Her Adirondack Sniffari teaches all dogs new tricks

By Caroline Martindale, Chronicle Staff Writer

Caitlin Stedman from Queensbury is owner and Camp Director of Adirondack Sniffari, a canine outdoor adventure camp serving parts of Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties.

She said she began the program nearly three years ago to teach dogs basic skills and grow their confidence among peers. The catch: the dogs are the trainers.

“I was a dog walker and then a dog sitter for a while, and I felt like I spent a lot of time in the car, just kind of going from half hour walk to half hour walk, and really didn’t get to know the dogs that well,” Ms. Stedman told The Chronicle.

“I wanted to go more into training. I’m not a certified dog trainer, so [Adirondack Sniffari] is more skill building than obedience training. I’m always trying to build certifications and take courses to grow my knowledge base.

“I saw a dog camp course on Instagram, and I was like, ‘What the heck is this?’ I looked into it and took the course. It was a shadow program as well, and it taught you the nuts and bolts of running a dog camp specifically.”

Adirondack Sniffari is a pickup and drop off service. It takes campers on trips to learn proper vehicle, trail and social behaviors.

“We come and get your dog, and they travel in our vehicle with the other campers. We get to a location and then there’s two hours of exploring, adventure, training and socialization. And then they’re dropped off,” explained Ms. Stedman.

“In Queensbury we have a fenced in space and a few small trails that we utilize. We just recently purchased a three-acre property in Moreau that has a stream running through it. We also use public trails, so we’re kind of all over the place.

“We focus a lot on free behavior rather than obedience training. So it’s more like the dogs are choosing what to do when they’re out with us.”

Five other camp counselors run their own packs: Hannah, Erin, Bailey, Zoey and Tom, who drives the blue Adirondack Sniffari bus. Gunnar Myers is a canine camp counselor and part of a dog pack which trains new campers.

“They make sure other dogs are taking breaks. Sasha in particular (Sasha is Adirondack Sniffari’s first camper) she’s great at this. She can teach the other dogs, ‘Hey you need to calm down. Take a breather.’ ‘Hey, don’t play with that dog that way.’

“[The dogs] step in and take over which is really cool. And we do a lot of threshold work with the dogs, meaning, ‘You can’t just jump out of our bus.’ ‘You can’t just jump out of the gate. You have to wait until you’re called out by name.’

“The dogs will know. They’ll stand in front of another dog and be like, ‘You’ve got to wait, or you’ll ruin this for all of us,’ because if one dog jumps out, we’ve got to put them all back in the bus,” Ms. Stedman said.

“So, they learn the ropes by watching. They see what the other dogs are doing and they’re like, ‘Oh shoot, there’s a structure here.’

“On our bus and most of [the counselors’] cars, they are harnessed in so they’re not free roaming on the bus. They all have assigned seats, and they learn their seat. For the most part they’ll all go right to their seat which is really cute.

“And that’s another way they help us. We don’t have to guide them, they just go right to their current seat and wait to be clipped in. It’s just consistency, they get it pretty quick.”

Ms. Stedman selected the bus because some campers were stressed by cars. The bus also provides room for larger dogs who need more space to sit comfortably.

“I didn’t want to force a bunch of dogs into this confined space. And I was like, it would be really cool if we could find a bus. I had seen some buses on TikTok and Instagram. And the day I mentioned I wanted a school bus, we passed one for sale. I was like, this is fate.

“We had to take a couple of seats out, paint the outside and we’ve done some fun little details. Each dog has their picture where their seat is. It was a necessity, and it just ended up being really good advertising.”

Adirondack Sniffari has spots open. Applications at adirondacksniffari.com.

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