THUNDER BAY - You are invited to a very special Canine Christmas this year, courtesy of some well-trained and festive pups.
The All-Star K9 Academy was showing off some of the tricks being taught to area dogs in their newest Christmas video released on Sunday.
The video is part of the training course, Mutts in the Movies, taught by All-Star K9 Academy trainer, Tara Monahan. Part of the video was filmed at Vanderwees Home and Garden and it highlights a group of eager pups as they get ready for the holiday season, including getting the invitation, collecting ornaments, and decorating a tree.
“It’s going to be a dog version of Christmas,” said Barb Moore, who’s Australian Sheppard, Cheers, appeared in the video. “They found their Christmas tree, they pulled it out of the bush, they’ve decorated their Christmas tree, they fetched their ornaments and they are very excited to put their Christmas together for everybody.”
The Christmas video follows the success of a Halloween movie, T’was the Night Before Halloween, released last month.
While the videos are a lot of fun to make for the owners and their fury friends, they really highlight what the dogs are capable of learning and how a special relationship can be formed between pet and owner.
“It’s just a lot of fun with your dog and they enjoy it too,” Moore said. “My dog really likes to do tricks. She really does enjoy it and the atmosphere is just so much fun. The people have fun and the dogs have fun too and it’s something we enjoy together.”
Alison MacGillvray’s seven-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, Porter, also appeared in the video and she said her dog loves the training program.
“He gets all excited when we pull into the parking lot, he is barking away,” she said. “It’s his favorite place to be, training and doing tricks.”
MacGillvray said she decided to enter Porter into training to improve the behavior of the three-pound terrier who sometimes thought he was the boss.
“Yorkshire terriers can be quite bossy dogs, but I find that if I keep him busy and working and doing things, he is better behaved,” she said. “He really enjoys it and that’s the other reason I’ve kept with it because I see how much he loves it.”
When it comes to actually training the dogs to do tricks like fetching, carries, turns, and bounces, it takes a lot of patience and practice.
“It takes a lot of time, for my dog anyway,” Moore said. “She really enjoys it, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of repetition, a lot of rewards, and a lot of encouragement.”
But all the hard work pays off, for the dogs and their owners. MacGillvray said it is always interesting to see what the dogs are capable of and how much fun they have learning new things.
“The other part I really enjoy is that we are working with other people,” she said. “Normally you are doing your tricks, you are practicing with your dog, but with this you get to meet people, you get to have fun with other people. I hope people see that in the video. It’s a lot of fun more than anything else.”
“There’s an awful lot of potential out there,” Moore added. “Any dog can be trained. If you enjoy it and if the dog enjoys it, no dog is too old.”
The video of a Canine Christmas can be found on the All-Star K9 Academy website and Facebook page.
“We really enjoyed making the video, and the dogs enjoyed it, and we really hope the people watching will enjoy it too,” Moore said.
