Pictured: Golden dogs Lockie (left) and Hope looking suitably impressed with their national awards. Photo: Supplied.
Wynnum-based dog trainer Caroline Strainig from CLEAR Dog Training has added more national green-and-gold awards to her list of successes, including some surprise wins.
She competed at the Australian National Dog Obedience and Tricks Championships in Sydney recently, winning three national titles and one reserve national title in addition to two overall awards. The competition was tough, with more than 550 entries in the championships.
Caroline’s five-year-old border collie, Hope, won rally excellent and was runner-up in rally masters as well as taking out the overall prize for highest-scoring border collie in the entire rally trial. However, in a delightful surprise, her young 14-month-old border collie, Lockie, also won his rally class and his tricks class, as well as an overall award.
She was particularly chuffed with his results, given his age and the fact that there were more than 50 entries in each of his classes.
“Two weeks before the competition, I wasn’t going to take him, but I put out a last-minute call to friends and clients to help with distraction training, and he responded so well I decided to bring him along just for the experience,” she said.
“He worked amazingly well, scoring 99 out of 100 in rally novice and 60 out of 60 in starters tricks and to top it off, he also won the prize for the highest-scoring border collie in the entire tricks trial.
“He was so pleased with himself when he knew he had pleased his mum so much. He didn’t know he’d won two national championships, but he knew he had done something really special.”
Caroline enjoys helping local families with their dogs through her work with CLEAR Dog Training, but also loves the thrill of competing with her own dogs.
“Competing is a real test of your training and ability to produce your best with high-level distractions,” she said. “It can be stressful, but it is huge fun at the same time, and it also hones your training skills.”
Caroline has won many national, state and royal show awards. Before entering dog sports 20 years ago, she competed in equestrian, winning the British national junior three-day championships when she was 17.
