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I Think We’ve Found Our Tribe….Let’s Set It Off!
The title of this post is quite humorous because it’s from the movie “Girls Trip” w/ Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall. But I found it relevant to the subject matter of today’s post as well.
Today, I’m going to talk about my experiences thus far in IPO. We have been doing IPO for over a year now (we started at the end of January 2017). I am leaving out club names in this post because I’m not creating drama, I am explaining our experience this year.
The first club we trained with was local. It had just gotten started. We (me & Daniel) really knew nothing about IPO when we first started. Besides some videos that we had seen, and we knew it was hard work but that the Boxers we saw do it looked so polished. We wanted our dog to look like that. At the time we only had Capone. I will start off by saying this I made some really great training friends throughout that club, people that I am still friends with today. Our training journeys just are taking us all in different directions. I felt that they paid attention to my dog but was a little unsure of how to handle her. For whatever reason, our club disbanded. So the search was on for another.
Our first visit was to my current club Greater Cincinnati Schutzhund Club. We were so impressed with their field and clubhouse. It was super nice. We didn’t visit any more clubs and we started training with them. They are an hour and 15 minutes from Louisville. We paid our club dues and started being regular members of the club. They were very welcoming to us especially me with an off breed Boxer. We started training with them in July 2017. However, their helper was not very experienced. At first, they seemed interested in my Boxer. You can’t train a Boxer like a GSD. There’s a little difference there. As time went by I saw the disinterest in my dog and they would have the most inexperienced helpers try to get her to bark. I went to a training back in February 2018 in Clarksville, TN with Chris & Minna Becher (Boxer Training Weekend With Minna & Chris Becher .) and he was able to get her to bark consistently. Chris is definitely to Boxer whisperer. And he got Capone to bark as well. Diamond has gotten Tia to bark. I think I drew the line on this club when they let a 13-year-old inexperienced girl to work Tia during protection. I mean WTF? I’m sorry about the language but I was so upset. I don’t drive an hour and fifteen minutes for a 13-year-old to work my novice dog. I called Minna and asked her if I was overreacted or was I in the right to feel upset. Minna told me if she would’ve gone off. She said if she’s an inexperienced helper she should be working with an experienced dog, not one that is shaping their behavior. So, we’be paid our dues for the year so we are members until January, I think. GCSC is not a bad club. But their main focus and interest is the German Shepherd and Malinois. And I need someone like Diamond who teaches and puts in the work.
At the training in February, I met the Hansels and they were super nice and invited me to come out and train with them. Minna and Chris strongly suggested it since we were so close and Diamond is so experienced. So, we have found our tribe in the Hansels group training. I feel like its right. They take interest in my dog and tries to figure her out instead of saying “oh well she didn’t bark” and letting it go. Of course, my surgeries put a hold on my training so I’m behind. But I’m confident that Diamond and Christina can get me to where I want to go. And that’s where we are with the no club thing. Diamond’s group is just that, not a club. I am a solo member of United Schutzhund Club of America. USCA puts on the most trials and you have to be a member unless you want to pay $100 extra. So If I was to get Tia’s BH title and I wasn’t a member of USCA they would charge me an extra $100 which would make my total fee about $160-$170. If you are still confused on the titles, I’m working on that post to explain what the titles are and what they mean. Happy Training!
