THE PEOPLE BEHIND CLEAR
Meet the four-legged 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 and trained 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, course or textbook ever could.
Together, the trio have shared remarkable success with Caroline in state, royal and national competition across sports as diverse as rally obedience, obedience, agility, flyball, tricks and Dances With Dogs. But life with them has always been about far more than ribbons and results. They have made Caroline laugh, occasionally made her cry, tested her patience 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 earned their keep over the years, helping many CLEAR clients during training sessions, walking calmly around nervous or reactive dogs, demonstrating exercises and showing other dogs how to cope with distractions and everyday challenges in the real world.
Keep scrolling to get to know each of these unique personalities a little better.
Adam: Elder statesman
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.
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
Hope, now aged six, is brilliant. Absolutely, wickedly, hilariously brilliant. She is feisty, emotional, sensitive and funny, with very definite opinions about how life ought to unfold.
She notices everything and remembers everything. Minor inconveniences can occasionally be treated as catastrophic global emergencies, and Hope is never shy about letting Caroline know when something fails to meet her expectations.
That extraordinary intelligence came with sensitivity from the beginning. Hope arrived interstate as a young puppy, and Caroline quickly realised that confidence would need to be developed thoughtfully rather than taken for granted.
Caroline therefore gave her plenty of positive exposure to different people, dogs, places, sounds and situations. The aim was never to change Hope’s nature, but to help a very bright, sensitive young dog learn to navigate the wider world.
Learning to navigate the world
Despite that careful start, Hope developed some anxious reactivity around other dogs as she matured. Being attacked by another dog at a competition did not help, and understandably affected her confidence.
Living with Hope through that journey gave Caroline firsthand insight into what owners of anxious or reactive dogs deal with every day. There is the worry, the constant management and the need to think ahead in situations other owners may barely notice.
It also showed Caroline how much an attack can affect a dog even when there are no physical scars. Rebuilding confidence can take time, patience and a willingness to work with the dog in front of you rather than the dog you wish you had.
Hope has also demonstrated just how much sensitive or reactive dogs can achieve. With thoughtful training and sensible management, she has gone on to enjoy remarkable success in both obedience and rally.
Those achievements include major wins at state and national level. Hope’s vulnerabilities are part of who she is, but they have never defined what she is capable of.
Opinions will absolutely be voiced
Hope has certainly never lost the ability to make her opinions known. If she thinks something Caroline is doing is unclear, unfair or simply boring, she will issue a little yowl under her breath.
It is pure Hope — expressive, slightly indignant and impossible not to laugh at. There is rarely much doubt about what she thinks of Caroline’s latest training decision.
These days, Caroline and Hope take enormous joy in training, competing and simply enjoying life together. They understand one another extraordinarily well, and working through the more difficult times has only strengthened their relationship.
Their bond has been built through success in competition, but also through years of learning to understand, trust and work with one another. For Caroline, that makes everything Hope has achieved together with her all the more special.
Lockie: The lovable clown
Nobody told Lockie he was inexperienced
Lockie, now aged two, is a total goofball who loves everything about life. He wakes up every morning seemingly thrilled to be alive and convinced that something wonderful is about to happen.
He is goofy, smoochy and endlessly optimistic. He has never met a game, person or activity he did not think sounded fantastic, preferably right now and at full speed.
The fact he manages to function in a competition ring still slightly surprises Caroline. Half the time, he looks as though he is one happy squeal away from exploding with excitement.
Underneath all that silliness, though, is an extraordinarily connected little dog. Lockie loves training and throws himself wholeheartedly into almost everything he and Caroline do together.
For him, training really is the best fun imaginable. Learning something new, practising something familiar or heading into a competition ring are simply different versions of having a wonderful time.
Caroline entered Lockie in the Australian National Dog Obedience and Tricks Championships last year almost as an afterthought. He was young, relatively inexperienced and had not had an enormous amount of training.
She thought he would probably pass his classes and gain some useful experience at a major competition.
Well… he did slightly better than expected. Lockie won the Rally Novice national title and the Starter Tricks national title. He also 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.
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 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.
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.
