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OneMind Dogs Visited Florida & Costa Rica

Agility unites people around the world. OneMind Dogs visited US and Costa Rica in February.


The OneMind Dogs team has been back home for a while now after a very intense visit to Florida (USA). We had a lot of fun, met a lot of great dogs, a lot of great people, ate great food and enjoyed the sunshine. We had a memorable experience and we would like to give a very big thanks to everyone who made it possible. We were also able to enjoy some memorable experiences as well as had some of our childhood dreams come true!

OneMind Dogs arrives in the US!

Janita and Jaakko were the first to arrive. They flew to Florida to meet Karen Holik, who was waiting for them at the airport. Before departing for this adventure, there was one “little” episode which occurred only a few days before Janita and Jaakko left to US. Janita was chatting with Karen on Facebook and she mentioned that “Yes, come and pick us up at Miami Airport.” Well, Karen was close to having a heart attack as she realised that Janita had booked the flight to Miami instead of Orlando!  Miami was 5 hours away from the seminar place…  Luckily everything got worked out and Karen could pick them up from an airport a bit closer.

Spreading OneMind Dogs Methodology through America

During February, OneMind Dogs visited Costa Rica as well as Florida (US) to teach a seminar. First, Noora flew with her husband Mikko to Costa Rica to meet Jory Freimann. There she taught a one day OneMind Dogs agility seminar. On Wednesday, Noora, Mikko, Tuulia and Timo arrived in Florida and joined Jaakko & Janita for the OneMind Dogs seminar at Karen’s venue.

A group picture of the seminar participants in Costa Rica

Janita, Jaakko and Tuulia held an intense one week seminar in Florida. The week begun with a lecture, followed by four full days of training the techniques and different courses.

We had the pleasure of teaching a great group of students in both seminars. We sure enjoyed sharing OneMind Dogs’ methodology with all of them and watching every one of our students flourish with their canine partners.  

During the time in Florida one thing comes in top of the mind: delicious RIBS!  We estimated we must have eaten several cows in total… The ribs were just soooo delicious… :)

After the seminar week in Florida we got an amazing chance to visit Disney World in Orlando for an entire week!  Janita, Jaakko, Tuulia and Timo headed to Disney together with their lovely friends, Kayl, Ken, Deb & Marti.  Before Karen dropped everyone off at Disney, she took them to Discovery Cove.  The OneMind Dogs crew had an opportunity to swim with dolphins & experience the many amazing things the cove had to offer.

The week in Disney was incredible! Being an experienced Disney visitor, the McCann family their personal guides through “the happiest place on earth”.  They visited several theme parks, braving rides such as Tower of Terror & Mount Everest Roller Coaster, rode Humunga Cawabunga at Typhoon Lagoon (a water slide that drops straight down!), saw some live music, visited some near restaurants as well as enjoyed each others company with many BBQ’s at the resort.   It was a great week of building friendships & sharing so much laughter. 

The week was totally incredible! We had plenty of fun but also had exhilarating experiences that we will never forget.

Back home trip and a special thank you

Noora, Mikko, Tuulia and Timo got back to Finland as scheduled. Unfortunately for Janita and Jaakko,  the trip back home was unexpectedly long due to some flight delays. In the end, we all got safe home and were happy to hug our dogs as well as share our experience with our loved ones.  We hope to repeat the experience at some point… It’s just a question of booking the flights, eh?

OneMind Dogs would like to give special thanks to:

To Jory Freiman and Mary C. for making the seminar possible in Costa Rica! 
To Karen Holik, for making the seminar possible in Florida!  
To Eric Bobkowski, for photos, course buildings and for your sense of humor! 
To Mary Ellen Berry for driving us around and making us laugh every day!

To all seminar participants, who really gave their all, and truly inspired us!

To our second week hosts, The McCann's, Kayl McCann, Marti McCann, Deb McCann and Ken Steepe who in words of Janita Leinonen “made our first visit to Disney the easiest ever. Without you we might still be waiting in a queue in the first park…”

And last but not least, thank you to our family and friends for taking great care of our dogs. This journey had not been possible without you!

Watch a short video about the journey...

PS. Who can guess what is happening here in this picture? :)
Karen & Mary Ellen tasting THE Finnish Salmiakki...

 

Our mission is to give a happy life to dogs by helping people become amazing dog owners. We are passionate about increasing the mutual understanding between the dog and the owner, making a life together more enjoyable for both.