Brandon residents, Angela and Ryan Froese, know first-hand how positive reinforcement, dedicated training practices, and just hanging out together with their favorite canine buddies pays off. 

The couple enrolled their 5-year old retriever, Nassau, into obedience training classes when he was just a year old.  Now 5 years and 100 pounds later, Nassau has achieved a significant milestone in Rally Obedience competition in Canada with the help of his trainer and handler, Angela. 

Last year, in 2020, Angela and Nassau achieved 2nd place in Rally Obedience for mixed breeds, and this year they’re currently in 1st place for the same competition.  “This is pretty exciting for us,” shares Angela.  “Our standings for all breeds competing across Canada is 26th place.” 

Nassau is a mixed breed, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and Labrador Retriever, that competes in a variety of competitions such as Dock Diving, and Barn Hunt, a scent detection sport. 

Watching Froese and Nassau walk their way through the obedience training trials one can see that Nassau is keen to keep his eyes on her at all times, watching for hand gestures, body language, eye contact.  Between 10-20 stations, depending on the class level, are placed throughout the course with signs telling the pet owner what is required at each particular station. 

Random toys and food are placed at certain stations to attempt to distract the dog, but Nassau stays true to his task, that being to watch Angela for the next cue to sit, stand, stay, lay down, jump over a hurdle, etc.  Nassau has one chance to get it right, there are no do-overs!   

“It’s not just walking with your dog,” explains Ryan.  “It’s having control of your dog throughout the entire course at all times, and it’s not just stand or sit at one station, there can be a series of movements at each station.”  

Angela now passes on her experience as a trainer to help other dog owners have success with their pets through the Brandon Crocus Obedience and Kennel Club, where the Froese’s first took Nassau. She instructs basic handling skills through the Manners 1 Classes, and she also instructs the more advanced Rally Obedience Practice classes.   

To be so in sync with each other, Froese says the key is in the bonding with your dog and providing mental and physical stimulation, along with positive reinforcement, so your dog wants to please and wants to work.   

“And that means you go for walks, you play games, and you do lots of training.”   

For pet owners who recognize their dog needs extra training, Froese says that Manners classes are a great place to start. At home is where the real work begins, and its where both the dog and all members of the household work together towards a common goal. Consistency is one of the most important factors when it comes to training. 

“You can come to our classes and we can show you what you can do to acquire the behaviors that you’re looking for, teach new behaviours, or correct behaviors that you’re not wanting, such as pulling on a leash, lack of focus, and resource guarding” she explains. “There are different things that we can do to help correct those behaviors.” 

“We can give you the tools but ultimately its up to you to take that home and work on it, and have the other people in your home, work on it as well,” she adds. 

The Froese household is an energetic bunch that includes Lucia, a 3-year old docile Labra-doodle and Montego, a 1 year old purebred Standard Poodle that’s a hopping, pouncing ball of energy!  All three dogs attend training classes, as well as participate in various competitive dog sports. 

“Our dogs do Barn Hunt and play frisbee,” shares Froese. “Agility is a big one for our dogs, so they do jumps, tunnels, teeter-totters, weave poles, etc,” she explains, “things that you would see at the Super Dogs.  Dock diving is a relatively new sport, where the dogs launch off of an elevated dock into the water. We’re typically going for distance, and Nassau has a personal best of just under 20 feet.” 

“There’s also a sport called Sprinter that we’ve just started getting into.  This is a timed 100-metre dash where the dog is chasing a lure down the course. So, we do that training as well, it’s a lot of fun!” 

“You can basically train any dog to do a sport, its just how much effort and time are you willing to put in, and what your dog enjoys” shares Froese.  “Where something might be a lot easier for Nassau, who is a very confident and high drive dog, with Lucia, certain things are going to take more work to train because she doesn't have that confidence level and drive and needs more reassurance and reinforcement.” 

Ryan and Angela both work with all 3 dogs, but with this much fun it’s hard to use the word ‘work’.  The hours of together-time make for happy pets and happy pet-owners. 

Seeing the wall full of blue ribbons, Ryan is very proud of Angela and Nassau. To achieve this high standing in Rally Obedience and other sports is exciting.

“It is so gratifying to put our teamwork and training to the test and to see all of those hours and all of that hard work that Nassau and I have both put in pay off,” adds Angela.  “It’s very, very rewarding!”