Dear Choked Up: You asked about Novice Obedience, which would indicate you wish to train for competition at obedience trials. When searching for a class you must be sure that the instructor is teaching competition and not just basic Beginner Obedience.

However, with such a young puppy you may want to go through a session of Puppy Kindergarten or Basic Obedience before you plunk her down in something far more technical. The main difference between them is teaching the handler the American Kennel Club rules for giving commands and the technical aspects of handler footwork. Perhaps you and your puppy should have some fun while learning in this first session and then move into the more structured world of competition obedience classes.

Three local places to train are Cassio Kennels in Newtown at 426-2881; Newtown Kennel Club at the Edmond Town Hall at 740-7679 and the Obedience Dog Training Club of Waterbury at 203-888-0795. All three of them offer regular and competition classes.

As for training collars versus positive reinforcement training techniques, the two are unrelated. Your dog can wear a nylon or metal choke chain and be trained completely with food and positive reinforcement. One school of training, which you probably associate with the metal choke collar, is the “correction” method where a handler will correct the dog with a sharp snap of the metal choke collar when the dog has made an error. When the dog obeys correctly then the handler praises and rewards, sometimes verbally and sometimes with food.

With positive reinforcement training, sometimes also referred to as “Clicker” training, a dog’s behavior is shaped through giving positive rewards when the dog accomplishes a task and when the dog is in error it is ignored rather than “corrected.” In clicker training, a small clicker button is pressed making a loud click to indicate to the dog that his behavior is correct, followed immediately by some food.

Many trainers employ techniques from both schools of thought. Your best bet would be to go to a few obedience classes in the area and observe the training methods of the various instructors and see which one you like the most. Observe how the dogs respond and how easy (or hard) it is for the handlers to employ such methods. Another idea would be to go to an obedience trial and watch the handlers in the Novice or Open class. Find one you admire and ask them whom they train with or if they are a trainer. To find upcoming obedience trials go to www.akc.org for a complete listing.

Lisa’s Pick of the Litter

Frequently, I find a tidbit of trivia or useful piece of information not associated with a question that I’d like to pass along. This week’s pick of the litter is –

Many of you may remember the famous basset hound Biggles, whose long-eared face appeared in Hush Puppies shoe commercials. Carrying on the family tradition of celebrity status is his grandson, Mr Jeffries, whose has made it into the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the dog with the longest ears.

This London-based hound, officially known as Knightsfollie Ladiesman, claimed an “ear span” measuring 11.5 inches on November 3, 2002, according to Guinness. Phil Jeffries, of Southwick, England, owner of the “celeb-phenom” reports Mr Jeffries ears are insured for $47,800.

And much like the House of Lords, this titleholder gained his position in the Guinness Book as a result of the previous record holder, his granddad, crossing over the rainbow bridge last year.

Lisa Peterson, a breeder and exhibitor of Norwegian Elkhounds, is a Delegate to the American Kennel Club. Send questions to elvemel@aol.com or P.O. Box 307, Newtown, CT 06470.