Groups brave cold to train dogs

Despite chilly temperatures, sit, stay and find were still happening at Dan Daniel Memorial Park on Sunday, with at least two groups of people teaching their dogs to obey different commands.

One group of three people and their dogs were working on basic obedience commands.

“There are usually more of us here,” Crystal Duff said. “Since it’s barely above freezing, I’m impressed anyone came out.”

Duff, who teaches dog obedience at PetSmart, was at the park with her miniature Australian Shepherd, Reagan. She said the Sunday get-togethers are informal, just “a group of friends getting together to work with our dogs; we’re diehards who want well-behaved dogs.”

When the weather is warmer, the group meets to just walk their dogs along the Riverwalk Trail — an exercise that lets them get used to being around other dogs and seeing strange people, Duff said.

“There aren’t many dog functions in Danville,” Duff said. “This is a way for us to get together and work with our dogs.”

Vicki Berry, of Semora, N.C., was there with her German Shepherd, Jerry, who is only eight-and-a-half months old and can be a handful.

“He’s learning to sit now,” she said as Jerry waited patiently for the OK to get up — and a chance to play with the other dogs.

Berry praised Duff for her training abilities and her willingness to continue helping out on her own time.

Though it was cold out, Berry said it has its benefits.

“When we go home, the dogs sleep the rest of the evening,” Berry laughed.

Maryam Payne, of Eden, N.C., joined the group with her little, white Havanese, Chuy (pronounced Chewy).

Prior to training, Chuy was having trouble socializing with both people and other dogs, often behaving aggressively and lunging at anything or anyone who came near.

“Crystal is pretty amazing as a trainer,” Payne said. “Without her, I’d have probably given up; he was really bad.”

Now Chuy can follow commands to sit, dance, down, come, stay, wait and — most importantly, according to Payne — drop it.

“He’s gotten a lot better,” Payne said, adding that Chuy would not let strangers pet him two weeks ago, but sat nicely while one did on Sunday.

Duff said the outings are fun.

“It’s not a class,” she said. “It’s just some extra practice and socialization with dogs that have the same level of training.”

Not far from where this group practiced sit and stay, another was practicing find.

ATT Search & Rescue Dogs of Virginia had three teams of handlers and dogs in the park: Joanne Kuchinski, of Dry Fork, with her Belgian Malinois mix, Logan; Philip Shepard, of Danville, with his Labrador retriever, Samson; and Annie Clark, of Penhook, with Hawkeye, a young Belgian Tervuren.

Hawkeye, who just reached two years of age, is just beginning his search-and-rescue training. While Clark waited in the parking lot, Shepard went and hid in some trees and Kuchinski found a place to watch the search.

Clark let Hawkeye sniff at an item that had Shepard’s scent on it, and the dog was ready to. He glanced at the other dogs being trained, but didn’t let that get him off his path; he was likewise not distracted by strangers he saw along the way.

In just a few minutes, Hawkeye found the right trees and began barking and jumping around, letting his handler know he had found his target.

The group trains in locations that range from Dan Daniel Memorial Park to downtown Chatham, Kuchinski said.

“We’ve been working on this training for a long time,” Kuchinski. “We hope to have our state certification (as search and rescue teams) in April.”