Local Doberman has a shot at being nation's top dog
Allentown woman and pooch to compete in national obedience meet
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above: Allentown's Terri Kerr shows some love to Smack Dabs True Gem. The team will compete in the American Kennel Club's National Obedience Invitational on Dec. 2. Below: Smack Dabs True Gem jumps a hurdle in the obstacle course at Upfront Farm in Allentown on Nov. 21.

Her ability to communicate with animals has earned her national recognition.

Terri Kerr and her 7-year-old Doberman pinscher, Smack Dabs True Gem, will compete against other top obedience dogs in the country Dec. 2-3 at the American Kennel Club National Obedience Invitational in Long Beach, Calif. The duo had to be ranked in the top 25 nationally based on Obedience Trial Championship (OTCH) points earned during the qualifying period in order to be able to vie for a top spot in the invitational.

The purpose of obedience trials is to demonstrate a dog's ability to follow specified routines. All contestants in a class are required to perform the same exercises in essentially the same way so the relative quality of the various performances may be compared and scored.

Smack Dabs True Gem - whom Kerr affectionately calls "Gemma" - will have to perform various exercises throughout the first day of competition. Six rings will be set up, with each one containing five exercises. Neither dog nor trainer will know which exercises will have to be performed until the morning of the competition, Kerr said.

Some of the exercises the Doberman may have to perform include directed retrieving, scent discrimination and signaling.

During directed retrieving, Gemma has to retrieve one glove out of three that are relatively close to each other while taking directions from Kerr, who will be standing 25 feet away.

In scent discrimination, Gemma may have to go through eight leather or metal items touched by different people and find which one Kerr touched.

In a directed jumping exercise, Gemma goes 50 feet away from Kerr and is then directed to jump over a certain hurdle in a bunch of hurdles.

Gemma will compete from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and have 20-minute breaks in between each ring, according to Kerr. The 25 top-scoring dogs on Saturday will get to advance to Sunday's competition. Kerr's goal is to have Gemma make it through to Sunday.

On Sunday, the judges place the previous day's top scorers against the lowest scoring dogs. Dogs will then be eliminated one by one until there is a victor, according to Kerr.

Competition is rigorous with dogs starting off with 200 points and judges taking off points for every flaw in the team's performance, including the animal not sitting in the exact center of its trainer.

"She has to be perfect," Kerr said. "By the time you get there, the two of you have to have a bond.

"I have to know what she's thinking, and she has to know what I'm thinking," Kerr continued, "and you have to kind of cover for each other."

Kerr began training animals at age 11. At that time, however, she worked with a much larger species - the horse.

Throughout her years of working with horses, Kerr said she learned how to physically and mentally communicate with animals.

Kerr said animals have to learn to judge what they are doing and need external motivation.

"They have got to want to do it," she said.

Having a natural ability to motivate animals is one of the reasons Kerr decided to work with Dobermans. Whereas some dogs such as golden and Labrador retrievers are self-motivated, Kerr said Dobermans "are real dogs" that "have to be motivated."

"She would just lay on the couch all day if she had anything to do with it," Kerr said, referring to Gemma.

Kerr got Gemma as a puppy from Chicago. After training numerous rescue dogs, Kerr decided to get a dog that she could train and take to competitions.

"Up until the Dobermans, I had lots of rescues," she said. "I tried to get a competitive dog, but rescue dogs come with lots of baggage. To get them to [Gemma's] level is hard because of the things that happened to them in the past."

Up until 1995, Kerr was still working with horses while dabbling with dogs. It wasn't until her husband, David, saw what could be done with the dogs that the couple decided to invest their lives in dog training.

Kerr and her husband established a dog training center at their Up Front Farm in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold about a year and a half ago. She said that she and David, who passed away in April, always taught and trained the dogs together, but that she intends to carry on the endeavor.

The school provides pet training "to bring people up to the level I'm at in competition [in terms of] teaching agility, rally and obedience or for people who want to have a nice pet that is obedient."

She continued, "For other people, this place just offers one hour of relaxation where there's nothing else in the world but you and your dog, and all of your worries are left outside that door."

Kerr believes any dog can be developed.

"Just like a child," Kerr said. "If you don't teach a child, they are not going to learn and not going to realize how much they can learn."

Kerr said those who want to train a dog and dream about doing it can do it.

"You have to put the time in, and you have to be fair," she said. "They can take anything as long as you are fair, but if you are not fair, forget it."

Getting a dog to competition level could be as easy as teaching the animal a trick and then perfecting it, she said. Most of the training Kerr does with Gemma takes place in her own house.

"I take articles and hide them around the house, and she goes and finds them," Kerr said. "When I'm cooking and have a scrap to give her, she must do something for it."

Kerr said she won't allow Gemma to get too old before she stops competing. She will most likely retire the dog next year, she said.

"I want her to retire and to have fun," Kerr said. "She'll get to be the queen bee around here."

Kerr is already training another 4-year-old Doberman named Always to get to Gemma's level of competition. She also just got a Border collie puppy.

Kerr has had one or two dogs in the top 20 obedient dogs in the nation since 1997. It takes a dog about two years to get to the level of competition Gemma is currently at.

Kerr said she sees herself working with dogs for the rest of her life.

"That's the nice thing about this sport," she said. "At competitions you see ladies out there in their mid 80s doing this. That's the beauty of this. It's not just something you can do when you are young."

No matter what happens at the invitational, Kerr said Gemma always makes her proud.

"You have to take them home with you no matter what," Kerr said. "When things don't go right, you have to laugh about it because it's mostly the communication between the two of you."

The gratification Kerr gets from having dogs is that "when you're happy, they're happy and running around, and when you are sad, they are there with you."

For more information on the competition, visit www.akc.org or www.topdogshow.com. For more information about the training center at Up Front Farm, visit www.upfronttraining.com.