Knoble Dog is owned and operated by Laura Knoll and offers household obedience and agility classes. I have been training and competing in agility with my Dobermans and border collies for over 10 years and enjoy sharing my knowledge with others, whether they want to compete at top levels of competition or simply enjoy playing with their dogs in a class setting. The Knoble Dog, LLC officially began in 2004 when I began teaching household obedience classes and later agility classes in Muscatine, Iowa and a couple years later added a location in Davenport, Iowa. Dog training first began for me when my son, David, and I wanted to get a well-bred Doberman puppy that “we might show.” Well, before you knew it, we had 4 young Dobermans and were totally addicted to showing them in conformation, junior handling and my true passion, agility. I currently have 4 Dobermans and 3 Border Collies of varying ages, all of which are in training or retired from agility. My training program focuses on developing a strong bond with the dog through positive reinforcement methodology, using whatever the dog finds rewarding. Each dog is different so it is important to be able to understand the messages that the dog is sending to us as trainers and find the best way to help the dog understand what we want and how they can earn the rewards that they want. This requires that we carefully observe our dogs and be flexible to their needs during the learning process. I strive to help students better understand the messages their dogs are sending and to problem solve how to overcome whatever challenges they are facing. For agility classes, I believe in providing dogs with a strong foundation of basic skills that provides the basis for communicating with the dog and teaching higher level skills. Agility requires that the dog have many skills, but success with the sport requires a strong system of communicating with the dog where to go, and very quickly. My foundation program is based on the handling system of Linda Mecklenburg, as I have learned from my instructor and mentor, Dana Pike. This method uses basic principles of movement and position that dogs naturally understand, so it makes sense to them and transitions well to putting it all together to run entire courses. In 2011 with the purchase of my current home outside Geneseo, Illinois, I was able to fulfill a lifetime dream of owning an acreage and combine that with my new goal of having my own training facility. After a couple of years of renovations and solving an endless series of unexpected challenges with my indoor arena, I am very excited to begin classes in the fall of 2013 at Knollane Farm.
