Old Timers... Dr. Mary Belle Adelman, cont.
daughter, CH Glendhenmere's Mia CD VQW took second place. Mary handled
both Trot and Mia for all events.
Trot became the first ROM dog of record in 1985 and was also awarded
the honor of Hero Dog of the Year, for saving Mary's life from a rampaging
bull, in 1987.
Mary has certified many of
her ACDs in TDI, CGC and AD
as well, while working with
her other breed, the German
Shepherd Dog. Training these
two breeds simultaneously,
presented some interesting
challenges and magnified the
learning differences between
the two breeds.
Since ACDs were bred to take physical punishment from cattle,
the popular force training methods of the time did not work as well
as she expected. At this point, Mary embarked on creating a new
training program that would take into consideration the
temperament of the Cattle Dog and other breeds not
preprogrammed for unquestioning obedience, and the Optimum
Placement Technique, or OPT, was developed. She has based the
program on no-force and positive reinforcement, and through her
success in the world of obedience
with this breed, has proven it a
very useful tool to obtain high
level competition precision.
Mary calls her OPT program a
"work in progress" and is
constantly refining it to produce
efficient and lasting results for
real world and competitive
obedience. Fast forward to
present day and Mary is currently
competing with a great
granddaughter of Trot and Mia,
CH Glendhenmere's Buruki CDX,
RE, NA, NAJ, HSAcsd, HIAd, HXAd,
HTDId, HTADIds, HRDIs, STDcds, OTDcsd, VQWX, HIC, CGC, Int'l & SAC Int'l
Ch. Buruki turned 13 years old August 31, 2008, and she was 8 years old
when Mary came back to the competitive dog show world after a bout with
cancer and a heart attack. Buruki now has 30 titles, including her most
recent addition, AKC HXAd, plus she just earned 2 back to back Intermediate
Cattle legs with High Scoring ACD honors both days, the weekend of
September 20-21, 2008.