Kristine Hammar

Shortly after we were married, my husband Ben and I adopted Sammie, a Border Collie mix, from the SPCA. We soon discovered that one dog was simply not enough for us and we added a Border Collie puppy to our household. That puppy changed my life in ways I never could have expected. Speedy loved training and he and I both enjoyed working together as a team. But he was also seriously fearful of people and other dogs and this made him an extremely challenging dog to train.

When we moved into this area, the instructors at Fieldwood helped me to learn training tools that I could use to teach Speedy to cope with his fears. After several years of training, he has come a very long way. He no longer regards the world outside our house as a frightening place. Speedy, in turn, taught me how to approach training challenges with patience, how to set my training goals with acceptance of his limitations, and how to appreciate him for the dog that he is instead of trying to make him into something that he can never be.

As I looked for ways to assist Speedy, I studied as much as I could about dog behavior and training. When I learned about clicker training, I incorporated it into Speedy's training and the results were amazing. I now use clicker training as my primary training tool.

My goal in teaching is to encourage my students to learn as much as possible about what motivates their dogs and to assist them in making their relationships with their dogs rewarding to them and to their dogs. I try to enable my students to think "outside the box" when approaching training challenges and find ways to improve their dog's behavior through positive reinforcement and clear communication.

Ben and I currently have four dogs in our pack - Sammie and Maddie, our Border Collie mixes, and Speedy and Dean, the Border Collies. Sammie enjoys hiking and swimming with me in the summertime. As active members of the Steppin' Woofs, Speedy and I compete and do demonstrations in Musical Freestyle. Speedy also does Rally Obedience and we are starting to learn sheep herding. Maddie and I do some Agility training and she is a certified Therapy Dog. Dean is just getting started, but Freestyle, Rally, and Agility will most likely be activities for him in the future. In addition, Sammie, Maddie, and Dean serve as evaluation dogs when I do temperament testing for Border Collie rescue.