By Jan A. IgoeThe Sun NewsEvery week, Anne Marie Manna would paint the wall next to her front door to hide the latest scratches. She'd remind her guests not to wear black and shield her UPS man from a slobbering, tag-team welcome by her two large, well-intentioned mutts, Simon and Larry, both of whom weigh in around 70-plus pounds.
Finally, she faced the facts: Her gentle, lovable pets were also disobedient, tail-wagging hooligans.
"No matter what I did or how loud I screamed, they were going to jump on you when you walked in," said Manna of Socastee.
Since not everyone appreciates 145 pounds of canine enthusiasm charging their way at full throttle, she hired Gera Sweat of Bark Busters to growl at her dogs. Yes, growl at them.
According to Bark Busters' Web site, the international dog-training company employs "the same communications methods - body language and voice control - that dogs follow as part of their instinctual pack mentality."
"If your dog understood English, you wouldn't need us here," said Sweat, who owns the training franchise with her husband, Mark. "We specialize in behavior problems. We come into homes where people say, 'This dog is driving me crazy,'"
When the Sweats introduced their unusual methods, Manna said she almost laughed the couple out of her house. But 15 minutes later, her doorbell rang, and both dogs started lunging toward the door - until Gera growled. "Simon and Larry stopped in their tracks ... on the very first visit," Manna said.
Bark Busters doesn't employ treats or clickers but instead relies on the owner's voice. "If we come in and train, the dogs will listen to us as strangers and revert as soon as we leave the driveway," Gera Sweat said.
Translation: Manna had to practice her leader-of-the-pack growl.
Bark Busters supplied a door sign: "Please be patient: Dogs in training," which explained why it took a while to answer the door. But more important to Manna, "They hear me growling, and the sign tells them there's not a lunatic on the other side."
Leaders of the pack
When owners complain to Felicia Reagan that her dogs are out of control, she tells them, "No, your dogs are in control. That's the problem."
Reagan, 44, whose hobbies are Schutzhund (she says it's like a triathalon for dogs) and sheepherding, says the best test of a trainer is competing with one's peers.
"I learn by competing," she said. "If you consistently win, you produce good dogs." Money, her German shepherd, earned 10 working titles before she passed away a few years ago, Reagan said.
Sometimes even purebreds are neglected by their owners. At one point, she ended up with 11 abandoned, abused border collies with no sheep to herd. "The true, working border collies don't make good pets. I got dogs half-starved and beaten. People get upset and whack at them," Reagan said. "Some were competition hopefuls. They get rid of them if they don't do well."
So she retrained most of the dogs to target geese. They went on to "lead ideal lives" chasing the birds off golf courses. "Border collies don't bark when they work, so golfers don't yell at you," she said. "Myrtle Beach National purchased Dolly [one of the rescues]. They pass her around from course to course. She gets to run around all day."
Reaganway Dog Training has four trainers teaching classes in Pawleys Island, Georgetown, North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach. For beginners, they teach basics followed by the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen certification program that recognizes well-mannered dogs and responsible pet owners.
The program lays the groundwork for more advanced obedience, agility, tracking and performance events while teaching "good dog" principles such as sit and stay, stranger acceptance, civil response to other dogs and separation.
Danielle Johannemann, director of training at A Dog's Way Inn in Murrells Inlet, trained her first companion dog at age 14. Besides the AKC Canine Good Citizen course, she coaches competition obedience, agility and advanced programs. She'll even handle special requests, such as preparing a dog for a new baby in the home and coaxing unfriendly rivals to tolerate each other.
Johannemann, 28, and her Parson Russell Terrier have won Earth Dog titles - a sport designed to give terriers and dachshunds with no opportunity to hunt in suburban backyards a chance to showcase their natural instincts.
"It's important to know what breed to pick for your household," she said. For instance, beagles are prone to wander off, sniffing things. "They're scent dogs. They're put on this earth to sniff," she said. "It doesn't mean they're less smart."
Meanwhile, other families buy herding dogs, then become frustrated when their dog chases the kids around the yard.
"Everybody wants a Lab, but they don't realize how much exercise the dog needs," she said. "Never buy a dog because it's cute. Buy it because you like what it's about."
Understanding the breed's capability applies to working dogs as well as pet dogs.
"You can't teach Labs apprehension work," said Jerry Bradshaw of Tarheel Canine Training in Sanford, N.C. "They're too laid back."
Tarheel trains canine companions for law enforcement agencies and may have up to 25 dogs in training at a time.
"Not every dog can learn to detect weapons, narcotics and explosives or become a cadaver dog. They have to have the instinct to hunt and retrieve," he said.
Bradshaw was working on his dissertation in economics while training dogs as a hobby when he realized he was having more fun training dogs. "I started out with pet dogs, worked with trainers on the jobs," he said. "I look for dogs with good nerves. They don't get rattled by things like dark spaces and slick floors."
Advice from trainers
The average pet will never have to take down an armed criminal or sniff out a bomb to earn its owner's approval, but a little cooperation about leash manners, guarding resources and barking would be nice.
Don't give up hope. According to Gera Sweat, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but it's going to take about five solid weeks of consistent behavior on the owner's part.
"Leadership is a big thing with dogs," she said. "Inconsistency, to a dog, is a sign of weakness."
"[Some] owners don't know how to become good leaders from a dog perspective," Reagan said. Dogs are "like kids. Be a good parent, but a strong, fair parent."
"They don't speak our language. They don't communicate the way we do," Johannemann said. "It's not training the dog, it's training the people."