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og Training. . . An Art Of Patienceby JIM HODL After 11 years of training local dogs to be obedient, Mrs. Dorothy Ortman reports that canine owners are still bringing their best friends to her dog obedience courses.“I thought I trained them all,” she said. “I guess I am wrong.”Currently, Mrs. Ortman trains dogs to be well mannered in Palatine and Arlington Heights twice a week. All of her classes are full, she reports.Classes with the Palatine Park District are taught on Mondays and on Wednesdays through the Arlington Heights Park District.IN TRAINING a dog to be obedient, Mrs. Ortman said she has to con the canine into wanting to learn. Often, she said, much time must be spent in gettingthe dog to think that learning to sit or walk on his master’s left side is really groovy.Some dogs are harder to con than others, she pointed out. An Irish Setter is a regal dog and thinks he is too good for obedience training, so a lot of conning is needed. However, a boxer eagerly learns and can be taught in about a week.“Sometimes, dogs learn in spite of themselves,” Mrs. Ortman said.She said the speed in which a dog picks up obedience training often depends on the canine’s master. If the master encourages the dog to perform right, the dog will learn training quickly. However, if the master takes a bored attitude, so will the dog, thus making it harder to train him.MRS. Ortman said she has noticed thatthe dog owners with well behaved children also have dogs that trian easier.Sometimes, a dog trainer will run into some trouble with the owners. Mrs. Ortman said she trained a dog once that would perform for her, but would bite its master. The owner became insulted because he thought the dog only loved her.Currently, the dogs enrolled in the obedience courses are generally mixed breeds, she said. Many are short-legged, long and hairy and a few are of the rag-gy, wooley variety.The owners are also fun to watch at obedience classes. Mrs. Ortman reported that people have shown up to train their dog wearing their Sunday clothes. One woman wore a mink stole to a few lessons.Another woman insisted on trainingher dog with a washline as a leash.AT THE CLASSES Mrs. Ortman “home trains” the canines. This differsfrom “show training” because when she trains a dog for show, everything the dog does has to be perfect. When trained for the home, a dog can be allowed to sit sloppily since this is all the owners want.Most owners just want their pooch to be a better dog for the neighborhood, she said.When not training dogs at local parkdistricts, Mrs. Ortman trains her owndogs. She currently has developed a fine strain of pure-bred boxers.However, training dogs is only her hobby. During the day, she is a teacher in the third grade at Winston Churchill School in Palatine.
Newspaper Details
Elk Grove Village Herald
Elk Grove Village, Illinois, US
Thu, Mar 25, 1971
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert P.
IL, USA 29 Mar 2018
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Elk Grove Village Herald
