American Dog Obedience Center

08/02/2025

Border collie Rave On was a perfect demo dog as we hosted a private AKC Fetch Test workshop at American Dog Obedience Center yesterday. Students practiced back-to-back single retrieves, double retrieves, and were introduced to concepts like directed retrieves, distant throwers, and throws that land behind blinds.
Edited to add link in comments to Lab Gabby’s video from Friday.
This is a fun new sport, just getting started. It wraps basic skills around a dog’s favorite pass-time. As dogs and handlers earn new titles and move up into increasingly more challenging classes, they must learn to demonstrate higher skill levels too. Unlike field trials and hunt tests, there are no guns or birds involved - and dogs of all breeds can play.
Rave On and the teams that attended our mini-event on Friday have already sent in entries to their first event, next month in KS. They will be starting at the Novice level and have already begun training with eyes on Intermediate, Advanced, and the highest title - Retriever.

07/27/2025

The Twins
For several years, we’ve moved some agility equipment to this small shady area for summer practices with our dogs. It’s bordered by our woods along the east side, the pond is just behind us to the north, and the kennel piece is to the west. These same elements, as well as abundant grass, have also made this a popular spot for deer to give birth and manage family life early on. With guidance, our dogs behave respectfully. There are times in the process that a deer will become defensive and so we yield to them then. Dennis caught this moment while setting up to work DD early today. Not dog related but a treat to be shared.

07/21/2025

Summer is flying by! We hope you and your dogs are chasing after some good times together. The photo is Scout, a small but mighty doodle from our June class. She is the second dog we’ve worked with for this active family. We appreciate that.

Want to do more or “fit” better in the relationship with your dog? We will be accepting a few feisty dogs during September, October, and November 2025. Check us out at dogprograms.com . Then use the contact form there or phone us to discuss whether our special brand of training is a good fit for your family. We promise to keep expectations real.

07/17/2025

Gracie came by today for a private lesson. She wasn’t dressed like this today but she IS like this. Do you see her mustache?

07/08/2025

Lulu trained with us during June. She was compliant and easy - unless she wasn’t. Her family felt she could do better, even tho she was usually pretty good. They were correct.
Many dogs miss out on their best lives because their families settle for “usually” or “mostly.” It’s not just the people who benefit from our brand of training; dogs benefit greatly too, from increased participation in family life when their humans can depend on them to consistently behave appropriately. Consider, too, that our courses also include important information to enable families to better understand their dogs’ communication and behaviors.
If your family is settling for mediocre behavior, contact us about a September class for your dog. We promise to keep expectations real.

07/07/2025

Atka is a beautiful young German shepherd, recently adopted when we worked with her last month. It’s an ongoing mystery to me, how the perfect adoptive families are able to select just the right dogs. Atka’s story is not ours to to tell but it’s fair to write her quirky behaviors could be challenging. Even tho, it happened again after working with Atka and her “new” family. After our lesson I felt she had landed right where she belonged. Wonder-ful how that happens.

07/02/2025

Nature’s silent fireworks in the sky Monday, from our house looking east over the pond.

05/29/2025

Welcome back to Nature’s photo studio.
We told Labrador retriever Doc we were taking class photos in the daisies — and he showed up ready to flaunt his authentic self. Perfect!

05/19/2025

You’re a daisy if you do.
~ Doc Holliday

Border collie Rave On does, and she is. Note her smile here in nature’s photo studio. I feel like a daisy for catching that! We hope your week includes daisy-do moments - and happy smiles too.

05/14/2025

We love hearing from you “formers”! These 2 master magic carpetitions trained at American Dog Obedience Center a few years apart, a few years ago. The magic was transferred from their original carpets to this set up in their family’s home. Here, they are waiting to be released for dinner. A very fine testimonial accompanied the photo – and it’s beyond satisfying to read about their levels of success. Thank you!

05/13/2025

Beyond an entertaining sketch, this is an insightful post from a dog training professional in another country.

Ever wonder why having dogs walk in a straight line beside a relatively slow two-legger has inspired the creation of some of the most suppressive equipment for dogs?

Loose leash walking in this way is the antithesis to fun for most dogs. It’s so often a human want rather than a dog need.

It's a pretty tall order to ask dogs, who naturally move about their world in such a different way to human-style, to walk in the way that we do. So if we want that, because, let's be realistic, sometimes we need it for safety, then we have to make sure they get to do it their way a helluva a lot. So they get to do it do********le, if you will...

05/11/2025

Several hundred mothers are here on this page. Thanks for choosing American Dog Obedience Center LLC to help you with the dog. You really don’t have to do it by yourself.
The rascal in this photo is Jet, from a previous class.