INTRODUCING KATY!

Katy and Oscar, chillin'

Because I tend to be so overwhlemed training dogs, socializing dogs and keeping up with other complicated areas of my life, the blog has been neglected.  So, Katy Aderhold Roberts has come to the rescue, offering to blog for me (which reminds me... if anyone has stories or articles they'd like to have posted here, just contact me!!).  Woo hoo, Katy!  Thank you!  Katy is a great young lady who I am thrilled to call my friend.  Thrilled.  I met her at my last place of employment and was happy, happy, happy to teach her about training detection dogs and then equally happy to get to train with her!  We had great times and produced some fantastic dogs - many of which I would like to take full credit for training, but Katy will always remind me her involvement!!!  She is an EXCELLENT trainer...  but is currently focusing on the training of her new baby and not on allergy alert dogs (sheesh...!)  :-p  Anyway, I asked Katy to introduce herself to you... and here's what she had to say!  (Hopefully, you'll see a photo or two of Katy... as she'll be posting her next blogs without the middle man (me!)!   So, without...  HEEEEEEERRRRRE'S KATY!

Hmm, what do I want to write about myself?

I guess I can get the facts out of the way first:

Katy Roberts:

24 years old, married with 1 son. Background is mostly with horses but have had dogs all of my life. Currently have 3 toy Australian Shepherds.

Now the fun stuff:

I was going to school to be a veterinarian and had too much time on my hands so I decided to apply at a dog kennel to see how working with animals everyday fit with me. I started out scooping poop and cleaning runs as well as watching Leslie work with the training dogs. Then I got the idea that I could train my toy Aussie to find peanuts for fun. I watched Leslie and went home and subjected Bear to my less than stellar training tactics. One day, I showed off what Bear could do (it wasn’t impressive) but it did get my foot in the training door.

Leslie decided to give me a chance with a black lab and the rest is history. I’ve trained or helped train in narcotics, arson, termite, bedbug, and allergen detection, but the allergy dogs are the best by far. I love working with these dogs and seeing the end result when a parent cries with relief at the realization that they have an extra shield of protection for their child.

Every dog I’ve trained is special in their own way, but my first dog, Sachi, will always have a special place in my heart and has been the most determined dog I’ve trained so far. Her every waking moment is consumed with finding a peanut and getting her toy.

The clowns have been Riley, Bobber (appropriately named for how he indicates when he finds a peanut) and Oscar. Trying to teach Riley the “down” command was a bit of a challenge since he decided downing on his back was way more fun than his stomach. Imagine the look I got from Leslie the first time I showed off that trick.

Oscar personified “cute”, he had a cute look, a cute walk, and a cute searching technique. He made me laugh about something every day. My favorite story about him is when we started teaching him to be comfortable in tight places in preparation for his first plane ride. We utilized a desk as the “tight place," or "airplane," and had him lay down under it for a period of time. One day, we had about 5 dogs in the training building and decided to let them all have romper room time after a good training session. When we started to gather the dogs back up, we noticed Oscar was nowhere to be seen. He was found, after a short search, hanging out in his “airplane”.

Meeting a few of the families and seeing the struggles they go through on a daily basis, has made me want to gather as much information as I can about food allergies and pass some of it along. My hope is to help make this a place where people can come to learn about food allergies, and the dogs that are working to protect against them.