Jennifer Fraser wasn’t curious about Daiquiri, no less than not initially.
The southern Alberta-based canine coach and entrepreneur has labored with dogs since she was three years old, studying underneath the tutelage of her grandmother. But Daiquiri, an Australian Shepard, was a boy and he or she had solely skilled feminine dogs as much as that time.
After an preliminary adoptee backed out, choosing Daiquiris’s brother as a substitute, he was moved from one home to a different. Eventually, Fraser was persuaded to take him in. It turned out to be an excellent determination.
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Together, the duo has competed in canine exhibits all over the world, together with Crufts, the celebrated annual occasion held within the U.Okay. They additionally maintain 13 Guinness World Records, corresponding to probably the most canine tips carried out in a single minute and most cash placed in a piggy financial institution in a minute.
“He’s basically a perfect dog,” Fraser tells the National Post from Alberta. “When I’m teaching him a new skill, he immediately understands what I’m trying to teach him and he picks it up so fast.”
The duo will be seen in a brand new docuseries from Disney, The Secret Life of Dancing Dogs, which follows six totally different trainers as they compete in worldwide canine dancing occasions.
Also often known as canine freestyle, canine dancing combines obedience coaching, tips, costumes and props in a choreographed routine set to music.
Fraser’s journey with dogs started underneath the watch of her grandmother, who operated a boarding facility. The expertise laid the inspiration for her future in canine sports activities. Fraser now runs her personal “luxury dog hotel,” dubbed Paradise Kennels and launched her first canine coaching business at 13.
“I kind of blossomed from there and I’ve basically done as much as I can with my dogs,” she says. “I’ve really found that performing and making people smile and inspiring people to do more with their dogs really makes everything that I do worthwhile.”
Success helps, too. One of Fraser and Daiquiri’s dancing routines, recorded at Crufts 2022 and set to Dolly Parton’s Cracker Jack, has been considered greater than 14 million instances on TikTok.
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“That was the pinnacle of my dog dancing career,” she says. “I had never competed in my life in dog dancing. It’s not in Canada, it’s impossible to find shows. So the very first time I stepped into the room to compete was at the biggest dog show in the world against the best of the best and I nailed that routine.”
The efficiency netted the duo second place total and led to an encore efficiency in Chile, all bills paid.
At home, Fraser, a mom of 4, oversees a bustling family of 10 dogs. Each one is skilled or within the course of of coaching for numerous canine sports activities, together with Chardonnay, an 18-month-old Australian Shepherd that’s Daiquiri’s protege and Fabio, a five-year-old Afghan Hound which shall be competing at Crufts 2024.
“It’s very scary because Afghan Hounds are considered the least intelligent breed,” Fraser says. “But I want to prove that a good dog trainer can do anything with any dog and I’m hoping he will do well. At the very least, I will definitely be humbled during that routine.”
Fraser says she trains her dogs utilizing solely optimistic reinforcement and developed a method known as “dog training naked,” the place the dogs put on no collars or leashes.
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“They’re always off leash whenever I’m training them. They want to train with me and I just encourage that. At no point am I correcting my dogs or yelling at my dogs, it is always purely positive reinforcement.”
She has three items of recommendation for others trying to practice their dogs in occasions like agility and different sports activities.
“Stick with treats, love and toys. It’s the difference between working with a boss who’s mean and threatening all the time and a boss you truly love and respect. That’s the difference. But I don’t see myself as Daiquiri’s boss, I see him as my partner.”
Daiquiri, 8, has a couple of 12 months of competing left earlier than retiring from his record-setting profession.
Though he counts 13 Guinness World Records to his identify, Fraser says that quantity could possibly be a lot larger.
“We got 13 in less than a year. That’s what happens when a dog trainer gets bored during COVID and there’s no competition around.”
The document that stands out probably the most for her is Daiquiri performing 60 tips in underneath a minute.
“We actually submitted 72 tricks in that minute, but Guinness went OK, we have to cap it at 60 because 72 is crazy. Nobody’s going to break that record. So it’s a record that will never be broken.”
For Fraser, there’s additionally a cathartic component to working with dogs and Daiquiri has been instrumental in that course of.
“He’s just an amazing dog,” she says. “When I was young, I couldn’t trust anybody except for the dogs in my life, and because of them I was able to make it through and they continue to help me heal and to live my life the way it should be lived. Now I’m a mother with four beautiful healthy kids and a luxury dog boarding resort and I’m just living the dream.”
