Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Using only her hands, Connie DeBusschere is winning awards in dog agility competitions.
OK, it’s actually her dogs that are winning the awards, but they are trained by DeBusschere and respond to her small hand signals as they compete. Her English shepherd, Sadie, won awards earlier this year at Brownsville and Newport.
DeBusschere operates Canine Companions, a dog-training business, in Sweet Home.
“I’ve worked with (dogs) my whole life,” Debusschere said. “Training has always been what balances my life. I have work, then I go home, and that’s my hobby.”
That hobby is driven by “the relationship with the dog,” DeBusschere said. “They’re just amazing animals. I don’t think there’s any other animal that’s domesticated like them. They are so human-like in their emotions. They’re problem solvers. Just being pack animals, they have that strong bond that humans have. They’re just incredible.
“Cats are affectionate, and they like attention, but a dog will go to the end of the world for its owner.”
Dogs live up to the old saying that they are “man’s best friend.”
DeBusschere lives with four dogs. She competes with Sadie, while Dance, another English shepherd and international breed champion, is learning the ropes. She also has a Jack Russell-cattle dog mix, Ricochet, and a malamute, Ashley.
Her fifth dog, Sadie’s brother Ike, is now staying with her parents, who live outside of Sweet Home.
“I’m like, you guys need a dog out there,” DeBusschere said. “Now he’s dad’s buddy.”
And that relationship exemplifies everything DeBusschere finds so fascinating about dogs.
DeBusschere started showing dogs with Jasper, Sadie’s half brother. She started training him when he was 8 weeks old. He won his first obedience title at 14 months.
Many dogs don’t begin competing until they reach 2 years.
Jasper was the first English shepherd to win 20 titles, and he was recognized for outstanding versatility and inducted into the English shepherd hall of fame for the accomplishment.
Jasper is gone now, but Sadie has picked up where he left off.
At Brownsville last summer, Sadie won blue ribbons in three out of four runs.
She ran a 35-second course in just 24 seconds and a 67-second, 140-yard course in just 35.6 seconds.
“She flies, and she’s 7 1/2,” DeBusschere said.
Sadie competes in the performance division, the middle division, within the U.S. Dog Agility Association. In North American Dog Agility Association events, she competes in the open division, and DeBusschere plans on bumping her up to the elite level at her next trial, probably in February.
The different associations are structured somewhat differently. Dogs compete in classes, earning titles through qualifying runs. They can win individual contests and still not qualify for a title by finishing with the fastest time. To achieve titles, dogs must complete three qualifying runs. Once titles are earned in a class, the dog can move up to the next level.
At Brownsville, Sadie earned three qualifying ribbons in addition to the blue ribbons. Earlier in the summer, she earned five qualifying ribbons and six blue ribbons at Newport.
DeBusschere hopes to take Sadie to the world championships next year in Sacramento. The world championships will bring together more than 600 canine competitors.
To reach the world championships, a dog must qualify in two different regional classes.
DeBusschere has been there before, in 2000 in San Diego, with Jasper.
The dog did great there, DeBusschere didn’t. They made it through the toughest part of the course easily, but after concentrating so much on that part, DeBusschere said, she froze and Jasper didn’t get the directions he needed to win it.
Nancy Gyse won that contest, DeBusschere said. “She’s always been someone I’ve looked up to, her accomplishments and how she runs her dogs.”
Gyse has won three world championships.
DeBusschere especially enjoys working with her English shepherds.
The English shepherd is a versatile breed that can be used for performance, work or as a pet. They were bred to work on the farm and are descended from dogs used by the Caesars to move livestock.
The modern English shepherd was bred from English stock dogs and Roman dogs. They were crossed with other breeds to produce the Australian shepherds and border collies.
The English shepherd is a rare breed now, “the farmer’s best-kept secret,” DeBusschere said. “Hopefully, we’ll kind of keep it that way.”
When dog breeds get popular, breeders start breeding them for looks and for use as pets. Breeds, like labs, can become sickly, get bad hips or genetic eye problems. Temperament issues can also arise in popular breeds.
“I see it in my classes,” DeBusschere said. “I see some come in, and they’re just kind of scatter-brained.”
As a trainer, she is often called for advice when someone is thinking about buying a dog, and she must keep up with information about many different breeds. She also teaches people about dog behavior, so they can answer the question, “why is my dog doing this?”
DeBusschere offers a number of classes through her business, including puppy preschool, basic obedience, two levels of agility, canine good citizenship and “pet dog challenge,” an advanced class working with distractions and distance.
She keeps her classes small and structures her sessions based on the dogs she has in a particular class.
One of the most important parts of training is motivating the dog.
“It has to be fun,” DeBusschere said. “Dogs do things they enjoy.”
In the years that DeBusschere has been working with dogs, the relationship between people and their dogs has changed.
People are more active with their dogs, DeBusschere said. “Nowadays, they’re members of the family. Our kids are raised with them.”
DeBusschere grew up in eastern Oregon where she graduated from high school in La Grande. She worked in a veterinarian’s office there for five years, during high school and the year after graduation. She was involved in 4-H with her horse and her dog. That’s where she began learning about training animals.
From LaGrande, she moved to Toledo, where she was an assistant 4-H leader with a dog group of 60 youths. She was assistant trainer for public training classes. She also worked at Ripley’s Believe it or Not and as a warrant clerk for the Chevrolet dealer in Newport.
She attended a trade school in Portland, then got into banking. She has worked in finance since then. She also attended Oregon Coast Community College.
Right now, she works part-time for Keith Brown Lumber, mostly out of her own home.
DeBusschere moved to Sweet Home 10 years ago.
“I didn’t like the coast,” DeBusschere said. Coming from the eastern part of the state, she said, she missed the seasons.
She knew the Willamette Valley was the biggest area for dog events, and she stayed with her brother in Albany for a little while.
“When I came out to Sweet Home, it was just a nice, quiet town,” DeBusschere said. “It’s beautiful here. You’re so close to the mountains, hiking and boating. You can go to the snow, but you don’t have to live in deep snow.”
For information about DeBusschere’s classes, call 367-7215.