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Two Sisters, One Mind

Cheryl Karnes and Bonny Baker, two sisters from Georgetown, Texas, drove all the way to Northern California to attend the OneMind Dogs Seminars in March. The ladies spent the whole two weeks at the event in Morgan Hill and got a chance to work with all the Finnish coaches.

We thought it would be great to hear a bit more about these two, true OneMind Dogs fans so we asked Cheryl and Bonny to share both their seminar experiences as well as their whole OneMind Dogs journey with us all!


How it all started

Training dogs has been Cheryl’s passion since she was a little girl and created a doggy circus in her backyard. So it’s no surprise she then later on got into agility. She has been both teaching and competing for almost two decades now and has experience from the AKC Agility Invitational and AKC National Agility Championships.

Bonny had a horse training background but got introduced to agility in 2004 when she took her young standard poodle Babe to her sister’s agility class. Few years later Bonny and Babe were also competing all over the United States.

Finding OneMind Dogs

It was Cheryl who discovered an article from OneMind Dogs Coach Mary Ellen Barry in Clean Run magazine. She then proceeded to read the entire series of articles and was immediately intrigued by the OneMind Dogs method.

Around the same time a friend told Cheryl about his experience at a OneMind Dogs seminar. He encouraged Cheryl to attend one too, but the opportunity didn’t present itself at the time.

Cheryl had always felt that understanding a dog is the first step to being able to train one. So when she came across OneMind Dogs, she felt like “coming home” and finally finding a group of like minded individuals.

Moving to Texas

In 2014 both Cheryl and Bonny moved to Georgetown, Texas to be closer to their family. Neither of them felt that the dog training methods in their new area were in the direction they wanted to follow. It was then Cheryl decided to re-read all the OneMind Dogs articles, watch the training videos on YouTube and eventually become a Premium Member on the OneMind Dogs website.

Naturally Cheryl introduced OneMind Dogs to her sister Bonny who was also immediately hooked. “I can log onto your website and view each Handling Technique, as I am training my dog and myself. Your OneMind Dogs training approach provides me information to ‘see the dog’s line’ and to ‘see and use the 3-C’s (connect, commit cue) every time.’ It is so much fun when you see the dog’s eyes blink; ‘I got it!’ The excitement and joy is so emotional for me”, Bonny shares her experiences with using the OneMind Dogs online service.

In 2017 the ladies also started making monthly trips to HotDog Dogs Sports three hours away from Georgetown, just to train with OneMind Dogs instructor Trainee Shawn Cossart.

Road Trip to OneMind Dogs California Seminars

In March 2018 an opportunity to attend a live OneMind Dogs event finally presented itself and the sisters decided to drive fours days to Northern California to take part. They wanted to make the most of their long trip and attend as many seminars as possible, even the more beginner ones just to ensure they would understand the teaching approach from ground up and get the benefit from working with all the OneMind Dogs coaches in person.

Cheryl’s expectations for the California seminars was to better understand the 3 C’s, 7 handling elements, 10 commandments, and how to improve her handling techniques. She feels she finished the event with a much better grasp of all the above and more. “I left with an improved understanding of my dog in general, and a better working relationship with my dog when training and competing in agility”, she says.

Bonny came to the California just determined to do everything the OneMind Dogs Coaches would teach her to do. She had no expectations but the hope that her poodle, DeeDee would stay with her at least half of the time as she has a tendency to get distracted. Much to Bonny’s excitement DeeDee only broke away a total of three times during the entire two weeks. According to Bonny the connection between herself and DeeDee as well as DeeDee’s commitment are now amazing and she can’t wait until the next dog show!

The ladies are now planning to watch more OneMind Dogs training videos to ensure they understand and correctly execute all the handling techniques. They also hope to attend more seminars. After driving four days to California they are now prepared to travel as far as Finland just to learn more!

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.