Get your questions answered at a Philomath training studio

PHILOMATH - Julie Flannery never thought of herself as a dog person. In fact, she was guilted into getting her first dog by her husband, who wanted their son, an only child, to have a canine companion.

Flannery is now a popular dog trainer whose classes fill up months in advance. At her studio, Wonder Dogs, in Philomath, owners and dogs learn everything from puppy obedience to freestyle dog dancing. But it took Flannery years to go from first-time owner to dog expert.

On their first foray into dog ownership, the family ended up with a four-month-old border collie they found at an animal shelter. Like many first-time border collie owners, Flannery didn't know what she'd gotten herself into. The herding dog's quick intelligence and need for activity can be challenging to any owner, but with proper training, their abilities are almost limitless.

Flannery learned this when she took her new dog to training classes. A few sessions in, as she watched a trainer demonstrate how many tricks a dog can perform in 30 seconds, she was hooked.

"I thought, 'I want to do that with my dog,'" she said.

She began taking as many classes as she could, and explored every aspect of dog training and behavior she could get her hands on. Sadly, her border collie was killed by a car two years later, but by that time, Flannery was a dog convert.

Soon, the family had a new dog, a Lab mix named Chili, and Flannery started the training process all over again. She soon learned that Chili was no border collie.

"She's a fun-loving, woo-hoo kind of dog," Flannery said. In other words, she lacked some of the border collie intensity, but she was still very smart, and very dedicated to learning.

Chili and Flannery learned together. While conventional wisdom was emphasizing correction, or punishment for bad behavior, Flannery was learning positive reinforcement, which means no choke chains or forceful behavior. Eventually, she apprenticed with the training facility where she was taking classes, and then became their head trainer.

In 2003, she opened Wonder Dogs, because she felt she needed to continue preaching the gospel of positive reinforcement. Too often, Flannery said, punishment leads to more negative behavior, and can reach the point where an owner chooses to get rid of a dog, when the owner's behavior has actually led to the dog's aggression.

"As a trainer, we need to get very creative," she said. "We teach them what it is we want them to do. The work is for both of us."

What that boils down to is that Flannery actually is teaching the owner more than she is the dog. She has had to be careful that she's using positive reinforcement on the humans too - not criticizing or punishing mistakes, but instead demonstrating better techniques.

"It made me very aware of how I engage people," she said.

She is one of the first trainers on the West Coast to offer freestyle, a fun competitive event in which dog and owner literally dance to a choreographed number set to music. The moves are very complex and take a lot of work on the dog and owner's part, but the rewards are great. Chili is the first West Coast dog to win a national championship in musical freestyle.

Flannery said freestyle actually reinforced her belief in positive training, because there's no way to force a dog to do the kind of dance moves that they have to perform during competition. Only positive reinforcement could create that kind of behavior.

For Flannery, the greatest reward is watching an owner learn how to change a difficult dog's behavior into a positive one by giving them the skills they need to alter that behavior.

"People do the best they can with the knowledge they have."

For more information on Wonder Dogs, go to wonderdogsonline.com.

Theresa Hogue writes features stories for the Gazette-Times.