Daily Inspiration: Meet Jodi Weatherford

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodi Weatherford.

Hi Jodi, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, let’s briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today. As a little kid, I always loved watching the Incredible Dog Challenge on TV and any dog show events that were aired, and I loved watching in live performances with handlers and dogs. I finally convinced my dad to build me some obstacles at home so I could train my pet dogs in agility. I was 8 years old at the time. About a year later, I met my elementary school best friend, and perfectly enough, her mom showed in AKC agility. She allowed me to watch a class with her every week, and I even got to show her dog in an AKC agility trial at 9 years old. The rest is history.

I was just 10 years old. I trained my Doberman at home until I felt he was ready, and we headed off to our first show. We ran our first course clean and took home first place. I spent the next months entering as many trials as my parents would take me to. After about a year and a half of showing him, my next puppy came along. He was a hoarder-bust puppy. There were 127 dogs pulled from a barn. He then battled parvo, and once he recovered, he went on to learn the ropes of agility and became the first dog I took to nationals and got a Master Agility Champion title on.

From there, I have adopted more dogs with which I have traveled around the United States. Now competing in agility, rally, frisbee, dock diving, and lure coursing. I have 3 dogs currently that compete. One is a Belgian Malinois. He was a craigslist puppy that went unclaimed, yikes. Nova appeared at a friend’s rescue, terrified of life from under socialization and possibly abuse. Sushi is my newest challenge. He is an American Pit Bull Terrier pulled from a fighting ring bust with over 50 others.

CAL stands for compete, adventure, and love. The three greatest things you can do with your dog! CAL K9s came about in 2016. I started training other people’s dogs as a side job and for fun. It’s something I truly love to do. I wanted to help owners/handlers better understand and connect with their dogs. My dogs have their flaws and terrible quirks that many others experience with theirs as well. Why would I hoard my knowledge and experiences from them? I moved away from my hometown in 2021 and found a job working at a dog training facility. I quickly realized this is exactly what I wanted to do full-time, not just as a side job!

I am blessed enough to say I moved back to my hometown a year and a half later, where it all started. My agility field is back in the front lot. My husband and I spent the summer months building a dock diving pool. And I now have my dream building for boarding and fostering dogs. We have frisbee and plenty of dock diving events planned for the future. I spend my days doing nothing but enjoying dogs, training them, and helping humans better understand and communicate with their dogs. It has all been a dream come true.

Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect? I was working two jobs and going to college for Vet Tech school. There were many, many late nights and early mornings and all-nighters. Plenty of times, I left work at 1 a.m and was back in the car at 4a.m driving across the state to a dog show. My Belgian Malinois was attacked by a neighbor dog at 6 months old and went down a serious reactivity spiral. We were given an official warning write-up from an agility show because he lunged at a dog that a lady let run right up to us. Now the write-up hangs in my building next to our hundreds of ribbons. Being young in the show world takes work. Most are very jealous, not accepting, and always want to point their fingers at the younger crowd. I hate to tell them, but the sports would die off in a new generation never got involved. Our events and field space are now for reactive dogs, and I love helping junior handlers! I want to be the change the sports need.

Sushi is an American Pit Bull; enough said for dog sport people. They instantly judge us. A young girl owns an APBT; what is she doing here?! I also learned to accept those crazy looks from years of showing my Malinois. We love the challenge of being the “off-breed” teams. I wouldn’t trade my teammates (dogs) for the world. Sushi is like running a dump truck in agility. He wasn’t made for tight curves and to be agile.

Sushi and Zidane ran into a period of not liking each other. We went down a huge learning curve of understanding overarousal, pack management, and structure. It was a very frustrating time. I was scared I would have to rehome Sushi, but we worked through it and were better than ever! I also have first-hand experience to pass along to others who get a new dog and must make major adjustments to their pack management skills.

Nova came to me incredibly shy and shut down. She helps me better connect with owners of shy dogs! She has been a huge help in my learning to manage a shy dog that takes much more coaxing and praise than I’ve ever experienced before. As you’ve probably gathered, my dogs aren’t perfect. No dog is perfect. But I need my current crew and past dogs to be able to help others as well as I do. I never went to dog training school and never will. They teach you textbook answers and training. Experience will always trump school in the real world. The learning curve of creating my schedule with my business has been an intense battle among myself. I always think I can do more, and I often forget I am only one human with 24 hours a day. Learning the business and legal side of things has been the biggest headache. I often say, “I’m just a dog trainer. Not a lawyer/CPA/accountant/tax guru. I never know what’s next—going to school for 3 extra years to get my Vet Tech degree and not wanting to step back into a vet’s office to work ever again, whoops. Dog training is what I love! Building the dock, we ran into so many learning curves. I thought it would lead to a divorce before we got done. 10/10 do not recommend moving states and immediately jumping into a giant project, especially when it’s over 100 degrees outside.

Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work. I am a dog trainer and behavior specialist. I train pets in obedience like sit stay, down stay, heel, recall, place, etc., but I also teach off-leash and advanced obedience. I do private lessons and board and train. My main goal is to teach humans how to communicate and understand their dogs better. That also teaches them how to train and take care of the dog’s mental, physical, and biological needs. They all go hand in hand. I coach people and dogs to compete in agility, rally, dock diving, frisbee, canicross, bikejoring, and lure coursing. We are also starting up a GRC Club soon. So we have the spring pole and are working towards building the vertical wall and buying the slat mill! I do regular boarding for dogs more on a personal level: way more structure and less stress in our building. Not just kennel runs with dogs going ballistic. And the dogs get to explore the fields, woods, and creek! They can also get sport time to run off that extra energy and help relieve stress! The kennel room is usually completely silent because the dogs get what they need during the day here! We are running our dock diving and frisbee events. We are a part of International Dog Sports, Updog Frisbee Challenge, and North America Canicross; we are hopefully adding way more events to our list in the coming months! Jodi has many years of experience supporting owners to make the needed changes in their dogs’ lives. She has been training pet dogs for 7 years now and still loves every second of it! Her biggest goal is teaching owners how to speak their dog’s language to better the lives of both owner and dog.

Jodi is an AKC CGC Evaluator, Trick Dog Judge, AKC Farm Dog judge, AKC Temperament Test Evaluator, Updog frisbee judge, and North America Canicross Ambassador. She has been in the dog sport world for over 17 years. She started at 9 years old in AKC Agility with her Doberman Dobie; from there, she never looked back. She has competed multiple times at national events for several different canine sports and has qualified for many more! She has traveled across the country with her dogs for many years, competing and exploring.

She is highly titled with multiple dogs in: AKC and NADAC agility – Competed at the 2018 AKC Agility Nationals in Reno, NV North America Diving Dogs, – Competed at the 2018 NADD Nationals in Orlando, FL

AKC FASTCAT: -Canine Good Citizen (CGC) -Canine Good Citizen Urban (CGCU) -Canine Good Citizen Advanced (CGCA)

FARM DOG: AKC Trick Dog Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Performers Updog Frisbee Challenge -Disc Dog Bronze & Disc Dog Bronze Elite Title -Disc Dog Silver & Disc Dog Silver Elite Title -Disc Dog Gold & Disc Dog Gold Elite Title -Disc Dog Platinum Title -Top 2 Intermediate dogs for Updog Bite Club 2021 Crown event -Qualified for Updog International Finals 2020 -Qualified for Updog International Finals 2021 -Qualified for Updog International Finals 2022 -Qualified for Updog International Finals 2023 -Placed in Top 20 at Updog International Finals 2022 in all games played with her dog Zidane -Placed in Top 100 at Updog International Finals 2022 in all games played with her dog Nova

U.S Canine Biathlon Finisher: -2018 Summer Race (45th Place) -2019 Summer Race (28th Place) -2019 Rewind Race (12th Place) -2021 Summer Race (15th place) -2021 Rewind Race (7th Place)

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love? Nashville is such a beautiful city. The people and atmosphere are always so happy and positive! We love bringing the dogs out to train around the city. I worked downtown for 3.5 years as a server and bartender. Nashville is also where I met my husband! We, unfortunately, couldn’t afford a huge chunk of land in Nashville, so we settled for the outskirts!

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