Left...LEFT!...NO NO NO..Your other Left!!!!

OK, Now Forward

Looking good...OH wait..stop! stop! ....oops! I meant Halt.....no wait, make that an ABOUT TURN.

All right, let's try that again, except let's see if there's any way to avoid running into the ropes this time..........

Ummm......Handler on the end......is there a reason you're facing the opposite direction??

I did?? Sorry.......

   The only way to understand what it's like to be a member of the Arizona Great Dane Drill Team is to jump in with all six feet, which is exactly what all of us did. It's a recipe for fun that combines the structure of formal obedience with the beauty of music and movement. Take 8 dogs and their human counter parts, put on some good music and let the dance begin.

  To picture what we do you have to envision a high school marching band colliding with a bunch of Great Danes. SLAM, BANG..Loose the instruments (and the tall furry hats with plumes) CRASH, BOOM.....add four legged bundles of pure energy (and just enough slobber to keep everyone humble) and TADA!..Drill Team. From the beginning we have welcomed any human as long as they had a Dane attached. This is a system that has proven to be effective as we have found that Danes, with their acute sense of humor, inevitably choose their human counterparts based on their fun factor. Face it, we all know to be owned by a Dane requires the ability to laugh at ones self and enjoy basking in the attention that they draw simply by existing. This is the perfect scenario for a Drill Team member.

   We all started at different levels of obedience training, some advanced dogs and some barely leash trained. With lots of practice, support of team members and on going obedience classes all the dogs, and humans, have learned to work together as a group. It is an awesome experience to work with such a diverse group of both dogs and owners. Each adds something unique and individual to the team that without we would not be what we are. The hidden talents that you discover, even from people that you have known for years, is eye opening to say the least.

    I have to admit that going into this was rally scary! So many questions that there were just no answers to and no one to ask about the pitfalls that we might encounter.

Will anyone else be interested in this kind of an activity?
You know that saying..if you build it they will come? Well, if you show up at the park....so will the dogs. We started with 2-3 dogs at a practice, usually every other week. Now we practice twice a week and usually have 6-10 dogs working on the routine and several others on the sidelines watching and learning. People LOVE to do things with their dogs!

Will the dogs get along?

Here is where obedience training shines the brightest. All of the dogs have learned to trust their handlers to NEVER put them in a position of danger so there is no reason for them to feel threatened by the other dogs.

 That is not to say that we don't have an occasional grumble, the difference is that a simple NO from the handler stops the potential problem. Obedience training teaches real life skills, not just ring procedures or something that earns you a graduation certificate. Often during practices we will put all the dogs on down stays so we humans can gather around to have discussions. Guess what happens?  Nothing, they just lay there like they were asked. Obedience training......we train, they gain.

How do you work with dogs that are all at different levels?

  This was surprisingly easy. It just took remembering one of those recipe for success. Start small and work your way up from there. Some of our handlers started with us having only rudimentary training skills. With the combined input and patience of all the other team members the beginners quickly caught up to speed, We all want to do well and taking the extra time to help fellow members benefits the whole team. All the dogs are in ongoing classes and the support of everyone else on the team makes problem solving easy.

 Will the people get along?

The team has turned out to be just one big extended family with all the benefits a family has to offer....without in-law problems! Many of us have children, all have spouses and most have additional dogs that are not members of the team. {side note......every one who has another dog also has trained that dog in obedience.....we will often bring the "other dog" for someone else to work if for some reason their own dog is unable to come}. We meet individually at the park to work our dogs together, join each other for dinner, travel to the shows together. We compete against each other in the conformation ring, cheer each other on in the obedience and agility rings and pick on each other relentlessly at Drill Team Practices. Get along? At this point I don't  think we could get along without each other.

What do we do?

  This has been a learn as you go experience. Our first challenge was to just learn to walk in a straight line. Sounds so simple......until you try it with 8 people who all have different length legs and 8 dogs that move at different speeds. Want to talk about your basic humbling experience! Our routines are works in progress, each practice or performance teaches us more about the abilities we have (or in some cases what we don't have) and each adds something new to our repertoire. Our basic routines are based on the standard obedience commands and from there we add the individual talents of both dogs and handlers.

Picture this......

Eight dogs and their handlers side by side all moving in a line towards you. The line stops and all the dogs sit at the same time. Then one by one each dog in it's turn lays down. After the last dog has lain down the first two stand up, then the next two, then the next two, then the last two. The handlers leave their dogs on a stand stay and go stand behind them. The handlers wave. The dogs bow.

That's what we do.

Why???????

Because we can. Because we have done the training that makes our dogs full participatory members of not only our families, but welcome member of the general public. We can take our dogs with full confidence to any place that dogs are welcome, and we do. Parks,  public events, schools, nursing homes and hospitals. You name it and we'll be there.

 We are not super hero trainers. Our dogs are not extra smart (PLEASE don't tell them I said that!!!!!!) We're just folks like every one else who love our dogs. The difference is that because of obedience training our dogs are able to fully participate in all of our life activities. The bonding that we have with our dogs goes well beyond any of our expectations and we would love to have others experience the same joy that we do. More importantly we would love for their dogs to experience the joy of going....to the park, to the lake, to anywhere their love human is going.

  The main purpose of the Arizona Great Dane Drill Team has never been about the Danes. It has been, and always will be, about educating  the public about the benefits of obedience training. If only one person who sees us perform enrolls their dog in an obedience class or goes to the library and checks out a book on basic training then we have succeeded in our goal.

Kathleen Holland
Phoenix Arizona
http:/www.kennelkappadane.com

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