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About Country Dream
Country Dream is a unique agility resort in southeastern Ohio. We offer agility and rally-o camps, resort visits, ongoing classes, and monthly workshops for agility enthusiasts. If you can dream up a dog-lover’s vacation whether for a week or just two days we can make it happen for you.
We’re located just 15 miles from Interstate 77 in southeastern Ohio. Surrounded by lovely, privately-owned farmland and woods, our 28 acres includes a 1-acre farm pond, two fully-stocked cottages, our log home, and a brand new 60’ x 120’ training building with a soft, clean floor (stall mats on packed sand).
Guests are welcome to stay in cabins in our quiet, secluded woods. Your group may use one or both cottages during your training retreat for shared dinners, video-watching sessions, campfires and to generally enjoy nature with your dogs.
We believe the future of companion dog sports features a more relaxed, enjoyable experience. Our mission is to provide you with a training retreat that is recreational, inexpensive, and custom-fitted to your needs. Your group may choose to train alone, to bring your own instructors, or to purchase private lessons from Marsha or me, in agility or obedience or both.
We hope you’ll feel comfortable contacting us for more information. We’re so proud of our little corner of the world, and we can’t wait to share it with you! You can see pictures of our property here: Album
With warmest regards,
Bud and Marsha Houston
Bud Houston’s Country Dream Agility Resort and
Dog-training School
Contact Us
It’s easy to make arrangements for your dog-training retreat or vacation! First talk with your friends and choose the weekends you that will work for you. Call or e-mail Marsha to reserve the weekend and place your deposit.
14543 State Route 676
Waterford, OH 45786
CountryDreamAgility@earthlink.net
(740) 749-3597
www.dogagility.org
eMail Us!
Agility Classes at Country Dream
We're pretty darned relaxed about our agility classes at Country Dream.
We aren't seeking or accepting many students. Because we'll be limited to a
couple very small classes each week, the curriculum will be designed around the
immediate needs of those students..
We're located in a remote wilderness in very rural
Our
agility classes may be purchased individually or in blocks, with volume purchase
earning discounts and great perks for "platinum" students. This means there is no fixed length of a session; a dog
at a given level may begin anywhere in the program.
Our prices are intended to make this a fun and educational experience easily within the reach of most folks. For more information, contact Marsha Houston at CountryDreamAgility@earthlink.net. Or write:
Bud Houston's Country Dream
Waterford,
740-749-3597
Obedience Classes at Country Dream
Our obedience training protocols condition the behaviors we want to see
repeated and interrupt-and-replace behaviors we want to extinguish. Conditioning
is the simple process of creating a belief in the dog that certain behaviors
will always initiate the corresponding reward. Examples include ringing a bell
to get the door opened, or sitting to get attention and petting, etc.
Training takes place in a module format, with modules on:
1. Attention and recall
2. Greeting friendly strangers
3. Loose-leash walking
4. House manners, calming behaviors, and grooming
Rather than correction-based training, which often just suppresses behaviors in specific situations, we rely on the clever dog’s desire for reward and the canine willingness to repeat behaviors they find rewarding. After all, no dog wakes up thinking, “how can I irritate her today?” Dogs aren’t capable of malice or spite. They do what works and they want to be an accepted member of their pack.
Fundamental Dog Training
Commonly referred to as “basic obedience,” our Fundamental Dog
Training students participate in problem-solving exercises with their dogs. We
want to address more than just the ability to walk down the sidewalk with a dog,
so we allow everyone to bring specific problems for discussion. Along with the
weekly homework, specific problems suggest specific training exercises. Formal
homework involves 5-10 minutes a day and is best done at mealtimes. There is no
prerequisite training for this class.
Novice Competition Obedience
In competition obedience we focus on heeling, automatic sits, left and
right turns, recalls with fronts and finishes, and stays. Our training
methodology includes consistently rewarding heel position and building
confidence in the dog. No harsh corrections are permitted, regardless of how you
and your dog have trained in the past. Our classes are designed to be enjoyable
for handlers and dogs. Our dogs love obedience training!
Casual homework assignments will be issued each week and students are encouraged to work 5-10 minutes, 3-4 days a week. Prerequisite for this class is “fundamental dog training” (above) or demonstration of equivalent training.
Rally Obedience is a titling event with a skill level designed to fall between that
of the Canine Good Citizen certificate and a novice obedience title. For years,
obedience competitors have used “doodles” to warm up their dogs. These
doodles included heeling in straight lines and circles, assisting the dog into
fronts and then having them finish right or finish left, or encouraging quick
sits. Rally Obedience illustrates these random doodles on signs and students
learn how to correctly perform the doodle, as well as how to string doodles
together in sequence. Our training exercises use positive reinforcement to
create and reward the behavior. No harsh corrections are permitted, regardless
of how you and your dog have trained in the past. Our classes are designed to be
enjoyable for handlers and dogs. Our dogs love obedience training!
Prerequisite for this class is “Novice Competition Obedience” (above) or demonstration of equivalent training.
Our prices are intended to make this a fun and educational experience easily within the reach of most folks. For more information, contact Marsha Houston at CountryDreamAgility@earthlink.net. Or write:
Bud Houston's Country Dream
Waterford,
740-749-3597
Agility Camp at Country Dream
Treat yourself to a fun and educational agility experience at Bud Houston's Country Dream. We're located in a very rural setting in Southeastern Ohio and have indoor and outdoor rings. Our training building is surfaced with 3/4" rubber on packed dirt; safe and healthy for you and your dog. We also have ample room to work outside.
Our agility training methods are emulated throughout the English speaking world. We focus on creating a positive atmosphere that allows the dog to learn and work with the utmost confidence. We focus to a great extent on teaching the handler his job in training and directing the dog.
Country Dream is a unique experience focusing on a variety of different topics including handling, speed, and distance work. Camps are led by Bud Houston, an innovator in the sport of agility, author, lecturer and popular seminar leader.
Our camp prices are intended to make this a fun and educational experience easily within the reach of most folks. Reserve your spot now! Please inquire about discounts we allow for multiple dogs.
Each camp is limited in size, lots of time for problem solving and plenty of personal attention for agility teams who are serious about training and enjoying the sport. The dogs should be familiar with all agility obstacles, and comfortable working in new places. Every evening Marsha prepares a full sit-down dinner so we may discuss the day's training and enjoy each other's company.
Camps are typically four days in length. Please inquire about starting and finishing times before making your travel arrangements. For current scheduling and pricing click here: registration document.
Cottages, Guest Rooms, and RVs
Our 28 acre property was originally purchased, in the mid-1960s, by Marsha's family and another family. This was a vacation spot for the two families, who had more kids than money at the time. Each family built a rustic cabin, complete with outhouses. Over the years, Marsha's Dad and Mom bought the other family's share and upgraded the cabins. They installed complete bathrooms, kitchens, and propane furnaces.
You can see pictures of our property here: Album
When Marsha and I decided to expand our agility camp business to include bunkhouse cottages, we immediately thought about the family cabins. Fortunately for
us Marsha's Mom and Dad were equally prepared to divest themselves of the property and decrease their maintenance chores.
In March '07 we began renovating the cabins, tearing out old kitchens and installing brand new cabinets and appliances. We purchased all new bedding, with high profile cushy mattresses and high thread count linens. The cabins were scrubbed, and stairs were built to lofts to accommodate campers with dogs and suitcases. We continued to refer to these as "rustic cabins," but they're really not that rustic -- now we refer to them as cottages.
Each has a deck for sitting and enjoying nature. Bud's project for winter '07-08 is to enclose a dog yard for each cottage as well as running dog fence along our frontage with Rt. 676 (our quiet little state route).
In addition to the bunkhouse cottages, we offer two guestrooms in our home. These are accessed by entering our front door and climbing a flight of stairs to an upstairs hallway. Two guestrooms feature queen-size beds and share a full bathroom with a tub/shower and all linens. Between the rooms is a linen closet outfitted with a kitchenette (refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot). Additional cooking may be done in our kitchen. Houseguests may spread out on the front deck on pleasant evenings as well.
Some folks like to camp in their RVs or trailers. Some campers with self-contained units have chosen to take their showers here in our home, minimizing the use of their own water, and we make every effort to accommodate your needs and make you comfortable here.
Hospitality is the name of the game at Bud Houston's Country Dream. We welcome you to enjoy our home and make yourself "at home," whether in a cottage, a guestroom, or in your own camper.
All
of the graphics, text, pictures on this web-site are the intellectual property
of Bud Houston and Marsha Houston.
No part of this work can be republished in printed or electronic media without
the express permission of the authors.
