An Obedience All Star

By Regan Michelle White

Six-year-old yellow Lab Simba, of Littleton, Colorado is no stranger to success. Simba is most commonly known in competing circles under the registered name: OTCH U-OCH ChaseAbout’s Dances With Lions UDX JH AX AXJ. Winning the sporting group at the AKC National Obedience Invitational, 2^nd in his division at the All Star Tournament in Pennsylvania and nabbing 3 perfect 200 scores in UKC and 3 perfect scores in AKC thus far, Simba has proven to be one of the strongest obedience competitors in the country and Simba’s owner, Renate Van Allen couldn’t be more proud.

Renate got Simba from Wisconsin breeder Mary Miserak, however Simba wasn’t Renate’s first Labrador or her first foray into training. That was Tonda, now 13 years old, who has always been a wild child. As Renate puts it, “Tonda had way too much energy. I started training him to get him under control and found that he was very talented. I just got hooked.” Renate began obedience training at a Denver animal shelter class. From there she sought the help and advice of local trainer Helen Phillips, attended several seminars, read quite a few books and met lots of training friends on the internet.

Most recently, she has been reading Bobbie Anderson’s Building Blocks for Performance, for puppy training, and Terry Orlick’s In Pursuit of Excellence. Renate says, “Orlick addresses issues of the head game and the importance of being in the right frame of mind when competing. Once your dog is all trained, it’s a matter of keeping yourself in the right frame of mind for competition.”

Indeed, Renate works hard to keep Simba (and all of her dogs) in the right frame of mind. Renate has five dogs. Her Lab Tonda and terrier mix Sumner are both 13 years old and retired from showing. Her other dogs are a four year old Australian Cattle Dog, Cora and a five month old yellow Labrador puppy named Pindar. Renate trains her dogs five days a week on average, generally in short sessions of about 30 minutes per dog. Training varies quite a bit, given the range of age and skill levels of her dogs. With her puppy, Renate focuses on play. She says, “My aim is to lay a good foundation with my puppy. All of it is really framed as a game. We play but I still focus on teaching him how to heel, sit, stand and mark.” Renate adds that with her older dogs, “I do quite a few run-throughs (all of the formal obedience exercises) focusing on heeling, fronts and finishes and pivots; everything to try to stay happy, animated and fast.”

Renate and her dogs typically show on average about one weekend a month throughout the course of the year. As Renate says, “We don’t show very often compared to others because I find that it’s hard to keep animated and stay excited when you’re competing that often. We don’t travel very much--doing maybe 25 obedience trials in a year.

In Simba’s training and competing, Renate feels that “his biggest challenge is focus. He is very easily distracted. I work a lot on putting him in the right frame of mind for competition. He excels at retrieving and loves to work and do anything with me. He also has the ideal body type for fronts and finishes. He has a short back and knows how to move his body. He is truly well coordinated.” Simba’s skill isn’t strictly limited to obedience either. He also does agility, has some field titles and has just started tracking. Renate says, “It doesn’t matter what we do, he loves to do it. Training completely changes your relationship with your dog. It becomes so much deeper as you turn into team partners. It’s a whole different level of relationship.”

When he isn’t training, Simba loves to run and exercise. He and Renate go for walks every morning and go on hiking trips every year. Renate adds that, “He’s a good dog on the trail. He doesn’t like to be left alone and he hates when I have to leave to go to work. (Renate is a research physicist for the University of Denver.) He loves to play fetch and swim in the pool. He’s a really fun dog.”

About the ability, aptitude and excellence of the Lab, Renate just can’t say enough. “I’ve stuck with Labs and Australian Cattle Dogs because they are the first dogs I ever got and I love them. Labs are high energy and have such great dispositions. They love to do everything that we want to do. My first Lab Tonda, at age 13 is still the happiest dog I’ve ever known. I love dogs that are up to taking on anything. Labs particularly have a lot of confidence. If they don’t know what to do then they keep on trying which is a big difference from my Cattle Dog, who waits to figure things out before proceeding.”

Renate makes it clear as well that without her friends neither she nor her dogs could have figured out how to proceed this far with training. She says that, “you really can’t be a good trainer without good friends to discuss things with – from various training methods and games to seminars. It is extremely hard if not impossible to train dogs without involved friends and I am thankful to have a wonderful set. I’d particularly like to thank Terri Clingerman who has Simba’s littermate. Her aunt is Simba’s breeder. Terri is always extremely supportive, keeps me abreast of various breedings (including Pindar’s) and has gotten me in touch with lots of other quality trainers. I am extremely indebted to her.” Here’s to our November Lab of the Month who has secured 6 total perfect scores - with a little help from his friends.