THAT’S A HEAP OF A LEAP
Coconut just misses connecting with a Frisbee during a performance of the Canine Stars Stunt Dog Show on Friday at the Queen City Ex.
Keri Caraher, co-founder of The Canine Stars, proves you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks.
Her team of trainers and 19 doggie athletes show off their skills in diving, Frisbee, high jumping and more at the Queen City Ex.
Based out of Colorado, Caraher and her partner, Ethan Wilhelm, have brought The Canine Stars Stunt Dog Show to Regina for the first time. What’s special about these dogs is that most of them are rescues from shelters or strays taken in off the street.
“We like to show that, ‘Hey, you can get a dog from a shelter and they can do all this stuff, too,’ ” said Caraher. “Any dog can do it. You don’t have to go and buy a specific dog from a breeder or anything.”
She said another major goal of the show is to encourage fans to adopt instead of shop and to foster a strong bond with their pet.
At Friday’s afternoon show, Caraher and three other trainers began with a couple of warm-up tricks to get the dogs used to the sounds of the crowd. Caraher said the dogs are trained using positive reinforcement, and so the crowd was encouraged to cheer loudly to show their support and motivate the already rambunctious canines.
The show officially began with high jump, as a variety of border collies, cattle dogs and more flew excitedly through the air to a roaring crowd.
Next, two border collies tackled an agility course, weaving their way in a dizzying yet thrilling race.
By the end of each show, the dogs will have performed high jump, Frisbee freestyle routines, agility, fly ball racing, big air stunts and dock diving. Caraher said so far, the stands have been full at every show and their German shepherd Volcha often steals the show with her world-record-breaking dock diving.
She said the trick to making it all work is play.
“It’s basically playing with toys. That’s the key. When you can find a dog that likes to play with toys, you can transition from playing with stuffed animals, to them playing with tugs, to them playing with balls, to them playing with Frisbees,” said Caraher.
She said the group doesn’t have a rigorous training schedule. Instead they run through tricks for approximately five minutes at a time and even then, it’s really just directed playing.
“Based on where you throw the toy, that’s how big the dogs are going to jump or how they’re going to jump or flip in the air. It’s all just play for the dogs,” said Caraher.
Caraher has been training dogs for the past 10 years, starting with her own personal dogs — of which she has 12. Seven of her dogs are in Regina this week to perform at the Queen City Ex.
If you haven’t seen the show yet you can catch the impressively energetic canines — from chihuahuas to Great Danes and everything in between — at 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. daily for the rest of Queen City Ex, which wraps up Sunday.