first.
What you need to do with your dog comes first.
And you can kindly explain that. And if people
aren't okay with that, then you need to make
a decision. And the decision might be hard. You
might need to leave. You might need to walk away.
Right. You might lose. I think somebody recently,
I think I sent you that message, right? emailed
us or messaged us something along those lines
like you know like i'm training with these people
and it's not in line and like that's hard it's
really it's uncomfortable it's it's very hard
on many different ways um you know and at the
end of the day like this is this is i think something
that resonates with most people out there training
dogs in whatever community you're in like the
opinions and the advice come flowing in from
everybody thinking that they're an expert, obviously
in that. And at the end of the day, it does come
back to you and your dog and your relationship.
And at what cost are you willing to get to whatever
end point or goal or whatever it is you're trying
to get to? Like, you know, I don't know. I always
say like, I always try to put it in terms of,
like, my relationship with my dog is first and
foremost. And it's, like, it is first and foremost
all the time. And I'm not going to do anything
that's going to take away from that. And I always
just say, like, it's just too expensive. I'm
not going to risk that. I'm not risking that
between my dog and I. There's got to be another
way, right? And that is, it's very hard. again
we could go down that road yep and you can have
big goals without like you don't have to sacrifice
your desire to you know have big goals right
for the relationship in fact i would say sometimes
it's actually the opposite if you um spare your
relationship you're not going to get to the big
goals yeah um i've had a number of people ask
me if i plan to get an aunt on dwight and I say
no. And it's not because I wouldn't love a notch.
It's not because I don't think that based on
what I'm seeing right now that he might be capable
of one. It's that if I acknowledge that as a
goal at this point in time, he doesn't even have
a UD. So if I acknowledge that as a goal, it's
not going to that pressure is only going to sit
as a weight on top of our relationship, which
isn't fair to either of us. Yeah, that's, that's
such a good point. Yeah. Definitely. Relationship
first people, relationship first. I'm going to
have to go on TikTok now. You know, I had to
ban myself off TikTok because I, I like 300 %
have an addictive personality. Like the fact
that I'm not addicted to like drugs or something
is a miracle because like I have. And I don't
know, years ago, somebody sent me something on
TikTok. I downloaded it. Hours later, I'm still
scrolling. And I'm like, oh my God, this is a
huge problem. You just set your timer. So I had
to like ban myself from TikTok. But yeah, if
you want to find me, my handle is deviouspickles.
Okay, well, I'm glad you said that because I
would have never thought to look that up. No,
it's in our show notes so people can find Arielle
because she's got great content and it's she
posts all sorts of good stuff. Oh, well, thank
you. Yeah. Well, and I love that you're promoting
the sport, both obedience and rally and especially
to younger people, because we always need younger
people in. And, you know, the barrier to entry
can be hard because the sports can be really
challenging. So I think that's super valuable.
So, yeah. So because I have a pulse on the younger
generations, I just want to kind of put in as
a plug because I've heard many comments of people
think that the sport of obedience is dying because
young people don't want to work hard because
there are so many more sports to choose from.
And yes, there's more sports, but I would also
encourage people to question themselves how accessible
they're making themselves to younger people who
might be working professionals or young parents
with having classes outside of daytime hours.
Most instructors, you know, local kennel clubs
are seniors who are, you know, or retirees, people
who are holding classes during the day, not necessarily
nighttime classes. And what is your barrier to
entry for the basic classes? Because when I was
22 and trying to get into sport classes with
my first German wirehead pointer, I wanted to
get into obedience classes, but I was told, given
your age and her age and breed, Maybe you should
go and solidify your basics in another basic
obedience class first. And then, you know, we
got our CD, you know, a couple months later with
no help from anyone with a 198 average. So it's
there. You don't necessarily need to discount
younger people or younger people with nontraditional
breeds. This is how. It makes it a very challenging
uphill battle to even get into the sport when
there's other sports that are much more readily
accessible. I would say that accessibility is
the biggest barrier to entry, not desire to work
hard. Yeah, I agree. And to a point, welcoming.
Right. You know, it's really hard when you are
hanging out with a bunch of people who like I've
been to classes where I'm the youngest person
by 30 years and everybody else is their own little
friend group in this class. And I feel like I'm
sitting off on my own. That doesn't feel very
welcoming. Yeah, I would hang out with you. Well,
thank you. I'd hang out with you too, Pedro.
Well, that's what happened at the classic. We
all came over to watch you in novice. right and
then we all yeah that was great thank you dinner
and then it was like but yeah i get it yeah like
people are like i know humans humans god why
are humans so complicated just like be nice help
everybody i mean something that i'll say is i
i remember the faces of the people who stuck
around to clap for me when i was in novice a
and those are still people who i feel like they're
safe people in my obedience community locally
yeah that's important you need that you need
the you need that you know you need those people
for sure yeah the small acts of kindness go a
long way oh god we won't go there that's all
yeah so everybody could talk for hours Yeah,
we're not going down that road. Be nice. We say
it every time. Be nice. Be nice to the new competitors.
Be nice to traditional, non -traditional. Be
nice to everybody. Welcome people in. Help them
out. Be open -minded. Be creative. Be kind. Just
be nice. You can do a TikTok on that. yeah i've
done plenty well this has been awesome ariel
we really really appreciate you coming on and
talking to everybody about yeah thanks again
for having me on yeah your journey has been amazing
um we'll see you ariel is actually coming up
to connecticut to train with us in june oh cool
yay yeah that'll be super fun yeah then Good
luck at Rally Nationals. And are you doing? I
am doing the NOC as well. Good. So if you guys
live stream, go check her out. Check her out
with her dogs. And she's like, shut up. No pressure.
You won't even be thinking about it because it'll
be it's always nice to see happy working dogs
and to understand like and respect. Look, I know
how much work it is to train a dog to that level.
And then to train a non -traditional breed, even
that much more work. And we should all have an
enormous amount of respect for anyone and everyone
that undertakes training their dog and competing
with their dog. And the happier their dog is,
the higher level they're working towards. It
just means this person has put in an enormous
amount of work. They've been really open -minded.
They've been flexible. And we should respect
that. And we should respect that. We should admire
that. We should encourage that. And we should
cheer that on. So that's what everybody should
be doing. Hear, hear. Yep. Awesome. Looking forward
to seeing you in June. Thank you so much for
coming on. Thank you, guys. Thanks, everybody.
Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye.