Sophomore Kadence Melamud has been training her dogs and competing to earn awards for almost 9 years through organizations such as 4H, Turn Dogs Agility and Up and Over Agility. 

Melamud trains four of her dogs: Pink, Fyfe, Luxe and Nyx. She has been training Pink for the longest and Nyx for the least amount of time. Melamud recently won a CPE championship with Pink.

“It’s when they [the dogs] go through all of the different games in a competition and earn a certain amount of qualifying scores in each game,” said Melamud. “Once they collect 40 qualifying scores, they are able to earn the big title.”

After almost a year of working to gain qualifying scores for this award, Melamud was finally able to achieve this major accomplishment.

“It was a big step forward and made me realize why I do this because it was a really good feeling to be able to realize how far I have come,” said Melamud.

Pink was the first dog Melamud trained on her own, and she struggled to self regulate and figure out how to work with Pink. However, after dedication and patience, she was able to figure it out.

“I just stuck with it and took breaks sometimes,” said Melamud. “Keep a positive attitude and reinforce because if the dog is wrong, you don’t want to make a big fuss about it or else they are not going to want to work.”

While Pink was Melamud’s first dog, she has trained three other dogs including Nyx, her puppy who is 20 months old, and she has faced many challenges training her younger dogs.

“It’s always hard starting over [with a younger dog], but that’s what I like,” said Melamud. “I have had these dogs for a long time, like Pink and Fyfe who are my oldest…. It’s always nice to start over and teach a new dog because in doing that, you are able to find flaws you make in teaching a dog and learn new ways of teaching the skills.”

Apart from teaching herself how to improve her training skills, dog training has also taught Melamud several crucial life lessons.

“To appreciate the small things,” said Melamud. “If you go out in a competition and you blow it because the dog wasn’t great and they didn’t qualify. But you look back at that run and you say they hit their contacts or went out and did three obstacles in a row and found the good in what they were doing and not quite focus on just the negative.”

Dog training can be very difficult, but it can also be very rewarding.

“It’s a big commitment, but if you want something really fun to do with your dog, any training is well worth it,” said Melamud. “I know people who just do training for fun and they don’t go out and compete in competitions. They just want something fun to do with their dog. If they wanted a weekly thing, I would definitely recommend it.”