My first exposure to what was to become a life long love came out of the clear blue sky. Jerry, my first husband and I were driving down the freeway when I saw a lot of people with dogs off to one side. Well, of course, we had to srop. It turned out to be a match and, several hours later, he pulled me kicking and protesting away from the obedience ring. That was the beginning. At that time we had a very pet Samoyed, Kahuna. I was able to find a contact number for the local all-breed club. They put me in touch with a Samoyed breeder, Roberta Bickerstaff of Summer Snow Samoyeds who was also an AKC licensed professional handler. This was back in the early 60's. Well, I was off and running. I worked with Roberta for about three years, attending shows with her, helping groom, carry tack and, at her home, evaluate and train puppies and young adults. I did just about everything except go into the ring. Most importantly, I learned.

My game plan was to have a show quality Samoyed but fate stepped in. A friend asked me to go with her to look at a Collie litter and to make a long story short, she didn't buy a puppy, I did. I dropped out of college so I could spend time with the pup, bought Milo Pearsall's book on obedience training and Indra and I were on our way.

In the last forty years I have held every office possible in breed, all-breed and obedience clubs, including Show Chairman for a Collie Specialty. I have trained obedience classes since the mid-sixties, finished multiple working titles, nineteen championships on dogs of my own of various breeds, some of which I bred, raised my kids, stepkids and now a granddaughter in the world of dogs. My second husband and I were all-breed professional handlers and finished many, many clients dogs.

Being basically schizophrenic or something, I cannot seem to settle on one breed and have owned just about everything from a Shih Tzu to Saint Bernards. I have written extensively and been published in many dog magazines, newsletters, and for a time, had my own newspaper column. I currently have one book about finished and two others in progress.

Jen, my granddaughter, and I live on three and a half acres in the High Desert in Southern California. We have a male Schipperke, John, a male Italian Greyhound, Mason and a male American Staffordshire Terrier, Milo. To round out the critters here at Wilderglen, we have a rabbit, Brandy, two cats, Rambo & Lida, and a hamster, Eden as well as four chickens and, at various times, clients' dogs in for showing and/or training.

I am a loan officer and work from home which is a delight. Thank goodness for computers which make this possible. Jen and I are working on getting a trophy, ceramics, craft business started and are pushing to get this together before the end of this year. Jen is also doing websites. Go take a look at some of her sites. She is truly talented and dedicated. We keep very busy attending dog club meetings and working for matches, fundraisers, etc. I am recording secretary and 2004 show chairman for Sandy Paws Dog Club and Jen is Corresponding Secretary and webmistress. I am a certified CGC evaluator and we both enjoy working the CGC events. Jen has been a tester for me several times.

We are active with our church, I am a member of the Altar Society and the Legion of Mary and Jen sings in the choir, Laveda meetings, and working the USDA food bank. I belong to Friends of the Library which is currently raising funds to expand our library and am Public Relations Chairman. I am also a director on the board for our local water company. We are members of CBC, Citizens for a Better Community and are also members of the Writers Ink Club. I am also now a member of local Garden Club.

Just for fun both Jen and I are attending crochet classes. Jen is planning to start in to college, hopefully this winter. John is in Novice obedience training, Milo is in training for the conformation ring to be followed by obedience and agility and Mason is starting Novice training.

This website, like our lives, is a work in progress and will have links to other sites as we build them. We invite you to browse around, visit what is here and keep on coming back as we add new pages, new sites, update our happenings and share points of view and opinions.

For those of you who may have training questions, I invite you to visit the training/handling tips and discussion link. If you don't find an answer to your question, please e-mail me and I will do my best to assist you. Recently added are several of my previously published articles as well as excerpts from my upcoming book, "Letters From Johnny" on my From My Desk pages. There is a wealth of information to be had through my health and nutrition links page.(coming soon)

And PLEASE sign my guestbook so we will know that you have been here.
Email me with your questions/comments at wilderglen@yahoo.com.