Paws
for Applause Dog Agility School
Facillities
Paws For Applause is located in a scenic and heavily
treed area of northeast Garland between Rowlett and Wylie. It is
on about 2 acres.
There are two 10,000 foot training fields with both Standard and
Jumpers courses. Lights are available at night. Bermuda is overseeded
with winter rye.
A graveled parking lot for 75 cars.
A doggie pond for swimming with dogs on long lines.
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Testimonials
Posted by: "WiggleButtBleus"
Wed May 21, 2008 4:16 am (PDT)
Bonnie your videos have help me trained Kyan better than Perle and Dallas
ever had, but we are also working on new tricks for them as well.
Loved your new tricks with "Ice",
Deb
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I wanted to let you know that I was so very pleased with how the "Test Drive" went that night.. It was so nice to see people and their dogs that maybe never even considered participating in Agility having such a great time... I heard many nice compliments about the evening.... Thank you for hosting the evening... and I hope to do something like this again....or different... Maybe even a Saturday seminar later in the year...
You have a wonderful facility... I also enjoyed your presentation of your techniques...and your Staff that assisted that night... Well they were pretty awesome...
Thank you for a great evening... It couldn't have been more perfect.....
Kathy Felix
Golden Retriever Club
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Sadie at the Vet
Posted by: "Greta Buehrle"
Fri Apr 4, 2008 2:28 pm (PDT)
I just had to write in to tell you all about how well Agility can
work outside the agility field.
Sadie had her yearly physical exam yesterday morning. For some
reason, every time we go in, she absolutely refuses to get on the
scale. Once I have manhandled her onto the scale it is always
difficult to get a good reading of her weight because she is trying
so desperately to get off the scale. I don't know why she behaves
like this, but for some reason she just hates that scale.
So yesterday, as expected, she started putting up an immediate fuss
when i was leading her to the scale. Suddenly, I had absolute
agility inspiration! Holding a treat in my hand, i got down on her
level next to the scale. I tapped the scale once with my hand and
told her the command "Table". She immediately hopped onto the scale
and sat down, and (of course) was immediately rewarded with the
treat. She sat there watching me while the vet tech took her
weight. I told her break and she hopped right off. The vet tech
told me that was amazing!
So - proof that agility is beneficial in all sorts of weird
circumstances, if you're willing to be creative! Hooray!
~Greta and a correctly weighed Sadie
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January 2008
Hi this is Greta - a newbie from last night - I was with Sadie the English Setter if you were there. My husband (Russell with Huck the
Corgi Puppy) and I had SO much fun and are really looking forward to continuing to learn and train our dogs. I was on such a high going home
last night because I just enjoyed class so much - our dogs did too - they slept the whole way home. It was wonderful to meet all the
veterans out there - and Bonnie thanks for telling me to get the Gentle Leader again - what a stress reliever for both Sadie and I! Looking
forward to next week!
GRETA M. BUEHRLE, IIDA
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December 2007
Hi there,
I think your name is Kristin with Zoe. I don't know you yet, but I understand how you feel. I felt that way when I started agility with my Pom Bella. She learned everything very quickly and was fast as lightening. I didn't think she would handle the stress of trials though. I thought about quitting so many times that it would take all my fingers and toes to count.
But, I didn't quit and I trusted Bonnie that she would do agility in trials. Now ... she doesn't Q every time, but she and I have a blast. I lost 40 pounds in order to run faster and I would train and go to trials even if she didn't Q at all. You have to remember that agility is an adventure and focus on the little successes along the way. It takes some of us longer...but think of the fun along the way.
I remember one particular time I told Bonnie that Bella would never do a sit stay. She told me to keep working on it. AND, the last trial I went to, I did a three jump lead out with this silly Pom. This may not seem like much to the top trainers, but it was a super accomplishment for my Bella.
Just to let you know...so you can see where you will be ... Bella is in open jumpers, open gamblers and elite tunnelers.
Just trust Bonnie, listen to her, and believe in your dog.
Linda/Bella and Alex
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Checking in from the English Setter National
Posted by: birchrun52
Fri Oct 5, 2007 5:14 am (PST)
Hi All,
Wasn't going to write until we had competed on Saturday but last night Tatum "won" everything and regardless of what she does from here on out over the next ten days - all that matters was last night. We are at the English Setter National show in Cincinnati, OH. Showing in two all breed agility trials on Sat and Sunday and then doing conformation the rest of next week.
I've had English Setters for 25 years, and I've done obedience with great recalls in the formal sit-stay-come situation. I have never had an ES come when called in an offlead situation, especially when frightened, strange place, not in a training situation. So THANK YOU, Bonnie!!!! Wish you could have seen it although I have no desire to repeat it! I thought I was going to faint when it was all over - imagining what could have happened. We are right across an 8-lane highway from Kings Island which is a Six Flags type place. And behind the hotel is the Interstate. And I discovered this morning there is a pond outside our room with geese - great!
You always hear how a good recall could save your dog's life and now I'm a believer - thank you, Bonnie!!!
Sue & "Tatum"
Sue & "Tatum"
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From: Carolyn Canizaro-Orlowsky D.V.M.
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 10:14 PM
Subject: Class
Hi Bonnie,
I hope your trip to the Nationals was fun. Wish we could have been there this year...maybe next!
I'm coming up to work in Rockwall again this Friday Nov. 9th through Wed. Nov. 14th. Do you have any classes Dani and I could attend? We had such a great time at your facility and really enjoyed the lunch out afterwards! I wish I didn't have to work during the day Friday! If that's the only class you have, maybe I could work something out with the owner of the clinic to let me leave for a few hours to attend class/lunch!
Let me know if you have anything for us.
Take care,
Carolyn Canizaro-Orlowsky, D.V.M.
Austin, Texas
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From: Rhonda Gelbar
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 4:42 PM
Subject: Thank You!
Bonnie,
What a great note. Diana told me how much I would enjoy agility training. I only did it because it was a chance to spend some time with her. However, in this experience I have found such joy. Fibi and I are becoming a real team. We use to share a couch, bed and a walk and now we play around the house and have such fun. I would be afraid for anyone to see how silly we have become. After a day of patients, illness, diseases and sadness, I so look forward to playing and running around the house hiding her tug or ball. What a companion. I appreciate so much the effort you put into the training and your patience. I looke forward to every Friday so you and Fibi can train me and teach me more.
Merry Christmas,
Rhonda
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Published Article by Bonnie Norris
Published in Cleanrun Magazine archived at Cleanrun.com
And the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro Golden Retriever Club Newsletter
November 2007, Volume 34, Issue 10
What Can We Learn from Barbaro?
Tears came to my eyes and I choked up as I watched the famous bay stallion Barbaro break out of the starting gate at the Preakness, the second leg in the famous Thoroughbred Triple Crown. Barbaro’s power was evident from the start, a fire in his eye and a synchronicity of boiling blood, muscle, and sinew. Even for the horse-racing uninitiated, there was no doubt that this horse was very special. Then just seconds later, the unbelievable; after only a few hundred heaxtpounding yards Barbaro’s right leg flared out grotesquely and he veered sharply to the side.
For those of us who know horses, we could see this was a horrendous injury, most likely a compound fracture. But unfathomably, Barbaro didn’t drop in agony; instead, he continued to gallop forward in a dramatic effort to maintain his lead. Jockey Edgar Prado struggled to pull the horse back and later said that Barbaro practically jogged back to his stall on only three legs.
Along with most of America, I was broken up, and at first moved to sobs. But then, over the next few days, I began to reflect. Was the sadness I was feeling for Barbaro a result of his freak accident or was it because his accident might have been prevented? And was Barbaro just such a gutsy individual that he had continued to drive down the racetrack with 22 broken bones and a shattered fetlock joint? Or did his behavior exemplify something more unusual?
I looked into Barbaro’s life to try to make sense of his terrifying misfortune. Before the Preakness, Barbaro was undefeated in six race starts. Winning the Kentucky Derby, he had the widest margin of victory, a whopping 6.5 lengths, since Triple Crown winner Assault in 1946. The day of his injury Barbaro came bucking to the start gate and was so eager to race that he broke the gate early only to be taken back to a second and successful start.
At first this seemed like the resume of a true champion, but I began to ask myself, was Barbaro bred with such a desire to run, that all other considerations, particularly his self-preservation instinct, took second place to his burning desire for speed?
My research led me to Barbaro’s sire, Dynaformer. Kiaran McLaughlin, Dynaformer’s trainer, said that Dynaformer was the most difficult horse she ever trained. “You couldn’t pull him up after a workout,” she said and “You didn’t turn your back on him:’ It was common knowledge in the stable that Dynaformer had once bitten off a groom’s finger. McLaughlin finished her assessment of the stallion’s temperament by saying, “He was mean, he would bite, he was a monster:’ Barbaro’s half-brother, Holy Ground, had a stakes- winning career but retired as a four year old because he injured his suspensory ligament during his last race. Breeding plans for Holy Ground are, as I write, undecided. But my guess is that if Barbaro can mount a mare, breeders will be standing in line with their mares for both Barbaro and his half-brother, Holy Ground, even though both retired before four years of age due to injuries sustained on normal track conditions.
With my interest piqued, I looked into the breeding practices of the horse racing industry. Over the last 40 years, three times as many race horses have been produced as before but a decreasing proportion are maintaining their soundness through their shortened careers. Huge multinational breeding operations have dominated the Thoroughbred scene, encouraging heavy inbreeding on a single Canadian stallion named Native Dancer, producing Thoroughbreds that are swift, but physically weak.
Recent veterinarian research into the failing health of race horses has uncovered widespread gastric ulcers and bleeding lungs. Shocking rates of injury and death have been blamed on breeding trends that select for speed at the expense of skeletal strength and general heartiness. It seems the pursuit of glory and profit are the forces that have led the racing industry to draw on increasingly narrow gene pools that produce “high status” foals.
So how does this all relate to dog agility? Since I began agility 15 years ago, agility dogs have gone from your basic backyard, family pet, burning-off-a-few-extra calories-type dogs, to highly sought-after and marketed
performance dogs with a hefty price tag.
I’ve heard more and more stories of top agility sires and dams with antisocial, inflammatory temperaments chronic unsoundness, epilepsy, deafness, gastrointestinal disorders, and whelping problems. But eager competitors are willing to overlook or are in denial about these problems in hopes that they can get the next World Team contender, and many breeders, as always, are willing to accommodate them.
The research I uncovered suggests that there could be a connection between dogs and horses bred (knowingly or otherwise) for very high metabolism and abnormal adrenal regulation that puts them at risk for these conditions.
I hope that as agility becomes more popular and increasingly competitive, buyers of future performance dogs will drive the market toward the overall sound and durable dog. We should encourage breeders to keep their gene pool large, to breed sturdy-boned, mentally stable, and balanced dogs, and to screen dogs for inheritable defects common to their specific breed. We need to place the importance of this over and above the need for extreme speed. That way, the dogs we love will be able to participate in agility well into their maturity. Yes, speed is important, and on the surface, very alluring. And bless Barbaro’s heart, he did exactly what he was bred to do, with grace, style, and bravado. But that’s my point; maybe he was bred to do more than his body could withstand. We should learn from Barbaro’s sad misfortune. Like race horses, agility dogs bred for good, common sense and physical stamina will continue to blaze in the agility ring for many years to come, long after the “firecracker fast” but inherently weak have fizzled out.
Reprinted with the permission of Bonnie Norris. This article was first published in the March 2007 issue of
Clean Run
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