To the 25 children in Howard County's Happy Hounds club, Sandy Melichar and Cathleen Cahill are affectionately known as the dog ladies.
Ms. Melichar and Ms. Cahill volunteer hundreds of hours per year to help the 4-H Club members become better dog owners by teaching summer obedience classes and arranging winter talks on proper canine care.
"Teaching the children how to care for and train their dogs is so important because it is good for them and good for the animals," said Ms. Melichar, 47, of West Friendship, as she demonstrated some of the training of her family's own dogs.
"H-E-E-L! D-O-W-N!" Ms. Melichar firmly spells the commands to Betsy, the family's 5-year-old Gordon setter. Betsy instantly obeys. The family also owns a 2-year-old Australian shepherd named Hobbes.
"Sometimes we would prefer to be called the dog ladies to being called people ladies," Ms. Melichar said of herself and Ms. Cahill. "I sometimes refer to Betsy as my grandchild."
With obedience classes for both beginners and advanced dogs, the women cater to the different experience levels of the children in the club, who span ages 6 to 18 and come from throughout the county.
"We are not teaching the dog so much as we are teaching the handler," said Ms. Cahill, 46, of Columbia, who owns a 6-year-old Australian shepherd, Grimm, and 2-year-old black Labrador retriever, Conrad. "We are trying to teach the child to teach the dog, because the dog is not going to be trained only from a once-a-week obedience class."
Even with the training, some children still can't manage their dogs by themselves, Ms. Cahill said. "When you have a 150-pound dog and a 60-pound child, the child is not going to have complete control, even with a leash, so we make sure that the parents get involved, too."
Many of the 4-H Club members train the dogs for local shows, such as the Howard County Fair, and they regularly capture top awards.
Ms. Melichar's 10-year-old daughter, Jennifer, works with Betsy, the Gordon setter, to prepare her for shows, finding the best ways to display her to the judges.
The group's annual Halloween bash features both children and dogs in costumes. "It's really cute, with the dogs dressed as things such as sunflowers or bumblebees," Ms. Melichar said.
Many of the children use the skills they learn from Ms. Melichar and Ms. Cahill to carry out 4-H community service projects.
Jennifer and several of the other children work in Pets on Wheels, a program in which children and their dogs visit area nursing homes to cheer up the senior citizens.
"They really appreciate it. Everyone loves the dogs," Jennifer said.
The Happy Hounds club is not the only dog-related group that Ms. Melichar and Ms. Cahill direct.
Both also help lead Fidos for Freedom, a Laurel-based organization that trains dogs to work with disabled and elderly people who need assistance. As a separate 4-H community service project, Jennifer is training Hobbes for the Fidos program.
To join the Happy Hounds club, contact the Howard County 4-H office at 313-2708.