WEST CHESTER TWP. — Bounding into the training facility, Unleashed Agility, BAM! could hardly contain his excitement.

“He’s just a wild hooligan sometimes,” Fairfield Twp. resident Sandy Schneider said, ruffling her Golden Retriever’s fur.

“He’s a pretty good looking boy,” she said, although BAM! — named after the coined Emeril Lagasse’s phrase — often wakes up with “bed head.”

“Play dead,” Schneider said.

BAM! immediately flopped onto his back with paws in the air.

“That’s not dead. I mean really dead.”

Holding a more dramatic pose with tongue drooping, BAM! awaited his treat.

“Good boy!” Schneider cooed. “How much do you love mommy?”

At his reverberating bark, she dropped a treat into his mouth.

Schneider’s love for dog training began with her recently deceased dog Moby. She entered him in a few obedience competitions and won. The thrill of watching him learn new things lead her to agility training and competitions. Though she and BAM! mourn Moby’s passing they continue agility training and competing without him.

While 5-year-old BAM! is an average competitor, he is an above average dog when it comes to personality, Schneider said. BAM! recently graced the cover of “Frontgate” magazine modeling dog beds.

BAM! has his own room, where he sleeps late like a teenager and then watches “Animal Planet” while Schneider and her husband Wayne are at work. Schneider, a secretary at Lakota’s Central Office, goes home for lunch each day and the two practice agility training in the yard for fun and fresh air. After work, they often spend time running through the obstacle course again. The exercise, she said, helps keep her diabetes in check.

BAM! can climb teeter totters and run through tunnels, but his most important trick he learned all on his own. If Schneider’s blood sugar gets too low, BAM! senses it and wakes her up.

Golden Retrievers have a knack for sensing needs, she said. So when her co-worker Romey Shields decided to get a dog for her son with autism, the breed seemed a good choice. Schneider offered to help train Hunter, 11, and his new puppy Bauer. The goal was to get Bauer to bond with Hunter and become a companion, while at the same time teaching the Independence Elementary School fifth-grader patience and control.

“I’ve never worked with autism, so I asked the family to come because it was a family adventure,” Schneider said of the training lessons.

Hunter’s homework at first was to hand feed the dog and practice basic commands. Now, they are working on some agility training.

“He just does well with animals,” Shields said. “I feel like it helps him to stay with us, focusing. ”

And in the process, she said her son has found friendship with Schneider, BAM! and Bauer.

Schneider said she is thrilled to see the dogs problem solve and learn new skills.

“I am so blessed at the doors and opportunities that my dogs have opened and introduced me to.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.