top of page

Elaine Cousen – About Me

 

I have been training dogs for over 30 years and helping other people to train theirs.  Here's a brief outline of what I've achieved with my dogs in Canada so far:

 

I work a German Shepherd called Harley and together we've gone through the process of learning the tests associated with Canadian Obedience.  I bred Harley and although I had some cross-over dogs to clicker training, Harley is the first dog that I’ve fully clicker trained. 

 

I compete in obedience because I have a passion for the sport and I also enjoy the social side of attending trials. I have met many people and made many good friends through competing in obedience. Everyone loves Harley – he has such a fantastic temperament and is an excellent Ambassador for the breed.

 

Harley’s Achievements:

  • Companion Dog Title (CD)

  • Companion Dog Excellent (probably has the equivalent of about 25 CDx titles)

  • Utility Dog Title (UD) – gained in one weekend at Regina Show – WOW!

  • Completion of his UD Title also made Harley an Obedience Trial Champion [OTCH])

  • Obedience Trial Champion Excellent (OTCHx)

  • Needs 4 points to complete his Master Obedience Trial Champion (MOTCH)

  • Rally Novice Title (RN) - achieved in 3 trials straight - most with scores of 100

  • Rally Advanced Title (RA) - achieved in 3 trials straight - most with scores of 100

  • Rally Excellent Title (RE) - achieved in 3 trials straight - most with scores of 100

  • Rally Advanced/Excellent (RAE) achieved at 10 trials straight - most with scores of 100.  Then went on to achieve RAE2, RAE3 and part of RAE4 - kept going to work towards Top Rally Dog in Canada 2010 - again most of these were with scores of 100.

 

Scarlett’s Achievements:

I now have a youngster called Scarlett (imported from the UK and similar breeding to my own) who I am preparing for the ring....she does heelwork like a Lipanzaner Stallion...she's got a lot of character and energy so hopefully I can channel that energy into her work. Watch this space..... I own 4 german shepherds in total (all long coated).

 

  • Companion Dog Title (CD) achieved in one weekend at Regina Show with 2 High in Class

  • Currently training to work in Open

 

The Training Centre:

 

However, I don't just train my own dogs. I have a training centre at Warman which runs year round (fully heated) and only positive methods are used - my students have gained numerous titles. My UK breeding Affix is "Axelan" hence the training centre bears that name.

 

At the Training Centre I hold group classes for family pets and puppies as well as all the Competition Training that happens for Obedience and Rally. I especially love training my own dogs but I also love training other people and seeing the difference it makes to both them and their dogs and am extremely proud of all their achievements which go up on the "Wall of Fame" at the training centre.  My own dogs have their own Wall of Fame alongside.

 

BUT WHAT'S THE FULL STORY BEHIND IT ALL?  Interested?  Read on:

 

My mum and dad always had German Shepherds and I was taught to treat a dog as “part of the family”.  The day I was born, my dad brought a German Shepherd puppy home - we called her Sheena and she was my constant friend and companion until she went to Rainbow Bridge at the age of 14.

 

Got my “very own” dog in 1977. My husband wanted a dog to take shooting with him so my first taste of dog training was teaching a German Shepherd dog to the gun. No mean feat given that GSDs are NOT soft mouthed dogs and are not bred for retrieving game.

 

During a visit to the vets for Rebel's shots, I saw an advert for the Local Dog Club and I wanted a well-trained dog so off I went. This opened up a whole new world for me then I attended a small dog show at a Local Village Show and I was bitten by the “competition bug”. From there I:

 

  • Competed in agility

  • Competed in obedience

  • Stewarded in obedience

  • Judged in obedience (qualified to judge at the top level in UK obedience (Championship C) before I left the UK in 2007)

  • Became the Show Secretary for the Local Dog Club (Honorary Member for all my hard work)

  • Bred Long Coated German Shepherds for over 20 years in the UK

  • Voluntary trainer (all levels, many different breeds) at the local dog club

  • Trained people privately for Competition Obedience – various breeds

  • Came to Canada in 2007 and started competing in 2009 in CKC Rally and Obedience

  • 2008 Joined Hub City Kennel & Obedience Club in Saskatoon plus did some training sessions for their trainers

  • Own Axelan Dog Training in Warman (heated year-round training centre)

 

To read more in-depth background, continue on:

 

When I first went to obedience classes I didn't like the training methods they used (nicknamed them the yank-yank brigade because they were continuously yanking their dogs heads off with the lead) and I knew there had to be something different out there, so I quickly sought out something that was more positive. I moved to another club which used positive methods and stayed with that club for nearly 30 years.

 

In 2000 I went to Crufts (it was my annual pilgrimage) and saw a german shepherd in the obedience championships and I had never in my life seen a dog so focused - the dog was owned, trained and handled by Kathy Murphy.

 

So I invited Kathy over to do a weekends training for us and that was when I was introduced to clicker training. Kathy did regular weekends for us and we became great friends. I struggled with clicker training to start with but worked through it and now couldn't imagine training my own dogs any other way.

 

Harley is my first dog that has been clicker trained from being 4 weeks old (I bred him). My whole life virtually revolved around dogs and training. I bred long-coated shepherds for 20 years and had pups competing in obedience, agility, heelwork to music, in demonstration teams and doing filmwork and also had 7 pups over with Guide Dogs for the Blind in Holland. I competed in UK obedience and agility, stewarded at the highest levels and judged at the highest levels in UK obedience.

 

Having just qualified to judge Championship C, I moved to Canada (in 2007). My whole world changed.......Canadian obedience was like a hybrid between UK obedience and UK working trials and the travel required to trial was horrendous plus the cost for hotels/gas etc.

 

It took nearly a year to register Harley with the CKC. I then started training my dog based on the Canadian obedience tests. Harley quickly qualified for his CD (Novice). Then I switched him straight up to Open - he wasn't totally ready but we had a great time in the ring and in the background I concentrated on his Open training. He quickly qualified his Open Title (CDX) but I kept on trialling him because I wanted the consistency in his work. I believe he currently has the equivalent of approx. 25 CDX Titles. In 2010 he was the top GSD in Canada for obedience. We started doing Rally and during 2010 he was the #1 Dog in Canada (all breeds) in Rally.

 

In 2011 we hardly trialled at all but the trials at the beginning of the year still earned him #4 GSD in obedience in Canada. Then we had a long layoff......I entered him in some trials but we never went.

 

In August 2012 I entered Harley in Utility at Yorkton "to see where we were" and it showed up our weaknesses....I then went away and put the work in. The next trial (Wascana) no qualifiers, it was always just the odd thing that stopped us. Then 2 weeks later we went to another trial in Regina and he qualified his 3 Utility which gave him his OTCH. I was stunned and couldn't believe he had got his OTCH in one weekend!!! What a dog!

 

Since then we have achieved his OTCHx (gaining 5 pairs – have to qualify in Open and Utility at the same trial to achieve 1 pair) and for his MOTCH only need another 5 points from the Utility Class.

 

In the background I was training Scarlett my youngster for Novice but then she too had the long lay-off with Harley because of my other commitments. Fortunately when I picked her up again she had retained a lot of the early “foundation work” and I entered her at Hub City that May just to work the round (no stays) to see where we were and I was very pleased with her performance and attitude. So she was entered properly in her first show at Regina Kennel & Obedience Club towards the end of July – she qualified 3 times in Novice (2 of those with High in Class) and achieved her CD Title, so we came away having achieved what we set out to do……….now the work goes in for Open…!

bottom of page