Award-winning American dog handler moves to Southeast

Jody Davidson has done it all in the dog training world, even starring in her own TV show on Discovery while helping kids compete in national events and the renowned Westminster Dog Show itself.

The American will soon be offering those skills in the Southeast after making the move from Arizona in what she described as a new adventure to a rural farm in the RM of De Salaberry west of Pansy.

An extra sales tax on non-Canadians buying homes in more populated areas of Ontario got Davidson and her husband Scott seeking another home north of the border. As the cold settled across the prairies and the political heat kept cranking up south of the border, they found a place on Road 30E seemingly built for them.

“I started doing research, and everywhere I looked I got the same thing: friendly Manitoba,” said Davidson, who has been training dogs for 62 years after reading a book on it as a child.

“And look, I’m not saying there aren’t schmucks in Manitoba — I’m sure there are, I haven’t met one yet. In the number of times I’ve been back here, everyone has been nothing but friendly and welcoming and chill. To be honest, that was the main thing that impressed me.”

The wide open spaces that Manitobans take for granted was the other big draw.

The property on Joubert Creek has large buildings including a shop with a heated floor, and plenty of room for dogs in training to run around.

De Salaberry council approved a variance Feb. 18 to allow the land on the border with the RM of Hanover to be used as kennel for five years under its bylaws.

Davidson said she plans on offering training classes to people of all ages, with kids eight and up and their dogs as her area of expertise. But Davidson points out an 88-year-old was her oldest trainee to win a championship.

She hopes to start this summer after she gets settled in and adds training equipment inside her new facilities.

As a former director of training at several animal shelters, Davidson also wants to offer help to Steinbach and Area Animal Rescue with dog training for the dogs and new owners. Many dogs quickly end up back in animal shelters despite the best vetting of any shelter.

“They fall in love with an inappropriate dog. It would be like my seeing your photo on Facebook and going ‘I’m marrying him,’” she explained.

Davidson could also help with her search and rescue training experience. Her dogs can use their superior sense of smell to locate a human or specific person on those most hidden and remote locations with a drop of blood or other scent sample.

Finding a new home

Despite arriving in the depths of a frozen February when temperatures reached the point where Celsius and Fahrenheit became the same number, Davidson was quick to find her new home.

“I came to Steinbach, I arrived at 3 o’clock on a Monday, and by 1 o’clock on Tuesday we made an offer on a house, and by 6 o’clock we were under contract,” said Davidson, who has also lived in Vermont, New Hampshire, Chicago and LA.

“This to me is the ideal kind of location. It’s everything New England is but flat and with nice people — not that New Englanders aren’t nice but they are slow to warm up,” laughed Davidson.

She then foreshadowed a chance meeting minutes later outside Coffee Culture on Main Street with one of the first people she met in Steinbach.

“In big cities people don’t have personal responsibility. Look at this street — and I’m not saying everybody in Steinbach knows everybody in Steinbach, but in Vermont everybody did. It was like 5,000 people in the town we were in. And there was one main street, and if you were driving down the main street, somebody went across the street and you didn’t stop and let them go in your car, they know who you were,” said Davidson.

“You have a greater responsibility because you’re not a faceless individual. I like that.”

Dog owners present and future are to be the beneficiaries of Davidson’s preference for rural living and tested cold winter tolerance.

“I’m probably the foremost trainer of kids and dogs in the United States. I have the largest program and the most successful program that anyone’s ever done in terms of junior showmanship.

“I’ve always been involved with children. I’m hoping to build a comparable program here,” said Davidson, whose show ‘The Mighty Underdogs’ followed her and a group of children training for national competitions.

She also wants to make it as accessible as possible.

“If a kid doesn’t have a dog, I have dogs,” she said.

And while some of her kids and dogs have gone all the way to Westminster, basic training with things like getting that anxious pet to quit pulling on the leash is also part of what can be offered alongside showmanship and agility lessons.

Tears welled up in her eyes when the 42 kids Davidson has been training were brought up.

“I had to compartmentalize. I can’t even think about it yet, and I know I have to,” said Davidson.

Those kids will be invited to come to southeast Manitoba, most if not all for the first time, to meet up and train with their mentor.

It will be a chance for American and Canadian kids to meet and share their love for their canine companions.