by Elizabeth Silverstein

Debbie Larsen knew from the photo.

She’d finally moved into a Philadelphia apartment where she could get a dog, and she found pictures online of a sweet lab mix being fostered by a family in New Jersey. “She had really personable eyes that really caught my attention,” Debbie explained. “I reached out and went to meet her and she was super friendly and adorable and she seemed perfect.”

Debbie and her sister and roommate, Beth, who helps her with the dogs, started training Lindy right away. “I’d originally been going to Zoom Room,” Debbie said. “It was a great space with a play space you could rent out. Lindy had done a lot of agility with Cassi as her instructor. I ran into Cassi again on Instagram, and she was promoting her new line of work at Philly Unleashed. We loved working her at Zoom Room, so we followed her there.”

Lindy continued with agility, general obedience, the therapy dog workshop, and, currently, virtual classes.

Six months after Lindy came home, Debbie decided she needed a play partner. “We were looking for a second dog,” Debbie said. “We got Evie at six months. They looked identical when she was younger. They were the same size.”

Since then, Evie has grown twice as large as Lindy, who, at six years old, is a medium-sized collie, Labrador, and terrier mix. Evie, on the other hand, is four years old and half German Shepherd and half husky. Evie has also completed the Shy Dog workshop with Philly Unleashed and continues with the virtual classes.

They’d trained both from the beginning. “Lindy just eats up information and learns things super quick,” Debbie said. “We advanced pretty quickly and got into agility with her and wanted to do some more things with Evie.”

But Evie had different ideas. “Evie is like a normal dog,” Debbie explained. “She likes playing with dirt and likes to play and learn stuff, but at a normal dog’s pace. LIndy would be told one thing, and she would be like, ‘I got this, you don’t have to give me instructions anymore,’ even if she doesn’t understand.” 

Training has impacted her relationship with her dogs in a way Debbie didn’t know was possible. “I grew up in a small town with a big yard and my parents chose to not go through any formal or extensive dog training,” Debbie explained. “We didn’t really do anything besides a ‘sit’ or ‘down’ with the family dog. Being in the city, my dogs are my partners. It’s a way to engage with them and learn a new skill myself. Lindy really loves people and seeing people’s faces light up and Lindy’s face light up is awesome. Her being able to show off for people is awesome too. She can do all of these things, and I’ll tell my friends and they’ll be like, ‘The stuff you see on TV?’”

While Lindy and Evie may look alike, their personalities are opposites. “Lindy likes to be inside and not get dirty and be with every new person possible,” Debbie shared. “She adores children and can small a child down the block. She’s my indoor dog and likes doing things with me.”

The pair has plans to start therapy dog work at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) when it’s safe to do so. Lindy has been working on a skateboard trick, and enjoys being on top of the skateboard all the time. She also enjoys touch, working on a dolphin jump. “It’s an easy go-to when she needs to burn off energy and refocus and it looks really cool when she does it,” Debbie said.

And then there’s Evie. “She likes rolling in the mud and chasing squirrels down the trail and she’s not a people dog at all,” Debbie said. “She’s big and looks kind of scary and is a fun dog to wrestle with.”

Evie is also anxious and working through cues to assist with management. “She doesn’t like to work for more than five minutes at a time,” Debbie explained. “She has been working on a relax-settle. I’ll try to work her and she’ll do it for a few minutes and she just wants to lay her head in your lap and she’s working on doing that more often and that’s just really nice.”

Debbie’s advice to other dog owners is to do training in general and go to a class or a school. “Don’t just assume you can do it on your own,” Debbie said. “Maybe you can, but it’s nice to go into a class and let someone else take over training and follow their lead, especially if your dog is a lot, which my dogs can be sometimes. You have to change things sometimes and sometimes you’re just tired of thinking of new things.”

And socialization from the beginning. “Even if your dog seems really chill,” Debbie said. “It can change really fast and even a long ways down the road if that doesn’t happen.” 

Evie and Lindy are also working on their relationship with each other. “My dogs don’t super get along right now, which has been an interesting ride,” Debbie explained. “We live in a small apartment. It’s a different lifestyle, but we’re making it work. They’re both really great dogs and sometimes I think people forget you can have animals who don’t get along in the same household and make it work.”