Elliott's use dogs as obedience tool

Chuck Waters/Clarendon Citizen - One of the Elliott’s dogs retrieves a decoy in obedience to his master’s commands.

There are some people who can understand things instantly.

However, there are some who need to actually see it.

Wally Elliott does both.

Elliott, and his wife Angie, are trainers of Labrador Retrievers.

They use the dogs for training and competition but also as a tool to help teach people about being obedient to God and following His will.

Elliott used his dogs as a likeness to people and himself as the master.

He felt that giving a physical example of that would be very beneficial.

There is one dog in particular he has named Roxy that he uses.

He uses that dog as an example of people and how they should spend their life and trust God’s plan for their lives.

“The parallel of being obedient to the master and the rewards of being obedient to the master,” he said.  “How rewarding it can be serving the master. The glory of bringing obedience to your master.”

The Elliott’s typically perform with their dogs outdoors because it sends a clearer message than one from just a sermon.

It gives people of all ages the chance to see the dogs and also understand the similarities between the dogs and themselves according to Elliott.

“Once you actually see the dogs making the retrieves and you see them being handled to a blind retrieve and see how important it is for them to be obedient in order for them to obtain their objective; it makes my part of what I say about being obedient to Jesus Christ easier,” he said.

Elliott made his presentation at the Alcolu home of Jay and Kim Gardner in Clarendon County and was pleased with the environment.

Like his own farm in Mullins, the Gardners had a pond and other facets that he and the dogs used in their performances.

“Many times youth groups or even adults will come and we’ll just build a fire and have a fire in the background or to the side,” Elliott said. “It’s a pretty neat experience. We went to another area that had the same accommodations as we have here.”

Temptation was one of the biggest lessons Elliott spoke about.

He got one of his dogs to sit on a platform raised above the ground that was sitting next to a bowl of food.

Elliott began the exercise by standing right next to the dog and the dog was focused on nothing but her master, Elliott.

He then began backing away while also being partially covered by shadows.

He said that was showing how people getting further from God can and will cause temptation to become more evident and easier to pursue.

However, the closer he came back to the dog, the more she wanted to please him and not fall for the temptation.

“The analogy there is in life and in our relationship with Jesus Christ, when we focus and when we are where we need to be, sin is not near as tempting as it is when we put barriers between us,” he said. “The more stuff and the more distance that we put between ourselves and the master, the easier it is to sin. The easier it is to step off that platform and gobble up whatever is there.”

Elliott closed the performance talking about faith.

In the show with the dogs, they had to locate and collect a decoy duck several different ways.

Sometimes the dogs knew where to look because they saw the decoy fall. But other times the dogs were called to a “blind retrieve.”

The dogs knew they had to go somewhere, but did not know where.

They had to respond to their master and have faith they would be given the correct directions and right path.

He said that was the way of our lives.

“God gives people directions and his followers are called to follow those directions, whether we understand them, realize what they mean or even want to,” Elliott said.

He said that was very important; taking a leap of faith and trusting the master would be there.

“We parallel that with what we know God wants us to do … the obvious things God wants us to do,” he said. “Then there are the diversions; the things that keep us from doing the obvious things or tempt us not to do the obvious things.

“Then we have the blind retrieve which is the most difficult for all of us – those steps of faith. Looking for the master and knowing who our master is and understand that we need to take his directions and steps of faith. Knowing and having confidence in faith that there is victory at the end of that path.”