The dog whisperer: Training dogs to surf

There are often times when we wish animals could speak. It would be particularly good if we were able to talk to Hobie the golden retriever. We could ask what he thought about his astonishing transition from a stray street dog who had never seen water to finishing second in a major dog surfing competition and having a queue of potential new owners wanting to adopt him 18 days later.

The man who put Hobie on a stand-up paddle board (SUP) and a six-foot wave was champion surfer, dog whisperer and owner of SUP Dog Oz, Chris de Aboitiz.

Chris makes a habit of putting dogs on boards. That’s because they’re his two main passions but also because he’s weary of the robotic ‘give your dog a treat’ methods of so many trainers.

Training and exercising with your canine should be fun, says Chris, who kitesurfs and skateboards with his pet as well. He’s on a mission to show others how. Starting next month, he’ll be travelling up the east coast from Victoria’s Sandy Point to the Gold Coast conducting workshops with owners who want a dog so obedient and trusting that it, too, will stand quietly on a wobbly SUP. He’ll finish by entering the Australian Surfing Dog Spectacular in March with another trained rescue dog.

Chris has been teaching people to surf, sail and kitesurf for as long as he can remember. His son, Keahi, 24, is a four-time kitesurfing world champion as a result of Chris’s coaching and Chris himself has a world title in tandem surfing.

Dog training unofficially began around 2006. Chris would take his pooches with him to work on his boards as he paddled up and down his local Noosa waterways.

People would remark, “There’s no way you’d get my dog on a SUP,” and within five minutes Chris would prove he could.

“I’ve always had a way with dogs but never thought of being a trainer,” Chris says. “But then I watched the show, Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan.” That gave him the building blocks to add a layer of psychology to his training, Chris explains. As word spread, he found himself with up to 40 dogs and their owners in his local park, who were all there to socialise and learn more about their relationships with their four-legged best friends.

“I don’t really train dogs, I train people.

“Dogs are easy. They live in the now. It’s humans who have the problem,” Chris says. “If I see a nervous person, I know their dog will be nervous and unsure. If I see a dog pulling on the lead I know that’s an owner who’s not in charge.

“Dogs want to come everywhere with us but they can’t if they don’t know how to behave. However, if an owner can get them to behave on a SUP, that gives them the confidence to pretty much get them to behave anywhere.” Interestingly, a lot of what Chris teaches — learning through confidence, love, fun and structure with an amazing goal — could easily be transferred to people. “A lot of the lessons I teach can be useful for raising children,” Chris laughs. “It’s like being a parent in many ways. You can be a best friend but you also need to be a parent.

“For instance, say you see a mamma bear walking through the forest with her cubs and a tree branch falls and frightens one of them. What does mamma bear do? She just keeps walking. If she comforts the cubs, they’ll become scared of every natural event in the forest. If she keeps walking the cubs realise it’s not a big deal.” It’s the same when he gets a dog on a SUP. “I start by using a lead to walk it [the dog] back and forth over the board.

Then I have it sit on the board, then I take it out paddling. Sometimes it will crouch down because it’s nervous but I keep paddling and after a few seconds it stops being nervous and starts being curious and I give it praise. If you comfort a dog when it’s scared you’ll teach it bad habits without you even realising.” The dog isn’t allowed to move or even jump off the board when they reach the beach until Chris gives the say-so.

Chris’s next amazing goal is to set a new world record for the most dogs surfing on a SUP. He’s just like every other owner he works with, he says. He wants to have fun with his dogs and make sure exercise and time with them is never a chore but something everyone looks forward to.

● For more information on Chris’s east coast tour, visit supdogoz.com.au

Originally published as Meet the dog whisperer on water