Meet the CLEAR 'team'
Caroline Strainig is the human face of CLEAR Dog Training, but behind the scenes there are three other very important canine staff members too — Adam, Hope and Lockie.
Caroline has owned many dogs of different breeds over the years, but her current three dogs are all Border Collies because of their extraordinary versatility across a wide range of dog sports, which remain one of Caroline’s great passions outside of teaching.
They are best mates, shadows, occasional chaos merchants and the dogs who have probably taught Caroline as much about behaviour and training as any seminar or textbook ever could.
Together, the trio have shared remarkable success with Caroline at state, royal and national level competition across sports as diverse as rally obedience, obedience, agility, flyball, tricks and Dances With Dogs.
They have made Caroline laugh, occasionally made her cry, and helped shape the philosophy behind CLEAR Dog Training in very different ways.
And yes — all three are very convinced they should probably be on the payroll.
To be fair, Adam and Lockie especially have genuinely helped many CLEAR clients over the years, quietly assisting with training sessions, walking calmly around nervous dogs, demonstrating exercises and helping other dogs learn to cope with distractions in the real world.
Adam: The calm professional
The golden oldie
At 14 and a half years old, Adam is the much-loved elder statesman of the household these days and behaves very much like he knows it.
He has always had a quiet steadiness about him. Never flashy. Never dramatic. Just deeply reliable and incredibly genuine.
Adam was the sort of dog who made competition feel calm.
You walked into a ring with him and felt like he was saying: “We’ve got this. Stop worrying.”
Over the years, he and Caroline shared remarkable success together across obedience, rally obedience, agility, flyball and Dances With Dogs at state and national level.
But honestly, the results were never the most important part.
His attitude to life was generally: “Sounds fun. Let’s have a go.”
Working and competing together was never really about pressure or perfection. It was genuine joy for both of them.
Adam has also always been one of those rare dogs who quietly makes people smile.
A gentle soul with soft eyes and a face capable of melting hearts in seconds.
He still somehow manages to radiate dignity even while standing hopefully near the fridge in case cheese appears.
Living with a golden oldie also means knowing time is running out more and more.
So these days, every good day with Adam feels pretty special.
Every day feels more precious
Living with a golden oldie also means knowing time is running out more and more.
So these days, every good day with Adam feels pretty special.
Hope: The feisty little girl
Brilliant from the beginning
Even as a puppy, Hope showed great drive.
She was intensely clever, highly trainable and startlingly switched on from the beginning.
Hope, now aged six, is brilliant. Absolutely, wickedly, hilariously brilliant.
She is also feisty, emotional, sensitive, funny and occasionally capable of acting as though minor inconveniences are catastrophic global emergencies.
Hope feels life deeply.
From the time Hope first arrived interstate as a young puppy, it was obvious she was exceptionally talented, but also a little more timid and sensitive than some dogs.
Because of that, Caroline was very deliberate about giving Hope a comprehensive and careful socialisation and exposure program to give her every chance of that side of her not developing further.
Learning to navigate the world
However, despite doing all the “right” things — careful socialisation, positive exposure, training and confidence work — Hope gradually developed slight anxious reactivity around other dogs as she matured, not helped by being attacked by another dog at a competition.
Living with Hope and helping her through that journey has had a profound impact on Caroline as both a trainer and dog owner.
It gave her firsthand insight into the worry, heartbreak and constant management that can come with loving a sensitive dog.
It also reinforced how big an impact a dog attack can have on both dogs and owners, even when there are no physical scars to show.
But it also reinforced how much progress anxious and/or reactive dogs can still make with patience, understanding and thoughtful training.
Today, Hope has achieved remarkable success in obedience and rally competition, including many state and national level successes.
Opinions will absolutely be voiced
She has also never lost the ability to make her opinions known.
If Hope thinks what she and Caroline are doing is unclear, unfair or just downright boring, she is more than happy to communicate that fact with a little yowl almost under her breath.
But these days, Caroline and Hope take enormous joy in training, competing and simply enjoying life together.
And the bond between the two is extraordinarily close.
Lockie: The lovable clown
Apparently nobody told Lockie he was inexperienced
Lockie, now aged two, is a total goofball who loves everything about life.
A black-and-white whirlwind of enthusiasm who seems to wake up every morning genuinely thrilled to be alive.
He is goofy, smoochy, endlessly optimistic and has never met a game, person or activity he did not think sounded fantastic.
The fact he manages to function in a competition ring at all still slightly surprises Caroline because half the time he looks as though he is one happy squeal away from exploding with excitement.
But underneath all the silliness is an extraordinarily connected little dog who absolutely loves training.
Not because he has to.
He genuinely thinks training is the best fun imaginable.
Caroline entered him in the Australian National Dog Obedience and Tricks Championships last year as a last-minute entry, quietly thinking he would probably pass in his classes but not really excel because of his young age and limited amount of training.
Well… he did slightly better than expected.
Lockie won the Rally Novice national title, the Starter Tricks national title and jointly won the award for highest-scoring Border Collie in the entire National Tricks Trial.
So naturally, for a while afterwards, Lockie wandered around behaving as though his head was now so big he could barely fit through the door.
The dog who makes people smile
But honestly, the titles are only part of the story.
What Caroline loves most about Lockie is the happiness he brings into the house every single day.
He makes people smile.
He makes strangers laugh.
He also has one of the funniest little habits Caroline has ever seen in a dog.
As a puppy, Lockie was taught to wave with his paw — and apparently decided it was such a successful strategy he never stopped doing it.
To this day, he still loves racing Caroline up the stairs, spinning around at the top step and sitting there enthusiastically waving his paw until she catches up and gives him a pat.
It is ridiculous, adorable and very, very Lockie.
And on hard days, he has an extraordinary ability to remind everybody around him that dogs are supposed to bring joy into our lives too.
